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

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Re: Re:

Blanco said:
drebelo said:
I'm seeing all you prons and cons about if Thomas can or not be a GC contender for the Tour, and I may be new to cycling but I think if you are one of the best climbers you may not win the Tour but be undoubtly a contender, and I think that Thomas is, when in a good shape like today one, of the best climbers out there, plus the guy as a excellent TT and is also really strong in the cobbles, and last but not least he is in the best team of the World to win a Tour. Of course there are other important aspects such as the ability to recover or not have bad days, and of course luck but if Thomas could put altogether and be able to stay on his bike, he might not be a winner of the Tour but could very well be a contender until the very end. This of course if he leads and I repeat the best team possible to be if you want to win a Tour.
Although the guy doesn´t have any great results to show in terms of GC wise and already being a 32 year old cyclist what I think that differenciate him for others "wannabe" GC materials like Dennis is the fact that the guy is a really good climber in a good shape and I think thats the most important factor to win a GT.

Thomas is not one of the best climbers by any means, there are at least 10 better in this year's Tour.

The sad thing is... he dont have to be the best climber. Sky gonna gain time in the TTT, Thomas at least will probably be solid on the cobbles (if he dont crash), and then you have the ITT at the end. He will gain time on all these 3 stages on most of the others.

He can defend himself in the mountains and if he can keep the same level as in Dauphine over 3 weeks without a bad day, he wont loose that much on the best climbers. Also, if Kwiat, Poels, Bernal, Moscon goes well he will have more than enough help and this is just if Froome will be out of it. Im sure he will "magically" pull off the double somehow...

So it is just if Thomas crash or have a really bad day on of the multiple mountain stages. Im not surprised if he would win, even though it is uncanny...
 
That is the problem with the lack of sponsors in the sport. If only 2-3 companies are happy to invest, it's only logical that those are the teams that have an abundant of talent on their roster. How are small budget teams able to compete against that? They simply can't. Either because they lack the support for a star rider or can't even afford a star rider at all.
 
Re: Re:

drebelo said:
Blanco said:
drebelo said:
I'm seeing all you prons and cons about if Thomas can or not be a GC contender for the Tour, and I may be new to cycling but I think if you are one of the best climbers you may not win the Tour but be undoubtly a contender, and I think that Thomas is, when in a good shape like today one, of the best climbers out there, plus the guy as a excellent TT and is also really strong in the cobbles, and last but not least he is in the best team of the World to win a Tour. Of course there are other important aspects such as the ability to recover or not have bad days, and of course luck but if Thomas could put altogether and be able to stay on his bike, he might not be a winner of the Tour but could very well be a contender until the very end. This of course if he leads and I repeat the best team possible to be if you want to win a Tour.
Although the guy doesn´t have any great results to show in terms of GC wise and already being a 32 year old cyclist what I think that differenciate him for others "wannabe" GC materials like Dennis is the fact that the guy is a really good climber in a good shape and I think thats the most important factor to win a GT.


Thomas is not one of the best climbers by any means, there are at least 10 better in this year's Tour.

well I would say that he is destroying them in the mountains at Dauphine (Nibali, Bardet, Yates, Martin and Zakarin)
Edit: Martin is te only one who gain time on Thomas in the 3 mountain stages so far (2 sec)

And I could name dozen of races when they "destroyed" him. Every one of those 5 you mentioned is better climber than Thomas, and you will see it in a month or two.
 

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