2018 Paris-Nice, 4/3-11/3

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

I can't recall an entire team DNFing in a major stage race

Saunier Duval, 2008 Tour

Does that count since they withdraw en masse (or rather, got withdrawn) for, errr, reasons I think we all remember.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re: Re:

I can't recall an entire team DNFing in a major stage race

Saunier Duval, 2008 Tour

That's not a DNF, that's being barred from continuing. Several teams have had that.
If we're going with clinic reasons, half the field at 1998 Tour.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Great stage today, very exiting indeed.

As for Fuglsang:
Can I suggest a trike, for the rest of the season?

 

[Netserk]

Re:

I can't recall an entire team DNFing in a major stage race

PDM '91

 

[search]

Sky withdrew from the Vuelta a couple of years ago, but that was for different reasons as well of course

edit: in Pais Vasco 2013 all Argos riders abandoned during Stage 5 though. It was a pretty dnf-heavy race in general, from six other teams (Vaconsoleil, FDJ, Cannondale, Lotto, BMC and Blanco) only one rider reached the finish

 

[tobydawq]

I seem to recall that Bjarne Riis once was the only rider left on his team in the Vuelta. He wanted to continue and his team wanted him to withdraw up to the point that they poisoned him with some contaminated food that made him sick. I don't think he was too happy with that.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

I seem to recall that Bjarne Riis once was the only rider left on his team in the Vuelta. He wanted to continue and his team wanted him to withdraw up to the point that they poisoned him with some contaminated food that made him sick. I don't think he was too happy with that.

What?

Sky withdrew from the Vuelta a couple of years ago, but that was for different reasons as well of course

Also Leopard from the Giro... but I'd say those reasons are far worse than a bit of rain, or indeed clinicey reasons.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Soler quite rightly is getting the bulk of the plaudits, but it should be said that De La Cruz has the makings of a top notch stage hunter.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

I seem to recall that Bjarne Riis once was the only rider left on his team in the Vuelta. He wanted to continue and his team wanted him to withdraw up to the point that they poisoned him with some contaminated food that made him sick. I don't think he was too happy with that.

What?

Yep, I just found it in his autobiography. In 1987 he called for a team called Lucas and after the first ten stages of the Vuelta he was alone on the team after his teammates had all abandoned (one of them had packed his bags because he somehow knew he had tested positive for a doping substance).

His DS's asked Riis whether it wouldn't be a good idea to quit himself, which he didn't think because he wanted out of the team and this could be a chance to prove his value. But after a couple of days by himself he woke up one morning with the symptoms of food poisoning, convinced that it was his own team who was behind so they could get home as well.

 

[RedheadDane]

Holy ***! :surprised: :lol:

Could you imagine someone trying that today?

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Holy ****! :surprised: :lol:

Could you imagine someone trying that today?

Not really. Nowadays everything has to be so politically correct

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Looking ahead at the TdF, Astanas team is shaping up to be very strong indeed, especially baring in mind the multi-purpose team you need this year, with both a TTT and cobbles, on top of the usual difficulties.... Fraile, Lutsenko, Valgren and Cort all look really good..... Throw a Hansen and a Kangert in the mix, together with Sanchez, and the team is set.

The question mark to me is the captain - and not whether he is good enough, but whether can he actually stay on the bike, for the duration of the race.

SKY (even without Froome), Movistar, Ag2R, Bahrain, Mitchelton, EF and Bora all look on track, while Sunweb, BMC, UAE, Katusha, Lotto NL, Trek, DD and FDJ seem behind the curve.

Not mentioning Lotto BL, as it is really just Wellens, and Quickstep, as it is really just Jungels.

 

[The Hegelian]

Re: Re:

I can't recall an entire team DNFing in a major stage race

PDM '91

What was the real story with that? Did it ever emerge? I was too young at the time to be thinking 'bad blood bags' or whatever.....

 

[Sciatic]

Re:

Holy ****! :surprised: :lol:

Could you imagine someone trying that today?

There's folks right now in Salisbury, England who can certainly imagine it!

 

[Sciatic]

Re: Re:

I can't recall an entire team DNFing in a major stage race

PDM '91

What was the real story with that? Did it ever emerge? I was too young at the time to be thinking 'bad blood bags' or whatever.....

That was the original "sticky bottle"

 

[Breh]

Re:

Looking ahead at the TdF, Astanas team is shaping up to be very strong indeed, especially baring in mind the multi-purpose team you need this year, with both a TTT and cobbles, on top of the usual difficulties.... Fraile, Lutsenko, Valgren and Cort all look really good..... Throw a Hansen and a Kangert in the mix, together with Sanchez, and the team is set.

The question mark to me is the captain - and not whether he is good enough, but whether can he actually stay on the bike, for the duration of the race.

SKY (even without Froome), Movistar, Ag2R, Bahrain, Mitchelton, EF and Bora all look on track, while Sunweb, BMC, UAE, Katusha, Lotto NL, Trek, DD and FDJ seem behind the curve.

Not mentioning Lotto BL, as it is really just Wellens, and Quickstep, as it is really just Jungels.

What? Quick Step is leading the WT teamranking, cq teamranking and victory ranking. LottoBE just won two jerseys, a 4th overall, Strade Bianche, Benoot is doing great in Italy,...

Or is it just about LeTour? Even then, QS has an amazing cobbles and TTT squad (which is important according to you). And it's not like the GC is their main priority. There is this kid called Gaviria.
Wellens won't even participate in the july group ride. So why does he get a mention? Benoot and Greipel will probably lead them, they've both had interesting wins.


Making projections on LeTour when we've not even finished Tirreno is pointless. Projecting every team's main priority to be the GC is even more pointless.



Groenewegen has been very good. Roglic picked up a nice victory. Kittel picked up a win against a bunch of quality sprinters. Zakarin has no interest in this years spring. Cav crashed twice. UAE's entire team DNF because of sickness. BMC just won the TTT(which you deemed as important) in Italy. Demare won in P-N.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

Looking ahead at the TdF, Astanas team is shaping up to be very strong indeed, especially baring in mind the multi-purpose team you need this year, with both a TTT and cobbles, on top of the usual difficulties.... Fraile, Lutsenko, Valgren and Cort all look really good..... Throw a Hansen and a Kangert in the mix, together with Sanchez, and the team is set.

Damn you! Now I'm imagining them just going off to Denmark and grab a random Hansen! And then to Estonia and grab a random Kangert, though I dunno how common a name 'Kangert' is.

But, yeah, does seem a bit silly to me to basically decide the TdF teams this early, for all we know all the riders you just named could be bedridden with broken legs come the start of the Tour.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re: Re:

Looking ahead at the TdF, Astanas team is shaping up to be very strong indeed, especially baring in mind the multi-purpose team you need this year, with both a TTT and cobbles, on top of the usual difficulties.... Fraile, Lutsenko, Valgren and Cort all look really good..... Throw a Hansen and a Kangert in the mix, together with Sanchez, and the team is set.

The question mark to me is the captain - and not whether he is good enough, but whether can he actually stay on the bike, for the duration of the race.

SKY (even without Froome), Movistar, Ag2R, Bahrain, Mitchelton, EF and Bora all look on track, while Sunweb, BMC, UAE, Katusha, Lotto NL, Trek, DD and FDJ seem behind the curve.

Not mentioning Lotto BL, as it is really just Wellens, and Quickstep, as it is really just Jungels.

What? Quick Step is leading the WT teamranking, cq teamranking and victory ranking. LottoBE just won two jerseys, a 4th overall, Strade Bianche, Benoot is doing great in Italy,...

Or is it just about LeTour? Even then, QS has an amazing cobbles and TTT squad (which is important according to you). And it's not like the GC is their main priority. There is this kid called Gaviria.
Wellens won't even participate in the july group ride. So why does he get a mention? Benoot and Greipel will probably lead them, they've both had interesting wins.


Making projections on LeTour when we've not even finished Tirreno is pointless. Projecting every team's main priority to be the GC is even more pointless.



Groenewegen has been very good. Roglic picked up a nice victory. Kittel picked up a win against a bunch of quality sprinters. Zakarin has no interest in this years spring. Cav crashed twice. UAE's entire team DNF because of sickness. BMC just won the TTT(which you deemed as important) in Italy. Demare won in P-N.

Just looking ahead at the TdF GC competition, as said..... and the expected squads going there from each team

Not talking sprints, classics or short stage races - and yes, obviously Quickstep is a far different animal, in classics and short stage races, because they are built for it, as is belgian Lotto.

Thought Wellens was doing the tour, but either way, as also said, Lotto Bl is irrelevant in terms of GC teams for the grand tours.

Settle down Beavis

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re: Re:

Looking ahead at the TdF, Astanas team is shaping up to be very strong indeed, especially baring in mind the multi-purpose team you need this year, with both a TTT and cobbles, on top of the usual difficulties.... Fraile, Lutsenko, Valgren and Cort all look really good..... Throw a Hansen and a Kangert in the mix, together with Sanchez, and the team is set.

Damn you! Now I'm imagining just going off to Denmark and grab a random Hansen! And then to Estonia and grab a random Kangert, though I dunno how common a name 'Kangert' is.

But, yeah, does seem a bit silly to me to basically decide the TdF teams this early, for all we know all the riders you just named could be bedridden with broken legs come the start of the Tour.

Obviously injuries or illness is not taken into consideration.... that would make any discussion of a potential team irrelevant, ever.

Apart from Kangert - one of my favorite riders - they are all projected to be on the TdF squad for Astana, with Moser being the expected 8th guy....... but I am hoping Kangerts ends up doing the Tour instead of Giro, or Cataldo - if he finds his best form again

The point is, that because Fuglsang has a history of crashing out, the team needs a strong lieutenant - i.e. Kangert or Cataldo.... instead of sending both to the Giro with Lopez.

 

[RedheadDane]

Fuglsang has a history of crashing out? He's crashed out of a GT exactly once.

 

[Koronin]

Quickstep is a classics team not a Grand Tour team. They'll be stage hunting with whomever they send to the Tour.

Movistar doesn't have a team for the cobbled classics let alone a cobbled stage in the Tour. They have a grand total of 3 riders who have had any success at all in cobbled races. Carlos Barbero (their sprinter) who is not going to any Grand Tour (mostly because he doesn't want to so they won't send him), Imanol Erviti, who has had their best results at both Flanders and Paris-Roubiax and is Valverde's long-time domestique and road captain, and will be going to the Tour to serve that role. And actually Valverde, who in the few cobbled races (a few semi classics, Tour stages, and Richmond World's) has proven he can handle himself on the cobbles. They don't exactly have anyone who can look after Landa and Quintana on that stage. Then we have the TTT, which well they will only be sending one of their two TT specialists (either Sutterlin or Oliveria). One of those two plus Valverde will be who they are relying on to keep the team from loosing more than a minute on that stage. They are sending 3 protected riders to the Tour, thus limited what they can send with the rest of the team. My guess one TT specialist along with Erviti for the flat stages and 3 climbers. This team has very much reverted back to being a team full of climbers.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Bennati? He podiumed G-W twice? Although back then there were less cobbles I imagine.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Bennati? He podiumed G-W twice? Although back then there were less cobbles I imagine.

Truthfully he's one I'm not sure how good he actually is on the cobbles. I'm pretty sure he's going to the Giro and also don't think he'll be going to the Tour. Mostly because they're going to need climbers. Taking 3 protected riders is really limiting on what you can do.

 

[search]

Amador is missing on your list up there

 

[drebelo]

Re:

Quickstep is a classics team not a Grand Tour team. They'll be stage hunting with whomever they send to the Tour.

Movistar doesn't have a team for the cobbled classics let alone a cobbled stage in the Tour. They have a grand total of 3 riders who have had any success at all in cobbled races. Carlos Barbero (their sprinter) who is not going to any Grand Tour (mostly because he doesn't want to so they won't send him), Imanol Erviti, who has had their best results at both Flanders and Paris-Roubiax and is Valverde's long-time domestique and road captain, and will be going to the Tour to serve that role. And actually Valverde, who in the few cobbled races (a few semi classics, Tour stages, and Richmond World's) has proven he can handle himself on the cobbles. They don't exactly have anyone who can look after Landa and Quintana on that stage. Then we have the TTT, which well they will only be sending one of their two TT specialists (either Sutterlin or Oliveria). One of those two plus Valverde will be who they are relying on to keep the team from loosing more than a minute on that stage. They are sending 3 protected riders to the Tour, thus limited what they can send with the rest of the team. My guess one TT specialist along with Erviti for the flat stages and 3 climbers. This team has very much reverted back to being a team full of climbers.

Not sure about Sutterlin but Oliveira last year made a really interesting tour de flanders (18th place) . That could be a good sign for the cobbles and will deffinetly give him some nice points in the fight for the TT position, being a more versitile rider and also a decent climber may give him a shot on the super movistar tour team