Teams & Riders Chris Froome Discussion Thread.

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Have you considered becoming a Froome fan? What's the plan post-Contador? I feel like this would be a less stressful path.

Thanks for your concern but I am just fine

 

[sir fly]

Re: Re:

Have you considered becoming a Froome fan? What's the plan post-Contador? I feel like this would be a less stressful path.

Thanks for your concern but I am just fine

Sure you are.
You're dominating this thread!

 

[Valv.Piti]

I thought you had started the new approach of 'not focusing on the riders you don't like'-thing?

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Have you considered becoming a Froome fan? What's the plan post-Contador? I feel like this would be a less stressful path.

Thanks for your concern but I am just fine

Sure you are.
You're dominating this thread!

She's on the Aru bandwagon, so I guess she'll be fine. However, she may have deserved her own discussion thread on here, as she's discussed more than some riders lol

 

[dacooley]

Re: Re:

Contador crashed while struggling to keep up with Froome on one of the Alps descents at last year's Tour.

Froome's -assumed- weakness was based on the fact he looks unsteady even on a wide straight road and cause his whining about descents at the 2013 TDF was reminiscent of Candy Schleck "almost went over your head boohoo you should be more careful and you are not allowed to attack downhill and now I will complain about it in my book "

by and large that was more of wishful-thinking.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

I thought you had started the new approach of 'not focusing on the riders you don't like'-thing?

Indeed and it's working really well. I laugh and roll my eyes at the comments from Sky and their fans. But does that mean I can't visit this thread anymore and reply to Sky fanboys' posts in a semi-serious way? This forum is supposed to be fun and especially Sky are a great source of entertainment.

 

[dacooley]

throwing mud at sky riders appears to be quite a strange entertainment especially how fanatically you are keen to defend bertie sometimes,

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Sure you are.
You're dominating this thread!

She's on the Aru bandwagon, so I guess she'll be fine. However, she may have deserved her own discussion thread on here, as she's discussed more than some riders lol

That's cause many posters still haven't grasped the "post not poster" concept.

 

[Angliru]

Re: Re:

Never said he was, his bike handling leaves much to be desired as does his riding style, however it was just funny when lots presumed they knew it all about him. As JRanton said, the whole "mentally weak" comment was laughable.

You can't blame fans for clutching at straws and looking for weakness, almost every rider has a weakness but clearly not mythical Dawg.

Have you considered becoming a Froome fan? What's the plan post-Contador? I feel like this would be a less stressful path.

To use a basketball analogy, that would be like going from rooting for the LA Lakers to rooting for the Boston Celtics! (That would've been during the Magic Johnson and Larry Bird eras.)

 

[pablopaul]

Re: Re:

Have you considered becoming a Froome fan? What's the plan post-Contador? I feel like this would be a less stressful path.

To use a basketball analogy, that would be like going from rooting for the LA Lakers to rooting for the Boston Celtics! (That would've been during the Magic Johnson and Larry Bird eras.)

Well, that's me then, I root for both Alberto and Froome. See my "intro" post for details:

viewtopic.php?p=1868465#p1868465

It's feels good to get that into the forum proper.

 

[Taxus4a]

Re: Re:

Contador crashed while struggling to keep up with Froome on one of the Alps descents at last year's Tour.

Oh really, interesting. I could have sworn there was no footage or anything of the crash so I always assumed we did not know anything about it and it could have been a slip of the wheel on a dodgy corner. Could you show me where you found he was struggling to keep up with Froome?

i think quite fair to assume that nibali and froome forced bertie to do that mistake on the descent. i'd like to know what froome's hypothetical weakness on descents was based on, though.

I remember the stage quite well. Contador was hanging off the back of a descending group which included Froome, Nibali and Quintana. Possibly another rider or two in the group. Before he crashed, he appeared to be struggling to keep up with the group. Maybe he had a mechanical, but it didn't look like it. Certainly appeared that he was just struggling on the descent. By the way I am a Contador fan. But I try to be objective. I can acknowledge Contador has crashed 3 times on descents in his last 3 Tours. Yet Froome is the one who apparently is not a good descender.

I quite agree with your toughts, but in this case I think he wanst really struggling, he felt becouse he tried to drink at 70 Km/h.

But yes, Froome was a cyclist with a lot of things to learn, but right now he has learned a lot and has not weakness, except the normal weakness for phisiology, like the bad weather, some really mountain stages in a row, (becouse he is not a pure climber), and things like that. But in the first mountain stage, if the weather is hot, he has not rival today. The same in a long and hard ITT at the end of a GT.

Anyway this year with Contador focused in le Tour, with short mountain stage, a shor first week and two hilly and not long ITT, will be a hard rival, and the same Quintana for the mountains, and surely other riders, maybe Porte. But he is the clear favourite IMO.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Agreed Taxus, but I don't think he is the 'clear favourite'. Quintana and Contador definitely has something to say, I think they stand good chances on this course.

 

[Taxus4a]

Re:

Agreed Taxus, but I don't think he is the 'clear favourite'. Quintana and Contador definitely has something to say, I think they stand good chances on this course.

They have more than something to say, but I dont think all of them are the favourites at the same level, for me Froome is the main one, although Quintana was close to him, and better at the end in the mountains, the same than 2 years before.

 

[MatParker117]

Re:

Agreed Taxus, but I don't think he is the 'clear favourite'. Quintana and Contador definitely has something to say, I think they stand good chances on this course.

Quintana has at least a three minute handicap though with the TT.

 

[Ataraxus]

Re: Re:

Agreed Taxus, but I don't think he is the 'clear favourite'. Quintana and Contador definitely has something to say, I think they stand good chances on this course.

They have more than something to say, but I dont think all of them are the favourites at the same level, for me Froome is the main one, although Quintana was close to him, and better at the end in the mountains, the same than 2 years before.

This is a subtopic of discussion only Serious Sam and his mighty market can decide

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Agreed Taxus, but I don't think he is the 'clear favourite'. Quintana and Contador definitely has something to say, I think they stand good chances on this course.

They have more than something to say, but I dont think all of them are the favourites at the same level, for me Froome is the main one, although Quintana was close to him, and better at the end in the mountains, the same than 2 years before.

Nope, Im not disputing that, Froome IS the favourite, I just think Quintana and Contador are pretty close. Quintana should logically be a little better this year as well.

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

Agreed Taxus, but I don't think he is the 'clear favourite'. Quintana and Contador definitely has something to say, I think they stand good chances on this course.

They have more than something to say, but I dont think all of them are the favourites at the same level, for me Froome is the main one, although Quintana was close to him, and better at the end in the mountains, the same than 2 years before.

This is a subtopic of discussion only Serious Sam and his mighty market can decide

Ugh please don't invite that.

I don't care if Froome is the big fav. It'll just make AC's win sweeter.

 

[cantpedal]

Re: Re:

Agreed Taxus, but I don't think he is the 'clear favourite'. Quintana and Contador definitely has something to say, I think they stand good chances on this course.

They have more than something to say, but I dont think all of them are the favourites at the same level, for me Froome is the main one, although Quintana was close to him, and better at the end in the mountains, the same than 2 years before.

This is a subtopic of discussion only Serious Sam and his mighty market can decide

Ugh please don't invite that.

I don't care if Froome is the big fav. It'll just make AC's win sweeter.

Or the loss easier to stomach / explain

 

[HelloDolly]

I used to think Contador was the strongest mentally but I am now convinced that Froome is the strongest mentally

and being the strongest mentally is the most important thing as I think they and Quintana are very close physically

Froome's resolve is mighty while Quintana has at times lacked a killer blow while Contador in the last few years has demonstrated moments of desperation.

In cycling the one who is mentally strongest is the hardest to beat

(FYI Froomes weakness besides ability to get sick if a long time at low weight, is I think his need to be liked/popular.He is intelligent enough to know he is not universally liked in comparison to other champions liked Wiggins, Evans and Contador)

 

[Angliru]

Re:

I used to think Contador was the strongest mentally but I am now convinced that Froome is the strongest mentally

and being the strongest mentally is the most important thing as I think they and Quintana are very close physically

Froome's resolve is mighty while Quintana has at times lacked a killer blow while Contador in the last few years has demonstrated moments of desperation.

In cycling the one who is mentally strongest is the hardest to beat

(FYI Froomes weakness besides ability to get sick if a long time at low weight, is I think his need to be liked/popular.He is intelligent enough to know he is not universally liked in comparison to other champions liked Wiggins, Evans and Contador)

None of the three you mentioned are universally liked and you should know that from your time spent in this forum which is virtually universally represented.

Froome's advantages are the fact that he is the strongest in the mountains and against the clock compared to his rivals and that he has the strongest and deepest team. At this point in his career he knows this and it is evidenced by the ridiculous margins he sometimes gaps his rivals by in the mountains when winning summit finishes. Roche is quoted as saying that Froome knows he's stronger than his rivals and with that belief and confidence mental fortitude rarely comes into play. What is there to fear when you believe that your rivals only chance of victory is the slim chance of injury or an act of nature?

Only Contador, in 2014, has displayed the ability to successfully respond to Froome's attacks and if he can equal that same form he still has to deal with Froome's gap in the itt. It will take some of tactical blunder by Froome for him to be defeated, or a Contador that has sacrificed all to regain that form that made him the force of nature that made his rivals dread the moments when he launched his earth melting attacks. I'm dreaming that he will make things interesting in July and make Froome and Sky uncomfortable.

 

[HelloDolly]

None of the three you mentioned are universally liked and you should know that from your time spent in this forum which is virtually universally represented.

Here is some news for you ...This forum is not a representation of the real world ...it isn't even close
Its just the same few people rolling out their dogma over and over again

Wiggins is so popular in UK, Evans is like a saint in Australia and well Contador is liked by cycling fans especially in Spain

 

[LaFlorecita]

If Wiggins is liked in the UK, Evans in Oz and Contador in Spain then none of them is universally liked.

Also, I have to agree with Angliru, this forum is a good indicator of riders' "universal" popularity as there is a wide variety of nationalities on here.

 

[Angliru]

Re:

None of the three you mentioned are universally liked and you should know that from your time spent in this forum which is virtually universally represented.

Here is some news for you ...This forum is not a representation of the real world ...it isn't even close
Its just the same few people rolling out their dogma over and over again

Wiggins is so popular in UK, Evans is like a saint in Australia and well Contador is liked by cycling fans especially in Spain

...and these are your examples of "universally liked"? I'm curious to hear your definition of this term because mine seems to differ greatly from what I'm reading yours might be based on your posts.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Froome is certainly nowhere near as popular as Wiggins was in the UK. That said, he's still more popular than guys like G and stannard, mostly because not many people have heard of them (although Thomas is somewhat famous cos of his olympic golds)

Needless to say he's not all that popular outside the UK either, and nowhere near Contador or Evans' levels of popularity

 

[dacooley]

froome is an extremely popular cyclist on par with bertie, probably even the most popular on here. a different matter is that his popularity has a negative tone.