theyoungest said:Neither of them is a natural climber, but Porte is built like one. Van Garderen is more like an (improved) Luis Leon.
Did you switch those? Seems the opposite to me. Porte is stockier and TJ tall and skinny.
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theyoungest said:Neither of them is a natural climber, but Porte is built like one. Van Garderen is more like an (improved) Luis Leon.
jaylew said:Did you switch those? Seems the opposite to me. Porte is stockier and TJ tall and skinny.
Pentacycle said:Look at their weights: Porte is 63 kgs and TJVG weighs 72, which is quite a lot for a climber.
jaylew said:I usually see TJ listed at 67-69kgs and he's much taller than Porte. 1.85 to 1.72 (6'1" to 5'8" - makes more sense to me like this)
Ferminal said:How many times did Porte drop him last year... Malhao (probably Wiggins ), Mende?, Joux Plane, PdBF.
El Pistolero said:This really should be a walk in the park for Gesink.
El Pistolero said:I wouldn't be calling it a walk in the park for him if Contador and Froome were riding.
Gesink is obviously in shape and hasn't had an injury for a while, so as long as he gets spared of bad luck during the race he should finish on the podium. This is a big goal for him during this part of the season. Anything but a podium would be a big disappointment.
18-Valve. (pithy) said:I see what you did there.
Seriously, though, Gesink will probably lose out to guys with better uphill TT abilities. A podium can't be ruled out due to echelons, other riders crashing and whatnot, but it's by no means the most likely outcome.
Pentacycle said:No way Gesink will be spared of bad luck. How many times have people said he'd run out of bad luck? And still he crashes time after time, just when he really shouldn't, it's a curse that won't let him go...
De Gendt or Monfort have a good shot and they're among the top favourites. They're both good in echelons, and I can't remember them crashing anywhere during their career. Their respective ITT's are very good, they're possible top 10 finishers in the prologue as well. Gesink will probably already lose a lot there.
Ruudz0r said:What makes you think De Gendt is a good echolon rider? Just because he is from Belgium? I think he is a pretty bad echolon rider, he hates riding in the peleton and sits in the back a lot.
Dekker_Tifosi said:Also Gesink is not bad at riding echelons. And he doesn't crash a lot in 1-week stage races.
I just fear the uphill ITT for him, if it's still as bad as last year
Miburo said:That's a real relief
How is with his downhill btw. Paris-nice '08 he really sucked at it.
Totally agree. If there's one thing you can say about LuLu, it's that - he knows how to win races despite not really having an "ace in the hole"trevim said:Nah, Luis Leon Sanchez is a true winner. Van Garderen hasn't shown that yet.
manafana said:looking forward to this due to the lack of the big names means we should see a much more open race.
jaylew said:Totally agree. If there's one thing you can say about LuLu, it's that - he knows how to win races despite not really having an "ace in the hole"
Yeah, despite the parcours not being quite as nice as TA, I'm almost looking forward to this one more because there are so many contenders.
staubsauger said:Rob Gesink just seems to be more and more the Dutch Levi Leipheimer.
Although Levi was better in time trailing and in 2008 at the Vuelta he suddenly even was able to attack.
But that's why Gesink always is getting just 3-5th anywhere.
On paper this Parijs - Nice should be a great chance for him to teach his citizens wrong. He did outperform much overrated Van Garderen last year at Mount Baldy in any way. But there are always moment where Gesink is able to lose it.
To me - if he's on form - De Gendt is much more a favorite. He should do well on Col de Eze as well as in he other stages. But he's also not very explosive at all.
Fuglsang should be able to own this on paper. He's a good time trailer. And he's also kind of explosive. He was an upcoming hilly classics rider 3 years ago and he was up there at the Tour de Suisse in 2011. Based on that he should be able to outperform all other guys without any problem on this course. The thing is. We don't have any indicator that Fuglsang is able to reach this level next week. Maybe his pre-interview wasn't serious and he's just overmodest. But it's also possible that his form isn't any good and he will be 7th or so in the end.
You should always have Voeckler in mind in a constellation like this. Because otherwise he will jump away in a moment where the other aren' concentrated and mock his contenders by winning this bike race. Maybe he's just a one trick pony. But hell he's a very good one.
Quintana no I don't see him winning here. It's too early in the season and the course isn't really made for a pure climber.
Westra in last years form actually could win this. But I have my doubts that he will be able to perform that well in a big race again anytime in his career.
Van Garderen could strike this if he's just riding decent and consistent on this parcours. If there's nobody to stand out either in the hills nor in the mtg that could be enough to write P-N on his name.
I also mention Big Phil here, because I still don't know what are his plans and why he's attempting here. It's not much likely but this race could be an indicator whether he's trying to do a Di Luca this year. So I'm just mentioning him here, because if the unlikely case will become reality I could say "Well, I told ya"