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Confirmed Tour Teams/Pre-Selections

Page 7 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Yes, a bit strange. Tosatto I can understand. Capitain de Route, plenty of experience etc.

Noval over Nicki with the spring he's had, I'm flabberghasted. Must be Alberto's good luck charm a something. Or he serves some other function best left to the imagination.
 
Why do you need Tosatto, Noval and Bennati (and to a lesser extent Paulinho). I guess a lot is on the TTT. CAS hasn't really climbed well enough the past 2 years to be of great use. I would probably have Nicki there instead of Tosatto or Bennati but I don't think it matters too much.
 
Ferminal said:
Why do you need Tosatto, Noval and Bennati (and to a lesser extent Paulinho). I guess a lot is on the TTT. CAS hasn't really climbed well enough the past 2 years to be of great use. I would probably have Nicki there instead of Tosatto or Bennati but I don't think it matters too much.

Nicki instead of Noval would be way better
 
Jul 29, 2012
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Ferminal said:
Why do you need Tosatto, Noval and Bennati (and to a lesser extent Paulinho). I guess a lot is on the TTT. CAS hasn't really climbed well enough the past 2 years to be of great use. I would probably have Nicki there instead of Tosatto or Bennati but I don't think it matters too much.

Tossato, i fully understand. He's always there with Contador on the flat, real important and he can climb a little bit. Bennati? Meh.

Noval is an absolutely ridiculous choice.

Didn't you see CAS climb in the tour last year? Enough for a tourspot.
 
Don't put Paulinho on the same league as those 3. When in form he is a million times better.

He was a beast last year at the vuelta and he seems to be getting into shape very nicely.

CAS imo is overrated, he got in a lot of breakaways last year but he was never one of the best climbers in those breaks.
 
Noval and Jesus are Contador picks, they are 2nd and 3rd in the squad. So you can't really debate them.

Yeh I saw CAS climb, I recall him being smashed by Voeckler in the breakaway. CAS is not even close to being a credible GC threat so can't really help a lot. Saxo aren't going to train final mountains as Contador probably can't beat Froome on a final climb. Basically the only purpose of the mountain team is to try and put credible threats in a break to force the race open before the final climb.
 
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Ferminal said:
Noval and Jesus are Contador picks, they are 2nd and 3rd in the squad. So you can't really debate them.

Yeh I saw CAS climb, I recall him being smashed by Voeckler in the breakaway. CAS is not even close to being a credible GC threat so can't really help a lot. Saxo aren't going to train final mountains as Contador probably can't beat Froome on a final climb. Basically the only purpose of the mountain team is to try and put credible threats in a break to force the race open before the final climb.

Credible or not sky will chase them either way cause they know Contador might do something crazy and attack early to go to that guy (fuente de style).

Cas might have been useful for that and getting outclimbed by voeckler? Well is that such a disgrace?
 
Ferminal said:
Noval and Jesus are Contador picks, they are 2nd and 3rd in the squad. So you can't really debate them.

Yeh I saw CAS climb, I recall him being smashed by Voeckler in the breakaway. CAS is not even close to being a credible GC threat so can't really help a lot. Saxo aren't going to train final mountains as Contador probably can't beat Froome on a final climb. Basically the only purpose of the mountain team is to try and put credible threats in a break to force the race open before the final climb.
They can ride full gas in the bottom of the climbs, so that Froome will be left with Porte.
 
Parrulo said:
Don't put Paulinho on the same league as those 3. When in form he is a million times better.

He was a beast last year at the vuelta and he seems to be getting into shape very nicely.

CAS imo is overrated, he got in a lot of breakaways last year but he was never one of the best climbers in those breaks.
CAS was better when he rode for the Schlecks. He's still better than Noval.

What exactly can Noval do? He's the Francis de Greef of domestiques.
 
Parrulo said:
Don't put Paulinho on the same league as those 3. When in form he is a million times better.

He was a beast last year at the vuelta and he seems to be getting into shape very nicely.

CAS imo is overrated, he got in a lot of breakaways last year but he was never one of the best climbers in those breaks.

Yeah, what a loser. Being outclimbed by Europcar gone loco.

He was second best of the breaks on stages won by Rolland and Voeckler.
 
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At what point will pro cycling allow youth to prevail in these grand tours. the old jockeys on some of these teams is ridiculous.

Its almost like a masters tour. a bunch of order takers I guess.
 
Parrulo said:
Don't put Paulinho on the same league as those 3. When in form he is a million times better.

He was a beast last year at the vuelta and he seems to be getting into shape very nicely.

CAS imo is overrated, he got in a lot of breakaways last year but he was never one of the best climbers in those breaks.
Don't agree. I don't think he was the best in those breakaways but he was good.
 
CAS imo is overrated, he got in a lot of breakaways last year but he was never one of the best climbers in those breaks.

Also don't agree. He may be a diesel and unable to hang on when the more explosive men make their moves. But given a real climb (read 15-20k) he'll claw his way back and eventually leave them behind.

Makes sense that he's not selected though, seeing as Saxo surely ain't lacking in the climbing department. Still slightly miffed that Nicki didn't make the cut though. He was stellar (by Nicki standards) in the spring, and then has been held back ever since, presumably coz he was gonna ride Tour. At least that was the reason I heard when he wasn't included in the Giro line up.

I'm perfectly fine with the no Danes part of things, but I really feel Nicki deserves a place. Doubt he'll be riding next year tbh, though I'll be happy to be proven wrong.
 
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airstream said:
Good luck with that

Exactly lol that is not gonna happen.

Morkov would have been also a better choice than noval but yea we know why noval is in there, someone need to make jokes during dinner...
 
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theyoungest said:
CAS was better when he rode for the Schlecks. He's still better than Noval.

What exactly can Noval do? He's the Francis de Greef of domestiques.

Hey, **** on Noval as much as you want but leave Cisse alone :p
 
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I really hate to say this, but Noval actually did a fantastic job during the Vuelta last year, it´s hard to admit, but he did.

Nevertheless I wanted to see Mørkøv instead, I guess this will be the last season for Noval...hopefully, and then Mørkøv has his spot from next year for sure.

Other than that, I think it´s a great team, if Bena and Tosatto is in top condition then it´s gonna be fun to watch.

CAS have more or less always sucked as a dom, and never did very well in the tour, not with the schlecks and not with Berto, I love the guy, but glad he´s not in there.
 
Stop beating on CAS! :)

Thought his Tour last year was epic, and I'm fairly sure he'd have won a stage if it hadn't been for the infamous finger incident. Nationalist bias maybe, dunno. Off topic anyways, but just had to ..

And yes, Noval's Vuelta was very good I gotta admit.
 

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