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

[Publicus]

Re:

I really hope Sky will try a more agressive strategy throughout the stages to attack and isolate Contador instead of isolating him by burning their own men. I want Froome to win, but with Contador ahead of them, it bodes well for exciting racing.

Contador is use to being isolated. He'll be sitting on Froome's wheel throughout, which should give Porte a bit of an opening.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re: Re:

LRP surprisingly good

Not surprising at all, he is a quality one week stage racer and I expected him to do well here, then the usual rubbish hype will start for the Tour then LRP will fall apart at some stage over the 3 weeks

Thanks, I'm aware of Porte's record. I expected him to be in top 5 today, but not to beat Froome.

Froome is really delaying his peak like last year, so it's not that much of a surprise that he was beaten by Porte. The only big surprise for me was Pinot's performance. Very disappointing from him.

I'm not surprised at all by Pinot. Not very good on a short TT with steep ramps, like we saw in Pais Vasco.
Aru on the other hand... very disappointing.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

This is the sort of performance from Lil'Richie here that riders like Aru and Pinot just haven't shown they're capable of, and is why he is in a tier with them for the Tour despite his lacking consistency

The problem is he still has to show he's good in 3 weeks like the others did. If he is able to do that then he's a threat to anyone.

But the problem is the others still have to show that they can match the big boys on any particular day. It's also no good being consistent if you're consistently worse than the main contenders

 

[trevim]

Re:

I really hope Sky will try a more agressive strategy throughout the stages to attack and isolate Contador instead of isolating him by burning their own men. I want Froome to win, but with Contador ahead of them, it bodes well for exciting racing.

Come on Sky can isolate Contador easily and still have 4-5 riders up there. Not an issue I guess

 

[Orbit501]

Re: Re:

This is the sort of performance from Lil'Richie here that riders like Aru and Pinot just haven't shown they're capable of, and is why he is in a tier with them for the Tour despite his lacking consistency

I'm not sure why people continue to class Porte as a potential GT rider. He clearly should be bracketed alongside riders like Spilak and Rui Costa - who are superb week long races, but nowhere near good enough over three weeks.

All of this ^

 

[SeriousSam]

Re: Re:

This is the sort of performance from Lil'Richie here that riders like Aru and Pinot just haven't shown they're capable of, and is why he is in a tier with them for the Tour despite his lacking consistency

I'm not sure why people continue to class Porte as a potential GT rider. He clearly should be bracketed alongside riders like Spilak and Rui Costa - who are superb week long races, but nowhere near good enough over three weeks.

He may surprise us yet and perform for 3 weeks. He hasn't done it so far, but stranger things have happened. If so, his high level gives him a shot at contesting the victory. Which is why he has a very small chance to win the Tour. One not appreciably smaller than that of Aru or Pinot.

 

[Kwibus]

Re:

Aru only the 3rd best Astan rider...

Aru's strength is riding a 3 week race and long mountain stages. Certainly not this.

 

[rick james]

Re:

Contador has said the GC is not important and that SKY should take responsability becouse thay have 4 or 5 riders who could dispute GC...

That is a lie

 

[perico]

Re: Re:

This is the sort of performance from Lil'Richie here that riders like Aru and Pinot just haven't shown they're capable of, and is why he is in a tier with them for the Tour despite his lacking consistency

Exactly if Porte can be consistent his besides t is so much higher then those two

Difference is that Aru has actually won a GT and podiums in 2 or 3 others. Porte had a Top 10 like 6 years ago.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Porte doing well here is not surprising because he's almost always gone well in MTTs. As for saying Froome's a bit behind, the point is that the Grand Départ is still a month away. Saying Porte belongs a tier above Pinot (who's podiumed the Tour) and Aru (who's won a GT and podiumed two others) when his GT record in the GC is still not any better than Paolo Bettini's is jumping the gun big-time. He's never shown the recovery to do it consistently over 3 weeks and has always had a jour sans that's hurt him along the way to date; he needs to show he can erase that issue and being on stupendous form for the Dauphiné isn't always ideal if you can't hold it all the way to the end of the upcoming GT. This is why going from the Ardennes to the Giro has always been a difficult challenge in recent years, because late mountain stages can often see somebody who was in form early running out of steam.

 

[Oliwright]

Re: Re:

LMAOOO Alberto said its not that big surprise that he beat Froome

Dude honestly noone else is either besides the deluded Froome fans, Froome has never beaten Contador besides when Contador have riden the Giro first. Look Vuelta Contador beat him there too on equal terms so no surprise to anyone.

Mate do you remember the 2013 tour? Froome finished 6:27 ahead of him.
2013 dauphine, 2015 Vuelta a Andalucía etc.

Clearly a new cycling fan lol

 

[Tonton]

Champagne for Flo! Bravo Alberto: excellent for morale. Very good for performance by Froome. Porte did a bit better than I was expecting. And Balaphilippe had a great day. Tibopino, not a surprise: we saw at the VaPV that such a course isn't for him. I was expecting better, tho. Aru has been less than stellar so far this season...and a strong Team Sky. Even Kirby wasn't (that) bad .

Alberto fans, rejoice .

 

[Publicus]

Re: Re:

LRP surprisingly good

Not surprising at all, he is a quality one week stage racer and I expected him to do well here, then the usual rubbish hype will start for the Tour then LRP will fall apart at some stage over the 3 weeks

Thanks, I'm aware of Porte's record. I expected him to be in top 5 today, but not to beat Froome.

Froome is really delaying his peak like last year, so it's not that much of a surprise that he was beaten by Porte. The only big surprise for me was Pinot's performance. Very disappointing from him.

I wouldn't be shocked if Poels is Sky's leader for the Dauphine

None of the top riders are at their peaks. They are ALL looking to peak for the 2nd and 3rd week of the Tour. All of them (afaik) are targeting the Olympics. This has been true ALL YEAR.

 

[Jspear]

Champagne for Flo! Bravo Alberto: excellent for morale. Very good for performance by Froome. Porte did a bit better than I was expecting. And Balaphilippe had a great day. Tibopino, not a surprise: we saw at the VaPV that such a course isn't for him. I was expecting better, tho. Aru has been less than stellar so far this season...and a strong Team Sky. Even Kirby wasn't (that) bad .

Alberto fans, rejoice .

Yes!
This race finished way earlier than I expected...missed the whole stage. Next time I'll check the start times.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

LRP surprisingly good

Not surprising at all, he is a quality one week stage racer and I expected him to do well here, then the usual rubbish hype will start for the Tour then LRP will fall apart at some stage over the 3 weeks

Thanks, I'm aware of Porte's record. I expected him to be in top 5 today, but not to beat Froome.

Froome is really delaying his peak like last year, so it's not that much of a surprise that he was beaten by Porte. The only big surprise for me was Pinot's performance. Very disappointing from him.

Froome fans hope is, whether that's the case remains to be seen.

I don't believe that he is at all; he wouldn't have put in such a good ride today if he wasn't close to his peak already. And why would you significantly change the approach that has worked to deliver him in peak form for the TdF in three of the last four years (and quite possible in 2014 as well)? There's no way he would sacrifice giving his best at the Tour for the Olympics, which he has next to no chance of winning anyway.

He's still probably a shoe-in to finish top 3 in this race, with a decent chance of winning.

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

Aru only the 3rd best Astan rider...

He's just here after a 22 days long altitude camp to find his racing legs, Rosa on the other hand is always good after a training camp at high altitude.

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

This is the sort of performance from Lil'Richie here that riders like Aru and Pinot just haven't shown they're capable of, and is why he is in a tier with them for the Tour despite his lacking consistency

The problem is he still has to show he's good in 3 weeks like the others did. If he is able to do that then he's a threat to anyone.

But the problem is the others still have to show that they can match the big boys on any particular day. It's also no good being consistent if you're consistently worse than the main contenders

They have consistently (Pinot not so much) shown that they end up top 10 in a GT and Aru won a GT. Porte had a surprise 7th place in his young years in the Giro.
Because of this it's fair to rate Pinot and specially Aru higher for a GT than Porte....., but I'm not the one saying Porte will NEVER be able to ride a constant GT. Maybe he can, we have yet to witness it. Maybe he's the better version of Costa and Spilak though.

 

[Oliwright]

Re: Re:

LMAOOO Alberto said its not that big surprise that he beat Froome

Dude honestly noone else is either besides the deluded Froome fans, Froome has never beaten Contador besides when Contador have riden the Giro first. Look Vuelta Contador beat him there too on equal terms so no surprise to anyone.

Froome and Alberto at that Vuelta were coming in off different injuries. 2013 tour & dauphine everything was equal and remind me what happened?
2015 Vuelta a Andalucía was equal as well.

 

[deValtos]

Re: Re:

This is the sort of performance from Lil'Richie here that riders like Aru and Pinot just haven't shown they're capable of, and is why he is in a tier with them for the Tour despite his lacking consistency

I'm not sure why people continue to class Porte as a potential GT rider. He clearly should be bracketed alongside riders like Spilak and Rui Costa - who are superb week long races, but nowhere near good enough over three weeks.

All of this ^

There is one difference in that Porte has shown that he can climb with the best in GT's. Spilak and Costa can't. So while he is terribly inconsistent there is at least some potential there ...

 

[HelloDolly]

No mtter how strong SKY is they need Contador to be weaker than Froome ....and that does not look the case yet

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re:

Porte doing well here is not surprising because he's almost always gone well in MTTs. As for saying Froome's a bit behind, the point is that the Grand Départ is still a month away. Saying Porte belongs a tier above Pinot (who's podiumed the Tour) and Aru (who's won a GT and podiumed two others) when his GT record in the GC is still not any better than Paolo Bettini's is jumping the gun big-time. He's never shown the recovery to do it consistently over 3 weeks and has always had a jour sans that's hurt him along the way to date; he needs to show he can erase that issue and being on stupendous form for the Dauphiné isn't always ideal if you can't hold it all the way to the end of the upcoming GT. This is why going from the Ardennes to the Giro has always been a difficult challenge in recent years, because late mountain stages can often see somebody who was in form early running out of steam.

I think people are misinterpreting SeriousSam and my posts.

If only Pinot Aru and Porte turned up to the start line of a GT, I would certainly rate both Aru and Pinot's chances of winning considerably more than Porte's chances, because of Porte's tendency to have a couple of awful days, which you cannot afford in a grand tour.

But the point is, when Contador Froome or Quintana turn up, assuming none of them crash out/get ill/DQ/whatever, Pinot and Aru simply aren't capable of matching those 3 on the climbs or the TTs (well Contador and Froome in the TT at least). Porte, however, is capable of both. So while, in all likelihood, Porte will have a couple of bad days and drop out of contention, he is still more likely than Aru and Pinot to win the GT, considering he's the only one of the 3 that currently has the ability to match the big 3.

 

[Brullnux]

Re:

This is the sort of performance from Lil'Richie here that riders like Aru and Pinot just haven't shown they're capable of, and is why he is in a tier with them for the Tour despite his lacking consistency

Aru: Almost out-climbing Nairo Quintana in an extremely hard MTT in the eighteenth stage of a GT in what was on paper the perfect stage for Nairo.

Pinot: Setting the Port de Bales record ahead of a phenomenal Nibali (who had a slight off-day, yes) , 2 minutes faster than Contador's time in 2010.

Both were two years ago, both have improved since.

 

[arvc40]

Brilliant test of the Top boys today.

 

[Arredondo]

Re: Re:

This is the sort of performance from Lil'Richie here that riders like Aru and Pinot just haven't shown they're capable of, and is why he is in a tier with them for the Tour despite his lacking consistency

I'm not sure why people continue to class Porte as a potential GT rider. He clearly should be bracketed alongside riders like Spilak and Rui Costa - who are superb week long races, but nowhere near good enough over three weeks.

I think he will surprise you this year.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Contador on Sky: "They have 4-5 riders who could go for the overall."

smart cookie that man, stating the obvious

He's a cyclist, he doesn't have to be Einstein.