Teams & Riders Chris Froome Discussion Thread.

[jsem94]

I'm really happy about this!

 

[Robert5091]

According to https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5049862,00.html

Froome himself will receive an additional € 2 million from the state

 

[Breh]

Soooo, riders with any GT ambitions in Team Sky like Kwiatkowski, De La Cruz and especially Thomas and Poels will be thrilled.

 

[Robert5091]

Sylvan Adams, I would guess, came up with the extra cash.

 

[deValtos]

Re:

Soooo, riders with any GT ambitions in Team Sky like Kwiatkowski, De La Cruz and especially Thomas and Poels will be thrilled.

They know the drill though, Thomas and Poels can still co-lead la Vuelta.

Also to be fair I imagine Froome will run a super light schedule pre double attempt so it does open up leaderships roles for some of the 1 week stage races which Cruz would get a chance at.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Soooo, riders with any GT ambitions in Team Sky like Kwiatkowski, De La Cruz and especially Thomas and Poels will be thrilled.

They know the drill though, Thomas and Poels can still co-lead la Vuelta.

Also to be fair I imagine Froome will run a super light schedule pre double attempt so it does open up leaderships roles for some of the 1 week stage races which Cruz would get a chance at.

Part of "the drill" has always been that Froome's most important sidekick or sidekicks lead at the Giro. It's pretty much the only concession Sky make towards the ambitions of their best climbing domestiques. So there may be some irritation.

That said, Vuelta plus more one week race opportunities isn't necessarily a worse deal, depending on how the superdoms are deployed across the season in Froome's support. It could even be argued that it's a more appropriate deal for riders who have one Vuelta 6th and one Vuelta 7th between the lot of them but a better record in shorter races.

 

[SafeBet]

Re:

Way to go Chris!
Can't wait to see him on the italian roads.

How this is supposed to be a Giro tailored on Froome I don't know.
It looks well balanced to me.

It is (as) tailor made (as you'll ever get) to try the double. Can't remember such an easy route in past years + a longer break between Giro and Tour.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Great news. I didn't think he'd jeopardise his chances of a fifth Tour, or that his team would let him do so even if he wanted to. Very glad to be wrong.

Great news for fans that want to see less dominance from Sky and a level playing field but it's interesting to see Froome take the risk with a fifth Tour win within reach. Maybe he thinks it's now or never for the Giro. Be interesting to see now who will opt for the Tour and not the Giro. The Giro is a very different race to the other GTs but if Froome does win it I still don't see him doing the double even though it will be good viewing for fans and open up more possibilities in the Tour entertainment wise. Bardet and Quintana and co will be smiling.

 

[Robert5091]

"Maybe he thinks it's now or never for the Giro." Maybe 2 million Euros helped make up his mind. Surprised SDB & Sky agreed to it - "Money talks"!

 

[glassmoon]

Froome crashing out in stage 5

"crashing out"

 

[King Boonen]

Hi folks,

I've moved political posts to this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=33695

Please keep them in there. Thanks!

 

[Põhja Konn]

One of the main reasons why the two most recent double attempts have failed has been the fact that Giro has turned out to be much tougher contest than anticipated prior to the race. Both Contador and Quintana were pushed much harder in the Giro than most expected which hampered their recovery for the Tour.

For the sake racing at both Giro and the Tour, I hope similar pattern to continue next may.

 

[dacooley]

Sky are going to isolate a threat of probable team 2015 astana-esque effort. the question is if any new upstart will manage to take on Froome. So far, I don't see anyone being able to do that. The only candidate is Aru in case he improves his top conditions. Yates brothers, Chaves, Pozzovivo, Meintejs don't look like guys froome will have difficulties to deal with. with froome planning to do the giro, the likelihood of nibali and dimoulin racing it as well goes down. furthermore, let's not forget the nature of the giro course which is traditionally fraught with sensations and suprises.

 

[Bolder]

I may be alone in this, but I would be happier if Froome wins the Giro but falls short in the Tour, than vice versa. I'm really glad he's setting some challenges rather than just piling on TdF wins.

Assuming he's never implicated in clinic-type stuff, he should finish career as Top 5 best GT riders ever. Maybe even better than Indurain, as I think it's harder to win now. That would put him 4th after Merckx, Hinault and Anquetil. Anquetil w/in striking distance if CF can win Giro or Vuelta more than once...

 

[aarononymous]

We get the great Landa vs Froome contest so soon, should be a great year!

 

[pink_jersey]

Re:

Sky are going to isolate a threat of probable team 2015 astana-esque effort. the question is if any new upstart will manage to take on Froome. So far, I don't see anyone being able to do that. The only candidate is Aru in case he improves his top conditions. Yates brothers, Chaves, Pozzovivo, Meintejs don't look like guys froome will have difficulties to deal with. with froome planning to do the giro, the likelihood of nibali and dimoulin racing it as well goes down. furthermore, let's not forget the nature of the giro course which is traditionally fraught with sensations and suprises.

Landa and Chaves will be Froome main rivals in the Giro. I think Dumoulin will ride TdF. Nibali as well.

Froome, Landa, Chaves, Aru and maybe Pinot in the Giro and Froome, Quintana, Dumoulin, Nibali, Porte and Valverde in the TdF.
I'm not sure what Bardet and Uran are thinking right now. I think Giro route is better for them.

 

[May0maniac]

Zakarin will also probably ride the Giro (the Tour will be all about Kittel)
While a few big names are missing Landa, Aru, Zakarin, Chaves (?) and maybe Pinot (he wants to ride the Giro, but maybe the team has other ideas) are strong opponents, Landa should be the biggest threat.

 

[huge]

Re: Re:

Sky are going to isolate a threat of probable team 2015 astana-esque effort. the question is if any new upstart will manage to take on Froome. So far, I don't see anyone being able to do that. The only candidate is Aru in case he improves his top conditions. Yates brothers, Chaves, Pozzovivo, Meintejs don't look like guys froome will have difficulties to deal with. with froome planning to do the giro, the likelihood of nibali and dimoulin racing it as well goes down. furthermore, let's not forget the nature of the giro course which is traditionally fraught with sensations and suprises.

Landa and Chaves will be Froome main rivals in the Giro. I think Dumoulin will ride TdF. Nibali as well.

Froome, Landa, Chaves, Aru and maybe Pinot in the Giro and Froome, Quintana, Dumoulin, Nibali, Porte and Valverde in the TdF.
I'm not sure what Bardet and Uran are thinking right now. I think Giro route is better for them.

I don't think Dumoulin will ride the Giro either. Too little ITT and too much climbing this year.
As for Nibali, I think he wants to ride the Tour, but at the same time I believe he is strongly attracted by the Giro. The 3 stages in Sicily are one reason. The second is that in my opinion he would like to compete against Froome on Italian roads. Despite many thinking the opposite, that he would decide to skip it to avoid the Briton.

 

[yaco]

My understanding is Zakharin is riding the TDF - The long term plan is for Chaves to ride the Giro, with one of the reasons being to avoid Froome - My guess is Chaves will stick to the Giro as it's better suited to his characteristics. I believe Uran is riding the TDF.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

Sky are going to isolate a threat of probable team 2015 astana-esque effort. the question is if any new upstart will manage to take on Froome. So far, I don't see anyone being able to do that. The only candidate is Aru in case he improves his top conditions. Yates brothers, Chaves, Pozzovivo, Meintejs don't look like guys froome will have difficulties to deal with. with froome planning to do the giro, the likelihood of nibali and dimoulin racing it as well goes down. furthermore, let's not forget the nature of the giro course which is traditionally fraught with sensations and suprises.

Landa and Chaves will be Froome main rivals in the Giro. I think Dumoulin will ride TdF. Nibali as well.

Froome, Landa, Chaves, Aru and maybe Pinot in the Giro and Froome, Quintana, Dumoulin, Nibali, Porte and Valverde in the TdF.
I'm not sure what Bardet and Uran are thinking right now. I think Giro route is better for them.

I think Aru will do better than Chaves. I think he will do well but Orica will have a stronger team and they don't mind some long range attacks sometimes. Of course the achilles heel for Chaves is the TT.

 

[Rollthedice]

Re: Re:

Sky are going to isolate a threat of probable team 2015 astana-esque effort. the question is if any new upstart will manage to take on Froome. So far, I don't see anyone being able to do that. The only candidate is Aru in case he improves his top conditions. Yates brothers, Chaves, Pozzovivo, Meintejs don't look like guys froome will have difficulties to deal with. with froome planning to do the giro, the likelihood of nibali and dimoulin racing it as well goes down. furthermore, let's not forget the nature of the giro course which is traditionally fraught with sensations and suprises.

Landa and Chaves will be Froome main rivals in the Giro. I think Dumoulin will ride TdF. Nibali as well.

Froome, Landa, Chaves, Aru and maybe Pinot in the Giro and Froome, Quintana, Dumoulin, Nibali, Porte and Valverde in the TdF.
I'm not sure what Bardet and Uran are thinking right now. I think Giro route is better for them.

I don't think Dumoulin will ride the Giro either. Too little ITT and too much climbing this year.
As for Nibali, I think he wants to ride the Tour, but at the same time I believe he is strongly attracted by the Giro. The 3 stages in Sicily are one reason. The second is that in my opinion he would like to compete against Froome on Italian roads. Despite many thinking the opposite, that he would decide to skip it to avoid the Briton.

Nibali will ride the Tour, I have no doubts. Normally also Tom, Unzue/Quintana already decided. This leaves Froome as a huge favorite to win the Giro. I don't think either Landa, Aru or anybody else can really threaten him only maybe the weather and some unexpected circumstances.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

"Maybe he thinks it's now or never for the Giro." Maybe 2 million Euros helped make up his mind. Surprised SDB & Sky agreed to it - "Money talks"!

Sure but I doubt it's the only reason he's doing the Giro. It's a big step for Sky considering their past failures at the Giro but with Froome there, the team performance already goes up a few notches.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

Sky are going to isolate a threat of probable team 2015 astana-esque effort. the question is if any new upstart will manage to take on Froome. So far, I don't see anyone being able to do that. The only candidate is Aru in case he improves his top conditions. Yates brothers, Chaves, Pozzovivo, Meintejs don't look like guys froome will have difficulties to deal with. with froome planning to do the giro, the likelihood of nibali and dimoulin racing it as well goes down. furthermore, let's not forget the nature of the giro course which is traditionally fraught with sensations and suprises.

Landa and Chaves will be Froome main rivals in the Giro. I think Dumoulin will ride TdF. Nibali as well.

Froome, Landa, Chaves, Aru and maybe Pinot in the Giro and Froome, Quintana, Dumoulin, Nibali, Porte and Valverde in the TdF.
I'm not sure what Bardet and Uran are thinking right now. I think Giro route is better for them.

I don't think Dumoulin will ride the Giro either. Too little ITT and too much climbing this year.
As for Nibali, I think he wants to ride the Tour, but at the same time I believe he is strongly attracted by the Giro. The 3 stages in Sicily are one reason. The second is that in my opinion he would like to compete against Froome on Italian roads. Despite many thinking the opposite, that he would decide to skip it to avoid the Briton.

Nibali will ride the Tour, I have no doubts. Normally also Tom, Unzue/Quintana already decided. This leaves Froome as a huge favorite to win the Giro. I don't think either Landa, Aru or anybody else can really threaten him only maybe the weather and some unexpected circumstances.

Yes I think the option to meet Froome with the Giro in his legs will be too big a carrot for the riders that were undecided. But it could make the Tour a great race.

 

[SafeBet]

If Landa is anywhere near his TdF 2017 form, he'll be a challenge for Froome, I have no doubt about it.

 

[hazaran]

How can he possibly be a challenge having basically lost time on every single mountain? He only got close because being on Sky allowed him to get into the breakaway. Frankly, judging from his past performances, he won't finish this Giro.