• The Cycling News forum is still looking to add volunteer moderators with. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Teams & Riders Chris Froome Discussion Thread.

Page 429 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

Is Froome over the hill?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 39 34.8%
  • No, the GC finished 40 minutes ago but Froomie is still climbing it

    Votes: 61 54.5%
  • No he is totally winning the Vuelta

    Votes: 25 22.3%

  • Total voters
    112
His inability to follow on the last ramp certainly makes this race much more interesting. More interesting than it has been since 2011, and that is just fantastic.

It will be exciting to see the reaction in the coming mountain stages from the other contenders, now that they sense a (very) small crack in Froome's armor.

But it remains to be seen if he is suffering from missing his absolute top form, he is feeling the age a bit and the continuing pressure of performing year after year or if it was just a bad day or down to the very steep last hundred of metres.

I would expect, that he might just have had very bad legs yesterday, and that he goes on the attack in the coming days. That has been seen before, as others have noted.
And even a Froome not in absolute top form can make things very difficult for the other riders, as we saw on stage 9 - also considering his strong team.

But I found it strangely satisfying to see a small, small crack in his armor - that he is in fact not all conquering in all terrains. I will cut him some slack now, I think, and await his expected coming attacks with much more enjoyment and respect. I don't think I can explain it better in English - perhaps in Danish:)

I will expect him to go on the attack and win the Tour still - yesterday was just a bad day.

But the slight possibility of a crack in the defense, shown yesterday, was the best that could happen for the race, and what, I at least, have been yearning for while seeing the Sky Train these last years.

It opens for exitement, unpredictability and hope :razz:

Edited: Spelling mistake.
 
ahsoe said:
His inability to follow on the last ramp certainly makes this race much more interesting. More interesting than it has been since 2011, and that is just fantastic.

It will be exciting to see the reaction in the coming mountain stages from the other contenders, now that they sense a (very) small crack in Froome's armor.

But it remains to be seen if he is suffering from missing his absolute top form, he is feeling the age a bit and the continuing pressure of performing year after year or if it was just a bad day or down to the very steep last hundred of metres.

I would expect, that he might just have had very bad legs yesterday, and that he goes on the attack in the coming days. That has been seen before, as others have noted.
And even a Froome not in absolute top form can make things very difficult for the other riders, as we saw on stage 9 - also considering his strong team.

But I found it strangely satisfying to see a small, small crack in his armor - that he is in fact not all conquering in all terrains. I will cut him some slack now, I think, and await his expected coming attacks with much more enjoyment and respect. I don't think I can explain it better in English - perhaps in Danish:)

I will expect him to go on the attack and win the Tour still - yesterday was just a bad day.

But the slight possibility of a crack in the defense, shown yesterday, was the best that could happen for the race, and what, I at least, have been yearning for while seeing the Sky Train these last years.

It opens for exitement, unpredictability and hope :razz:

Edited: Spelling mistake.

You explained it quite well! :)
 
i am wondering whether Froome is just more spreading out his peak so to say over a longer period to suit his Tour Vuelta double attempt. Last year he clearly had less top end acceleration and he seems to have the same this year. It might just be simply down to age and natural decline. High octane to diesel climbing or something. But something in me thinks it may be a change of approach to hold his level high for a longer time period. Obviously not as high as in 2013-15 period but high enough to compete with the best and stay at the top for longer, i.e. until Vuelta. He really does want to win that race once. He openly admits to it. In 2013-15 peaks he would also somewhat fade in 3rd week. Last year he stayed, relative to years before, strong till the end. If not for Formigal he would've won that Vuelta. Perhaps the same approach this year? Do have to say he didn't look very in control yesterday and also today on the really steep stuff. Top end speed is lacking, but perhaps he hopes that overall his gamble pays dividend?
 
Jul 14, 2015
708
0
0
Visit site
Showing some weakness is just the latest act in the constantly new and emergent Froome publicity campaign. They are even playing up Landa as the new Judas, the disciple betraying his master :)

Of course in reality the time gap will be carefully managed and come the TT history will be back to its expected course with Froome taking yellow to Paris.

If we learned anything today it's that they need to send Landa in some more breaks, possibly as early as Sunday. The others won't be able to keep up giving a minute away every time..
 
Re:

hazaran said:
Showing some weakness is just the latest act in the constantly new and emergent Froome publicity campaign. They are even playing up Landa as the new Judas, the disciple betraying his master :)

Of course in reality the time gap will be carefully managed and come the TT history will be back to its expected course with Froome taking yellow to Paris.

If we learned anything today it's that they need to send Landa in some more breaks, possibly as early as Sunday. The others won't be able to keep up giving a minute away every time..

Would be really funny if they call Froome's bluff and he ends up having to chase Landa down himself at some point.
 
Jul 14, 2015
708
0
0
Visit site
Re: Re:

Son of Amsterhammer said:
Would be really funny if they call Froome's bluff and he ends up having to chase Landa down himself at some point.

There is the small matter of the stage 20 time trial. And I'm not saying that because Landa is a terrible TTer, though he is, but because Dave Brailsford will both metaphorically and practically let the air out of his tires on that stage if he is trying to be a jihadist. You can lose an insane amount of time on mechanicals in these time trials..
 
Re: Re:

Son of Amsterhammer said:
hazaran said:
Showing some weakness is just the latest act in the constantly new and emergent Froome publicity campaign. They are even playing up Landa as the new Judas, the disciple betraying his master :)

Of course in reality the time gap will be carefully managed and come the TT history will be back to its expected course with Froome taking yellow to Paris.

If we learned anything today it's that they need to send Landa in some more breaks, possibly as early as Sunday. The others won't be able to keep up giving a minute away every time..

Would be really funny if they call Froome's bluff and he ends up having to chase Landa down himself at some point.

That's exactly what Aru said in his press conference.

The other teams can do the math too and they know that their primary goal is still to gain time on Froome. The strategy only changes if Landa gets more than a 2 minute lead on Froome.
 
Re: Re:

hazaran said:
Son of Amsterhammer said:
Would be really funny if they call Froome's bluff and he ends up having to chase Landa down himself at some point.

There is the small matter of the stage 20 time trial. And I'm not saying that because Landa is a terrible TTer, though he is, but because Dave Brailsford will both metaphorically and practically let the air out of his tires on that stage if he is trying to be a jihadist. You can lose an insane amount of time on mechanicals in these time trials..

If it comes down to Landa taking it from Froome, maybe Landa borrows a Movistar bike??
 
Re: Re:

Son of Amsterhammer said:
hazaran said:
Son of Amsterhammer said:
Would be really funny if they call Froome's bluff and he ends up having to chase Landa down himself at some point.

There is the small matter of the stage 20 time trial. And I'm not saying that because Landa is a terrible TTer, though he is, but because Dave Brailsford will both metaphorically and practically let the air out of his tires on that stage if he is trying to be a jihadist. You can lose an insane amount of time on mechanicals in these time trials..

If it comes down to Landa taking it from Froome, maybe Landa borrows a Movistar bike??

I think that's a 2 minute penalty? That's what Richie Porte received.
 
Re: Re:

DanielSong39 said:
Son of Amsterhammer said:
hazaran said:
Son of Amsterhammer said:
Would be really funny if they call Froome's bluff and he ends up having to chase Landa down himself at some point.

There is the small matter of the stage 20 time trial. And I'm not saying that because Landa is a terrible TTer, though he is, but because Dave Brailsford will both metaphorically and practically let the air out of his tires on that stage if he is trying to be a jihadist. You can lose an insane amount of time on mechanicals in these time trials..

If it comes down to Landa taking it from Froome, maybe Landa borrows a Movistar bike??

I think that's a 2 minute penalty? That's what Richie Porte received.

Then maybe he has one of their guys look the bike over?
 
Jul 19, 2010
5,361
0
0
Visit site
Re: Re:

DanielSong39 said:
Son of Amsterhammer said:
hazaran said:
Showing some weakness is just the latest act in the constantly new and emergent Froome publicity campaign. They are even playing up Landa as the new Judas, the disciple betraying his master :)

Of course in reality the time gap will be carefully managed and come the TT history will be back to its expected course with Froome taking yellow to Paris.

If we learned anything today it's that they need to send Landa in some more breaks, possibly as early as Sunday. The others won't be able to keep up giving a minute away every time..

Would be really funny if they call Froome's bluff and he ends up having to chase Landa down himself at some point.

That's exactly what Aru said in his press conference.

The other teams can do the math too and they know that their primary goal is still to gain time on Froome. The strategy only changes if Landa gets more than a 2 minute lead on Froome.

No their strategy won't change. I just don't see Sky/Froome lets Landa gets more than 2 minutes. Froome will chase Landa (while pretending that he is attacking Aru) if he starts leapfrog Foome. I would love to see if Aru, Bardet, Martin, Uran dare to play bluffing game with Froome. But unfortunately, no one that's crazy to gamble their position most likely. I think, Sky said Landa is another card to play. To me he is a loose cannon. If he gets 2 minutes? Boy, I would love to see that..
 
Re: Re:

Jelantik said:
DanielSong39 said:
Son of Amsterhammer said:
hazaran said:
Showing some weakness is just the latest act in the constantly new and emergent Froome publicity campaign. They are even playing up Landa as the new Judas, the disciple betraying his master :)

Of course in reality the time gap will be carefully managed and come the TT history will be back to its expected course with Froome taking yellow to Paris.

If we learned anything today it's that they need to send Landa in some more breaks, possibly as early as Sunday. The others won't be able to keep up giving a minute away every time..

Would be really funny if they call Froome's bluff and he ends up having to chase Landa down himself at some point.

That's exactly what Aru said in his press conference.

The other teams can do the math too and they know that their primary goal is still to gain time on Froome. The strategy only changes if Landa gets more than a 2 minute lead on Froome.

No their strategy won't change. I just don't see Sky/Froome lets Landa gets more than 2 minutes. Froome will chase Landa (while pretending that he is attacking Aru) if he starts leapfrog Foome. I would love to see if Aru, Bardet, Martin, Uran dare to play bluffing game with Froome. But unfortunately, no one that's crazy to gamble their position most likely. I think, Sky said Landa is another card to play. To me he is a loose cannon. If he gets 2 minutes? Boy, I would love to see that..
As much as you'd like... This is serious business going on here. Landa won't be allowed to go in breaks,regardless of whether Sky wants him to go in breaks or not.
Astana, Quickstep, Trek, And most importantly movistar WILL chase him down. Period.
And no matter how big of a fan favourite Landa might be on this forum Froome is still the big favourite to win his 4th title..
Sky know that, Froome knows that, Landa knows that.
 
Re: Re:

hazaran said:
Son of Amsterhammer said:
Would be really funny if they call Froome's bluff and he ends up having to chase Landa down himself at some point.

There is the small matter of the stage 20 time trial. And I'm not saying that because Landa is a terrible TTer, though he is, but because Dave Brailsford will both metaphorically and practically let the air out of his tires on that stage if he is trying to be a jihadist. You can lose an insane amount of time on mechanicals in these time trials..


oh please do give it up, Landa riding for himself is nothing more than a wet dream