Criterium du Dauphine (2.UWT), 3-10 June

[Zinoviev Letter]

And suddenly in two days, UAE’s season looks a lot less dismal

 

[Leinster]

Re:

And suddenly in two days, UAE’s season looks a lot less dismal

For what they spent putting their team together, it’s still not been a great year.

If Martin, Costa and Kristoff all peak at the Tour together, it could be very different, and a mediocre spring will be pretty much forgotten.

 

[Carols]

Re: Re:

lol July is going to be so fun!

Sky to take the Tour podium with Froome, Thiomas and Bernal?

Thomas will never top-3 a GT.

Sure he will, just like LPR will some day :twisted: :twisted:

 

[fantomas]

Nibali ninjaing his way through Dauphine. Finished 16 today, 59 secs behind Martin. I didn't even notice him at any point.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

lol July is going to be so fun!

Sky to take the Tour podium with Froome, Thiomas and Bernal?

Thomas will never top-3 a GT.

So you aren't a tomasfan
I already feel sorry for making such a bad joke

 

[hazaran]

In all seriousness, how likely is it that Thomas just gets sky's tdf leader status? I know Froome will probably be stronger but Thomas will gain huge chunks of time on most contenders in both the ITT and especially the TTT, he is most likely even better than Nibali on the cobbles and his climbing seems to be great too. Froome has the giro in his legs so it's not like his shape will be great without a doubt and more importantly, sky won't want to throw away Thomas's gc ambitions for a froome win which he might lose one month later. At least giving him a free role seems reasonable

The dude has no GC results to speak of, clearly he has a high ceiling but in practice is just another frickin Porte, constantly crashing, losing time, illness, bad day, bad descents, ..

 

[bob.a.feet]

Bold prediction: Emanuel Buchmann will finish on the podium

 

[Flamin]

Serves them right for having such a boring race when you create such a turd of a route.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re: Re:

I still doubt sky will dominate a race with 4 consecutive MTFs without Froome & Bernal.

Beware Geraint Thomas the mountain goat.

Of course he is.

Wiggins 2.0, dropping world class climbers effortlessly.

 

[rlntlssly]

In all seriousness, how likely is it that Thomas just gets sky's tdf leader status? I know Froome will probably be stronger but Thomas will gain huge chunks of time on most contenders in both the ITT and especially the TTT, he is most likely even better than Nibali on the cobbles and his climbing seems to be great too. Froome has the giro in his legs so it's not like his shape will be great without a doubt and more importantly, sky won't want to throw away Thomas's gc ambitions for a froome win which he might lose one month later. At least giving him a free role seems reasonable

The dude has no GC results to speak of, clearly he has a high ceiling but in practice is just another frickin Porte, constantly crashing, losing time, illness, bad day, bad descents, ..

You wouldn't predict he would finish on the podium, and yet it surely wouldn't be a surprise if he did.

 

[fantomas]

Re: Re:

lol July is going to be so fun!

Sky to take the Tour podium with Froome, Thiomas and Bernal?

Thomas will never top-3 a GT.

So you aren't a tomasfan
I already feel sorry for making such a bad joke

I might be slightly biased. He actually might just be able to top-3 the Tour at some point, but I highly doubt it. Giro or Vuelta? No way.

Edit: I didn't catch the joke and still don't. :lol:

 

[Rollthedice]

Re: Re:

I still doubt sky will dominate a race with 4 consecutive MTFs without Froome & Bernal.

Beware Geraint Thomas the mountain goat.

Of course he is.

Wiggins 2.0, dropping world class climbers effortlessly.

Let's not forget he's in his last year of contract, something that somehow gives some extra watts as seen with many other riders.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

lol July is going to be so fun!

Sky to take the Tour podium with Froome, Thiomas and Bernal?

Thomas will never top-3 a GT.

So you aren't a tomasfan
I already feel sorry for making such a bad joke

I might be slightly biased. He actually might just be able to top-3 the Tour at some point, but I highly doubt it. Giro or Vuelta? No way.

Edit: I didn't catch the joke and still don't. :lol:

Your username is fantomas but you aren't a tomasfan

 

[dacooley]

there is the ocean of the scepticism once again. seemingly thomas should be comfortably dropped by everyone including below-par nibali. that would've been cycling we need lol.

poor elite climbers. they've prepared for the dauphine all season long to be effortlessly defeated by g.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Re:

Bold prediction: Emanuel Buchmann will finish on the podium

Would be great. He's getting better every day, it seems.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

And suddenly in two days, UAE’s season looks a lot less dismal

For what they spent putting their team together, it’s still not been a great year.

If Martin, Costa and Kristoff all peak at the Tour together, it could be very different, and a mediocre spring will be pretty much forgotten.

When you buy in two riders with four of the monuments between them and leave the spring classics with nothing that is, of course, a bad start to the year. But the doom and gloom around UAE wasn’t just about the big classics, it was that plus a general absence of wins or even good performances. Now, after two wins and a second in two days, the latter part doesn’t apply any more.

A biggish win from Martin, four small wins from Kristoff, three minor ones from a token domestic rider and really their tally is no longer an embarrassment. It’s still far from great, but not butt of everyone’s jokes, what the hell is going on there, disaster territory.

 

[Laplaz]

Wouldn't mind Thomas winning this, he looks like a nice lad and had really bad luck the last seasons. And no, i'm not a Sky fan. In a Grand Tour altough i can't see him getting on the podium, he lacks consistency and crashes way to often.

 

[fantomas]

Re: Re:

Sky to take the Tour podium with Froome, Thiomas and Bernal?

Thomas will never top-3 a GT.

So you aren't a tomasfan
I already feel sorry for making such a bad joke

I might be slightly biased. He actually might just be able to top-3 the Tour at some point, but I highly doubt it. Giro or Vuelta? No way.

Edit: I didn't catch the joke and still don't. :lol:

Your username is fantomas but you aren't a tomasfan

How did I miss that? :lol:

 

[Forever The Best]

Re: Re:

lol July is going to be so fun!

Sky to take the Tour podium with Froome, Thiomas and Bernal?

Thomas will never top-3 a GT.

So you aren't a tomasfan
I already feel sorry for making such a bad joke

That was bad.

Serves them right for having such a boring race when you create such a turd of a route.

I liked yesterdays Mont Noir-Lans en Vercors combo design, even though it lacked one or two 1C/HC climbs before Mont Noir. But it was a very boring stage, no one attacked on Mont Noir.
Today was just a Unipuerto. Which meant a very boring stage, and the expectations were met for today.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Nibali ninjaing his way through Dauphine. Finished 16 today, 59 secs behind Martin. I didn't even notice him at any point.

Nibali casually strolling in amidst rider at the end of their ropes looks pretty funny. You could just see he couldn't care less.

 

[hazaran]

Re: Re:

Nibali ninjaing his way through Dauphine. Finished 16 today, 59 secs behind Martin. I didn't even notice him at any point.

Nibali casually strolling in amidst rider at the end of their ropes looks pretty funny. You could just see he couldn't care less.

"I felt very bad all day," Nibali told Cyclingnews afterwards. "I tried to manage myself as best I could, but it was very hard."

:lol:

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

lol July is going to be so fun!

Sky to take the Tour podium with Froome, Thiomas and Bernal?

Thomas will never top-3 a GT.

So you aren't a tomasfan
I already feel sorry for making such a bad joke

That was bad.

Serves them right for having such a boring race when you create such a turd of a route.

I liked yesterdays Mont Noir-Lans en Vercors combo design, even though it lacked one or two 1C/HC climbs before Mont Noir. But it was a very boring stage, no one attacked on Mont Noir.
Today was just a Unipuerto. Which meant a very boring stage, and the expectations were met for today.

Yesterday was fine as a stage in itself, but not when followed by 3 GC-relevant stages. There was never going to happen anything because of that.

 

[Salvarani]

Re: Re:

Nibali ninjaing his way through Dauphine. Finished 16 today, 59 secs behind Martin. I didn't even notice him at any point.

Nibali casually strolling in amidst rider at the end of their ropes looks pretty funny. You could just see he couldn't care less.

"Care less" is bad terminology though

He simply sees this as preparation, does not follow the accelerations and just take his tempo instead

Might see him tryna go for a stage tho this weekend

 

[Forever The Best]

Re: Re:

Serves them right for having such a boring race when you create such a turd of a route.

I liked yesterdays Mont Noir-Lans en Vercors combo design, even though it lacked one or two 1C/HC climbs before Mont Noir. But it was a very boring stage, no one attacked on Mont Noir.
Today was just a Unipuerto. Which meant a very boring stage, and the expectations were met for today.

Yesterday was fine as a stage in itself, but not when followed by 3 GC-relevant stages. There was never going to happen anything because of that.

Ofc, the overall design is very important too. If you have 3 more MTFs after that stage, it's pretty obvious that yesterday wouldn't work.

 

[fantomas]

Re: Re:

Nibali ninjaing his way through Dauphine. Finished 16 today, 59 secs behind Martin. I didn't even notice him at any point.

Nibali casually strolling in amidst rider at the end of their ropes looks pretty funny. You could just see he couldn't care less.

"Care less" is bad terminology though

He simply sees this as preparation, does not follow the accelerations and just take his tempo instead

Might see him tryna go for a stage tho this weekend

Which is pretty much the definition of "couldn't care less". We'll see in July how this approach pays off. The Nibali "not caring much" has shown itself often and disappointed many a times, so let's see how he'll do at ze Tour.