Teams & Riders Chris Froome Discussion Thread.

[thehook]

Re:

You can't please Sky haters.

Biggest question mark lays over BMC, who could have put minutes more into Quintana and Nibali had they committed their numbers to the front.

Correct BMC had 1 man pulling. And 2 others in the back with TJ. They never sent up another man until under 10k to go. I think.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

Why did Froome not want to take more time? Makes 0 sense to me.

Very good tactics. Burn out Stannard and G for ~10 seconds, and be completely f*ed if he got a puncture. Not sure why BMC didn't start riding earlier but Sky rode a perfect race today

Rule #1 of cycling you try to take as much time as possible on your rivals for GC (unless you're already 10 minutes ahead). Stannard and Thomas aren't some shitty riders, a few turns wouldn't have burnt them out. Bennati, Rogers and Kreuziger, and Stybar and Kwiatkowski (won't mention Tony because he's a machine) did loads of turns and only got dropped with a few 100m to go or because of a mechanical (Bennati). You're not going to convince me that Yogi and G are worse on the flat than Kreuziger and Rogers.

Don't worry though, I thought BMC's tactics were just as questionable.

Well (possibly after a pull on the front, too) Stannard was being dropped at the back and having to sprint to stay on several times in the last 15km, and indeed Stannard finished with Stybar and Kwaitkowski 15 seconds after Greipel, so he really only had Thomas - who had crashed and come off his bike earlier in the day, and who finished 4 seconds down. I don't understand criticism of Sky and I think BMC could easily have worked towards another minute lead and the questions should be for them.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

What a day for Froome. Gained time on all of his GC rivals, whilst his team did less work than any of them. And I thought this was the team with no race smarts.

 

[Brullnux]

What a day for Froome. Gained time on all of his GC rivals, whilst his team did less work than any of them. And I thought this was the team with no race smarts.

They are a team with no race smarts for a reason mentioned above in your own post. If they had done more then the gap could be 2 or 3 minutes. Pretty dumb if you ask me

 

[King Of The Wolds]

What a day for Froome. Gained time on all of his GC rivals, whilst his team did less work than any of them. And I thought this was the team with no race smarts.

They are a team with no race smarts for a reason mentioned above in your own post. If they had done more then the gap could be 2 or 3 minutes. Pretty dumb if you ask me

Stannard did some work and was completely cooked at the end. G's a monster, but worth another minute and a half? They played the percentages. They could have used G and gained another 10 or 20 secs but that potential reward wasn't worth the risk of Froome being isolated if problems occurred. And if you have the best all round dom in the Tour, it makes sense to save him for more important moments - again, risk and reward.

 

[Richeypen]

What a day for Froome. Gained time on all of his GC rivals, whilst his team did less work than any of them. And I thought this was the team with no race smarts.

They are a team with no race smarts for a reason mentioned above in your own post. If they had done more then the gap could be 2 or 3 minutes. Pretty dumb if you ask me

Stannard did some work and was completely cooked at the end. G's a monster, but worth another minute and a half? They played the percentages. They could have used G and gained another 10 or 20 secs but that potential reward wasn't worth the risk of Froome being isolated if problems occurred. And if you have the best all round dom in the Tour, it makes sense to save him for more important moments - again, risk and reward.

^^^ This

 

[Walkman]

What a day for Froome. Gained time on all of his GC rivals, whilst his team did less work than any of them. And I thought this was the team with no race smarts.

They are a team with no race smarts for a reason mentioned above in your own post. If they had done more then the gap could be 2 or 3 minutes. Pretty dumb if you ask me

Stannard did some work and was completely cooked at the end. G's a monster, but worth another minute and a half? They played the percentages. They could have used G and gained another 10 or 20 secs but that potential reward wasn't worth the risk of Froome being isolated if problems occurred. And if you have the best all round dom in the Tour, it makes sense to save him for more important moments - again, risk and reward.

Agreed.

Pretty perfect for SKY today. Spent little energy and got a great result. I am not surprised that they didn't want to push it. I think, for SKY, it's all about controlling the first week. Avoid crashes and, if possible, take some time on your rivals. The main thing, as I see it, is to deliver a healthy and strong team to the TTT and then let Froome fight it out in the mountains.

 

[Jspear]

I'll just congratulate Froome for making the split. Guess he learned from 2013.

 

[LaFlorecita]

What a day for Froome. Gained time on all of his GC rivals, whilst his team did less work than any of them. And I thought this was the team with no race smarts.

They are a team with no race smarts for a reason mentioned above in your own post. If they had done more then the gap could be 2 or 3 minutes. Pretty dumb if you ask me

Exactly my point. Makes no sense.

 

[blackmamba]

As usual the tactic of sky is awfull like always......

Why not use thomas to gain time ? its the perfect scenario they coulda hoped for and if not use the riders here why the hell even bring riders Nothing new tho so im not surprised lets see if it comes around biting em in the ass

 

[HelloDolly]

SKY rode tactically very well given their numbers ... And as stated before by Froome his main rival is Contador .So if he used his 2 men then could ahve lost time to Contador who had 4 men if he crashed, punctured or more echelons . Simple and effective tactic. In the end its about wining

 

[djpbaltimore]

I don't see how 2 riders would make all that much of a difference in the pace of the front group. And 1.5 mins is totally unrealistic. If they had 5-6 riders, I would be much more inclined to agree that they used bad tactics. But being outnumbered in the group, I think riding along with Froome was the best use of Thomas and Stannard. You don't want to burn all your matches too early.

EDIT. Only in this forum can SKY gain time on all their GC rivals and be called horrible tactically.

 

[Dog]

Indeed. I do despair at the intelligence of some people when Sky gain time on all their major GC rivals and yet their tactics are deemed "awful". Even if Thomas and Stannard were some kind of monsters and managed to gain another 30s, it doesn't make sense to burn them out when there are some important stages coming up where Froome will need their help.

 

[Miburo]

Froome didn't use his team cause he was scared for further echelons, can't blame him for that honestly. Besides i don't think that highly of him to think he would go ham with his team, froome only does that in the mountains, he was prob way too scared to even think of distancing his opponents and maybe thought contador wanted to trap him by using his teammates

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Froome got perhaps a bit lucky today, but man tactically Sky really are clueless.

 

[djpbaltimore]

It seems like they were at the front of the race during both echelon splits, suggesting they were on their toes when it counted. The best luck in the tour is sometimes preparedness.

 

[del1962]

Re:

Froome got perhaps a bit lucky today, but man tactically Sky really are clueless.

I don't think it was luck but great work from Yogi and G to keep Froome well positioned which is hardly tacticly clueless either

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

Del is right:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/cycling/article4488684.ece

tactical masterclass by Servais Knaven...

 

[rick james]

Only Froome could take a load of time out his rivas but still get called awfull

 

[perico]

Great ride today by Froome. He showed good instincts.

 

[Hakkapelit]

Jan Stanards took some pulls, but was almost shelled out afterwards, i dont think it was clueless to spare G in the extent they did. Hadn't Benna and Sagan punctured they could have been in a nasty numerical disadvantage.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Re: Re:

Froome got perhaps a bit lucky today, but man tactically Sky really are clueless.

I don't think it was luck but great work from Yogi and G to keep Froome well positioned which is hardly tacticly clueless either

Riding near the front boils down to strength and a bit of luck. Everybody knows what to do...

But failing to take advantage of the split early with resources screams lack of tactical sense.

Same with BMC.

I guess these guys needs to be told by mom what to do.

 

[perico]

Re:

Only Froome could take a load of time out his rivas but still get called awfull

4 seconds is not much if Contador hits his stride. I say that as a fan looking forward to a repeat of the Vuelta battle, with the two most talented riders fighting it out all the way to the alpe. It doesn't matter to me much as to who is 1 or 2. I look forward to seeing the battle we missed out on last year. Neither has looked perfect thus far. Even with concentration elsewhere Froome should've been much better yesterday, so I'm not sold that either is at their peak yet, but I don't think Nibali can drop either Froome or AC in the mountains, nor do I think he will be able to put 2 minutes into the GC favorites two years in a row on the cobbles.

 

[Forunculo]

Froome is a better cyclist now than 2 year ago. I have never understood some criticism on this bike rider who tries to be more efficient every season.

 

[SeriousSam]

It's confirmation bias. Do nothing but reverse Nibali and Froome's position today and it would by many be interpreted as confirming that Froome has no racing instinct and can't control his bike, whereas Nibali is the wily, sharp racer who smelled blood and opportunistically gained time like he always does.

As I'm thinking Froome will have the highest power to weight ratio later on, it's unfortunate that he gained such a large amount of time on Quintana and Nibali today. However, if there is one thing Froome doesn't do, it's defensive riding in the mountains, so perhaps the damage to the entertainment should Froome rich the high mountains with a non negligible lead over the others isn't as big as it might have been. Still, parity is better than dominance, and Froome is now more likely to win the Tour than anyone has been at any point in time. Bad result for my enjoyment of the Tour.