Teams & Riders Chris Froome Discussion Thread.

[spalco]

Re: Re:

It's not a race accident either. It should be fined in some way If Aru crashes we've a whole other discussion. I might be a bit over emotional calling out for a disqualification. Okay, true. But it's definitely not nothing!

And I've seen soccer players suggesting they actually hit the ball multiple times after a tackle against their opponent.

Well, I agree it was stupid. If he actually didn't mean to do this, it was very unfortunate...

 

[DanielSong39]

I'm glad that Fabio Aru didn't dive; now that would have been a disgrace.

In any case Froome will go unpunished and will go on to win the Tour de France.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re:

Froome was the strongest today..
Definitely dropped both Bardet and Aru today...
Had it been an uphill finish, it would've been between Porte and Froome..

He never dropped Uran though.

 

[Matteo.]

In my opinion, today we have seen that froome is not that of the '2013 or 2015'. Overall he remains the strongest but can not get people out the wheels as he did. Today he has repeatedly repeated but without success. Maybe they are possibilities for aru and bardet to try something, though with that sky it is very difficult

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

In my opinion, today we have seen that froome is not that of the '2013 or 2015'. Overall he remains the strongest but can not get people out the wheels as he did. Today he has repeatedly repeated but without success. Maybe they are possibilities for aru and bardet to try something, though with that sky it is very difficult

Yes, he couldn't drop Uran and loosing Thomas is a big deal, even for a strong Sky team.
AG2R have the team to challenge Sky and Astana can have Fuglsang and Aru trade attacks, Froome's the clear favourite, but it's not that easy.

 

[hrotha]

Apparently Aru accepted Froome's apologies and said nothing happened. But Aru's a proven liar.

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

Apparently Aru accepted Froome's apologies and said nothing happened. But Aru's a proven liar.

Yeah, Aru is always sugarcoating things, a bit like a politician.
He said that a fan made Froome change his line and that Froome apologized right after it, both of them talk like it wasn't a big deal.

 

[silvergrenade]

Hahahahahaa..
Lance amazed at Froome using a 32-38 gearing today...

 

[Poursuivant]

Froome is the strongest but not by much, I don't see him doing an AX3, or a PSM, he doesn't seem as strong as those years uphill but he is still strong enough. However, this is far from won, Aru, Bardet and even Martin are all within range, and Fuglsang could be a player for Aru. There are still a couple of stages that Sky could get ambushed on, his lead is really, really small. Losing Thomas is a big blow, but he still does have the strongest team in the race, and Kwiatkowski is in supreme form.

 

[Walkman]

Re:

That doesn't mean his apologies were sincere. I think Aru claimed he didn't see Froome when he attacked and we all know that's BS.

So because Aru lied, Froome lied too?
Doesn't look good though IMHO. How often do you see things like this? Not that often. On the other hand, he apologizes directly afterwards, twice. Not sure what to think.

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

Things went well for him today, but clearly, his powers are not like previous years, otherwise he would have dropped everyone on Chat.

With Porte gone and Martin losing a bunch of time things look pretty damn good from where he is sitting.

 

[DanielSong39]

Both Aru and Froome lied; what happened was a racing incident and they said what was politically correct in their interviews. Nothing to see here.

The race is all but over so no reason for Froome to get upset.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Both Aru and Froome lied; what happened was a racing incident and they said what was politically correct in their interviews. Nothing to see here.

The race is all but over so no reason for Froome to get upset.

With this time gap the race is far from over. There is no buffer there for any bad luck that others have had so far. But if it stays this way going into the final TT he will be the hot favourite. He certainly climbed no better than Porte and a few others yesterday. Uran has been the surprise for me. Martin not so much after what he did last year, he has improved his GT riding. It seems the full on mountain attacks of 2015 and before by Froome are pretty rare now. Whether that is a conscious decision by Froome to save something for the third week or whether he is still capable of doing it is hard to say. Maybe it's a tactical change at conserving his efforts. He never seems too concerned about holding a small lead and has the confidence that he will produce in the TT. Looking at who will and won't be riding the Vuelta, I think he has a very good chance of doing the double this year.

 

[Mozart92]

I'm impressed with Froome today, the lion is getting older but wiser

Saving crashes I say he has it, the only tangible threat being Aru and his poor TT skills.

 

[damian13ster]

Froome doesn't look dominant for a while in the mountains now. Despite that though, he is a champion and a much better all-round rider than Aru. If its true that he delays his peak due to Vuelta he should still win.
It is however possible that Aru will be simply stronger in the mountains and with GT now gone, Henao and Landa not in a very good shape, Sky doesn't look that formidable anymore

 

[Pricey_sky]

Froome doesn't look dominant for a while in the mountains now. Despite that though, he is a champion and a much better all-round rider than Aru. If its true that he delays his peak due to Vuelta he should still win.
It is however possible that Aru will be simply stronger in the mountains and with GT now gone, Henao and Landa not in a very good shape, Sky doesn't look that formidable anymore

Tough to say at this stage, though I think it's fair to assume from what we've seen that Froome is getting stronger, certainly there has been a big improvement from the Dauphine to where we are now. He managed to put Aru, Martin and Bardet into difficulty on the final climb and obviously Porte is no longer here. It appears that his early season target of ending the Tour in stronger form to carry over to the Vuelta could come true.

Losing Thomas is a big blow but he still has 3 very strong mountains doms in Nieve, Henao and Landa plus Kwiatkowski who has been superb. It will take a big effort to not only isolate Froome but to drop him.

 

[wheresmybrakes]

Froome doesn't look dominant for a while in the mountains now. Despite that though, he is a champion and a much better all-round rider than Aru. If its true that he delays his peak due to Vuelta he should still win.
It is however possible that Aru will be simply stronger in the mountains and with GT now gone, Henao and Landa not in a very good shape, Sky doesn't look that formidable anymore

Tough to say at this stage, though I think it's fair to assume from what we've seen that Froome is getting stronger, certainly there has been a big improvement from the Dauphine to where we are now. He managed to put Aru, Martin and Bardet into difficulty on the final climb and obviously Porte is no longer here. It appears that his early season target of ending the Tour in stronger form to carry over to the Vuelta could come true.

Losing Thomas is a big blow but he still has 3 very strong mountains doms in Nieve, Henao and Landa plus Kwiatkowski who has been superb. It will take a big effort to not only isolate Froome but to drop him.

He also has a certain Dutch climber to join up at the Vuelta. I can understand what people are saying that he doesn't seem to be able to drop people going up hill like he used to, but there is definitely improvement from the Dauphin and I believe he is trying to conserve energy for week 3 and over into the Vuelta. Quintana was no doubt trying to do the same in the Giro but he didn't expect the Dutch dynamite to be so strong, thus weakening his tour performance.

 

[Singer01]

Realistically other than poels, who else does he have to call on in at the veulta that is top notch? He is going to be a whole lot more vulnerable to another formigal scenario.

 

[wouterkaas]

Re:

Realistically other than poels, who else does he have to call on in at the veulta that is top notch? He is going to be a whole lot more vulnerable to another formigal scenario.

If Nieve can sustain his form he can go to the Vuelta as well. Kennaugh seems somewhat hit-or-miss to me, but made a good impression in the Dauphiné.

 

[Jagartrott]

Re:

I'm impressed with Froome today, the lion is getting older but wiser

There are many animals that could be used to compare Froome to, but a lion's not one of them.

 

[silvergrenade]

Re: Re:

I'm impressed with Froome today, the lion is getting older but wiser

There are many animals that could be used to compare Froome to, but a lion's not one of them.

Completely agree.
A tiger is more like him. He has less hair after all.

 

[frisenfruitig]

Re: Re:

I'm impressed with Froome today, the lion is getting older but wiser

There are many animals that could be used to compare Froome to, but a lion's not one of them.

I'll go with Praying Mantis. Long body, long freaky limbs, ugly.

 

[rghysens]

Re: Re:

I'm impressed with Froome today, the lion is getting older but wiser

There are many animals that could be used to compare Froome to, but a lion's not one of them.

I'll go with Praying Mantis. Long body, long freaky limbs, ugly.

risk of being decapitated by the female he mates with?

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

Realistically other than poels, who else does he have to call on in at the veulta that is top notch? He is going to be a whole lot more vulnerable to another formigal scenario.

If Nieve can sustain his form he can go to the Vuelta as well. Kennaugh seems somewhat hit-or-miss to me, but made a good impression in the Dauphiné.

Nieve will go and he's usually ok at the Vuelta. Kennaugh and Boswell should be there too. Stannard for the flat plus maybe Moscon and Deignan?

If Poels is back in top shape then that team should be pretty strong for Froome.

 

[greenedge]

Re:

Realistically other than poels, who else does he have to call on in at the veulta that is top notch? He is going to be a whole lot more vulnerable to another formigal scenario.

My team would be:
Froome, Poels
Moscon
Rosa
Stannard
Deignan
Elissonde
Boswell
Kennaugh

Maybe Puccio or Van Poppel as well for the TTT/Flats, but this team has 7 riders who'll be able to contribute in the TTT and in Boswell, Ellisonde and Poels he should have the best mountain domestiques. Moscon, Rosa, Deignan and Kennaugh can all be of service on the flats and Stannard will ensure no Formigal repeat happens.

No other team will have as strong a supporting cast:
1. Movistar with Fernandez, Soler and Moreno for Valverde would have challenged, but Valverde is extremely unlikely to ride.
2. Nibali will have Pellizoti, but will lose huge amounts in the TTT.
3. Dumoulin might have Barguil and Oomen, but no one else for the mountains.
4. Astana will have a strong Lopez, but Poels is better than Kangert.
5. Contador may not ride the Vuelta.
6. ORS will have Chaves and A.Yates+ good domestiques, but as of yet they are not at Froome's calibre (in a pure head to head battle).
7. Maybe Etixx with De La Cruz, Jungels and Alaphillipe will be able to challenge with a solid supporting cast, but none of those riders have ever challenged Froome.