2013 Paris Nice

[Dazed and Confused]

Kreuziger is doing TA instead of PN. Roche will be more or less on his own when it goes uphill then.

Not sure he needs much help. Stay with the leaders and see if something can be done at the very end of the key stages. Then give everything in the MTF TT.

The team should be able to protect Roche on the flat/hilly parts.

 

[Kokoso]

Welcome to the forum! You'll find a lot of company here in your admiration of Quintana. Both he and Costa have bright futures and I too am looking forward to seeing Quintana ride for himself in the major events. It appears that he will have that opportunity in this year's Paris Nice. He appears to be coming into the race in good form and should be one of the strongest climbers and I hear he is pretty good in uphill tt's so that should set him up for a successful week of racing provided he can avoid any setbacks as a result of getting caught out in any echelons.

Yeah, Quintana has huge hype here on the forum and is often discussed, one would think he won Grand Tour or something. But until now the hype was bigger than what he achieved in fact.

 

[Parrulo]

coming from a guy constantly hyping roman kreuziger . . . .

 

[Angliru]

Yeah, Quintana has huge hype here on the forum and is often discussed, one would think he won Grand Tour or something. But until now the hype was bigger than what he achieved in fact.

No one is exactly predicting that he's going to go out and win a grand tour this year or a classic but you can't deny that last year he showed signs of that he could one day join the elite of the sport. His Vuelta performance in the final week was impressive for such a young rider. Typically the final week of a grand tour is when the fatigue sets in and a young rider struggles but he had his best performance near the end of the Vuelta.

Well for me it's always exciting when a new rider comes on the scene and shows that they can climb with the best. It gives us something to look forward to in the future. Similar to Pinot's performance in the Tour and in 2011at I believe the Dauphine.

 

[will10]

Yeah, Quintana has huge hype here on the forum and is often discussed, one would think he won Grand Tour or something. But until now the hype was bigger than what he achieved in fact.

What Quintana did as a neo-pro deserves praise. I suspect you were too busy watching Kreuziger get dropped to recognise that.

 

[Big Gear]

Favourites?

Hi all,

I am new to this forum -great discussion here!

Very much looking forward to this P-N. I think it is more open than in a long time, very interesting to see who will take the opportunity to do well on GC here given that all (almost) of the sport's biggest names are elsewhere. As I see it there is a string of riders who can / expect to do well on GC but no outright favourite to win. When did you last see a race of this dignity with 10+ genuine contenders to win??

Agree with many comments here that Rui Costa is likely to do well. Not so convinced on Quintana as many seem to be here. I think Westra will be up there as will van Garderen. Maybe-men: Gesink, Fuglsang, Basso(?), Taaramae, Porte, Chavanel, Gerrans, Talansky.

My personal dark horse here is Thomas Lofkvist. Finally showing some good form again early season in winning Tour Med ahead of eg Monfort, Peraud, Roche etc. New team IAM will be super-motivated to do well at P-N in order to possibly be considered for TdF (may be their only chance to get into a grand tour this year), and have a pretty good team with Haussler, Elmiger, Tschopp etc.

Hope we get to see some new talent take the opportunity to shine as well!

Views?

 

[notrolfsorensen]

New team IAM will be super-motivated to do well at P-N in order to possibly be considered for TdF (may be their only chance to get into a grand tour this year), and have a pretty good team with Haussler, Elmiger, Tschopp etc.

Hope we get to see some new talent take the opportunity to shine as well!

Views?

Hi and welcome, I'm pretty new myself. There will only be 3 wildcards for the Tour this year, so I find it highly unlikely that IAM will be rewarded one, regardless of how succesfull they are. The three French pro-conti (cofidis, sojasun, europecar) seems the most logic. Anyway, Løfkvist will be good I imagine, but I also have a dark horse in Roche.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Hi all,

I am new to this forum -great discussion here!

Very much looking forward to this P-N. I think it is more open than in a long time, very interesting to see who will take the opportunity to do well on GC here given that all (almost) of the sport's biggest names are elsewhere. As I see it there is a string of riders who can / expect to do well on GC but no outright favourite to win. When did you last see a race of this dignity with 10+ genuine contenders to win??

Agree with many comments here that Rui Costa is likely to do well. Not so convinced on Quintana as many seem to be here. I think Westra will be up there as will van Garderen. Maybe-men: Gesink, Fuglsang, Basso(?), Taaramae, Porte, Chavanel, Gerrans, Talansky.

My personal dark horse here is Thomas Lofkvist. Finally showing some good form again early season in winning Tour Med ahead of eg Monfort, Peraud, Roche etc. New team IAM will be super-motivated to do well at P-N in order to possibly be considered for TdF (may be their only chance to get into a grand tour this year), and have a pretty good team with Haussler, Elmiger, Tschopp etc.

Hope we get to see some new talent take the opportunity to shine as well!

Views?

Hello Big Gear, welcome to the forum!

My money for PN win is on Thomas Gotland Lofkvist also known as "The swedish beast"

 

[hoerpi]

Hi all,

I am new to this forum -great discussion here!

Very much looking forward to this P-N. I think it is more open than in a long time, very interesting to see who will take the opportunity to do well on GC here given that all (almost) of the sport's biggest names are elsewhere. As I see it there is a string of riders who can / expect to do well on GC but no outright favourite to win. When did you last see a race of this dignity with 10+ genuine contenders to win??

Agree with many comments here that Rui Costa is likely to do well. Not so convinced on Quintana as many seem to be here. I think Westra will be up there as will van Garderen. Maybe-men: Gesink, Fuglsang, Basso(?), Taaramae, Porte, Chavanel, Gerrans, Talansky.

My personal dark horse here is Thomas Lofkvist. Finally showing some good form again early season in winning Tour Med ahead of eg Monfort, Peraud, Roche etc. New team IAM will be super-motivated to do well at P-N in order to possibly be considered for TdF (may be their only chance to get into a grand tour this year), and have a pretty good team with Haussler, Elmiger, Tschopp etc.

Hope we get to see some new talent take the opportunity to shine as well!

Views?

First of all a big welcome!

I also have Löfkvist as a dark horse but after le tour med he caught a cold and he's not certain about his form. I don't rate Fuglsang at all though, if in this field.

My money for PN win is on Thomas Gotland Lofkvist also known as "The swedish beast"

Is he really called that?

 

[Pentacycle]

What Quintana did as a second year pro deserves praise. I suspect you were too busy watching Kreuziger get dropped to recognise that.

Fixed it for you. Still impressive nonetheless, the only one to crush the Sky train...

 

[LaFlorecita]

Is he really called that?

No it's how I call him

"Thomas "Gotland" Löfkvist aka "The swedish beast"" officially

 

[Kokoso]

coming from a guy constantly hyping roman kreuziger . . . .

? And?
Really? Constantly? Looks like you don't know what constantly means.

 

[Kokoso]

What Quintana did as a neo-pro deserves praise. I suspect you were too busy watching Kreuziger get dropped to recognise that.

I didn't say it doesn't deserve praise, did I?
Kreuziger wasn't allowed to race since Giro. So it wasn't possible to see him drop somewhere and at the olympics he was there in the first group.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

snipped..

Agree with many comments here that Rui Costa is likely to do well. Not so convinced on Quintana as many seem to be here. I think Westra will be up there as will van Garderen. Maybe-men: Gesink, Fuglsang, Basso(?), Taaramae, Porte, Chavanel, Gerrans, Talansky.

more snipping.

Can't see Gerrans and Chavanel playing here.

Soft bodies battling: Bardet, J Izaguirre, Boswell, Barguil, but where is Elissonde?

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Yeah, Quintana has huge hype here on the forum and is often discussed, one would think he won Grand Tour or something. But until now the hype was bigger than what he achieved in fact.

says hello

 

[Zam_Olyas]

I didn't say it doesn't deserve praise, did I?
Kreuziger wasn't allowed to race since Giro. So it wasn't possible to see him drop somewhere and at the olympics he was there in the first group.

He has been racing for awhile now not only last year.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

hmm, it will be zombie time:

Katusha riders winning Omloop and Le Samyn without breaking sweat (it was cold) puts the above rider firmly in the picture. Top 5 or better.

 

[El Pistolero]

hmm, it will be zombie time:

Katusha riders winning Omloop and Le Samyn without breaking sweat (it was cold) puts the above rider firmly in the picture. Top 5 or better.

Lol, Katusha is still a bad team. Further evidenced by the fact they're not sidelining Menchov, but they did sideline Vicioso.

 

[The Hitch]

If Rui Costa were called Zulu Zimbabwe he'd still have the no. 1 on his back. He's the obvious leader. He could well be overshadowed by Quintana, of course.

ha

Funny and true.

For all Ryos well documented (by himself) history of watching cycling and being the foremost expert at it, he still seems not to have understood the very common tactic of arranging the numbers of the other 7 riders by alphabetical order, but giving the designated leader the number 1.

 

[Netserk]

ha

Funny and true.

For all Ryos well documented (by himself) history of watching cycling and being the foremost expert at it, he still seems not to have understood the very common tactic of arranging the numbers of the other 7 riders by alphabetical order, but giving the designated leader the number 1.

Not always

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Lol, Katusha is still a bad team. Further evidenced by the fact they're not sidelining Menchov, but they did sideline Vicioso.

I know this is clinic, but nowhere has matcghiner said menchov was a client of him. quite the contrary in fact.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

ha

Funny and true.

For all Ryos well documented (by himself) history of watching cycling and being the foremost expert at it, he still seems not to have understood the very common tactic of arranging the numbers of the other 7 riders by alphabetical order, but giving the designated leader the number 1.

uh, no...

AG2R LA MONDIALE

11 BELLETTI Manuel Italy
12 BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto Colombia
13 GADRET John France
14 GASTAUER Ben Luxembourg
15 GEORGES Sylvain France
16 KADRI Blel France
17 IGLINSKIY Valentin Kazahkstan
18 NOCENTINI Rinaldo Italy

or do you think belletti is leader saturday in strade bianche? I picked the first race first team numbers I could find and look already proven right again you are as clueless as ever once again

 

[El Pistolero]

uh, no...

AG2R LA MONDIALE

11 BELLETTI Manuel Italy
12 BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto Colombia
13 GADRET John France
14 GASTAUER Ben Luxembourg
15 GEORGES Sylvain France
16 KADRI Blel France
17 IGLINSKIY Valentin Kazahkstan
18 NOCENTINI Rinaldo Italy

or do you think belletti is leader saturday in strade bianche? I picked the first race first team numbers I could find and look already proven right again you are as clueless as ever once again

Obviously if you pick a team with no leaders it doesn't matter who gets to wear number one, so they just do it alphabetically. Barely qualifies for a Proconti team.

 

[The Hitch]

uh, no...

AG2R LA MONDIALE

11 BELLETTI Manuel Italy
12 BETANCUR GOMEZ Carlos Alberto Colombia
13 GADRET John France
14 GASTAUER Ben Luxembourg
15 GEORGES Sylvain France
16 KADRI Blel France
17 IGLINSKIY Valentin Kazahkstan
18 NOCENTINI Rinaldo Italy

or do you think belletti is leader saturday in strade bianche? I picked the first race first team numbers I could find and look already proven right again you are as clueless as ever once again

It varies from race to race.


Look at Movistar's (same team) lineup for Paris Nice (same race) last year

31 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa)
32 David Arroyo Duran (Spa)
33 Imanol Erviti Ollo (Spa)
34 José Ivan Gutierrez Palacios (Spa)
35 Vasili Kiryienka (Blr)
36 David Lopez Garcia (Spa)
37 Javier Moreno Bazan (Spa)
38 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa)

Notice how the guy who should by name have been last actually goes first.

Everyone else goes in alphabetical order.

What a different team do in a different race that is also a totally different type of race (non wt 1 day race vs wt stage race) is, while relevant, hardly the conclusive example your premature victory line, presents it as.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

BMC RACING TEAM

61 BLYTHE Adam United Kingdom
62 EVANS Cadel Australia
63 KOHLER Martin Switzerland
64 PHINNEY Taylor United States
65 QUINZIATO Manuel Italy
66 SCHÄR Michael Switzerland
67 VAN AVERMAET Greg Belgium
68 CUMMINGS Steven United Kingdom

blythe is leader for bmc then in strade bianche? just give it a rest