2017 Tour of Slovenia, June 15-18 (2.1.)

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

In fact Bora took seven wins in seven days. Not bad going.

It's impressive. Sagan is likely to have his best support by far in the Tour (compared to other years). And with a seemingly higher top end speed, who knows how many stages he can win?

Realistically, he can win as many as 5-6 stages. He would obviously have liked many of them to be more lumpy, but he has lots of chances.

 

[Lequack]

If anyone missed the last two stages:

Last 19 Km of Tour of Slovenia Stage 3 (44:32 English) — eurosport

Last 29 Km of Tour of Slovenia Stage 4 (38:32 English) — eurosport

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

In fact Bora took seven wins in seven days. Not bad going.

It's impressive. Sagan is likely to have his best support by far in the Tour (compared to other years). And with a seemingly higher top end speed, who knows how many stages he can win?

Realistically, he can win as many as 5-6 stages. He would obviously have liked many of them to be more lumpy, but he has lots of chances.

Well, if Kittel is subpar, I wouldn't say it's completely impossible that he could go for the all-time record of nine stage wins. Wouldn't you agree that that scenario is more likely than Degenkolb winning one stage?

With Kittel's victory today, nothing suggests that he will be subpar, though, so it's more likely to be a classic "finish in the top five on 12 stages"-type of ride for our world champion.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

https://mobile.twitter.com/CyclingHubTV/status/876426944044204032

One of the great cycling gifs.

Who will be in the Bora team, by the way? Muhlberger, Selig, Bennett, Konrad, Postlberger all look in good form but all did the Giro. Sagan, Majka, Bodnar, Buchmann...?

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

As an aside, how were there no official time gaps today? I know Bennett and Cavendish aren't GC relevant, but there was time to go and make a cup of tea while waiting for the next rider there.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

https://mobile.twitter.com/CyclingHubTV/status/876426944044204032

One of the great cycling gifs.

Who will be in the Bora team, by the way? Muhlberger, Selig, Bennett, Konrad, Postlberger all look in good form but all did the Giro. Sagan, Majka, Bodnar, Buchmann...?

This is their 14-rider long list:

Maciej Bodnar, Emanuel Buchmann, Marcus Burghardt, Leopold König, Patrick Konrad, Rafal Majka, Jay McCarthy, Christoph Pfingsten, Pawel Poljanski, Juraj Sagan, Peter Sagan, Andreas Schillinger, Michael Schwarzmann, Rüdiger Selig.

Peter and Majka are obviously captains, and I would think that Buchmann, Bodnar, Burghardt and McCarthy are certainties as well. I haven't been following the situation regarding König very closely but my understanding is that he is out.

Maybe they take Poljanski if they want someone to be of help to Majka and Buchmann in the mountains. To let Konrad ride two GTs in a row would be surprising given his young age.

If they want a designated leadout-man for Sagan, they will probably bring Selig but I don't know whether that's a particularly good idea. Sagan is much better at surfing wheels in the fight for position than anybody else and when Viviani was with him in the Tour back in the day, it was just hopeless leadout-work and Sagan had to do his thing single-handedly anyways, which has always worked for him. On the other hand, they did fantastic leadout-work in the final Giro sprint stages, so they are definitely arguments for and against bringing Selig.

They will need someone(s) to take the long leads during the stage as well. And that is something that Juraj has been doing a lot this year. So perhaps this could be the time for him to get a GT debut. But that's a dangerous choice, since nobody knows how he will handle the accumulated fatigue of several weeks' racing - he isn't exactly the most impressive rider on the WorldTour even though he has improved significantly, recently. If they don't choose him, they will probably go with one or two of the equally anonymous Schillinger or Schwarzmann who have been on the squad the past couple of Tours.

To sum up; my guess will be:
Peter Sagan, Majka, Buchmann, Burghardt, McCarthy, and then three out of the following four: Schillinger, Schwarzmann, Poljanski, Selig.

 

[StryderHells]

Re:

18 years and fifth in a big mountain stage of a relatively big race in the Tour preparation phase. That's really impressive. I actually don't think I have ever heard of an 18-year-old mingling with the pros (and doing well) before. Except for Gerald Ciolek when he was German champion at that age.

Robert Stannard won a stage at the years Rhône-Alpes Isère Tour

 

[Ricco']

Re: Re:

https://mobile.twitter.com/CyclingHubTV/status/876426944044204032

One of the great cycling gifs.

Who will be in the Bora team, by the way? Muhlberger, Selig, Bennett, Konrad, Postlberger all look in good form but all did the Giro. Sagan, Majka, Bodnar, Buchmann...?

This is their 14-rider long list:

Maciej Bodnar, Emanuel Buchmann, Marcus Burghardt, Leopold König, Patrick Konrad, Rafal Majka, Jay McCarthy, Christoph Pfingsten, Pawel Poljanski, Juraj Sagan, Peter Sagan, Andreas Schillinger, Michael Schwarzmann, Rüdiger Selig.

Peter and Majka are obviously captains, and I would think that Buchmann, Bodnar, Burghardt and McCarthy are certainties as well. I haven't been following the situation regarding König very closely but my understanding is that he is out.

Maybe they take Poljanski if they want someone to be of help to Majka and Buchmann in the mountains. To let Konrad ride two GTs in a row would be surprising given his young age.

If they want a designated leadout-man for Sagan, they will probably bring Selig but I don't know whether that's a particularly good idea. Sagan is much better at surfing wheels in the fight for position than anybody else and when Viviani was with him in the Tour back in the day, it was just hopeless leadout-work and Sagan had to do his thing single-handedly anyways, which has always worked for him. On the other hand, they did fantastic leadout-work in the final Giro sprint stages, so they are definitely arguments for and against bringing Selig.

They will need someone(s) to take the long leads during the stage as well. And that is something that Juraj has been doing a lot this year. So perhaps this could be the time for him to get a GT debut. But that's a dangerous choice, since nobody knows how he will handle the accumulated fatigue of several weeks' racing - he isn't exactly the most impressive rider on the WorldTour even though he has improved significantly, recently. If they don't choose him, they will probably go with one or two of the equally anonymous Schillinger or Schwarzmann who have been on the squad the past couple of Tours.

To sum up; my guess will be:
Peter Sagan, Majka, Buchmann, Burghardt, McCarthy, and then three out of the following four: Schillinger, Schwarzmann, Poljanski, Selig.

Konig was scheduled to ride Slovenia but he was taken out of the squad prior to the start, so I guess he's definitely out.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

It's a minor issue but of interest as a point about team morale: Majka worked for Bennett in stage one, Bennett worked for Majka in stage three. Neither is likely to be able to do anything decisive for the other, but it shows that there is a certain esprit de corps on that team at the moment.

Also, Selig is a really great lead out.

 

[Leinster]

Shame for Bennett that there's only about 4 or 5 sprint stages at the Vuelta this year. He seems to be coming into some good form, and the Bora ltrain are doing great work right now; if he could only get a few days out without Gaviria butting in...

Maybe they'll send a full strength team to Paris-Tours this year.

 

[Leinster]

Re:

It's a minor issue but of interest as a point about team morale: Majka worked for Bennett in stage one, Bennett worked for Majka in stage three. Neither is likely to be able to do anything decisive for the other, but it shows that there is a certain esprit de corps on that team at the moment.

Also, Selig is a really great lead out.

Sagan also did some great work for Majka in the mountains last year in the Tour. Ok, he was also picking up green jersey points for himself, but after the sprint was done he buried himself leading the break through the valley and over a cat 2 mountain before peeling off for a potty break and a smoke to wait for the grupetto. There were specialist climbers struggling to hold his wheel after 3 hours of racing in a mountain stage.

 

[yaco]

Bennett will struggle to ride the TDF as long as he'sin the same team as Sagan - he needs to become a Giro/Vuelta specialist.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

Bennett will struggle to ride the TDF as long as he'sin the same team as Sagan - he needs to become a Giro/Vuelta specialist.

That wouldn't be such a bad thing at this point in his career, at least for a couple of seasons.

Is this the last year of his contract? I remember that Bora gave him a three year deal part way through his neopro contract, but I can't remember if that finishes at the end of this season or next season. I'm guessing at the moment that Bora will look to extend his contract. They are set up now as a team to support sprinters and that ideally means having one other genuinely fast man beside Sagan. I can't think of anyone faster than Bennett that they could replace him with without spending very big money on a tier 1 guy and doing that would introduce potential conflicts with Sagan.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

Bennett will struggle to ride the TDF as long as he'sin the same team as Sagan - he needs to become a Giro/Vuelta specialist.

That wouldn't be such a bad thing at this point in his career, at least for a couple of seasons.

Is this the last year of his contract? I remember that Bora gave him a three year deal part way through his neopro contract, but I can't remember if that finishes at the end of this season or next season. I'm guessing at the moment that Bora will look to extend his contract. They are set up now as a team to support sprinters and that ideally means having one other genuinely fast man beside Sagan. I can't think of anyone faster than Bennett that they could replace him with without spending very big money on a tier 1 guy and doing that would introduce potential conflicts with Sagan.

Could he end up at Lotto Soudal in 2019 to replace Greipel.