BMC in disarray?

[hrotha]

Gilbert was good enough in MSR.

What. How can you tell, he didn't show ANYTHING one way or the other.

 

[thehog]

What. How can you tell, he didn't show ANYTHING one way or the other.

He did headbutt a car. That was impressive.

 

[Wallace]

BMC very disappointing so far. Gilbert and Cia totally out of shape. Only the gregarios are training in this team....

There are some short memories on this forum. Remember all the way back to last October and burnt out Gilbert was at Lombardia? He had a long season last year, starting with dominant early season form. It makes sense that this year, considering how hard he's going to have to work at the Tour supporting Evans, that he'd reach form later in the season. It's still only March. Gilbert will be a monster from Flanders through LBL. Thor will peak at P-R, where a number of better racers (Cancellara, Boonen esp.) will leave him choking on bits of ground-up pave. Evans is working intelligently towards his only real goal. I don't see anything to be worried about.

 

[Panda Claws]

What. How can you tell, he didn't show ANYTHING one way or the other.

He didn't need too? The fact that he could ride at the front was enough. After all Jelle Vanendert did not show anything either, are you telling me that he will suck at the ardennes?

Anyway, GVA was working for Gilbert. That alone suggests that Phil was good.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Given how much we've mocked and derided the disappointing quality of GreenEdge's roster, they are at least punching above their weight.

If you swapped GreenEdge and BMC's seasons over, BMC might have had the kind of season that their squad would suggest.

 

[roundabout]

He didn't need too? The fact that he could ride at the front was enough. After all Jelle Vanendert did not show anything either, are you telling me that he will suck at the ardennes?

Anyway, GVA was working for Gilbert. That alone suggests that Phil was good.

Vanendert has an Andy Schleck like ability to find form out of nowhere so that's a bad example.

Gilbert being able to ride at the front when there was close to 100 people still there says nothing. Question is why was he very much in the second half of the group and lost position as the climb went on.

 

[Panda Claws]

Vanendert has an Andy Schleck like ability to find form out of nowhere so that's a bad example.

Gilbert being able to ride at the front when there was close to 100 people still there says nothing. Question is why was he very much in the second half of the group and lost position as the climb went on.

Gilbert looked good and Van Avermaet worked for him that should say enough. I agree that was weird but who knows what might have happened. If Gilbert and all these other guys keep saying there is no reason to wonder about Gilbert's form then for the time being I believe them.

 

[Lanark]

He didn't need too? The fact that he could ride at the front was enough. After all Jelle Vanendert did not show anything either, are you telling me that he will suck at the ardennes?

Anyway, GVA was working for Gilbert. That alone suggests that Phil was good.

Really, you're basing your hopes on Jelle Vanendert, a 27 year old guy who had one good spring in his live?

GVA working for Gilbert just shows Gilbert only rides for himself, and wants his team to ride just for him. That's always been his style, in good days and bad.

There are some short memories on this forum. Remember all the way back to last October and burnt out Gilbert was at Lombardia? He had a long season last year, starting with dominant early season form. It makes sense that this year, considering how hard he's going to have to work at the Tour supporting Evans, that he'd reach form later in the season. It's still only March. Gilbert will be a monster from Flanders through LBL. Thor will peak at P-R, where a number of better racers (Cancellara, Boonen esp.) will leave him choking on bits of ground-up pave. Evans is working intelligently towards his only real goal. I don't see anything to be worried about.

You are right about Gilbert's 2011 season being too long, he wasn't a 100% at the World Championship anymore, something he'll definitely wants to be this year in Valkenburg.

But to me at least it makes very little sense for him to sacrifice (a part of) his spring for the Tour. It's incredibly easy to combine a great shape in the spring with a great shape in the autumn, after all, Gilbert did it in 2009 and 2010. Combining the Tour with the World Championship and Lombardia is a lot trickier, especially because the Vuelta is extremely important to be great in those races, with a good spring campaign it becomes even harder. The spring and the autumn are by far the most potentially profitable seasons for Gilbert, in the Tour he could possibly win a stage or 2, not something that would seriously alter his palmares, and in the Olympics he won't be much more than one of the favorites on this parcours. Even a Gilbert at 90% would have had a great chance of winning Sanremo a couple of days ago.

El Pistoletje laughed at Valverde a couple of days ago because he (exaggeratedly) preferred winning Murcia to Sanremo. If Gilbert deliberately sacrificed his chances in Sanremo and Vlaanderen to be good at the Tour, that would be equally stupid.

There's still plenty of time for BMC to make up for their joke of a season start, but I highly doubt any of this was planned, especially in the case of Evans, who had by far the best season of his carreer last year, and had absolutly no reason to change his preperation this year.

 

[Panda Claws]

I still think Gilbert will be good at Flanders.

Anyway, we will know more after this friday (E3 Prijs)

 

[Froome19]

Really, you're basing your hopes on Jelle Vanendert, a 27 year old guy who had one good spring in his live?



But to me at least it makes very little sense for him to sacrifice (a part of) his spring for the Tour. It's incredibly easy to combine a great shape in the spring with a great shape in the autumn, after all, Gilbert did it in 2009 and 2010. Combining the Tour with the World Championship and Lombardia is a lot trickier, especially because the Vuelta is extremely important to be great in those races, with a good spring campaign it becomes even harder. The spring and the autumn are by far the most potentially profitable seasons for Gilbert, in the Tour he could possibly win a stage or 2, not something that would seriously alter his palmares, and in the Olympics he won't be much more than one of the favorites on this parcours. Even a Gilbert at 90% would have had a great chance of winning Sanremo a couple of days ago.

El Pistoletje laughed at Valverde a couple of days ago because he (exaggeratedly) preferred winning Murcia to Sanremo. If Gilbert deliberately sacrificed his chances in Sanremo and Vlaanderen to be good at the Tour, that would be equally stupid.

There's still plenty of time for BMC to make up for their joke of a season start, but I highly doubt any of this was planned, especially in the case of Evans, who had by far the best season of his carreer last year, and had absolutly no reason to change his preperation this year.

A) Rewatch the Ardennes last year, it is clear that Vanendert would have podiumed probably both AMG and FW if not for him working for Gilbert
B) Gilbert is not sacrificing his spring he may have been up there in MSR, we dont know? and anyway the chances are he wouldnt have won anyway and that is one race.
He will definitely be on at least 90% + for Flanders.
C) Considering what Evans showed on stage 4 he would have still come top 5 in TA if not for crash, him saying he is not very good is only compared to previous seasons, he is a bit behind but not drastically.

 

[Lanark]

A) Rewatch the Ardennes last year, it is clear that Vanendert would have podiumed probably both AMG and FW if not for him working for Gilbert

How is that related to the discussion?

B) Gilbert is not sacrificing his spring he may have been up there in MSR, we dont know? and anyway the chances are he wouldnt have won anyway and that is one race.
He will definitely be on at least 90% + for Flanders.

A Gilbert in good form would have had quite a good chance to win last saturday actually. Sure, we don't know that he wasn't good, but considering his lackluster results so far, it would require quite an unlikely turnaround to be great in Sanremo. I don't know where you base your Vlaanderen prediction on.

C) Considering what Evans showed on stage 4 he would have still come top 5 in TA if not for crash, him saying he is not very good is only compared to previous seasons, he is a bit behind but not drastically.

Maybe he could top-5, besides the point though, his poorer shape is not planned.

 

[Panda Claws]

How is that related to the discussion?A Gilbert in good form would have had quite a good chance to win last saturday actually. Sure, we don't know that he wasn't good, but considering his lackluster results so far, it would require quite an unlikely turnaround to be great in Sanremo. I don't know where you base your Vlaanderen prediction on.
Maybe he could top-5, besides the point though, his poorer shape is not planned.

If a Pozzato that didn't show anything either could finish 6th there then it is not unreasonable that Gilbert could have top 10'ed as well. If we keep following your 'considering the previous results' logic.

 

[Froome19]

How is that related to the discussion?.

Really, you're basing your hopes on Jelle Vanendert, a 27 year old guy who had one good spring in his live?
.

Wow you have a short memory

A Gilbert in good form would have had quite a good chance to win last saturday actually. Sure, we don't know that he wasn't good, but considering his lackluster results so far, it would require quite an unlikely turnaround to be great in Sanremo. I don't know where you base your Vlaanderen prediction on.
Maybe he could top-5, besides the point though, his poorer shape is not planned.

You cant just make suppositons about Gilbert's form in MSR it may have been good or not we'll never know. If you consider how he was looking in MSR itself and that he said he is good (even if you dont trust him it doesnt matter) and that i dont know what turnaround you are referring to as in TA he was ill, so he could have been much closer to his peak than you think.
Anyway it is all useless speculation.
Also Cadel's current form is not a bad thing and is not something that BMC will be worried about/ disappointed about.

 

[Froome19]

If a Pozzato that didn't show anything either could finish 6th there then it is not unreasonable that Gilbert could have top 10'ed as well. If we keep following your 'considering the previous results' logic.

Admittedly Pozzato is different as he had been injured so we never knew how close to his peak he was.
Though tbh Gilbert was also hampered by his tooth in TA but I dont think Lanark would admit that

 

[williamp78]

Random comment; if professional cyclists are drinking energy drinks and eating energy gels all day they must have horrible teeth!!

 

[theyoungest]

Also Cadel's current form is not a bad thing and is not something that BMC will be worried about/ disappointed about.

Evans usually has a high base level. This was the worst I've seen him in the early season. I don't know how that's not a bad thing.

 

[Froome19]

Evans usually has a high base level. This was the worst I've seen him in the early season. I don't know how that's not a bad thing.

How much did we you actually see of him?

 

[theyoungest]

How much did we you actually see of him?

Not much. Which is pretty unusual for Cadel. Even the TT was rather poor.

 

[Froome19]

Not much. Which is pretty unusual for Cadel. Even the TT was rather poor.

Yes but he had only 3 stages; stage 4 he came top 10 (around 7th) stage 5 he crashed and TT was poor for him but he was out of contention and possibly wasnt great due to illness/crash. So I think if he hadnt crashed on stage 5 he could have come top5 even and we wouldnt be saying this.
(think about it would have been worse than Hoogerland?)

 

[roundabout]

If a Pozzato that didn't show anything either could finish 6th there then it is not unreasonable that Gilbert could have top 10'ed as well. If we keep following your 'considering the previous results' logic.

That doesn't yet make him one of the favorites for a much harder race later on.

 

[theyoungest]

Yes but he had only 3 stages; stage 4 he came top 10 (around 7th) stage 5 he crashed and TT was poor for him but he was out of contention and possibly wasnt great due to illness/crash. So I think if he hadnt crashed on stage 5 he could have come top5 even and we wouldnt be saying this.
(think about it would have been worse than Hoogerland?)

Yes, I think it would have been worse than Hoogerland. On the long climbs an out of shape Evans is really not that great.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Random comment; if professional cyclists are drinking energy drinks and eating energy gels all day they must have horrible teeth!!

Emanuele Sella says hi.

 

[Eric8-A]

Thor also out of Catalunya because of illness.

 

[hfer07]

Thor also out of Catalunya because of illness.

Big Medical Concerns among team indeed

 

[Panda Claws]

That doesn't yet make him one of the favorites for a much harder race later on.

So you are saying that MSR has been one of the easiest races so far?

Otherwise all previous results by Boonen, Cancellara, etc... would not prove anything either. Least of all make someone a favorite for a much harder race later on.