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Teams & Riders Chris Froome Discussion Thread.

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Is Froome over the hill?

  • Yes.

    Votes: 26 35.1%
  • No, the GC finished 40 minutes ago but Froomie is still climbing it

    Votes: 42 56.8%
  • No he is totally winning the Vuelta

    Votes: 17 23.0%

  • Total voters
    74
Re: Re:

damian13ster said:
The thing is: you never know whether they are in a top shape. If Contador loses, people will claim it was because he was not in best shape. If Froome loses.... it will be exactly the same

Agreed. This is the heart of so many disagreements here and elsewhere. Rider 'X' is the best in the world at doing 'Y', but was beaten by Rider 'Z'. Ergo, Rider 'X' was not on top form, because beating everybody is the definition of being on top form.

Another problem is people applying small samples sizes to predict future events with total certainty. Froome was pretty impressive in 2012 in the third week of the TDF, yet everybody wants to focus on 2013 and 2015. Considering there is not a Pailheres/A3D or PSM MTF finish early in the race to try to stamp his authority on, I would not expect Froome to intentionally peak early as in past years.
 
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Re: Re:

djpbaltimore said:
damian13ster said:
The thing is: you never know whether they are in a top shape. If Contador loses, people will claim it was because he was not in best shape. If Froome loses.... it will be exactly the same

Agreed. This is the heart of so many disagreements here and elsewhere. Rider 'X' is the best in the world at doing 'Y', but was beaten by Rider 'Z'. Ergo, Rider 'X' was not on top form, because beating everybody is the definition of being on top form.

Another problem is people applying small samples sizes to predict future events with total certainty. Froome was pretty impressive in 2012 in the third week of the TDF, yet everybody wants to focus on 2013 and 2015. Considering there is not a Pailheres/A3D or PSM MTF finish early in the race to try to stamp his authority on, I would not expect Froome to intentionally peak early as in past years.
Agree on Froome third week, in 2011 VUELTA as well better towards end. I also don't think 2013 towards end that bad just Quintana and Rodriguez were phenemanl. Froome didn't really decline. AS for this year maybe ill? What's more he was very good from week 1 to week 2. Think he will back off this year and be good week 2 peak around Vntoux and hold on ALps.
 
Aug 31, 2012
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I wonder whether the relative edges he had over competitors at Ax3 and PSM, and more generally, in 2013 and 2015 were statistically equivalent once you control for obvious differences in length of the climb etc. If so, and assuming he reached his peak in in both climbs, that would allow us to set up a baseline for the first MTF in 2016 and we could then trace how other riders fare relative to Froome with some confidence.

An instance of this type of reasoning lies behind everyone agreeing that Nibali was miles off his best in 2015. Using data we could make this a bit more precise.
 
Re: Re:

djpbaltimore said:
damian13ster said:
The thing is: you never know whether they are in a top shape. If Contador loses, people will claim it was because he was not in best shape. If Froome loses.... it will be exactly the same

Agreed. This is the heart of so many disagreements here and elsewhere. Rider 'X' is the best in the world at doing 'Y', but was beaten by Rider 'Z'. Ergo, Rider 'X' was not on top form, because beating everybody is the definition of being on top form.

Another problem is people applying small samples sizes to predict future events with total certainty. Froome was pretty impressive in 2012 in the third week of the TDF, yet everybody wants to focus on 2013 and 2015. Considering there is not a Pailheres/A3D or PSM MTF finish early in the race to try to stamp his authority on, I would not expect Froome to intentionally peak early as in past years.


For me 2012 was not a race that you can draw too much from because Froome was not the leader and was the best climber in the race by a long mile .So even if he faded it was hardly noticeable as who attacked him ? No one. ( in fact he was the only one doing any attacking :D )

Speaking of him fading in the last 3 weeks is only in relation to Contador /Quintana who were not there in 2012 (and maybe Nibali who is better than 2012) . He won't fade in comparison to others in any meaningful way and even if he does he will be too far ahead of them for it to make any difference.

It is best to draw conclusion from 2013 & 2015 as this is when he has been leader and the style and approach to riding the Tour has had a definite pattern and has included fade in the last mountain climbs. However no one is drawing conclusions with certainty (and least I am not).It just a discussion on how other could possibly go about beating Froome (as he is the favourite) and if they have the capability (I think Quintana & Contador have)
 
Re: Re:

Mayomaniac said:
Scarponi said:
What's going to happen if someone matches froome on that first mtf?
If that happens Froome needs to have the TT-skills that he had in 2013 or durning the first half of the 2014 season to gain some time. To be honest I was a little bit surprised that he faded in the 3rd week, he wasn't flying for the whole season like in 2013/2014, after Andalucia he was good but not great (for his standarts) in Romandie and got better and better durning the Dauphine, so I thought that he had learned from his previous mistakes and abbandoned the peaking for the whole season model because he wanted to avoid fading in the 3rd week. I still think that plan was to finish the Tour strong, so I wouldn't dismiss the talk about him being sick in the 3rd week.

I'm not sure why anyone would dismiss the talk about him being sick. We know Porte was ill, his best mate and also Kennaugh. Not to mention the fact that there was a lot of illness in the peloton in general.
 
Re:

dacooley said:
froome should try to sacrifice a dauphine win for staying healthy for the whole tour.

He likes to compete and bring entertainment to cycling fans (although I'm not sure why he bothers given how they treat him) and he did just that in what was another very entertaining Dauphine. Unlike others he won't hide away in his own country for months on end before the Tour.
 
Re: Re:

JRanton said:
dacooley said:
froome should try to sacrifice a dauphine win for staying healthy for the whole tour.

He likes to compete and bring entertainment to cycling fans (although I'm not sure why he bothers given how they treat him) and he did just that in what was another very entertaining Dauphine. Unlike others he won't hide away in his own country for months on end before the Tour.
No, he'll hide in the Canaries instead ;) . And I don't think "he likes to bring entertainment to cycling fans" either. If you rode competitively, you agree that it's probably the last thing in his mind on a climb.
 
Re: Re:

Tonton said:
JRanton said:
dacooley said:
froome should try to sacrifice a dauphine win for staying healthy for the whole tour.

He likes to compete and bring entertainment to cycling fans (although I'm not sure why he bothers given how they treat him) and he did just that in what was another very entertaining Dauphine. Unlike others he won't hide away in his own country for months on end before the Tour.
No, he'll hide in the Canaries instead ;) . And I don't think "he likes to bring entertainment to cycling fans" either. If you rode competitively, you agree that it's probably the last thing in his mind on a climb.

Why not? I know AC and Sagan say this alot. I'd imagine he thinks so too. No fan's - no sport.
 
Re: Re:

JRanton said:
dacooley said:
froome should try to sacrifice a dauphine win for staying healthy for the whole tour.

He likes to compete and bring entertainment to cycling fans (although I'm not sure why he bothers given how they treat him) and he did just that in what was another very entertaining Dauphine. Unlike others he won't hide away in his own country for months on end before the Tour.

It's called training.
 
Re: Re:

Jspear said:
Tonton said:
JRanton said:
dacooley said:
froome should try to sacrifice a dauphine win for staying healthy for the whole tour.

He likes to compete and bring entertainment to cycling fans (although I'm not sure why he bothers given how they treat him) and he did just that in what was another very entertaining Dauphine. Unlike others he won't hide away in his own country for months on end before the Tour.
No, he'll hide in the Canaries instead ;) . And I don't think "he likes to bring entertainment to cycling fans" either. If you rode competitively, you agree that it's probably the last thing in his mind on a climb.

Why not? I know AC and Sagan say this alot. I'd imagine he thinks so too. No fan's - no sport.
I think winning is on his mind first before any thoughts of entertaining fans comes into his head, same goes for Contador and Sagan even if they say different to the media
 
Re: Re:

StryderHells said:
Jspear said:
Tonton said:
JRanton said:
dacooley said:
froome should try to sacrifice a dauphine win for staying healthy for the whole tour.

He likes to compete and bring entertainment to cycling fans (although I'm not sure why he bothers given how they treat him) and he did just that in what was another very entertaining Dauphine. Unlike others he won't hide away in his own country for months on end before the Tour.
No, he'll hide in the Canaries instead ;) . And I don't think "he likes to bring entertainment to cycling fans" either. If you rode competitively, you agree that it's probably the last thing in his mind on a climb.

Why not? I know AC and Sagan say this alot. I'd imagine he thinks so too. No fan's - no sport.
I think winning is on his mind first before any thoughts of entertaining fans comes into his head, same goes for Contador and Sagan even if they say different to the media

Of course. I never said otherwise. :)
 
May 19, 2010
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At least Froome learned from his fashion faux pas at the Giro presentation and appeared in a proper jacket for the Tour reveal. Perhaps a little nod to Alberto as well with the light blue shirt...
 
Califootman said:
At least Froome learned from his fashion faux pas at the Giro presentation and appeared in a proper jacket for the Tour reveal. Perhaps a little nod to Alberto as well with the light blue shirt...
Yes. It still looked a bit messy and the jacket did not fit right (but Froom's measurements are probably so wonky nothing will ever fit right :D ) but at least it was a solid outfit :D
 
rick james said:
Califootman said:
At least Froome learned from his fashion faux pas at the Giro presentation and appeared in a proper jacket for the Tour reveal. Perhaps a little nod to Alberto as well with the light blue shirt...
Yes that's what he was doing when he picked a suit, he was thinking of giving a little nod to contador.

Amazing huh? Those people who always see stuff like this in anything Froome or Contador do.
 
Kwibus said:
rick james said:
Califootman said:
At least Froome learned from his fashion faux pas at the Giro presentation and appeared in a proper jacket for the Tour reveal. Perhaps a little nod to Alberto as well with the light blue shirt...
Yes that's what he was doing when he picked a suit, he was thinking of giving a little nod to contador.

Amazing huh? Those people who always see stuff like this in anything Froome or Contador do.
I think it was a joke from Califootman or maybe Froome got fashion advice from Berto :D
 
CR-mJ7MUEAAyaUq.jpg


he's fat :eek:
 

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