Teams & Riders Chris Froome Discussion Thread.

[Ryo Hazuki]

Yea because women aren't allowed to speak their mind right?

my god, do you even read what I said?

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Is it the same the other way around?

yes of course

 

[Netserk]

yes of course

Cool then.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Hmmm... where to start...

Well, yes it is me.

About the photo:
Yes, the photo was enhanced, not by much though, so I still wouldn't call it "photoshopped" - to me that implies some sort of editing has been done to the actual image, but I guess that's a matter of opinion.
We went up Ventoux twice, the first time Chris rode with Sean Kelly & the Eurosport crew, the second time he went alone. The weather was quite strange going up the second time, it was raining at one point then as we went higher the sun came out. Nicolas Portal was driving and noticed the weird cloud in the rear view mirror, so he sped past Chris & I got the shot.
Whether you like the photo or not doesn't really bother me, my photography was always a hobby, my actual profession is/was systems analysis & development for banks & insurance companies. My photography probably is a little too overcooked for most... I am privileged to get opportunities that most photographers could only dream of though, so I will always take photos regardless. Here's a sample of some of my stuff over the last couple of years http://michellecound.tumblr.com/

Re the tweet about Brad/Chris:
I guess we shall all see come July. Obviously the two aren't seeing eye-to-eye at the moment, you don't have to know everything that's going on in the background to figure that out.

Re my tweets in general:
I have always spoken my mind, and I will continue to speak my mind. I'm passionate about the sport, & even more so about Chris, so obviously I will defend him, and fact is, this is not about one person. I sacrificed my own career & life to support Chris & his dreams. Managing Chris' life is a proper full time job & far tougher with far longer hours than any company I've ever worked at. I'm certainly not complaining though, there's that quote "find a job that you love & you'll never work a day in your life"... it's true, most days For the people that know me, & understand my involvement, they "get" the tweets. For the people that don't, and judge me based purely on what they see, so be it... I'm not going to lose sleep over that.

I thought you were a model.

 

[del1962]

I thought you were a model.

Are you getting confused with Cav's gf

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

I think it's cute when a woman vigorously defends her man; or the other way round too, but that's less common.

Far less common, I'd say. It's very unusual, actually.

I wonder why.

Yea because women aren't allowed to speak their mind right?

Ryo's opinion on this is actually much more in tune with feminism than yours and thirteen's, Cound's.

Equating passionately defending your man like a fan girl with "speaking your mind." Tammy Wynette would be proud.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Far less common, I'd say. It's very unusual, actually.

I wonder why.



Ryo's opinion on this is actually much more in tune with feminism than yours and thirteen's, Cound's.

Equating passionately defending your man like a fan girl with "speaking your mind." Tammy Wynette would be proud.

good!


........

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Are you getting confused with Cav's gf

Yeah,i suppose i am.

 

[gooner]

If I was in this position, I wouldn't want my girlfriend/wife getting involved in any of this and I would stick up for myself if needs be. We get plenty of sports where sportsmen don't see eye to eye and we see none of this play out in the public like it has been. To tell you the truth, the stuff with the WAGs is just a sideshow and matters not one bit with the action on the road.

That being said, I didn't agree with her outbursts in the Tour last year where she had her nose up when Chris wasn't allowed to attack on La Toussuire. What else did she expect in that Tour when the guy in yellow was a P-N, Romandie, and Dauphine winner and didn't put a foot wrong in the previous 6 months of the season. Yet Michelle and Chris who now want the full support of Sky, were up in arms in July last year as Chris wasn't allowed off the shackles to express himself and take issue with Wiggins having his own ambitions now. There is hypocrisy on both sides of the argument where they come across as bad as each other and I think now its best to play this out on the road and see who comes out on top. Brailsford might say Froome is now the leader but he's still keeping his options open and the statement from DB was just to keep Froome on side for the immediate future. He knows with the two top names in the sport currently it would be irresponsible to play one in a total support role and not have adequate insurance in case of one failing to perform. He's no fool.

 

[Ruby United]

Re the tweet about Brad/Chris:
I guess we shall all see come July. Obviously the two aren't seeing eye-to-eye at the moment, you don't have to know everything that's going on in the background to figure that out.

Re my tweets in general:
I have always spoken my mind, and I will continue to speak my mind. I'm passionate about the sport, & even more so about Chris, so obviously I will defend him, and fact is, this is not about one person. I sacrificed my own career & life to support Chris & his dreams. Managing Chris' life is a proper full time job & far tougher with far longer hours than any company I've ever worked at. I'm certainly not complaining though, there's that quote "find a job that you love & you'll never work a day in your life"... it's true, most days For the people that know me, & understand my involvement, they "get" the tweets. For the people that don't, and judge me based purely on what they see, so be it... I'm not going to lose sleep over that.

Thanks for that, very interesting.

But out of interest have Sky or DB ever contacted you about your tweets?
They spend a lot of time working on their image (though you wouldn't know it reading this forum) and it can easily be dismantled by a loose cannon. No offense, but that is surely how they must perceive you.

 

[RownhamHill]

That being said, I didn't agree with her outbursts in the Tour last year where she had her nose up when Chris wasn't allowed to attack on La Toussuire. What else did she expect in that Tour when the guy in yellow was a P-N, Romandie, and Dauphine winner and didn't put a foot wrong in the previous 6 months of the season. Yet Michelle and Chris who now want the full support of Sky, were up in arms in July last year as Chris wasn't allowed off the shackles to express himself and take issue with Wiggins having his own ambitions now. There is hypocrisy on both sides of the argument where they come across as bad as each other and I think now its best to play this out on the road and see who comes out on top. Brailsford might say Froome is now the leader but he's still keeping his options open and the statement from DB was just to keep Froome on side for the immediate future. He knows with the two top names in the sport currently it would be irresponsible to play one in a total support role and not have adequate insurance in case of one failing to perform. He's no fool.

This to the bolded bit.

I've got nothing but admiration and sympathy for what Chris Froome did in the 2011 Vuelta, where Sky straight up shafted him out of a GT win. (No debate, his team made a bad call for the wrong reasons and it cost him.)

I've got a little bit of admiration for what Chris Froome did in the 2012 Tour, where Sky team orders might have meant he could have won one or two more tour stages. (Disappointing for him personally, though, to be fair, I think his team made a good call for the right reasons, and he wasn't exactly gracious about it, on the road at least.)

I've got absolutely no admiration or sympathy for how Chris Froome is positioning himself right now. He's the designated tour leader, he's in great form, he's totally in the box seat on his team (despite being team-mates with the defending champion). Time to smile sweetly, STFU and do your talking on the road, rather than whining around how you want promises/reassurances/guarantees about leadership.

Froome either turns up in Corsica with the legs to end any debate, and its Wiggins who needs to buckle down and work for him (or make himself look an even bigger **** by trying to stab Froome in the back on the road), or he doesn't. And if he doesn't then he shouldn't have an expectation of being the leader anyway.

Sky is after all a professional sports team, not a kindly parent trying to make sure the sweeties are doled out fairly between rival siblings.

 

[wwabbit]

Time to smile sweetly, STFU and do your talking on the road, rather than whining around how you want promises/reassurances/guarantees about leadership.

Hmm... would 3 stage race wins and 1 second place count as talking on the road?
Do you have any source for Froome whining about promises/reassurances/guarantees about leadership?

 

[Sophistic82]

you dont critisise your or your husbands employer on twitter, for me thats enough reason to fire someone.
got a problem - talk to your boss, everything else is simply classless and has nothing to do with passion. why the hell did froome resign with sky after the vuelta 11???

 

[RownhamHill]

Hmm... would 3 stage race wins and 1 second place count as talking on the road?
Do you have any source for Froome whining about promises/reassurances/guarantees about leadership?

Do I have a source of Froome whining? Ermmm. What about his fiancee taking to twitter last Monday, saying she just hopes Sky sorts this out?

What about his fiancee putting out a press statement on his behalf the same day, claiming leadership, and implicitly questioning whether Wiggins should even start for not being a team player?

What about a 'source close to Froome' (ie either Chris himself, or Michelle) explaining to the national press he'd phoned Sky more than once to seek clarification of his leadership position?

Try this popular blog site for some more context

Not convinced? What about Chris Froome's fiancee, stating in this very thread, less than 24 hours ago:

Re the tweet about Brad/Chris:
I guess we shall all see come July. Obviously the two aren't seeing eye-to-eye at the moment, you don't have to know everything that's going on in the background to figure that out.

Is that really your definition of smiling sweetly and STFU? Fair enough you may think he's entitled to say what he wants, you might even be right, but surely you don't really need a source for Froome acting like a bit of a primadonna over the last two weeks?

 

[wwabbit]

Strange, you wrote so much yet provided no source for Froome "whining".
Obviously you have nothing to contribute here. Welcome to my ignore list. Have a nice day.

 

[Afrank]

Do I have a source of Froome whining? Ermmm. What about his fiancee taking to twitter last Monday, saying she just hopes Sky sorts this out?

What about his fiancee putting out a press statement on his behalf the same day, claiming leadership, and implicitly questioning whether Wiggins should even start for not being a team player?

What about a 'source close to Froome' (ie either Chris himself, or Michelle) explaining to the national press he'd phoned Sky more than once to seek clarification of his leadership position?

Try this popular blog site for some more context

Not convinced? What about Chris Froome's fiancee, stating in this very thread, less than 24 hours ago:



Is that really your definition of smiling sweetly and STFU? Fair enough you may think he's entitled to say what he wants, you might even be right, but surely you don't really need a source for Froome acting like a bit of a primadonna over the last two weeks?

your right, because as we all know whenever someones girlfriends expresses their own personal opinion about something it obviously means it's the same exact thing they believe and want to say. Sorry but the only one directly involved in the Wiggins-Froome leadership debate that has been doing any whining is Wiggins. Besides, after what Froome has had to deal with, he would deserve the right to do some whining (and yet, he has chosen not to).

Also, since when is a tweet a "press statement."

 

[Franklin]

your right, because as we all know whenever someones girlfriends expresses their own personal opinion about something it obviously means it's the same exact thing they believe and want to say. Sorry but the only one directly involved in the Wiggins-Froome leadership debate that has been doing any whining is Wiggins. Besides, after what Froome has had to deal with, he would deserve the right to do some whining (and yet, he has chosen not to).

Also, since when is a tweet a "press statement."

In all fairness this is not so clean cut.

His GF, the one who probably knows him better than you and me, says they are having a spat. Without anything else to go on I'd say his GF is the best mirror of his feelings on this.

Then the whining, well, his GF has been off and on about Froome didn't get his fair due. Now that's not Froome whining, but it's as close a proxy as you can get. Froome never asked her to stop or said that was his lovely, but overprotective GF.

Now was this complaining of his GF fair?

If we look at last year, not really. Froome knew he would be domestic for Wiggins and got his Leadership in the Vuelta. If they are mad he wasn't allowed to chase Valverde, I play the smallest violin. He was the domestic and his leader won the TdF, mission accomplished. If he wanted personal glory he shouldn't have chosen to ride for Sky in 2012.

But in 2013? Yeah, Wiggo is way out of line and the complaints of his GF are rather close to the mark.

So yes, in 2012 his GF was whining, but in 2013 she has a rather good case

 

[gooner]

your right, because as we all know whenever someones girlfriends expresses their own personal opinion about something it obviously means it's the same exact thing they believe and want to say. Sorry but the only one directly involved in the Wiggins-Froome leadership debate that has been doing any whining is Wiggins. Besides, after what Froome has had to deal with, he would deserve the right to do some whining (and yet, he has chosen not to).

Also, since when is a tweet a "press statement."

Agree about Chris in the Vuelta but not in the Tour last year. Wiggins deserved full support based on the previous 6 months racing and it's obvious Michelle is tweeting all this with Chris's blessing. She immediately had a problem at La Toussuire but she's not living in the real world if she expected them to leave Chris up the road with Nibali in pursuit and isolate Wiggins in the process. Remember Froome lost a load of time due to a crash earlier in the race and finished behind Wiggins in the TT. No way should Froome have got a free card in that situation.

Now Wiggins has put himself in this corner now and has only himself to blame for it when he said last year his main focus was on the Giro and that Froome could win the Tour one day with this year's course possibly suiting him more. Wiggins now wants to race in his own right but recently said to Walsh in The Sunday Times that he never forgot what Froome done in the Pyrennes last year. There is a clear inconsistency in his argument here as the very problem he had with Froome back then, he himself wants to do now in July.

There is a hypocrisy also with Froome's argument in that he wants full backing but yet Michelle and Chris wanted more of a free role last year at the expense of full support for Wiggins. I'd leave them race full on and see after AX 3 Domaines and the first TT what position both are in. Wiggins could easily be in yellow then and I think it would be hard for him to still be a supporting role then. If Michelle and Chris are so confident of his chances let it play it out until then.

Take the statement also where Michelle played a part in releasing for Chris where it said you need total support in achieving Tour victory. Also Michelle's tweet about Chris not being on the same team as Wiggins was a straight forward tactic to back Brailsford and Sky into a corner and to come out and back Froome publicly. Chris was involved in all this as much as her. Many newspapers carried these tweets in their columns on all this and she done this with that purpose in mind. I don't see why she should be getting involved in it. This is Chris's own sporting problem and he shouldn't have his missus doing his dirty work on twitter to try and garner support in the public's eyes.

 

[BYOP88]

you dont critisise your or your husbands employer on twitter, for me thats enough reason to fire someone.
got a problem - talk to your boss, everything else is simply classless and has nothing to do with passion. why the hell did froome resign with sky after the vuelta 11???

Sky offered the most $$$$$. Before the Vuelta I think Lampre and Garmin were interested in signing him but as his agent said the offers were for about 100k(not sure what Froome thread it's posted in, but someone did post a link containing that information) and Froome's agent said they were going to wait until after the Vuelta incase any 'improved' offers arrived. Then before you know it Froome is clear of *illness* and able to ride at a whole new level = $$$$$$$$$$$$.

*Just incase he was ill as noone seems to know the exact date that he was ill, I've seen several dates given but none are the same.

 

[burning]

Yea because women aren't allowed to speak their mind right?

Holy hell, Fleur indirectly defending Michelle

Now I've seen everything

 

[Climeon]

@Michelle
Could you possibly tell me how much of Froome's tactics in a race are determined by his DS and how much of his tactics are determined by himself

 

[Afrank]

In all fairness this is not so clean cut.

His GF, the one who probably knows him better than you and me, says they are having a spat. Without anything else to go on I'd say his GF is the best mirror of his feelings on this.

Then the whining, well, his GF has been off and on about Froome didn't get his fair due. Now that's not Froome whining, but it's as close a proxy as you can get. Froome never asked her to stop or said that was his lovely, but overprotective GF.

Now was this complaining of his GF fair?

If we look at last year, not really. Froome knew he would be domestic for Wiggins and got his Leadership in the Vuelta. If they are mad he wasn't allowed to chase Valverde, I play the smallest violin. He was the domestic and his leader won the TdF, mission accomplished. If he wanted personal glory he shouldn't have chosen to ride for Sky in 2012.

But in 2013? Yeah, Wiggo is way out of line and the complaints of his GF are rather close to the mark.

So yes, in 2012 his GF was whining, but in 2013 she has a rather good case

She's has definitely been complaining, but I don't consider her complaining about something the same as him complaining about it. While they probably do share the same opinion on the Froome-Wiggins grudge, they are not the same person. Just because she is very vocal and keeps talking about it doesn't equate to him continuously whining about it RownhamHill claimed.

 

[Afrank]

Agree about Chris in the Vuelta but not in the Tour last year. Wiggins deserved full support based on the previous 6 months racing and it's obvious Michelle is tweeting all this with Chris's blessing. She immediately had a problem at La Toussuire but she's not living in the real world if she expected them to leave Chris up the road with Nibali in pursuit and isolate Wiggins in the process. Remember Froome lost a load of time due to a crash earlier in the race and finished behind Wiggins in the TT. No way should Froome have got a free card in that situation.

Agree on the Tour, no reason to complain about Froome's role there. But there is definitely reason to complain about Vuelta 2011 and about how Wiggins keep going back an forth on the Tour this year.

There is a hypocrisy also with Froome's argument in that he wants full backing but yet Michelle and Chris wanted more of a free role last year at the expense of full support for Wiggins. I'd leave them race full on and see after AX 3 Domaines and the first TT what position both are in. Wiggins could easily be in yellow then and I think it would be hard for him to still be a supporting role then. If Michelle and Chris are so confident of his chances let it play it out until then.

I think the Wiggins-Froome duel will ultimately be decided on the road, but if Wiggins is going to keep making comments like his most recent ones I think it's only fair that Froome should stand up for himself and assert his leadership for the Tour that was already promised to him.

Take the statement also where Michelle played a part in releasing for Chris where it said you need total support in achieving Tour victory. Also Michelle's tweet about Chris not being on the same team as Wiggins was a straight forward tactic to back Brailsford and Sky into a corner and to come out and back Froome publicly. Chris was involved in all this as much as her. Many newspapers carried these tweets in their columns on all this and she done this with that purpose in mind. I don't see why she should be getting involved in it. This is Chris's own sporting problem and he shouldn't have his missus doing his dirty work on twitter to try and garner support in the public's eyes.

I agree, it hasn't been the wisest decision for her to get herself involved to the point she has. That's what twitter does, gives anyone a way to say whatever they want. I think her actions are for the most part her own though, and should not be considered representations of Froomes own actions.

 

[The Hitch]

Do I have a source of Froome whining?

You quite clearly do not since all your sources are actually his gf.

 

[The Hitch]

There is a hypocrisy also with Froome's argument in that he wants full backing but yet Michelle and Chris wanted more of a free role last year at the expense of full support for Wiggins.

Thats not hypocricy in the slightest.

What they wanted is irrelevant, its what they got that mattered.

Yeah they wanted a bigger role for Froome but they didnt get it. Since in the real world froome spent the entire race, when wiggins was leader, working for Wiggins then the fair outcome this year is that froome is the leader, wiggins works for him.

the only hypocrite is wiggins who last year said that a team can only have 1 leader (because he knew he was the leader), but now, funnily enough, has changed his opinion, and actually 2 leaders is perfectly fine.

Its almost exactly like Napoleon in Animal Farm, who's overall character really isnt all that different from wiggins.

1 leader good 2 leaders bad. 1 leader good 2 leaders bad. oink oink.

But then, when it suits him, 1 leader good, 2 leaders better. 1 leader good, 2 leaders better.

And like in the book, the sheep follow along blindly.