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Can Fabo do it?

Page 4 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Mar 30, 2009
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mr. tibbs said:
If Cancellara can't beat Contador in a third week TT, he can't win the Tour. I think that settles it pretty well. If he loses time in the mountains (which, how could he not, vs Contador & Schleck?) and he loses time in the TTs, then how does he win?

I almost started a joke thread asking about Cancellara winning the Tour after his Roubaix win b/c I knew that would be the next line of wild speculation in the media, but come on. This is on par with the "Boonen for the Tour" craze of 2005 or Hincapie as one of the favorites for 2006.

At least, that's how it seems to me.

+1 I love Canc and will cheer him on just about every time. But a GT guy?
Unless the GTs go back to making it possible for a TTer who can climb to win, maybe he could podium. But the GTs are going for courses that favor climbers. Somehow those climbers (Schlecks excluded) are becoming amazing TTers. ;-)
 
Bag_O_Wallet said:
Director Sportif Bag_O_Wallet says: Sorry Sparty, keep winning monuments, world championships, grand tour stages, and yellow jersies in the opening week of the Tour. The sponsors eat that stuff up. Grand tour experiments? Not so much.

Tell you what, Sparty, we might have an opportunity for you to show your stuff at Liege. Rest up.

This.

Cancellara is the king of one day races, TTs, random stage wins, and can even win short lil' stage races. Throw in several sets of rainbow bands on his skinsuits and an ambulance-themed jersey, and you have to wonder: Why would he dabble in a "grand tour experiment"? (Which, btw, is a great description of it.)

It's good to have a voice of reason in the team car.

My fingers are crossed for the Ardennes, but somehow I don't think it will go as well for him.
 
Aug 19, 2009
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mr. tibbs said:
This.

Cancellara is the king of one day races, TTs, random stage wins, and can even win short lil' stage races. Throw in several sets of rainbow bands on his skinsuits and an ambulance-themed jersey, and you have to wonder: Why would he dabble in a "grand tour experiment"? (Which, btw, is a great description of it.)

It's good to have a voice of reason in the team car.

My fingers are crossed for the Ardennes, but somehow I don't think it will go as well for him.

Yeah, I'd love to see him have a go at them... but I think those races are fall outside his particular realm of genius.
 
I personally dont think Cancellara would ever climb with the likes of Contador, Schlek, or even Evans over a three week tour, regardless of how much he weighs. It's one thing to power up a climb in a one day race, its another to back up day after day & climb 3-4 big mountains in consecutive stages.
 
Cancellera wins all over the place and looks like a stud everywhere else, where as Wiggins never shows anything, and often looks weak. If Wiggins is the benchmark, then why not Fabian?

As far as the weight stuff, Cancellara already looks like he's lost 10-15 kilos in the last two years, going further will be muscle and at that point, he's got to watch his health - lots of guys get anemia and Epstein-Barr trying to go super low. You can't train 6 hrs a day on 1500 calories without feeling like a piece of excrement.
 
Nov 17, 2009
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Von Mises said:
3) Indurain trained and was coached from the beginning as (future) GC rider, as replacement of Delgado. The whole team was build around him. Cancellara is 29, why should anyone invest heavily to build a team around his Tour attempt?

....
Didn't one team do this to a classics rider and they went on to win 7 consecutive Tours..
 
Aug 29, 2009
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wattage said:
Didn't one team do this to a classics rider and they went on to win 7 consecutive Tours..

To be fair, he had won a Fleche Wallone and was second at LBL, which are the sort of classics GT contenders like Andy Schleck or Cadel Evans are also good at.
 
Aug 6, 2009
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hulkgogan said:
Cancellera wins all over the place and looks like a stud everywhere else, where as Wiggins never shows anything, and often looks weak. If Wiggins is the benchmark, then why not Fabian?

As far as the weight stuff, Cancellara already looks like he's lost 10-15 kilos in the last two years, going further will be muscle and at that point,
I don't think he has lost anywhere near that much. Anyway any weight he has dropped was already mainly muscle, no pro cycling has any significant amount of pure fat. Certainly not a top level one like Cancellara.
 
Mar 11, 2009
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Ferdinand Artichoke said:
He'll be second step on the podium in Paris...Contador 3rd

Lars Boom will shock everyone and take it

Wrong, sorry. Podium will be:

1. Peter Sagan
2. EBH
3. Tiago Machado

Boom is OLD NEWS.
 
JPM London said:
Any specific reason?

See Wallet's response.

And also, I can't see him hold off the top Ardennes favorites for 50km. I think if he tried to make a move against those guys, on those routes, with no pave, they'd definitely queue up and bring him back.

In the cobbled classics, the passivity of the other riders made it clear that he only had to worry about beating Boonen. But in the Ardennes, there are way too many guys who could--and, more importantly, will actually try to--win the race. If he goes off the front, there will be a very well organized chase. I think.
 
Feb 14, 2010
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I guess his vacation is on hold. He's set to race at Amstel Gold and Liege Bastogne Liege as well.

Amstel Gold Race (18 abril): Fabian Cancellara, Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck, Laurent Didier, Jakob Fuglsang, Nicki Sorensen, Jens Voigt, Jonan Aen Jorgensen.

Flecha Valona (21 abril): Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck, Laurent Didier, Jakob Fuglsang, André Steensen, Nicki Sorensen, Jens Voigt, Jonan Aen Jorgensen

Lieja-Bastoña-Lieja (25 abril): Fabian Cancellara, Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck, Laurent Didier, Jakob Fuglsang, Nicki Sorensen, Jens Voigt, Jonan Aen Jorgensen.

http://www.biciciclismo.com/cas/site/noticias-ficha.asp?id=25205

Edit: The same website now has Cancellara repeating that he's too tired for the other classics, because he gave a hundred percent.

And, from the same website as a while ago, Cancellara is out of the Ardennes classics, saying he's given a hundred percent and he's tired. I don't know where Google got "Federer".

Cancellara waiver of the Ardennes Classics: 'I'm tired'
Fabian Cancellara (Team Saxo Bank) has decided to take a break after his spectacular victories in the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen-Harelbeke, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix and the Amstel Gold Race run or Liège as planned. Federer returns to racing in the Tour of California (16-23 May).
http://www.biciciclismo.com/cas/site/noticias-ficha.asp?id=25219
 
Cerberus said:
I don't think he has lost anywhere near that much. Anyway any weight he has dropped was already mainly muscle, no pro cycling has any significant amount of pure fat. Certainly not a top level one like Cancellara.

Well, obviously I haven't weighed him but he used to have huge shoulders, back and rear. That's all gone now. It's funny how hard it is to get official height and weight for riders (kinda like their wattage), I've seen anywhere from 186 to 193cm and 80-90kg for him. Personally I think he's less than that but that's more from personal experience as I'm 193cm and was able to go from 83 to 72 kg. To get lower than that for a big guy is unknown territory. Remember Olano? Killed his career trying to be a skinny Tour guy.

As far as the fat stuff you would think so, but that 3% stuff is overstated, most guys are over 8% so there is still some room to go down there but again 3% is crazy land.
 
Sep 18, 2009
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I read that Indurain was 187/188cm and weight at TDF's end was 71-2kg

almost hard to believe...I'm a sorta scrawny fella (solid legs but) 186cm and 78kg
thats why I remembered it at the time- he was taller and lighter than me.


of course wikipedia says he was 80kg

so perhaps Fab could/can
 
Jun 19, 2009
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Recent interview in CycleSport America (probably also in the regular CycleSport with the funny $-signs in the ads) has Cancellara set on trying for the hour record. Didn't say when, though.
 
Jun 19, 2009
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Ferdinand Artichoke said:
I read that Indurain was 187/188cm and weight at TDF's end was 71-2kg

Indurain has lungs the size of weather balloons. He's not really a good benchmark for anything.
 
Jun 19, 2009
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"I'd prefer to win Lombardy and Liège than Flanders three times." - F. Cancellara, in CycleSport, August, 2010

Has he made any more predictions for 2011?

Again I hope he tries for the hour record. He certainly had the form for it this year, but I haven't seen him talk about it since last year.
 
Oct 26, 2010
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WHR and Chrono des nations...
I time triallist as FC should try the WHR and win de Chrono at least ones!
 
Matthijs said:
WHR and Chrono des nations...
I time triallist as FC should try the WHR and win de Chrono at least ones!

Chrono de Nations is not the old GP de Nations, GP de Nations was the unofficial world championship but Chrono de Nations is just a regular competition that until 2006 was called Chrono de Herbiers and that in recent years have started specifically inviting national chamipions. There is no special prestige in winning Chrono de Nations.