Teams & Riders Chris Froome Discussion Thread.

[dacooley]

Re:

Tour Vuelta is doable by like every rider who's good enough to win the Tour. Froome is getting beaten by a rider who also rode the Tour. Ergo, Quintana can certainly also do it.

Absolutely. Froome doing it is much more likely due to way more secure TT card though

 

[wwabbit]

Apparently, Froome lost time to Chaves in that last climb on Stage 15 because he did much of the pulling just before the last climb.

Froome then leaked time later in the final climb, explaining that he had "done a bit of pulling coming into the final. Again, I lost a bit of time having gone really deep the day before [stage 14 to the Aubisque] and then I lost a bit more."

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/froome-says-riders-outside-vuelta-a-espana-time-limit-should-have-remained-excluded/

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

Tour Vuelta is doable by like every rider who's good enough to win the Tour. Froome is getting beaten by a rider who also rode the Tour. Ergo, Quintana can certainly also do it.

Tour-Vuelta is doable for everybody? You think Wiggins can do it? Nibali? Definitely not. He cant win the Tour with Froome Quinti both. Contador? Naah. Who has done a 1-2 in the recent era?

Froome did the Olympics in between.
But sure, Quintana can do it too. No question. But he needs to win the Tour first.

I would've loved to see 2014 Nibali giving it a go. Only 2011 and 2012 are almost impossible. I think Contador could've done it in 2009 and 2010 with his eyes closed.

If Contador could've done it with his eyes closed, he surely would have, but he didn't, so he couldn't

Physically it's been shown that keeping a (very) good level in the Vuelta coming out of the Tour is perfectly doable. But if you won the Tour, performing so well like Froome is much harder mentally. You must be a serious lunatic not to go chill on the beach and finally enjoy your wife and kids for some time, after so many weeks and months away from home preparing for your big goal.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Tour winner, 2 Tour stages, 2nd place Vuelta, 3 Vuelta stages, Olympic ITT Bronze. Incredible season, best one yet

 

[MatParker117]

Lost it on stage 15.

 

[silvergrenade]

Great Rider!
Amazing Season!
Great Fighter!
Thanks for all the crazy moments Chris!

 

[JRanton]

Re:

Lost it on stage 15.

Certainly lost his chance there. Can't say for sure how that stage and the others would have played out without that early attack of course.

It's obviously extremely difficult to put time into Quintana on climbs when he's in good form. He still has advantages of course. Time trials and flat windy stages.

 

[DFA123]

Great season by Froome , probably the most impressive by a GT rider since Pantani. Slightly disappointed that he and his team weren't a bit more creative today, but Quintana looked too strong on the last climb anyway.

Anyone know if he ends the season now or will be trying any of the Italian classics? If there is one one-day race which he could win, it's Milan-Torino.

 

[Matteo.]

Re:

Lost it on stage 15.

It's a pity. The double was never so close since Pantani. Quintana deserves the Vuelta , but Chris too.

 

[silvergrenade]

Re:

Great season by Froome , probably the most impressive by a GT rider since Pantani. Slightly disappointed that he and his team weren't a bit more creative today, but Quintana looked too strong on the last climb anyway.

Anyone know if he ends the season now or will be trying any of the Italian classics? If there is one one-day race which he could win, it's Milan-Torino.

His season is over after this Vuelta.

 

[Andro]

Re: Re:

Lost it on stage 15.

It's a pity. The double was never so close since Pantani. Quintana deserves the Vuelta , but Chris too.

Basso would most likely have done the double in 2006 if he didn't get pulled out of the Tour.

 

[Matteo.]

Re: Re:

Lost it on stage 15.

It's a pity. The double was never so close since Pantani. Quintana deserves the Vuelta , but Chris too.

Basso would most likely have done the double in 2006 if he didn't get pulled out of the Tour.

It's not the same thing , absolutely. He didn't ride the tour 2006. A similar case could be Contador 2009 or an Armstrong in his era

 

[hrotha]

Immensely disappointing today. He was never going to make it on the final climb alone. Half-arsing some attacks with as little as 200 m just for show can't change the fact that he didn't dare give it a proper go once his initial descending attacks didn't work out.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Or maybe he just wasn't strong enough to drop the strongest climber in the race?

 

[hrotha]

Re:

Or maybe he just wasn't strong enough to drop the strongest climber in the race?

If he wasn't strong enough to drop the strongest climber in the race in a straight fight (and everybody knows he wasn't), why did he gamble everything on being able to do just that?

Answer: because he didn't want to take risks.

 

[Flamin]

Please enlighten us what he could have done. Attack 4 Movistars on the flat maybe?

 

[silvergrenade]

Re:

Please enlighten us what he could have done. Attack 4 Movistars on the flat maybe?

+10000000

 

[hrotha]

Keep up what they were doing before they sat up. Failing that, set up as high a pace as they could muster in an attempt to burn Quintana out and to catch the break (thus opening up the possibility of taking some bonus seconds if things went well).

 

[kenk09]

His ONLY chance was to make it Froome vs Quintana on the final climb, and hope Quintana was weak. Movistar were not letting him go at any other point.

 

[Flamin]

Re:

Keep up what they were doing before they sat up. Failing that, set up as high a pace as they could muster in an attempt to burn Quintana out and to catch the break (thus opening up the possibility of taking some bonus seconds if things went well).

Set up a high pace with who? Once Orica upped it, everyone bar König was gone.

 

[silvergrenade]

Re:

Keep up what they were doing before they sat up. Failing that, set up as high a pace as they could muster in an attempt to burn Quintana out and to catch the break (thus opening up the possibility of taking some bonus seconds if things went well).

His team wasnt strong enough. He'd have been left alone by 50 K still left to go.
You want him to work on the flat so he loses his second place as well?

 

[DFA123]

His ONLY chance was to make it Froome vs Quintana on the final climb, and hope Quintana was weak. Movistar were not letting him go at any other point.

That was the only way he had absolutely no chance of winning. Quintana has outclimbed him pretty comfortably all race - he was never going to be able to drop him and gain over a minute on one climb.

He had to create chaos well before the last climb. Not some half-hearted effort 50km into the stage, then doing nothing for the next 120km.

I can understand that he didn't want to risk everything and possibly jeopordize his 2nd place - but still a bit disappointed he didn't try.

 

[silvergrenade]

Re: Re:

Keep up what they were doing before they sat up. Failing that, set up as high a pace as they could muster in an attempt to burn Quintana out and to catch the break (thus opening up the possibility of taking some bonus seconds if things went well).

Set up a high pace with who? Once Orica upped it, everyone bar König was gone.

+10000000

 

[roundabout]

Re: Re:

Keep up what they were doing before they sat up. Failing that, set up as high a pace as they could muster in an attempt to burn Quintana out and to catch the break (thus opening up the possibility of taking some bonus seconds if things went well).

Set up a high pace with who? Once Orica upped it, everyone bar König was gone.

Yeah, and even when Movistar sat up earlier in the stage Sky were down to about 3 people with half a stage to go.

 

[hrotha]

All these complaints about his team which boil down to its not being the STRONGEST in the race and then you see what Orica does with fewer and worse domestiques simply by using them properly. What use did Sky get out of König? Saved him for nothing. David López in the break, also for nothing.

Of course nothing Froome could do would be particularly likely to work, but that was never the point.