2016 Critérium du Dauphiné, 2.UWT, June 5-12

[CheckMyPecs]

Re: Re:

I know it´s not very á la mode these days but I am an Aso races fan. I never miss the Dauphiné every year. French roads, early summer, Tour contenders. perfect

We're hipsters, liking ASO before it was cool.

 

[Ataraxus]

Considering the build-up of this thread and the first stage, I was rooting for it to reach 150 pages. It missed it by a bit, but it became the most frequented stage race of 2016. With proper coverage (live pictures of Froome riding the TT and especially Maddeleine ) it would have reached even more.

 

[yaco]

Re:

Here ya go, Yaco, from Ride Media's Q&A with Richie, puts it straigher than my crappy memory could recall!!!
http://www.ridemedia.com.au/interviews/richie-porte-qa-leader-of-the-worldtour/

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From RIDE media's Q&A with Richie:

We saw you have a little chat with Alberto when the two of you were away. What’s being discussed then? It’s an obvious question but what language are you speaking and what have you got to say to one another?

“I use English.

“To be honest with you, I didn’t really want to attack ‘G’. I said that to G – that I wouldn’t attack him first… but then I also wanted to be on the podium and although G is one of my good mates, it’s a race. I didn’t really want to cooperate too much with Alberto but when we got away, it was to go for the podium for myself and try to get rid of [Ilnur] Zakarin (the stage winner on the Saturday, and third on GC going into the final stage just one second ahead of Porte).

“I guess we both had interests and I think it worked out quite well in the end, to move up into third position on the last day was quite a nice feeling.”
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Thanks - So its exactly what I stated - What Porte did in PN is the same as Dauphine - He's made sure he could answer the attacks of the main contenders - Had a chance to bury GT in Nice and went for it.

 

[yaco]

Re:

Sorry Richie, but here are my thoughts. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt for not countering Contador's attack, because maybe he was at the limit. OK, once Froome came to the front, it seemed to slow down. The top 3 were up front with Contador and Martin. You could argue that LRP should have pushed the pace to distance Martin who was an obvious threat to LRP's podium position, but I'll even give him the benefit of the doubt here. Martin probably would have got back on and/or one of Bardet or Contador could have countered.

However, on the final climb LRP was tactically a complete waste of space. As a team leader, his goal is to get the highest GC position possible. OK, it's clear that Froome was stronger, so LRP should be racing against Bardet and Martin. So what does he do? Surround himself with Sky riders rather than marking Martin, who due to his skills and the GC position clearly would make an attack (just a time bonus was not enough to overtake LRP). As a result, Martin skips away. You can forgive him for not being able to beat Bardet and Martin in a sprint, because he can't pedal fast enough, but he completely lost the plot.

No - Porte's main job was to go head to head with the riders who will be at the pointy end of the TDF - That's Contador and Froome - Martin or Bardet won't be at the pointy end.

 

[Tank Engine]

Re: Re:

No - Porte's main job was to go head to head with the riders who will be at the pointy end of the TDF - That's Contador and Froome - Martin or Bardet won't be at the pointy end.

Sorry, I forgot this was a training ride and not a race.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

No - Porte's main job was to go head to head with the riders who will be at the pointy end of the TDF - That's Contador and Froome - Martin or Bardet won't be at the pointy end.

Sorry, I forgot this was a training ride and not a race.

Yeah - It was a training ride - What was Porte doing following Froome's attack when no-one else could go with Froome - Richie forgot it was a training ride.

 

[dacooley]

criticism is highly off the charts. sometimes it really seems just give one quarter of posters bikes and they will ride any mountain stage way better than richie da man porte.

 

[Tank Engine]

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criticism is highly off the charts. sometimes it really seems just give one quarter of posters bikes and they will ride any mountain stage way better than richie da man porte.

Give us cycling manager and we will

I still think Richie's DS is happy that he went head to head with Froome on the final climb of the race

 

[vedrafjord]

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criticism is highly off the charts. sometimes it really seems just give one quarter of posters bikes and they will ride any mountain stage way better than richie da man porte.

No, but if we had LRP's abilities most of us would try and finish as high as we could for the benefit of our career and our reputation and our team and our sponsors, and not let riders on other teams off the hook because they're your friends. In my local club when we're on a winter group ride and it gets to a climb, we attack each other, because it's human nature to push yourself and see how your best measures up against others. It just doesn't seem like he's acting like a team leader of a big team a lot of the time.

 

[King Of Molehill]

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You'd think the Dauphine organizers would be a little put off by so many of the big name riders calling their race 'good training'. We understand that when you're targeting the TDF that everything you do prior, is considered a part of your build-up and that you're not at your peak yet etc.. but still, if I'm the race organizer I wouldn't want so many of the riders you've invited to keep saying that they're happy NOT to be contesting for the podium or whatever as long as they get the training they need for the TDF. When I watch the Dauphine I'm not sitting there thinking, "what a great training race this is" but maybe I should be?

the Dauphine (organized by ASO) is more than happy to have the Tour stars there. dont worry.

Exactly, everyone is there talking about the Tour, you also get most of the Tour GC rivals there putting in attacks and finding their form, It's a win-win for ASO.

Don't forget they've also including some stages that are featured a month later in the Tour.

I therefore move to give this race a new nickname, for example:

Grande formation dans les Alpes
Votre dernière chance pour la sélection TDF
Un étirement des jambes

 

[PremierAndrew]

I do think that if we replaced Froome with Contador, and in fact LRP was Contador's BFF and loyal to him despite being on a different team, he'd get a lot less criticism on this forum.

BUT, he fully deserves the criticism. He should be riding for BMC's best interests, not for Sky's. Simple.

 

[Kwibus]

Re:

You'd think the Dauphine organizers would be a little put off by so many of the big name riders calling their race 'good training'. We understand that when you're targeting the TDF that everything you do prior, is considered a part of your build-up and that you're not at your peak yet etc.. but still, if I'm the race organizer I wouldn't want so many of the riders you've invited to keep saying that they're happy NOT to be contesting for the podium or whatever as long as they get the training they need for the TDF. When I watch the Dauphine I'm not sitting there thinking, "what a great training race this is" but maybe I should be?

Well pretty much all the big names showed up for their training race and they showed some pretty good racing as well. Nothing to complain!
And to be fair ofcourse none of them is at their peak with the TdF around the corner. So yeh it's a training ride in that regard, but they certainly did race to win... just not at peak form.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

I do think that if we replaced Froome with Contador, and in fact LRP was Contador's BFF and loyal to him despite being on a different team, he'd get a lot less criticism on this forum.

BUT, he fully deserves the criticism. He should be riding for BMC's best interests, not for Sky's. Simple.

I saw nothing wrong with Porte working with Froome to distance Contador. But the final stage where he went to sleep in the last km sitting too far back in the bunch and reacting too late and losing his podium spot was unforgivable as if second place in the Dauphine did not matter. God knows what his DS said to him after the race. Sure he got boxed in when Sky sat up in front of him but he should have been on Bardet's back wheel at that stage as they were on the same time on GC and there were time bonuses up for grabs ! It's that sort of ill discipline that makes you wonder about Porte sometimes. After a hard week's racing he just threw it away.