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Well in that Giro he shipped gobs of time in mountains and truly seemed down and out until the last tt.
Yes but that was one bad race after a few good ones just before. Froome has no real good results to show for during his 3 year streak of bad (compared to the level he and other are talking about), so the comparison between Lemond post-accident and Froome post-accident is therefore really bad.
On another note:
Lemonds giro performance in '89 is quite similar to Ullrich Giro performance in '06. Shame we didn't get to see Ullrich in the Tour that year.
You are simply wrong about 2014 Contador, as Perico has also demonstrated. Saying as proof of your argument he "couldn't even beat Talansky at the Dauphine" only evidences a lack of perspective. For the American didn't win that GC on strength, but botched team tactics. At a rate, Contador strategically started that race undercooked, like Nibali for that matter (even moreso), but still only lost about 10 secs to Froome in the opening tt and was not dropped by him on the first mtf, only to drill It with a searing attack in a subsequent stage. No, Contador was on fire that year as his magnificent Vuelta win further confirmed.
It's not really bad, as both accidents were apparently life-threatening. I will concede you are right about Froome's even poorer performances afterward, but 88 Lemond was nearly as bad if not as bad (he says due to overtraining, but if he were overtrained it was also because his body evidently just could not yet handle the workload). The point I think is that Lemond could get back to the highest level, whereas Froome thus far (after 3 years) has not.
And Lemond wasn't returning to racing at 35 but 25.
The week before returning to Europe, he went turkey hunting on a ranch co-owned by his father in Lincoln, California. LeMond was with Rodney Barber and Patrick Blades, his uncle and brother-in-law.[62][63][64] The trio had become separated when Blades, who heard movement behind him, turned and fired through a bush.[62] The movement had come from LeMond, who was hit in his back and right side with approximately 60 pellets.[65][66] LeMond's injuries were life-threatening, but a police helicopter was already airborne near the scene and transported LeMond on a 15-minute air medical flight to the Medical Center at University of California-Davis. LeMond was taken for emergency surgery. He had suffered a pneumothorax to his right lung and extensive bleeding, having lost some 65 percent of his blood volume.[67] A physician informed LeMond later that he had been within 20 minutes of bleeding to death.[68] The operation saved his life, but four months later he developed a small bowel obstruction due to adhesions that had formed following the shooting.[69] He underwent another surgery to relieve the obstruction and take down the adhesions. Concerned that his team would drop him if they knew the shooting accident required a second surgery, LeMond asked the surgeons to remove his appendix at the same time. He then informed his team that he had had his appendix removed, but the rest of the story was left somewhat vague.[70] The events effectively ended his 1987 season, and in October he announced he would return to serious competition the following February, with the Dutch PDM team.[71]
With 35 shotgun pellets still in his body, including three in the lining of his heart and five more embedded in his liver, LeMond attempted to return to racing in 1988.[62] His comeback was hampered by over-training which resulted in tendonitis in his right shin requiring surgery. He missed the Tour for the second year running.
Lucky he survived.
I asked former racing pro Chris Horner what he thought of Froome's form so far during the Dauphine. His response is below.
Chris Horner: "I think it is improving certainly. He’s still missing massive watts though to be at his old self. That said, when you see this kind of improvement, there could be more coming."
Chris Horner: "I think it is improving certainly. He’s still missing massive watts though to be at his old self. That said, when you see this kind of improvement, there could be more coming."
Definitely! Without drugs, most males are at their peak physical power from age 27 to 32 years old.
Quite bad ITT so far. Like all year. Seems like endurance is there but sustained power is still severly missing.
He is lacking in raw watts however he is the same time behind Vingegaard as he was in the Dauphine ITT last year which was half as long.
sorry but not cracking the top 50 is just not good. more proof coming stages 7 and especially 8
Just doesn't have the power any more, which has been evident since the accident. Guessing it's due to muscle damage from the accident plus increasing age.
So what can he realistically aim for as long term goal? A multi-mountain stage from a break at a GT?
Bonimenier
BANNED
Not the best day for him, but not the worst either.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCTunqv1Xt4
| 64 |
| Israel-Premier Tech | + 03:06 | | |
| 65 | 
| Trek-Segafredo | + 03:07 | | |
| 66 | 
| Israel-Premier Tech | + 03:08 | |
Reading the latest comments I assumed Chris Froome's TT today at the Dauphine was an absolute disaster.
It wasn't.
Decent times today were within 38.00mins and Froome was outside that at 38.38mins.
Not great admittedly, but not poor either.
He had the best time on his Israel team, two seconds better than their own national TT champion.
Yes, we know he is down on power, Chris Froome says that himself, but do we really need the pile-on when he fails to match the performances of the top riders?
It wasn't.
Decent times today were within 38.00mins and Froome was outside that at 38.38mins.
Not great admittedly, but not poor either.
He had the best time on his Israel team, two seconds better than their own national TT champion.
Yes, we know he is down on power, Chris Froome says that himself, but do we really need the pile-on when he fails to match the performances of the top riders?
To be fair to him though, he did lose a lot less time to Geschke than in Romandie. If he finishes 38 or better in this race, that is not that bad at all.
You need to take 1'30 off that time cause he was riding on a Factor bike.
Well, it all depends on where you put the bar.
If you're talking about Froome ever being capable of getting any sort of good result on top level again, then performances like today is a very bad sign. You say "decent times today were within 38.00mins". Esteban Chaves did 38.00. It says a lot on how bad Froome is now when you indicate doing the same time as Esteban Chaves in a 30 km flat ITT would be good. Because this isn't about "pile-on when he fails to match the performances of the top riders". He is nowhere near the top riders. Today he is not even near riders like Meintjes and Chaves in a flat TT.
But he was the best placed on his team so that’s good.
In my opinion it was. Since recent results indicated an overall increase in performance, one could hope for a gain in shorter-term power as well. He finished a flatish TT at the same time as Kenny Elissonde. Back in his days, Froome was a winner of GT ITTs. Thats two different galaxies and he will never overcome that. And as indicated in the first sentence - I am now again fully convinced that whenever explosiveness/power matters he will continue to be bad. The improvements are all based on a good level on resistance and endurance. Very much also corresponds to holding the group in Classic Alpes-Maritimes but as soon as attacks started he was gone.
Won the close battle with Omer Goldstein.
But in the end this might indeed be important in some sense. I think it looks quite good for his TdF spot.
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