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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
Froome is not the kind of rider who enters a GT just to get some miles in his legs. Realistic or not, he's thinking contending and winning. From that point of view, his order of preference presumably would be:

TDF - wants to win no. 5
Giro - a win would give him 2 or more of every GT, joining Hinault and Contador
Vuelta - doesn't need another one, but it adds to his GT wins, takes him past Indurain and Contador

There's only about two weeks between the end of the Tour and the beginning of the Giro, but if he only rides as a dom in the Tour, is allowed to rest on a lot of stages, he could show up for the Giro in pretty good shape. OTOH, I guess Ineos has promised Carapaz leadership role there (?), so unless Froome showed real strength at the Tour, I assume they wouldn't let him ride as leader or co-leader at the Giro. The Vuelta, starting a few weeks later, would also give him more time to get in shape, and after that accident, can't be too much time to recover. The Vuelta is also a crapshoot, as who will be there will depend somewhat on what happens in the Tour. Any TDF favorite who disappoints there will probably want to salvage his season in the Vuelta.
It would be hard to imagine the longer term contract rider, Carapaz being OK with the 2nd seat to a guy headed out the door. Ineos could have a revolt on their hands if they played that angle to the riders and Froome didn't win and Carapaz was compromised. They'd be right to be pi*sed.
I do agree the Vuelta will be the season's GT cage match for all comers.
 
Froome is not the kind of rider who enters a GT just to get some miles in his legs. Realistic or not, he's thinking contending and winning. From that point of view, his order of preference presumably would be:

TDF - wants to win no. 5
Giro - a win would give him 2 or more of every GT, joining Hinault and Contador
Vuelta - doesn't need another one, but it adds to his GT wins, takes him past Indurain and Contador

There's only about two weeks between the end of the Tour and the beginning of the Giro, but if he only rides as a dom in the Tour, is allowed to rest on a lot of stages, he could show up for the Giro in pretty good shape. OTOH, I guess Ineos has promised Carapaz leadership role there (?), so unless Froome showed real strength at the Tour, I assume they wouldn't let him ride as leader or co-leader at the Giro. The Vuelta, starting a few weeks later, would also give him more time to get in shape, and after that accident, can't be too much time to recover. The Vuelta is also a crapshoot, as who will be there will depend somewhat on what happens in the Tour. Any TDF favorite who disappoints there will probably want to salvage his season in the Vuelta.


You'd think Carapaz would have been promised the opportunity to defend his title.

There are only a handful of riders who are confirmed or more or less confirmed for la Vuelta. Anyone going to the Giro can't go to la Vuelta and several of the top GC riders going to the Tour are saying they aren't going to the Vuelta after. Like typical la Vuelta will have an interesting group of GC riders.
 
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I think that Froome struggling to hold on, on the Madeline, when the peloton were largely soft pedalling, was a bad sign for the Tour. What are people's thoughts on what Inneos' team should/could be?
It should be based entirely around Bernal and Sivakov with Castroviejo and Kwiatkowski there as well.

Thomas should be held back for the Giro and Froome the Vuelta at best.
 
I think that Froome struggling to hold on, on the Madeline, when the peloton were largely soft pedalling, was a bad sign for the Tour. What are people's thoughts on what Inneos' team should/could be?


I think they’re going to take:

Bernal
Thomas
Sivakov
Amador
Kwiatkowski
DVB
Castroviejo
Rowe


Maybe TGH instead of Amador but I think the other seven are certs.
 
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Still better than his Tour de Pologne in 2011. So there is some room for optimism.
I'm not sure how much ligament and pure muscle tissue was damaged in his accident but his eccentric style and posture on the bike is his comfort zone. He could be fit as hell and not be able to accelerate or hold that cadence quite as well. He's not a big gear masher so may have another season to discover that awkward spin or adapt. 5 rpm is a big deal for that type of rider, fit or not. I hope he does just to retire on his terms whether he wins again or not.
 
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I think that Froome struggling to hold on, on the Madeline, when the peloton were largely soft pedalling, was a bad sign for the Tour. What are people's thoughts on what Inneos' team should/could be?

You can put up power numbers in training camp. But when you get in race conditions and have multiple stages in a row with travel and all the other challenges, it's a totally different scenario. What we see from the return is that Froome is still a ways away from being a legit GT contender. He could possibly win a stage with a one-off performance. It's hard to believe, however, that he ever gets anywhere near his form even from 2017.
 
You can put up power numbers in training camp. But when you get in race conditions and have multiple stages in a row with travel and all the other challenges, it's a totally different scenario. What we see from the return is that Froome is still a ways away from being a legit GT contender. He could possibly win a stage with a one-off performance. It's hard to believe, however, that he ever gets anywhere near his form even from 2017.

I'd settle for a Froome Giro 2018 (first 2 weeks) form. Even though he crashed in the Stage 1 recon he at least could minimize his losses until his fightback in week 3.

At the moment, he seems closer to something from his Barloworld days than anything since then.
 
Some discussion Ineos have split the tour team into riders using Dauphine as an active build-up or active recovery race. Certainly Andorra's/Artetxe-coached Tour riders of Bernal, Tao, Sivakov seem to be completing the traditional Tour build-up of hitting the Dauphine at a high level to push the last of the training and actively get close to Tour form as is the traditional approach. Occitanie, & Dauphine certainly supports that theory for those Artetxe riders.

On the flipside Ineos have the Monaco/France's Kerrison-coached riders of Thomas & Froome etc on an entirely different low level in Dauphine 'it seems' to the Andorra riders. The thought is, Kerrison has used the Dauphine as a week of active recovery off the training camp and why Froome & Thomas appear to be nowhere near the level required, when in fact all they're doing is minimising fatigue and maximising active recovery. We will see. It kind of makes sense in this year of unknowns to not pool 3 GC riders all on the same strategy. This way they should have riders hitting that first week super-strong and riders coming into a less-fatigued 3rd week too. Gonna be fascinating I think. Froome perhaps is simply at the level he has got to and that fits into the active recovery approach more than being stronger 4 weeks earlier like Bernal & Sivakov.
 
Some discussion Ineos have split the tour team into riders using Dauphine as an active build-up or active recovery race. Certainly Andorra's/Artetxe-coached Tour riders of Bernal, Tao, Sivakov seem to be completing the traditional Tour build-up of hitting the Dauphine at a high level to push the last of the training and actively get close to Tour form as is the traditional approach. Occitanie, & Dauphine certainly supports that theory for those Artetxe riders.

On the flipside Ineos have the Monaco/France's Kerrison-coached riders of Thomas & Froome etc on an entirely different low level in Dauphine 'it seems' to the Andorra riders. The thought is, Kerrison has used the Dauphine as a week of active recovery off the training camp and why Froome & Thomas appear to be nowhere near the level required, when in fact all they're doing is minimising fatigue and maximising active recovery. We will see. It kind of makes sense in this year of unknowns to not pool 3 GC riders all on the same strategy. This way they should have riders hitting that first week super-strong and riders coming into a less-fatigued 3rd week too. Gonna be fascinating I think. Froome perhaps is simply at the level he has got to and that fits into the active recovery approach more than being stronger 4 weeks earlier like Bernal & Sivakov.

It sounds a bit conspiratorial.

I don't think I buy it but I won't completely discard it either.
 
Some discussion Ineos have split the tour team into riders using Dauphine as an active build-up or active recovery race. Certainly Andorra's/Artetxe-coached Tour riders of Bernal, Tao, Sivakov seem to be completing the traditional Tour build-up of hitting the Dauphine at a high level to push the last of the training and actively get close to Tour form as is the traditional approach. Occitanie, & Dauphine certainly supports that theory for those Artetxe riders.

On the flipside Ineos have the Monaco/France's Kerrison-coached riders of Thomas & Froome etc on an entirely different low level in Dauphine 'it seems' to the Andorra riders. The thought is, Kerrison has used the Dauphine as a week of active recovery off the training camp and why Froome & Thomas appear to be nowhere near the level required, when in fact all they're doing is minimising fatigue and maximising active recovery. We will see. It kind of makes sense in this year of unknowns to not pool 3 GC riders all on the same strategy. This way they should have riders hitting that first week super-strong and riders coming into a less-fatigued 3rd week too. Gonna be fascinating I think. Froome perhaps is simply at the level he has got to and that fits into the active recovery approach more than being stronger 4 weeks earlier like Bernal & Sivakov.

I think that is very optimistic. Rasch openly said they expected Froome and in particular Thomas to be better - Thomas saved himself for last day break but couldn’t make that stick and finished in the gruppetto. They’re miles off what they are usually at pre - TDF.
 
Froome is not the kind of rider who enters a GT just to get some miles in his legs. Realistic or not, he's thinking contending and winning. From that point of view, his order of preference presumably would be:

TDF - wants to win no. 5
Giro - a win would give him 2 or more of every GT, joining Hinault and Contador
Vuelta - doesn't need another one, but it adds to his GT wins, takes him past Indurain and Contador

There's only about two weeks between the end of the Tour and the beginning of the Giro, but if he only rides as a dom in the Tour, is allowed to rest on a lot of stages, he could show up for the Giro in pretty good shape. OTOH, I guess Ineos has promised Carapaz leadership role there (?), so unless Froome showed real strength at the Tour, I assume they wouldn't let him ride as leader or co-leader at the Giro. The Vuelta, starting a few weeks later, would also give him more time to get in shape, and after that accident, can't be too much time to recover. The Vuelta is also a crapshoot, as who will be there will depend somewhat on what happens in the Tour. Any TDF favorite who disappoints there will probably want to salvage his season in the Vuelta.
Vuelta is the obvious 2nd GT for Froome imo. However his level is so dire I don't see him competing in that either.
 
Some discussion Ineos have split the tour team into riders using Dauphine as an active build-up or active recovery race. Certainly Andorra's/Artetxe-coached Tour riders of Bernal, Tao, Sivakov seem to be completing the traditional Tour build-up of hitting the Dauphine at a high level to push the last of the training and actively get close to Tour form as is the traditional approach. Occitanie, & Dauphine certainly supports that theory for those Artetxe riders.

On the flipside Ineos have the Monaco/France's Kerrison-coached riders of Thomas & Froome etc on an entirely different low level in Dauphine 'it seems' to the Andorra riders. The thought is, Kerrison has used the Dauphine as a week of active recovery off the training camp and why Froome & Thomas appear to be nowhere near the level required, when in fact all they're doing is minimising fatigue and maximising active recovery. We will see. It kind of makes sense in this year of unknowns to not pool 3 GC riders all on the same strategy. This way they should have riders hitting that first week super-strong and riders coming into a less-fatigued 3rd week too. Gonna be fascinating I think. Froome perhaps is simply at the level he has got to and that fits into the active recovery approach more than being stronger 4 weeks earlier like Bernal & Sivakov.
Nice theory but I find it doubtful from a Froome perspective. I think he is struggling to come back to his former level from his injuries which is not exactly unsurprising. Maybe it will take another year if it is ever going to happen but of course he will be older then so..
 
There is 0 point in doing races for active recovery. They can do that anywhere. Just do active recovery rides.

Only other option besides them being trash is biggest sandbag job of all time

I'm not seeing it. Even in their current state, I don't think the other teams would let Froome or Thomas ride off into the sunset unchallenged unless they are already half an hour behind.

Theoretically, what would be the point of sandbagging in the Dauphine to this degree?
 
Froome cannot come back from those injuries and Thomas hasn't started wanting it more yet.
That's the plausible explanation, yes.

But actually in the Tour de Pologne 2011, Froome was as far off (didn't think it was that far but just had a look) as he was in this year's Dauphine. Then 2 weeks later, he was fully there.

I would lie if would say that this wouldn't entertain me...
 
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