There are WT team leaders that are much lesser riders than half of these guys...MatParker117 said:Sky:
Froome
Henao
Kiryienka
Knees
Kwaitkowski
Landa
Nieve
Thomas
Rowe
I'll look at the bright side and see that two of the most ridiculously strong mountain domestiques of the last decade aren't in the team and one of them is now even a rival. That said, man this team looks scarily good. I just pray that Froome doesn't already lead by two minutes after the first weekMatParker117 said:Sky:
Froome
Henao
Kiryienka
Knees
Kwaitkowski
Landa
Nieve
Thomas
Rowe
Valv.Piti said:A very solid BMC team, Dennis isn't so good in the peloton (or so have I been told) and doesnt climb really well to justify it, altho it had almost been a 100% sure yellow jersey given how well he is time trialing. Martin must be thrilled with no Canc, Dum and Dennis.
Me too. They must be hoping for Caruso to be climbing with Porte for the whole Tour. Roche will be present as well but towards the end not sure about Roche's ability to hang in the group at this moment.Ikbengodniet said:Surprised to see no Bookwalter.
Aint happening aginst Dennis I think, he is really a monster.Son of Amsterhammer said:Valv.Piti said:A very solid BMC team, Dennis isn't so good in the peloton (or so have I been told) and doesnt climb really well to justify it, altho it had almost been a 100% sure yellow jersey given how well he is time trialing. Martin must be thrilled with no Canc, Dum and Dennis.
For sure. Still, at 14k you never know if someone just goes crazy and steals it from everyone by a couple of secs.
I think perhaps Valverde is the key for us having an entertaining race. He's the only rider who might work as a domestique who can consistently destroy the Sky train - because he's too dangerous to let up the road and too strong for the train to easily reel in. Perhaps Aru/Fuglsang could play a similar role if they keep their Dauphine form. Froome could end up with just one or two riders for company fairly early if the others ride aggressively enough. Then it will come down to the mano a mano which would be a huge improvement on last years borefest of Poels downing a can of coke while effortlessly catching Bardet, Aru, Porte or whoever else tried anything.Valv.Piti said:Will obviously be the best team in the race, but Movistar with a motivated duo of Quintana + Valverde wont be too far behind. Interested to see who their pseudo GC-contender is, last year it was Henao and in 15 it was Thomas. Probably Thomas.
Ikbengodniet said:Surprised to see no Bookwalter.
HelloDolly said:Ikbengodniet said:Surprised to see no Bookwalter.
&
Hermans
Sanchez
Dennis rules himself out of the team as said he hadn't the form
Zinoviev Letter said:Presumably Dennis means climbing form.
Good point about Hermans and Sanchez. I don't really understand why BMC didn't have both on a Tour focused schedule, then take the strongest three of Caruso, Roche and those two. Three rather than two climbing dims would make Porte a lot less vulnerable to being isolated because someone else has a random bad day. It may simply be that Richie feels more relaxed with the guys he likes I suppose.
I don't know how Cataldo's form is after the Giro, but they still need some climbing firepower.Laplaz said:So Astana has confirmed 6 riders till now:
Fuglsang
Aru
Lutsenko
Valgren
Grivko
Zeits
Who will be the others 3?
LaFlorecita said:Trek had a competition on twitter, those who chose the correct 9 riders could win a special TDF edition jersey. From the entry of one of the winners it seems likely this will be their team:
Contador
Degenkolb
Pantano
Felline
De Kort
Mollema
Cardoso
Gogl
Rast