• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

2016 Tour de France, Info & Discussion

Page 12 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Re:

Alexandre B. said:
Astana

Fabio Aru (ITA)
Jakob Fuglsang (DEN)
Andrei Grivko (UKR)
Tanel Kangert (EST)
Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ)
Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)
Diego Rosa (ITA)
Luis León Sánchez (ESP)
Paolo Tiralongo (ITA)
That's a ridiculously strong team on paper - even stronger than Sky in my opinion, in terms of individual talent. Good luck at getting them to all ride for a common goal though.
 
Re: Re:

Mayomaniac said:
Alexandre B. said:
Astana

Fabio Aru (ITA)
Jakob Fuglsang (DEN)
Andrei Grivko (UKR)
Tanel Kangert (EST)
Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ)
Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)
Diego Rosa (ITA)
Luis León Sánchez (ESP)
Paolo Tiralongo (ITA)
No Cataldo, that's a bit of a surprise.
Indeed. He was amongst sure participants the last time we heard about Astana team.
This is a lineup to disrespect the authority. If they're on form, they can blow every stage to pieces.
 
Re:

LaFlorecita said:
That Astana team is super strong

Slightly week on the flat like Movistar. But when the road looks upwards it's incredibly strong! Although I can't help but think Nibali will be a destabilising factor. His relationship with Aru is already worse than Froome and Brad was at this stage in 2012. Aru seems like a teenager who throws his toys out of the pram. So this will either be a great team that will really take it to Sky or massive *** up. Either way should be gd!
 
Re: Re:

Oliwright said:
LaFlorecita said:
That Astana team is super strong

Slightly week on the flat like Movistar. But when the road looks upwards it's incredibly strong! Although I can't help but think Nibali will be a destabilising factor. His relationship with Aru is already worse than Froome and Brad was at this stage in 2012. Aru seems like a teenager who throws his toys out of the pram. So this will either be a great team that will really take it to Sky or massive **** up. Either way should be gd!

I cannot see how this team is weak on the flat. Even though they are all great climbers, most of the Astana boys have a superb engine on the flat as well. Grivko, Fuglsang, Tiralongo, Lutsenko, Kangert and LuLu can certainly both navigate in a large peloton and drive hard if needed on the flatter stages. Only problem with this line-up is to keep them united as one team as others have already pin-pointed.
 
Re: Re:

DFA123 said:
Alexandre B. said:
Astana

Fabio Aru (ITA)
Jakob Fuglsang (DEN)
Andrei Grivko (UKR)
Tanel Kangert (EST)
Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ)
Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)
Diego Rosa (ITA)
Luis León Sánchez (ESP)
Paolo Tiralongo (ITA)
That's a ridiculously strong team on paper - even stronger than Sky in my opinion, in terms of individual talent. Good luck at getting them to all ride for a common goal though.

I disagree

I think its very much on par with Movistar's. I'd say Movistar is slightly stronger if they bring Ion Izagirre considering Kangert, Fuglsang and Nibali can't be at 100% and Luis Le and Tiralongo is a year older. Rosa is the joker, we don't know how good he can be in the high mountains, I expect very frickin good.

But Sky still is stronger IMO.
 
Re: Re:

Valv.Piti said:
DFA123 said:
Alexandre B. said:
Astana

Fabio Aru (ITA)
Jakob Fuglsang (DEN)
Andrei Grivko (UKR)
Tanel Kangert (EST)
Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ)
Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)
Diego Rosa (ITA)
Luis León Sánchez (ESP)
Paolo Tiralongo (ITA)
That's a ridiculously strong team on paper - even stronger than Sky in my opinion, in terms of individual talent. Good luck at getting them to all ride for a common goal though.

I disagree

I think its very much on par with Movistar's. I'd say Movistar is slightly stronger if they bring Ion Izagirre considering Kangert, Fuglsang and Nibali can't be at 100% and Luis Le and Tiralongo is a year older. Rosa is the joker, we don't know how good he can be in the high mountains, I expect very frickin good.

But Sky still is stronger IMO.

I wouldn't be completely surprised if Rosa ends up leading this team in the third week. Hopefully, if it becomes quickly apparent that Aru's form is still awful, they won't make Rosa wait for him on some of the earlier stages.
 
Astana is really strong but they don't have any big leader. Aru is a very good talent but he's going to discover the Tour, and hasn't confirmed yet being as strong as Quintana, Contador and Froome in 3 weeks races. Nibali will be tired after his Giro I think, but if he is as strong as Aru, it's going to be hard to deal with for Vino :D So bad Landa left the team haha
 
Re: Re:

DFA123 said:
Valv.Piti said:
DFA123 said:
Alexandre B. said:
Astana

Fabio Aru (ITA)
Jakob Fuglsang (DEN)
Andrei Grivko (UKR)
Tanel Kangert (EST)
Alexey Lutsenko (KAZ)
Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)
Diego Rosa (ITA)
Luis León Sánchez (ESP)
Paolo Tiralongo (ITA)
That's a ridiculously strong team on paper - even stronger than Sky in my opinion, in terms of individual talent. Good luck at getting them to all ride for a common goal though.

I disagree

I think its very much on par with Movistar's. I'd say Movistar is slightly stronger if they bring Ion Izagirre considering Kangert, Fuglsang and Nibali can't be at 100% and Luis Le and Tiralongo is a year older. Rosa is the joker, we don't know how good he can be in the high mountains, I expect very frickin good.

But Sky still is stronger IMO.

I wouldn't be completely surprised if Rosa ends up leading this team in the third week. Hopefully, if it becomes quickly apparent that Aru's form is still awful, they won't make Rosa wait for him on some of the earlier stages.
Honestly, me neither and I don't think they will. Rosa is super talented, but GC in TdF may be a way to big ask. They have Kangert/Fuglsang/Tira to wait for Aru if he is awful, Nibali is prolly lolling around and doing his own thing. This team's entertainment value is off the charts :D
 
Re:

Red Rick said:
Think the team is slightly worse then Movistar's, mainly because Kangert, Fuglsang and Nibali are coming off the Giro, though Nibali (or Aru lol) may be the second best domestique. Landa will be the other, I have little doubts about that.
valverde.jpg
 
Re:

Valv.Piti said:
DOOOOOOON ALEJAAAAANDRO

Please give him his stage win at stage 2 and let him slave for Nairo the rest of the race. :D

I think he really has the potential to win it for Quintana, but to be effective he has to remain in contention himself as long as possible. Valverde setting the pace for Quintana on later climbs is probably not going to be that useful - it's not really his strength, and is probably not going to shed the Sky train. But Valverde attacking at the start of the third week, and forcing Froome to chase him down because he is still only 2-3 minutes down on GC is a very strong card to play - it could easily burn off Landa and Thomas, and force Froome to do work himself - setting up Nairo for a counter attack.

The question is whether Valverde has the form to remain in contention long enough to play that hand. He looked great at the Spanish nationals and has generally done better in his second GT of the year in the past, so it's certainly a possibility. It's just whether or not age is finally catching up with him.
 
He has stated in multiple lead up interviews to the Tour that he won't ride GC and prolly gonna lose time on the flat stages or just rest up a bit more and being better later on. I think you can scratch the idea that he has to be in contention for the 3rd week, as much as I would like it. I think he will be a pure dom/try on 1-2 stages, but maybe Im not giving Valverde too much credit here. After all, he is not quite the master deceiver that Contador is, but I think he is speaking the truth, I don't think he has any intentions of helping Nairo out by being close in the GC. Rather, the best way to use him will send him in breaks/do some high intensity pulls when Nairo is one fire.
 
Re:

Valv.Piti said:
He has stated in multiple lead up interviews to the Tour that he won't ride GC and prolly gonna lose time on the flat stages or just rest up a bit more and being better later on. I think you can scratch the idea that he has to be in contention for the 3rd week, as much as I would like it. I think he will be a pure dom/try on 1-2 stages, but maybe Im not giving Valverde too much credit here. After all, he is not quite the master deceiver that Contador is, but I think he is speaking the truth, I don't think he has any intentions of helping Nairo out by being close in the GC. Rather, the best way to use him will send him in breaks/do some high intensity pulls when Nairo is one fire.
I hope they don't do that - I don't think it's the best way to use him. On any individual climb he's probably going to struggle to ride at a higher tempo than Landa, because his climbing in high mountains isn't at quite the same level. It's difficult to see how he could burn off the Sky train that way. But, his advantage over all the other super domestiques is his consistency - the fact that he could be a genuine threat to the podium going into the final week, means that he could do hard attacks which Froome couldn't just ignore. At the very least it would put Landa into the red as he closes the gap, leaving Froome vulnerable to a counter attack. If Valverde's already 20 minutes down, then Sky will just ignore him and focus on carry on riding at high threshold pace with their train - only responding when Quintana makes his move.
 
Jun 30, 2014
7,060
2
0
Visit site
DD looks solid, sprints + stagehunters.
I'd have picked a fresh, in shape Cataldo over Kangert or Fuglsang who both rode the Giro, but he was bad at the NC ITT, maybe he's not in decent shape (he looked decent at the Dauphine, usually he was Rosa's last man).
 
Arguing about who has the strongest team out of Sky, Moviestar and Astana is fun. Comparing the 3 teams to tinkoff is hilarious. Bertie should ride for free somewhere next year so he can have a rockstar team as well.
 
Re:

Singer01 said:
Arguing about who has the strongest team out of Sky, Moviestar and Astana is fun. Comparing the 3 teams to tinkoff is hilarious. Bertie should ride for free somewhere next year so he can have a rockstar team as well.

Tinkoff is without climber Jesper Hansen, who said they are bringing extra guys to support Sagan. Contador on his own this year..
 
Re: Re:

el chava said:
Singer01 said:
Arguing about who has the strongest team out of Sky, Moviestar and Astana is fun. Comparing the 3 teams to tinkoff is hilarious. Bertie should ride for free somewhere next year so he can have a rockstar team as well.

Tinkoff is without climber Jesper Hansen, who said they are bringing extra guys to support Sagan. Contador on his own this year..
Can you blame them tho? Sagan had won at least 2 stages last year with decent support, but it was 100% for Contador last year after the Giro. Very unwise decision in hindsight, but Contador will most probable prove to be stronger than 2015, but by how much?
 

TRENDING THREADS