2013 Speculation (and confirmation) thread - rider schedules and parcours

[Ryo Hazuki]

Where does this leave Uran? Leader for the Ardennes?

yes and he will do the tour I think.

 

[El Pistolero]

It's funny cause it's true. Boonen used to care about Paris-Tours until a few years ago but this is the current Boonen in a nutshell.

Why change something that isn't broken?

Contador and Cancellara ride similar schedules every season as well.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Why change something that isn't broken?

Contador and Cancellara ride similar schedules every season as well.

lol. you again coming to the rescue of a fellow countrymen. have you every heard of relativating?

 

[El Pistolero]

lol. you again coming to the rescue of a fellow countrymen. have you every heard of relativating?

I don't think anyone has heard of that word Ryo. And I think everyone is tired of your same old arguments already, so if you got nothing to add just keep your mouth shut. Might save you a ban once in a while.

 

[Flamin]

yes,he is pretty awesome,and has good personality imo.I hope,one day, he will crush Tommeke and Canc in Roubaix(maybe 2014)

impossible. maybe in 5 years or so when Canc and Boonen are past their prime/retired and he decides to focus on it.

 

[Bushman]

Why change something that isn't broken?

Contador and Cancellara ride similar schedules every season as well.

Actually no. Cancellara will ride the giro next year and skip the tour.

 

[El Pistolero]

Actually no. Cancellara will ride the giro next year and skip the tour.

Yeah, and Boonen rode Tour-Vuelta last year and no Grand Tour this year.

Thanks for proving a point.

 

[Leendert82]

Yeah, and Boonen rode Tour-Vuelta last year and no Grand Tour this year.

Thanks for proving a point.

You have the most annoying Signature btw...

 

[JRanton]

Am I right in assuming that Guardini isn't riding the Giro considering that Nibali will be there for GC? The Tour profile suits him much better anyway.

 

[Afrank]

Am I right in assuming that Guardini isn't riding the Giro considering that Nibali will be there for GC? The Tour profile suits him much better anyway.

Guardini will probably do the Tour.

 

[the asian]

Guardini will probably do the Tour.

With Fuglsang as the GC contender, Pretty sure Astana will devote some resources to have some sort of a train for Guardini.
He'll also need lot of support to get over the mountains.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

With Fuglsang as the GC contender, Pretty sure Astana will devote some resources to have some sort of a train for Guardini.
He'll also need lot of support to get over the mountains.

Guardini at TdF.
Not sure a full train will help him considering the likes of Argos, OPQS and Orica will bring almost 20 riders for the sprint trains. Instead Guradini should opt for 1 big guy who can place him in the finale and then hope to get a result.

Whether he can make the grupetto in the Tour we shall see.

 

[will10]

Guardini is quick but his positioning is terrible. Gonna need a lot of help to be competitive at the Tour.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Guardini is quick but his positioning is terrible. Gonna need a lot of help to be competitive at the Tour.

Would agree, but from memory I don't think Astana have any experience in setting up a sprint train. Can they implement one before TdF? Perhaps unlikely, so maybe they need to allocate one or two guys with a bit of muscles to get the young sprinter placed.

In any case I think the team and perhaps fans should keep expectations relatively low for now.

 

[the asian]

Agree, Astana don't have any specialized lead out men. Might have to rely on guys like Bozic, Guarnieri to help Guardini gain a good position.

Therefore, it's curious decision to start Guardini in the Tour. He certainly will need lot of help if he needs to be on the podium in a few stages and Astana don't have the men for it.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Agree, Astana don't have any specialized lead out men. Might have to rely on guys like Bozic, Guarnieri to help Guardini gain a good position.

Therefore, it's curious decision to start Guardini in the Tour. He certainly will need lot of help if he needs to be on the podium in a few stages and Astana don't have the men for it.

Starting the tour.

Well, the Giro parcours gives him very few opportunities and Astana needs to be 100% focused on Nibali's GC chance. TdF may actually be the best GT for getting some experience for the sprinter (maybe 8-10 flat stages) while Fuglsang tries to latch onto the Sky train. Vuelta may not have many flat stages (guessing).

 

[JRanton]

The Giro parcours is terrible for Guardini. I can only see 3, maybe 4 stages where he'd get a chance to sprint. One of them is the last stage and it's doubtful if he'll make it through the mountains.

 

[jens_attacks]

vino denies kash's dream of winning the 2013 tour

http://proteam-astana.com/en/news/p...suspends-rider-andrey-kashechkin-pending-code

 

[the asian]

I would have preferred Guardini not to ride any GT at all and focus on smaller races where he has a better chance of winning but I guess Guardini moved to astana to ride more WT races.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

vino denies kash's dream of winning the 2013 tour

http://proteam-astana.com/en/news/p...suspends-rider-andrey-kashechkin-pending-code

so Vino is starting to clean things up? Hilarious.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

I would have preferred Guardini not to ride any GT at all and focus on smaller races where he has a better chance of winning but I guess Guardini moved to astana to ride more WT races.

The best place to learn will be against the best imo. Guradnin have already won 100's of stages in Malaysia. Its time to step up and get better. Hopefully Astana will give him time and some resources along the way.

 

[Parrulo]

Guardini is quick but his positioning is terrible. Gonna need a lot of help to be competitive at the Tour.

i think that's a big myth to be honest.

watch helicopter view of his giro win

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVmdhu-7IPs&feature=player_detailpage#t=419s

he fought very well for his position all on his own and only lost to ferrari in the fight for cav's wheel. his problems are endurance and recovery which make him reach the last few km's of stages completely empty. but if you have watched his win at the volta in 2011 you can see that there was already a massive improvement on both aspects this year. at volta he struggled to finish inside the time limit from day 1 and when he won his stage on stage 5 he was completely empty at the end having to lay down on the floor after crossing the finish line, in the giro he won on stage 18 after a lot of mountains and looked like a sprinter usually looks at the end of the stage, granted it was a very easy stage

 

[will10]

Watch every other sprint stage from this Giro, he was forever getting bounced and squeezed out of position. Believe me, I was watching pretty closely, desperately hoping he'd pick up some CQ points

 

[Parrulo]

that's because he was empty by then. falzes was in all it's length a downhill false flat that's why he still had something by the time they reached the final k. but even that is a big improvement, in his 2011 level he wouldn't make it with the pack to the end on any stage of the giro with a climb in it nor would he finish inside the time limit on any mountain stage.

you should really see images from the 2011 volta, he suffered like a dog getting dropped all over the place while racing with over 40ºC and fighting every day to make the time cut. he eventually had to give up on the stage with the finish at the torre because he was dropped with something like 150k to go iirc.

 

[Afrank]

I would have preferred Guardini not to ride any GT at all and focus on smaller races where he has a better chance of winning but I guess Guardini moved to astana to ride more WT races.

Well he wants a top 10 at MSR and to do that he needs to improve overall. He would probably find more success at smaller races but racing the bigger races will help him improve more than the small races would. So I think it's a good idea to race more big races like the Tour.