2015 Tour de France Start List

[TMP402]

I doubt there's a designated "final man", it changed in Dauphine and I'm pretty sure Poels, Roche and Porte (maybe even Kennaugh) will take turns depending on who is strongest on the day.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re:

I doubt there's a designated "final man", it changed in Dauphine and I'm pretty sure Poels, Roche and Porte (maybe even Kennaugh) will take turns depending on who is strongest on the day.

Maybe even Thomas with the form he's shown this year. Although on most days I expect it will be Porte with Poels maybe having a couple of superb days like he did in the Dauphine.

 

[Velolover2]

Re: Re:

I doubt there's a designated "final man", it changed in Dauphine and I'm pretty sure Poels, Roche and Porte (maybe even Kennaugh) will take turns depending on who is strongest on the day.

Maybe even Thomas with the form he's shown this year. Although on most days I expect it will be Porte with Poels maybe having a couple of superb days like he did in the Dauphine.

And you guys are not even mentioning König (number seven last year and top 10 in all GTs).. Seriously, Sky have more options there than any other team.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

I doubt there's a designated "final man", it changed in Dauphine and I'm pretty sure Poels, Roche and Porte (maybe even Kennaugh) will take turns depending on who is strongest on the day.

Maybe even Thomas with the form he's shown this year. Although on most days I expect it will be Porte with Poels maybe having a couple of superb days like he did in the Dauphine.

And you guys are not even mentioning König. Seriously, Sky have more options there than any team.

Completely forgot about konig!! Yes it is a really strong team, by far the strongest Sky have had on a GT.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

I doubt there's a designated "final man", it changed in Dauphine and I'm pretty sure Poels, Roche and Porte (maybe even Kennaugh) will take turns depending on who is strongest on the day.

Maybe even Thomas with the form he's shown this year. Although on most days I expect it will be Porte with Poels maybe having a couple of superb days like he did in the Dauphine.

Maybe. We've never quite seen that faith placed in him though. At 29, we're running out of time before he misses the opportunity to see if leading GTs suit him. And you've got to think if Sky had developed him as Wiggins 2.0 since 2010, these last two cobbled TDFs, last year in particular, would have given him the opportunity to attack like crazy on the cobbles, gain 3-5 minutes on every other GC contender, hope not to lose the lead/get a deficit of less than a minute in the mountains, before wrapping it up in the penultimate day's long ITT.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

I doubt there's a designated "final man", it changed in Dauphine and I'm pretty sure Poels, Roche and Porte (maybe even Kennaugh) will take turns depending on who is strongest on the day.

Maybe even Thomas with the form he's shown this year. Although on most days I expect it will be Porte with Poels maybe having a couple of superb days like he did in the Dauphine.

And you guys are not even mentioning König. Seriously, Sky have more options there than any team.

Completely forgot about konig!! Yes it is a really strong team, by far the strongest Sky have had on a GT.

x100000 better than 2014: Eisel, Kiryenka, Lopez, Nieve, Pate, Porte, Thomas, Zandio.

 

[Asero831]

Wow no Henao for Sky. Wondering how should he be feeling right now.

 

[JRanton]

Re:

Wow no Henao for Sky. Wondering how should he be feeling right now.

He will be gutted I imagine. He sounded in interviews that he was genuinely looking forward to helping Froome win the race. Most important for him now is that he gets back to the form he had in Pais Vasco (he was actually quite a bit below his best in California and Suisse) and he can then lead at the Vuelta or at least be one of a couple of leaders Sky sends.

Sounds like Mikel Nieve is also bitterly disappointed to miss out judging by his Wife's twitter account.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

It's a team full of climbing domestiques who might lead smaller teams. Some of them aren't going to ride the Tour. That's a risk they take when they accept their tempting paycheque.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

I doubt there's a designated "final man", it changed in Dauphine and I'm pretty sure Poels, Roche and Porte (maybe even Kennaugh) will take turns depending on who is strongest on the day.

I think the designated "final man" will be whoever is able to stay with the favourites for the longest time on that particular day.

---

Bouhanni will make it after all!

 

[Alexandre B.]

Orica :

Simon Gerrans
Michael Matthews
Michael Albasini
Luke Durbridge
Simon Yates
Adam Yates
Svein Tuft
Daryl Impey
Pieter Weening

 

[Miburo]

Re:

I doubt there's a designated "final man", it changed in Dauphine and I'm pretty sure Poels, Roche and Porte (maybe even Kennaugh) will take turns depending on who is strongest on the day.

LOL roche will never be the strongest, watched any races the last 2 years?

 

[markjohnconley]

Re:

Yeah, very odd. I thought the last spot would be between Valgren and Tosatto but they took both instead. I'd take Kiserlovski over Basso any day of the week but Berto needs a roommate
Still wonder if they can't just take Jesus as a staff member and let him room with Alberto

why isn't there a 'Like" button

 

[Kokoso]

Re: Re:

Confirmed Sky Tour team: Froome, Porte, Poels, Thomas, Roche, Kennaugh, Stannard, Konig, Rowe

No Henao,**** this.I'm disappointed,hopefully Konig will this time ride as a proper domestique and not for himself as in Giro.Team selection is as expected but with this odd choice of Konig instead of Henao.

You failed to notice there wasn't leader to ride for at the Giro

 

[grizzlee]

Re: Re:

I doubt there's a designated "final man", it changed in Dauphine and I'm pretty sure Poels, Roche and Porte (maybe even Kennaugh) will take turns depending on who is strongest on the day.

LOL roche will never be the strongest, watched any races the last 2 years?

He was last man in first 2 mountain stages of Dauphine before Poels took over that role later on. He was also either last 2 or 3 on the other stages. Granted he is not going great this year but this is the time of year he starts to come good. I think he will have a decent tour but not spectacular, then will go very well in San Sebastian before co leading in Vuelta with a top 10 finish on GC.

Oh and in the last 2 years he 5th in the Vuelta GC with a stage win. But yeah your right he has done nothing in the last 2 year.

 

[Miburo]

In the high mountains he'll never be up there with froome when there's 20 guys left which is the point you were making.

 

[greenedge]

Wow that OGE team is really good and could win the TTT- which I thought they would not be able to do. However unlike the Giro I don't think that one of their riders will able to get the leaders jersey after the TTT but maybe there is a possibility before that.

 

[HelloDolly]

Re:

In the high mountains he'll never be up there with froome when there's 20 guys left which is the point you were making.

He was up there with less than 20 guys left at the Dauphine on 2 stages (and he was ill)

I guess Basso, Rogers & Kreuz will be up there with < 20 guys as they were at the Giro

 

[Jaunty Monty]

Re: Re:

Maybe. We've never quite seen that faith placed in him though. At 29, we're running out of time before he misses the opportunity to see if leading GTs suit him. And you've got to think if Sky had developed him as Wiggins 2.0 since 2010, these last two cobbled TDFs, last year in particular, would have given him the opportunity to attack like crazy on the cobbles, gain 3-5 minutes on every other GC contender, hope not to lose the lead/get a deficit of less than a minute in the mountains, before wrapping it up in the penultimate day's long ITT.

Lets give riders some responsibility for their own development. Its easy to point the finger at teams but we aren't always privy to what the rider says his goals are. If Thomas was that determined to become a classics or GT specialist he could have always quit the track earlier. If he is unhappy with the support he is getting from his team he could leave.

 

[Miburo]

Re: Re:

In the high mountains he'll never be up there with froome when there's 20 guys left which is the point you were making.

He was up there with less than 20 guys left at the Dauphine on 2 stages (and he was ill)

I guess Basso, Rogers & Kreuz will be up there with < 20 guys as they were at the Giro

Dauphine isn't the same as high mountain in the tour, seems kinda obvious.

Besides i never said anything about the guys from saxo, an irrelevant point you made there.

 

[grizzlee]

Re: Re:

In the high mountains he'll never be up there with froome when there's 20 guys left which is the point you were making.

He was up there with less than 20 guys left at the Dauphine on 2 stages (and he was ill)

I guess Basso, Rogers & Kreuz will be up there with < 20 guys as they were at the Giro

Dauphine isn't the same as high mountain in the tour, seems kinda obvious.

Besides i never said anything about the guys from saxo, an irrelevant point you made there.

And you never replied to my quote when you said he had no results in the last 2 years. You cant just pick and choose what you respond to and then expect others not to do the same.

 

[dirkprovin]

Re:

Wow that OGE team is really good and could win the TTT- which I thought they would not be able to do. However unlike the Giro I don't think that one of their riders will able to get the leaders jersey after the TTT but maybe there is a possibility before that.

A few surprises; namely Durbridge and the Weendog backing up after completing the Giro. Figured that Meyer would be in many ways a "like for like" with both being very big engines; key components of a TTT with Meyer being better uphill. Still a strong TTT line-up with Durbo, Tuft, Impey & Matthews very strong in this discipline and the rest are far from liabilities.

Stage 3 finishing on the Mur de Huy is one for Albasini given his track record of podiums at Fleche; Gerrans & Matthews may have their eyes on stages 6&8. Am slightly surprised that Keuekeleire wasn't selected given the cobbles on stage 4 and his utility in a lead-out.

 

[Miburo]

Re: Re:

In the high mountains he'll never be up there with froome when there's 20 guys left which is the point you were making.

He was up there with less than 20 guys left at the Dauphine on 2 stages (and he was ill)

I guess Basso, Rogers & Kreuz will be up there with < 20 guys as they were at the Giro

Dauphine isn't the same as high mountain in the tour, seems kinda obvious.

Besides i never said anything about the guys from saxo, an irrelevant point you made there.

And you never replied to my quote when you said he had no results in the last 2 years. You cant just pick and choose what you respond to and then expect others not to do the same.

Does he have any results in the high mountains of the tour? Was he ever up there when there's 20 guys left?

Answered your question.

 

[Anderis]

Re: Re:

Does he have any results in the high mountains of the tour? Was he ever up there when there's 20 guys left?

Answered your question.

http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Tour_de_France_2014_Stage_8_Gerardmer

The most recent one.

Not to mention the fact he was twice in the top15 overall in earlier years.

 

[Miburo]

Re: Re:

Does he have any results in the high mountains of the tour? Was he ever up there when there's 20 guys left?

Answered your question.

http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Tour_de_France_2014_Stage_8_Gerardmer

The most recent one.

Not to mention the fact he was twice in the top15 overall in earlier years.

I said HIGH mountains, not 3 hills