Teams & Riders Chris Froome Discussion Thread.

[djpbaltimore]

You did? Well then you probably haven't read many of his posts.

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

I seem to remember him saying he was aiming to do the vuelta as well, if so he wont peak before week 3.

Would be hilarious if he managed to do the double, without all of that PR crap. Done previously only by 2 riders in history and not since 1978 so 20 years longer than Giro- Tour (6 cyclists have done that). Doubt the Tour winner will ride the Vuelta though

Very difficult to do the double Tour-Vuelta the same year, becouse in the Vuelta are better contenders than in the Giro, but this is a question that depend on every year...some year could be amazing to be second in the Giro and other year coudl be not very impressive to win. And the Vuelta the same.

But is expecially difficult the first year, now Froome has experience and he is a best rider, so he caqn be at a similar level than in the Tour. Landa or Purito could put him in some problems on the mountains, but he has the ITT at the end, it is a very good ITT for him, it is a route I use to ride. Later thre are some tactical stages, but if he has a minute after the ITT he should win.

For people that came from le Giro as Landa an Aru Vuelta shoudl be less demanding, but he can.

Nobody has won Tour-Vuelta. it would be historic.. but as i said that kind of stedistics are not important, palmares, doubles, importante is how somebody win... I remember Indurain not becouse he won 5 Tour or 3 giros, but becouse he put big difference to his rivals, he showed hewan the best, and you can show that in just one year, althoug other riders got more victories.

Anquetil and Hinault have.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Still a really long way to go but not even I could have imagined Froome would be in this position after the cobbled stage. I thought he would be behind at this point and needing to gain time but instead we have:

Froome
TVG + 13
Uran + 34
Contador +36
Nibali + 1.38
Valverde 1.51
Quintana +1.56
Purito + 2.00

With the rest over 3 minutes and more behind.

 

[Taxus4a]

Re: Re:

I seem to remember him saying he was aiming to do the vuelta as well, if so he wont peak before week 3.

Would be hilarious if he managed to do the double, without all of that PR crap. Done previously only by 2 riders in history and not since 1978 so 20 years longer than Giro- Tour (6 cyclists have done that). Doubt the Tour winner will ride the Vuelta though

Very difficult to do the double Tour-Vuelta the same year, becouse in the Vuelta are better contenders than in the Giro, but this is a question that depend on every year...some year could be amazing to be second in the Giro and other year coudl be not very impressive to win. And the Vuelta the same.

But is expecially difficult the first year, now Froome has experience and he is a best rider, so he caqn be at a similar level than in the Tour. Landa or Purito could put him in some problems on the mountains, but he has the ITT at the end, it is a very good ITT for him, it is a route I use to ride. Later thre are some tactical stages, but if he has a minute after the ITT he should win.

For people that came from le Giro as Landa an Aru Vuelta shoudl be less demanding, but he can.

Nobody has won Tour-Vuelta. it would be historic.. but as i said that kind of stedistics are not important, palmares, doubles, importante is how somebody win... I remember Indurain not becouse he won 5 Tour or 3 giros, but becouse he put big difference to his rivals, he showed hewan the best, and you can show that in just one year, althoug other riders got more victories.

Anquetil and Hinault have.

No, they did Vuelta-Tour, that is like Giro-Tour but easier, becouse there was 2 months for april to July, but not Tour-Vuelta.



Looking again the stage there is an amazing moment from Froome at 9 Km form the finish.

He were in an samll group at the front with Thomas working...Behind the groups of the main favourites was comanded for Sagan, who did a great job.

And suddenly, with 9 Km, FROOME ATTACKED, ´really strong attack, but Van Avermaet is an strong rider for a stage with cobbles and almost an sprinter so he managed to chase him, although no easy, but without that froome could have done the same than Tony but from far, Sagan alone impossible to chase him, with more people working, maybe yes, but it would have been really funny.

He is not just the stronger rider I have seen race in the time I was watching cycling this last 30 years , but the more brave and amazing, he try things maybe without lot of sense, but full of ambition.

 

[ILovecycling]

Re:

Still a really long way to go but not even I could have imagined Froome would be in this position after the cobbled stage. I thought he would be behind at this point and needing to gain time but instead we have:

Froome
TVG + 13
Uran + 34
Contador +36
Nibali + 1.38
Valverde 1.51
Quintana +1.56
Purito + 2.00

With the rest over 3 minutes and more behind.

Yep, great position for Froome, if he avoids crashing till TTT, then it will depend only on his real (climbing) form.Looks better than I thought.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

Still a really long way to go but not even I could have imagined Froome would be in this position after the cobbled stage. I thought he would be behind at this point and needing to gain time but instead we have:

Froome
TVG + 13
Uran + 34
Contador +36
Nibali + 1.38
Valverde 1.51
Quintana +1.56
Purito + 2.00

With the rest over 3 minutes and more behind.

Yep, great position for Froome, if he avoids crashing till TTT, then it will depend only on his real (climbing) form.Looks better than I thought.

Yes, even if the gaps stay similar to stage 9 we could be on for a great race in the mountains. Quintana and Nibali will have to be very risky and try and take back big time. Contador isn't too far behind and im sure he will find his best come the 3rd week.
Froome has said all along he aims to peak during the mountains, if that is the case then I believe it will take a very special effort to beat him.

 

[Pantani Attacks]

That probability graphic is absolutely hilarious in how flawed it is!

 

[BrentonOfTheNorth]

Re:

That probability graphic is absolutely hilarious in how flawed it is!

Could you explain?

 

[TMP402]

Are people sure this isn't just left over talk from when he said he'd do Giro-Vuelta because the Tour lacked any real ITT? Either way, when he rode the Tour-Vuelta double in 2012, the GC top ten was

• 1 Alberto Contador (ESP) 84h 59' 49"
  2 Alejandro Valverde (ESP) + 1' 16"
  3 Joaquim Rodríguez (ESP) + 1' 37"
  4 Chris Froome (GBR) + 10' 16"
  5 Daniel Moreno (ESP) + 11' 29"
  6 Robert Gesink (NED) + 12' 23"
  7 Andrew Talansky (USA) + 13' 28"
  8 Laurens ten Dam (NED) + 13' 41"
  9 Igor Antón (ESP) + 14' 01"
  10 Beñat Intxausti (ESP) + 16' 13"

His team then was a mixed bag: Flecha, Henao, Pate, Uran, Zandio, Swift, Stannard and Porte.

I imagine the team this time would be Sitsov, Knees, Kiryenka, Henao, Nieve, and any combination of Boswell/Lopez/Deignan/ Poels, which would be a pretty considerable team if I'm right. Maybe they'll confuse things by taking an Eisel/Puccio/Swift/Viviani sprint team but I guess not if Froome is seriously aiming for it.

Most people think Valverde is doing the Vuelta as usual. I can't see how Contador could do it if he was too tired to win the Tour. Rodriguez has declined. Quintana may seek redemption, but if Landa is going for it does Nibali want or need to?

There are 39km ITT + 7km TTT this year, compared to 39km ITT + 16km TTT in 2012, so neglible advantage for Froome in terms of time-trialling, although obviously that should still be an advantage over Landa. I wonder if Kelderman will withdraw soon and aim for the Vuelta, being 10 minutes down.

 

[Vasilis]

I think Kelderman could go to the Vuelta even without abandoning the Tour, it won't be as energy sapping for him now he doesn't need to fight for GC, although they may want to protect him from overracing at his age.

 

[Brullnux]

Tour-Vuelta is hard. You only have 3 weeks to recover, something which is even more of a factor this year with so many big mountain stages in week 2. Froome won't do it unless he has to, i.e a DNF in the tour or not a podium. If he wins it then I doubt very much him going to the Vuelta.

 

[ray j willings]

Re:

Still a really long way to go but not even I could have imagined Froome would be in this position after the cobbled stage. I thought he would be behind at this point and needing to gain time but instead we have:

Froome
TVG + 13
Uran + 34
Contador +36
Nibali + 1.38
Valverde 1.51
Quintana +1.56
Purito + 2.00

With the rest over 3 minutes and more behind.

For some reason most posters thought the main GC contenders would lose time today.
Bertie only lost time last year because of a mech fault " stuck in a bad gear"
I think Froome yesterday proved that he has prepared well and has geared his training to get time when not expected. He Looked pretty good in the sprint the other day as well.
I think its a good use of great form. Use it while you can. It will be interesting to see if he has his usual bad day or 2 in the mountains. These little times gaps he so far has got "could be more to come" could end up making all the difference. We saw in the vuelta he can limit losses in the mountains by doing riding his own tempo.
He may end up not having a bad day and the tour could already be over for Nibs and Quintana already.
Early days lets see how the weekend goes.

 

[Taxus4a]

Re:

Tour-Vuelta is hard. You only have 3 weeks to recover, something which is even more of a factor this year with so many big mountain stages in week 2. Froome won't do it unless he has to, i.e a DNF in the tour or not a podium. If he wins it then I doubt very much him going to the Vuelta.

Froome said to the Vuelta he will be there if there is a normal ITT, and there is one, 39 Km at the end, the minimun a serious race has to put, except as this year, le Tour has windy stages, cobbles, etc.. in first week.

Pinot would have prefered lees first week and 50 km ITt at the end, becouse he did very well last year in that ITT, and he showed this year he is not bad in ITT... but this stages where you must to be well posistioning always you depend too much of the team and in general are no good for pure climbers, although Quintana and Purito are do'ing very well.

I dindt know Purito wanst in the Vuelta, as he help to design hard Andorra stage...

To double seriously Tour-Vuelta to fight in both of them for GC is demanding, and he is not so young now.

With Quintana, Landa, Froome, Aru, Batancur (who is recovered) and for sure others competitive riders who are now in le Tour, will be a great race. For Saxo.. maybe Majka? He wasted all the team in that media campaign Giro-Tour double

 

[Pricey_sky]

I don't get this about Froome still wanting to go to the Veulta because of the iTT, he has said after stage 1 he has hardly spent any time on the TT bike this year as there is no point.

If he goes to the Vuelta (which I doubt he will unless he abandons Tour) then it will be to test himself and go for the glory.

 

[TMP402]

Re:

I don't get this about Froome still wanting to go to the Veulta because of the iTT, he has said after stage 1 he has hardly spent any time on the TT bike this year as there is no point.

If he goes to the Vuelta (which I doubt he will unless he abandons Tour) then it will be to test himself and go for the glory.

So it's probably the case that Froome just made hints at doing the Giro-Vuelta when he saw the Tour route, in which case there's nothing to worry about.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Still a really long way to go but not even I could have imagined Froome would be in this position after the cobbled stage. I thought he would be behind at this point and needing to gain time but instead we have:

Froome
TVG + 13
Uran + 34
Contador +36
Nibali + 1.38
Valverde 1.51
Quintana +1.56
Purito + 2.00

With the rest over 3 minutes and more behind.

It's worked really well so far for Froome. Sky did a great team job for Froome especially Thomas over the final kms. Most of the GC contenders seemed just happy to survive and only Nibali was trying to get a gap and get off the front even though Froome and Thomas had a gap towards the finish but no one was serlous about really pushing on.

Except for Pinot's collapse due to mechanicals mainly, the stage was pretty undramatic. Sky handed off the jersey and Martin got a popular win. If Froome gets to the mountain in the same position he will obviously be very happy. I think the cobbles every few years is not a bad thing but as yesterday's stage showed, even the cobbles won't always make for a dramatic stage.

 

[cantpedal]

Re: Re:

How can one watch Froome ride a bike without getting physically ill? Need advice.

There are any!

maybe he'll share some of his champagne with you on the way into Paris??

 

[Taxus4a]

Re: Re:

Still a really long way to go but not even I could have imagined Froome would be in this position after the cobbled stage. I thought he would be behind at this point and needing to gain time but instead we have:

Froome
TVG + 13
Uran + 34
Contador +36
Nibali + 1.38
Valverde 1.51
Quintana +1.56
Purito + 2.00

With the rest over 3 minutes and more behind.

It's worked really well so far for Froome. Sky did a great team job for Froome especially Thomas over the final kms. Most of the GC contenders seemed just happy to survive and only Nibali was trying to get a gap and get off the front even though Froome and Thomas had a gap towards the finish but no one was serlous about really pushing on.

Except for Pinot's collapse due to mechanicals mainly, the stage was pretty undramatic. Sky handed off the jersey and Martin got a popular win. If Froome gets to the mountain in the same position he will obviously be very happy. I think the cobbles every few years is not a bad thing but as yesterday's stage showed, even the cobbles won't always make for a dramatic stage.

Froome attacked at 9 km of the finish line and was alone head of the race.

But yes, just Froome, and especially Nibali tried to take advantage, the rest to survive, it is normal.

A dramatic stage is anyone twith an important crash, as yesterday, coblles increase the risk of a crash, but with good luck and strong teams everybody can save the stage... but Quintana raced 2 coblestone races to be ready.

For me is better like this, no crash, no important gaps... just Pinot losed time, he need to attack from far in the mountains, that is ok.

This is not a bad situation for Movistar, if Valverde attack sky must work hard. But SKy has a very strong team

 

[Angliru]

Re: Re:

Tour-Vuelta is hard. You only have 3 weeks to recover, something which is even more of a factor this year with so many big mountain stages in week 2. Froome won't do it unless he has to, i.e a DNF in the tour or not a podium. If he wins it then I doubt very much him going to the Vuelta.

Froome said to the Vuelta he will be there if there is a normal ITT, and there is one, 39 Km at the end, the minimun a serious race has to put, except as this year, le Tour has windy stages, cobbles, etc.. in first week.

Pinot would have prefered lees first week and 50 km ITt at the end, becouse he did very well last year in that ITT, and he showed this year he is not bad in ITT... but this stages where you must to be well posistioning always you depend too much of the team and in general are no good for pure climbers, although Quintana and Purito are do'ing very well.

I dindt know Purito wanst in the Vuelta, as he help to design hard Andorra stage...

To double seriously Tour-Vuelta to fight in both of them for GC is demanding, and he is not so young now.

With Quintana, Landa, Froome, Aru, Batancur (who is recovered) and for sure others competitive riders who are now in le Tour, will be a great race. For Saxo.. maybe Majka? He wasted all the team in that media campaign Giro-Tour double

Froome has stated that he doesn't think he is capable of competing for the podium in consecutive grand tours, based on his only attempt in 2012. By the 3rd week he was toast.

 

[dacooley]

froome not winning the race is supposedly salvation for the tour. funniest thing i've read on here

if he avoids crashing till TTT, then it will depend only on his real (climbing) form.Looks better than I thought.

it will depend on many things quintana's form included. if nairito steps up compared to the 2013 tour, that will be very difficult for froome to hold his 2 min lead. nibali's condition is under big doubt. bertie - i don't know. this year doesnt look like the season he can reach a tip top form (thus far). i fear the giro required a far larger effort than planned

 

[cellardoor]

Seems early to start talking about a Tour-Vuelta double. I guess he'll assess the situation after the Tour based on how he feels. One thing in it's favour is that the Vuelta will have a relatively weak field with all of the big guns at the Tour this year.

 

[rick james]

I just can't seem him going for the Vuelta if he finishes off this tour..

 

[DBotero]

Well after reading the clinic part of the forum,talking again about the riding position,style and the PR crap it shows that Froome is doing very good indeed.I hope for some insane performance in the mountains.Normally i wouldn't mind a TDF win for Nibali/Quintana,but a Froome win will be priceless just to see those people reaction.

 

[phanatic]

Re: Re:

And suddenly, with 9 Km, FROOME ATTACKED, ´really strong attack, but Van Avermaet is an strong rider for a stage with cobbles and almost an sprinter so he managed to chase him, although no easy, but without that froome could have done the same than Tony but from far, Sagan alone impossible to chase him, with more people working, maybe yes, but it would have been really funny.

He is not just the stronger rider I have seen race in the time I was watching cycling this last 30 years , but the more brave and amazing, he try things maybe without lot of sense, but full of ambition.

That was a great attempt. I thought 2013 Froome was lost, but he seems to be back in top form. It is looking really good for him right now.

 

[DBotero]