Teams & Riders Chris Froome Discussion Thread.

[yaco]

Froome was my pre-race favorite, though I'm a bit concerned about Sky's sort of desperation in the first two mountain stages - Time will tell.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re:

Froome was my pre-race favorite, though I'm a bit concerned about Sky's sort of desperation in the first two mountain stages - Time will tell.

Desperation? They've animated the race and took time on all the GC riders bar Chavez. I expect more of the same on Saturday and Sunday. They'd be foolish not to with several rivals struggling today.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

Froome was my pre-race favorite, though I'm a bit concerned about Sky's sort of desperation in the first two mountain stages - Time will tell.

Desperation? They've animated the race and took time on all the GC riders bar Chavez. I expect more of the same on Saturday and Sunday. They'd be foolish not to with several rivals struggling today.

I think they are showing desperation - It's obvious they were hoping Froome would have a lead of around a minute.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

Froome was my pre-race favorite, though I'm a bit concerned about Sky's sort of desperation in the first two mountain stages - Time will tell.

Desperation? They've animated the race and took time on all the GC riders bar Chavez. I expect more of the same on Saturday and Sunday. They'd be foolish not to with several rivals struggling today.

I think they are showing desperation - It's obvious they were hoping Froome would have a lead of around a minute.

By Sunday he could well have over a minute on Aru and Nibali if they don't improve quickly on these steep ramps. Chavez at the moment isn't a danger by following wheels as he's going to need to gain the best part of 3 minutes with that 42k TT.

 

[Vasilis]

Yeah Sky mainly lost races when they weren't in the lead, and now that they are, they will dictate what happens. If they had been riding as if they had the jersey at Fomigal, he probably wouldn't have lost.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

Froome was my pre-race favorite, though I'm a bit concerned about Sky's sort of desperation in the first two mountain stages - Time will tell.

Desperation? They've animated the race and took time on all the GC riders bar Chavez. I expect more of the same on Saturday and Sunday. They'd be foolish not to with several rivals struggling today.

I think they are showing desperation - It's obvious they were hoping Froome would have a lead of around a minute.

By Sunday he could well have over a minute on Aru and Nibali if they don't improve quickly on these steep ramps. Chavez at the moment isn't a danger by following wheels as he's going to need to gain the best part of 3 minutes with that 42k TT.

The ITT this year comes with 3 (and if people attack, 4) GC days left to go before Madrid, including the Angliru. If Froome is at all likely to lose his form in the final week, I think he needs to gain time over Chaves before the ITT, and hope for around two and a half minutes after the ITT, to take into the final few days.

 

[Vasilis]

Re: Re:

Froome was my pre-race favorite, though I'm a bit concerned about Sky's sort of desperation in the first two mountain stages - Time will tell.

Desperation? They've animated the race and took time on all the GC riders bar Chavez. I expect more of the same on Saturday and Sunday. They'd be foolish not to with several rivals struggling today.

I think they are showing desperation - It's obvious they were hoping Froome would have a lead of around a minute.

By Sunday he could well have over a minute on Aru and Nibali if they don't improve quickly on these steep ramps. Chavez at the moment isn't a danger by following wheels as he's going to need to gain the best part of 3 minutes with that 42k TT.

The ITT this year comes with 3 (and if people attack, 4) GC days left to go before Madrid, including the Angliru. If Froome is at all likely to lose his form in the final week, I think he needs to gain time over Chaves before the ITT, and hope for around two and a half minutes after the ITT, to take into the final few days.

He didn't falter in the last week of the Vuelta last year either, so I wouldn't assume he does this year.

 

[rick james]

Re: Re:

Froome was my pre-race favorite, though I'm a bit concerned about Sky's sort of desperation in the first two mountain stages - Time will tell.

Desperation? They've animated the race and took time on all the GC riders bar Chavez. I expect more of the same on Saturday and Sunday. They'd be foolish not to with several rivals struggling today.

I think they are showing desperation - It's obvious they were hoping Froome would have a lead of around a minute.

Really what? Why would they believe froome would already have a one minute lead? where was he meant to gain this minute without knowing his rivals form? I just don't know why you can pick out out a lead of one minute without even having a week of racing

 

[Finn84]

Re:

I wonder what the record for most GT leader's jerseys (of any colour) in a season is?

Including double stages as two I counted 37 for Merckx in 1970.

 

[bambino]

Re: Re:

Froome was my pre-race favorite, though I'm a bit concerned about Sky's sort of desperation in the first two mountain stages - Time will tell.

Desperation? They've animated the race and took time on all the GC riders bar Chavez. I expect more of the same on Saturday and Sunday. They'd be foolish not to with several rivals struggling today.

I think they are showing desperation - It's obvious they were hoping Froome would have a lead of around a minute.

By Sunday he could well have over a minute on Aru and Nibali if they don't improve quickly on these steep ramps. Chavez at the moment isn't a danger by following wheels as he's going to need to gain the best part of 3 minutes with that 42k TT.

The ITT this year comes with 3 (and if people attack, 4) GC days left to go before Madrid, including the Angliru. If Froome is at all likely to lose his form in the final week, I think he needs to gain time over Chaves before the ITT, and hope for around two and a half minutes after the ITT, to take into the final few days.

He is going to win Chaves more than 2,5 minutes in the ITT regardless of fatique. So in that sense he does not need to put time to Chaves before ITT if that 2,5 minutes is your needed buffer estimation.

Secondly, when has Froome lost last time more than 2,5 minutes in any mountain stages (or consecutive ones) to a single competitor when racing for GT win? The answer might be never, but I'm not absolutely sure. Maybe 2012, but that was Froome building towards his best.

I wan't to be optimistic too, but I can't see Froome losing this in regular competition (no injuries, illnes) in any other way than ambush. While probably losing the form a bit, he will not be worse than last years Vuelta. And that form is way enough to sustain around 3 minutes (including projected ITT results) lead to ALL of his main rivals he will have before the first rest day.

 

[Singer01]

Yeah, i don't see how he loses this other than a crash, i can't even envisage a formigal type loss, because none of his competitors teams are anywhere near as good as his, whereas last year Sky were pretty weak.

 

[jarvo]

Re:

Yeah, i don't see how he loses this other than a crash, i can't even envisage a formigal type loss, because none of his competitors teams are anywhere near as good as his, whereas last year Sky were pretty weak.

Agree with this, Stannard, Knees, Puccio diesels will drive the pace and probably contain any type of Formigal break from GC competitors. The way Moscon is riding with Rosa and Nieve on the climbs, I don't see a repeat of what happened last year.

 

[axl]

Orica is pretty strong and could be a danger to sky. Stage 19 have the potential to be epic with a 1st category climb very early where teammates could be eliminated. It is quite short (150km) and there are other climbs all along the stage, although there also are too many flat portions. orica and other teams (Astana for instance) could attack together to eliminate Froome before deciding the winner the day after, in the Angliru.

 

[jarvo]

Re:

Orica is pretty strong and could be a danger to sky. Stage 19 have the potential to be epic with a 1st category climb very early where teammates could be eliminated. It is quite short (150km) and there are other climbs all along the stage, although there also are too many flat portions. orica and other teams (Astana for instance) could attack together to eliminate Froome before deciding the winner the day after, in the Angliru.

By then Froome could've put 2-3 even 4 minutes into his rivals such as Chaves on the ITT, at that point it could be they are racing each other for podium spots rather than racing Froome?

 

[bambino]

Re:

Orica is pretty strong and could be a danger to sky. Stage 19 have the potential to be epic with a 1st category climb very early where teammates could be eliminated. It is quite short (150km) and there are other climbs all along the stage, although there also are too many flat portions. orica and other teams (Astana for instance) could attack together to eliminate Froome before deciding the winner the day after, in the Angliru.

The problems with this is that Froome and his doms are used to drive with very high tempo. As we can see the dom constant tempo is very demanding to most competitors alone, yet Froome can accelerate from that pace. But Froome indeed has shown vulnerabilities when the train is gone and needs to go man-to-man in hard climbs.

So to drop the most important doms, one needs to drive higher pace than Sky doms to drop them out, which in itself is very demanding and only few riders can actually do that in the peloton. For Orica, they probably have the power to do that, but it means sacrificing Haig (not a bid deal) and one (actually I think both) of the Yates early on in the stage. Orica needs to pretty soon decide if they go only for Chaves or allow Yates to fight.

I don't think Astana has really anyone to contribute on that kind of pace, maybe LuLu and Lopez could do that for a while, but they are not supreme compared to Sky doms.

 

[axl]

Re: Re:

I was more thinking of a tactic similar of what have been done against Porte in the dauphiné : everybody attack and let Froome alone behind.
What would append if Chaves, the yates, Haig, Aru, Lopez, Contador and others attack ?
* Either Froome lets its team come back, with the risk that its teammates can't (what appened in the dauphiné if i'm not mistaken). Then it's the strong group vs sky and if everybody play the game (and if UAE does not help Sky to secure a top10) the gap can be big with 100km left.
* Either Froome makes the jump alone, but has to teammates left.

It isn't similar to the Tour de France, because Froome hasn't a Landa with him that has a top3 level here, and can control everything. Although Poels could be reserved for the 3rd week and have a top3 level at that point...

And I don't think they would risk to lose a podium spot because after that cat1 climb, the stage isn't hard. They try, if it doesn't work, they all finish together and pray for a Froome failure in the Angliru.

 

[dacooley]

pray for froome completely cracking on a single mountain stage? great goal setting.

 

[bigcog]

Re: Re:

Desperation? They've animated the race and took time on all the GC riders bar Chavez. I expect more of the same on Saturday and Sunday. They'd be foolish not to with several rivals struggling today.

I think they are showing desperation - It's obvious they were hoping Froome would have a lead of around a minute.

By Sunday he could well have over a minute on Aru and Nibali if they don't improve quickly on these steep ramps. Chavez at the moment isn't a danger by following wheels as he's going to need to gain the best part of 3 minutes with that 42k TT.

The ITT this year comes with 3 (and if people attack, 4) GC days left to go before Madrid, including the Angliru. If Froome is at all likely to lose his form in the final week, I think he needs to gain time over Chaves before the ITT, and hope for around two and a half minutes after the ITT, to take into the final few days.

He didn't falter in the last week of the Vuelta last year either, so I wouldn't assume he does this year.

Exactly, he didn't fade last year so I wouldn't expect him to this year particularly as he has delayed peaking specifically to do the tour and vuelta double this year, unless that hasn't gone to plan.

 

[rick james]

Tricky day done

 

[Red Rick]

Lol, he had a day where Moscon blew up and le random Poels appears.

 

[rick james]

Re:

Lol, he had a day where Moscon blew up and le random Poels appears.

he has a good team mate in Alberto to set the pace for him :lol:

 

[pastronef]

Re:

Lol, he had a day where Moscon blew up and le random Poels appears.

if you followed both today and previous stages you could see that Poels could never keep up until the top of the climbs, he had to slow down. same as he did today. he let go and joined with the followers after the downhill

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re:

Lol, he had a day where Moscon blew up and le random Poels appears.

I think he will follow a similar pattern to previous Tours where Poels gets stronger as the race goes on. He will be a key many for Froome in the second half of the race.

 

[Tonton]

Re: Re:

Lol, he had a day where Moscon blew up and le random Poels appears.

I think he will follow a similar pattern to previous Tours where Poels gets stronger as the race goes on. He will be a key many for Froome in the second half of the race.

Agree.

So far so good for Froome: he's in control.

 

[Blanco]

Re: Re:

Lol, he had a day where Moscon blew up and le random Poels appears.

I think he will follow a similar pattern to previous Tours where Poels gets stronger as the race goes on. He will be a key many for Froome in the second half of the race.

Agree.

So far so good for Froome: he's in control.

He could be in problem on Xorret de Cati, something tells me that Contador is going to be stronger and stronger as the race progresses. He could drop him there...