Teams & Riders Chris Froome Discussion Thread.

[Gregory]

Last year, Sky was down to 8 man with the early loss of Siutsou, and one of the 8 was Cavendish and another was Eisel who spent much of the time making sure Cavendish came in within the time limit.

Obviously Froome doesn't need the team as much as Wiggin needed. Losing EBH is going to hurt, but I think he is still likely to make it with minimal support from his team. He has a pretty good buffer, has another ITT coming, he has his form to rely on, and he has shown that he can survive being isolated.

Also, there is the unique situation of the current GC Standings - the 2nd to 6th position made up of 5 riders from 3 teams all within 45s of each other, will only help Froome as the other teams will in all likelihood ride to protect their own position when someone attacks.

I think the biggest beneficiary of Sky's situation will be the breakaway riders. Sky can also probably forget about trying to setup a stage win for Porte.

Very good analysis

 

[Hautacam2000]

Does anyone have any idea what was Froome's average power in yesterday's TT?

Assuming bike's weight of 7 kg and no headwind,the average power is 497 w.This means 7.1 w/kg.Maybe +-0.2.Ofc,this is for a 70 kg rider.

 

[Berzin]

Froome doesn't have to "do" anything for the rest of the Tour. It's up to his rivals to put him under pressure. They will be more concerned with consolidating their overall positions than to risk it all and then flounder out of a top 10 position.

Froome played this perfectly. Everyone made such a big fuss over Porte losing whatever minutes and Froome being isolated the other day, and what did the other contenders do? NOTHING.

Many people screeched "Look-Froomes' vulnerable!!! Where's his teammates?"

Yeah? Where are his rivals? Three, four minutes back with no plan of attack? That's what matters most.

 

[EnacheV]

Well unlike other tours this one is mountain heavy, with most of the HC climbs still to come. Chance to broke down are higher so a good team helps a lot.

It's true also that Froome is no Wiggins who needs to be towed over climbs.

Will see, more chances for entertaining mountain stages as this flat ones are boring to hell.

 

[LaFlorecita]

no idea but he avg 406 at the 2011 vuelta tt, that was longer and it was pretty hot if i remember correctly, that in consideration + better form ~420.

I read 470W somewhere. Will try do find it.

Edit: apparently gazzetta is the source. Martin 480, Valverde&Contador 385. But marco pinotti says he'll eat a live chicken if Froome put out more than 430W

 

[jens_attacks]

"I don't think it's humanly possible to average 440 watts for a whole stage so that's out of the question. That's far, far from what I think is possible,

froomey has a really good sense of humour or maybe he can even keep 440 watts for a whole stage if he wants to

 

[Hautacam2000]

I read 470W somewhere. Will try do find it.

Edit: apparently gazzetta is the source. Martin 480, Valverde&Contador 385. But marco pinotti says he'll eat a live chicken if Froome put out more than 430W

this means a -2.0 km/h tailwind.probably they have seen a SRM,otherwise i don't understand how they estimated the wind speed

 

[Zam_Olyas]

David Lopez

Exactly.

........

 

[EnacheV]

Exactly.

........

yes David Lopez, is hard for me to remember because both of his names are quite common, and i confuse them every time, didn't say "spanish guy" with a malicious intent

spanish guys are quite good looking, only good things about them

 

[Jelantik]

Last year, Sky was down to 8 man with the early loss of Siutsou, and one of the 8 was Cavendish and another was Eisel who spent much of the time making sure Cavendish came in within the time limit.

Obviously Froome doesn't need the team as much as Wiggin needed. Losing EBH is going to hurt, but I think he is still likely to make it with minimal support from his team. He has a pretty good buffer, has another ITT coming, he has his form to rely on, and he has shown that he can survive being isolated.

Also, there is the unique situation of the current GC Standings - the 2nd to 6th position made up of 5 riders from 3 teams all within 45s of each other, will only help Froome as the other teams will in all likelihood ride to protect their own position when someone attacks.

I think the biggest beneficiary of Sky's situation will be the breakaway riders. Sky can also probably forget about trying to setup a stage win for Porte.

that's a good way of seeing it. But maybe just slightly different with all 6 last year are 'strong and healthy".This year team already lost kiryenka, bo hog. Stannard and thomas are battered and bruised. So the healthy only and haven't seen doing any action in front is: sitsou, lopez. Porte may have burned to many matches before week 2. Same with kennaugh. So total of 4 healthy helpers this year as opposed 5 last year. But 1 are very strong *froome*

Saxo with movistar are the strongest team now. So if they can't take advantage, then froome is the worthy winner. He played his card right. Maybe he knows, that it'll be tougher to get the yellow jersey than to defend in on the third week. Everyone bank on waiting at Ax3. Sky chose to attack and extend lead on ITT. So that's why they are where they are. Next.. what the other GC team will do? just protecting podium spot? Like valverde (that his goal). Molema will do the same. Only contador who doesn't care about placing. And maybe andy for stage glory.

 

[movingtarget]

Froome doesn't have to "do" anything for the rest of the Tour. It's up to his rivals to put him under pressure. They will be more concerned with consolidating their overall positions than to risk it all and then flounder out of a top 10 position.

Froome played this perfectly. Everyone made such a big fuss over Porte losing whatever minutes and Froome being isolated the other day, and what did the other contenders do? NOTHING.

Many people screeched "Look-Froomes' vulnerable!!! Where's his teammates?"

Yeah? Where are his rivals? Three, four minutes back with no plan of attack? That's what matters most.

In hindsight it's worked well for Froome as he made his time early. The Sky train has not been needed on most stages and now he is defending, it won't matter so much. Loss of Kiryienka and EBH is still a blow but if the remaining riders can control things it won't matter. Porte has had his bad day and finishing high on the stage is no longer a problem for him. He just stays with Froome as long as he can.

 

[wwabbit]

Stannard and Siutsou I think are doing a fine job on the flats. It is Lopez that I think needs to step up. Geraint Thomas is still nursing an injury, and I think Sky is planning to allow him until after the 2nd Rest Day to recover. I've noticed that Sky probably don't need to do much work until after the 2nd Rest Day. Sunday's stage is mostly flat all the way until Mont Ventoux. It will be at Alpe d'Huez where Thomas will be called on to step up, we'll see if he recovers sufficiently enough for that.

 

[The Hitch]

Froome has a lot to learn

 

[Red Rick]

Froome has a lot to learn

He immediately started calling his ds, it's like he lacks the brains to think about what to do for himself, less brain, less weight, marginal gains

 

[TheEnoculator]

This is the stupidest racing by a pro team I have ever seen. If you see your rivals attack near the end of a stage, you don't sit back, you RESPOND! The rivals didn't make a move this late to bluff you. If Froome was any type of leader, he would have known what to do. What a dud.

 

[Bala Verde]

Years of pack fodder experience didn't prepare him for these critical moments.

 

[movingtarget]

Sky are looking tired and disorganised.

 

[webvan]

This is the stupidest racing by a pro team I have ever seen. If you see your rivals attack near the end of a stage, you don't sit back, you RESPOND! The rivals didn't make a move this late to bluff you. If Froome was any type of leader, he would have known what to do. What a dud.

Stannard said Froome had left the gap...maybe he just couldn't go! He certainly showed zero ability to help with the chase later and the guy's supposed to be a fighter, so...

 

[ThirdWorld]

froome will get out of gas in the last week! Great!!

 

[LaFlorecita]

Sky are looking tired and disorganised.

Fortunately for Froome he is so much stronger than his rivals.

 

[GoodTimes]

Maybe we'll see a Froome Vuelta 2012 type decline. The rest of sky sure is showing themselves to be poor @ recovery so far this TDF

 

[Publicus]

Stannard said Froome had left the gap...maybe he just couldn't go! He certainly showed zero ability to help with the chase later and the guy's supposed to be a fighter, so...

That's what I was seeing and it jives with Mick Rogers comment that everyone looked tired. Froome rode fairly far down in the peloton/chase group for awhile (but mayhe that's because Braislford bribed BMC and Katusha by offering a couple of marginal gains if they helped chase)

 

[movingtarget]

Fortunately for Froome he is so much stronger than his rivals.

Yes, he still has a good advantage with more mountains and another TT to go.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Yes, he still has a good advantage with more mountains and another TT to go.

Yes I expect him to have almost 4 minutes on Contador on the second rest day... and 3'30" on mollema.

 

[argyllflyer]

This was Sunday's stage all over again - Froome left isolated by weakness in his own team. His interview afterwards seemed to hint at where he thought it had gone wrong, people switching off. When Saxo put the foot down, Cav was the last person ahead of him to make the jump across (and he himself said he made it only just with a sprint) - where was everybody else? I'm sure he was radioing to find out where his team was, as opposed to saying "Dave, can I chase this group down?"