Dan Martin discussion thread

[happytramp]

Re: Re:

He made some strange comments about his Tour, how he felt great but something with the preparation wasn't there. What is going on at UAE?

Kristoff said more or less the same thing.
Roughly translated from memory: "I'm totally out of it. Don't expect anything from me on the last stage. Actually, the whole team is a bit out of it, and we think we know why."
He did not want to go into more details.

Very strange... Martin said it'll become known soon enough.

 

[staubsauger]

Re: Re:

He made some strange comments about his Tour, how he felt great but something with the preparation wasn't there. What is going on at UAE?

Kristoff said more or less the same thing.
Roughly translated from memory: "I'm totally out of it. Don't expect anything from me on the last stage. Actually, the whole team is a bit out of it, and we think we know why."
He did not want to go into more details.

Very strange... Martin said it'll become known soon enough.

Not allowed to discuss here IMHO!
Well known problem of Lampre though.

 

[Lemonbaloon]

Rumors has it that UAE changed their sport drink to something the riders were not used to for TdF. Bystrom said in an interview that he had gained 2-3 kg during the race because the new drink caused the body to accumulate water and this had happened to most of the riders on the team.

Still a rumor although if this turns out to be the cause, the leadership has basically ruined the entire team chance to get a result at this Tour de France.
I've seen alot of people talk about Dan Martin looking "heavy" this tour, so I guess there might be something to this?

 

[Lequack]

That's some heavy drink.

 

[Mayomaniac]

If that's true than I hope that a new sponsorship deal was involved. Otherwise it would be really stupid, even amateurs test sport drinks durning training before using them in a race.

 

[Leinster]

Re:

If that's true than I hope that a new sponsorship deal was involved. Otherwise it would be really stupid, even amateurs test sport drinks durning training before using them in a race.

Not even a sponsorship deal would excuse that. They're paid to win bike races, and if something in their nutrition makes them put on weight, that's not going to help win bike races.

I didn't think Martin looked "heavy" during the race, I thought he looked slow. If he had gained 2-3kgs during the race like Bystrom, that would explain him looking slow.

But once something like that was noticed, surely the team would switch back to the old stuff, or if it was a case of a bad batch of the product, source some of the same from a different facility, or something. And if Dan Martin had started weighing in 200-300g heavier per day early in the race, surely that's a sign of something being amiss.

In short, I don't buy that it was just "our sports drink was making us fat."

 

[Oliver]

It's not only this Tour UAE sucks. The whole year is bad.

 

[Lequack]

Re:

It's not only this Tour UAE sucks. The whole year is bad.

The young Pogacar and Ulissi have been going very well.
https://www.procyclingstats.com/team/uae-team-emirates-2019/wins

 

[Mayomaniac]

Re: Re:

It's not only this Tour UAE sucks. The whole year is bad.

The young Pogacar and Ulissi have been going very well.
https://www.procyclingstats.com/team/uae-team-emirates-2019/wins

Yeah, they've been a lot better than last year. The management changed most of the staff members and got rid of most of the old Lampre guys, that's the main reason.

 

[staubsauger]

Re: Re:

It's not only this Tour UAE sucks. The whole year is bad.

The young Pogacar and Ulissi have been going very well.
https://www.procyclingstats.com/team/uae-team-emirates-2019/wins

Yeah, they've been a lot better than last year. The management changed most of the staff members and got rid of most of the old Lampre guys, that's the main reason.

Albeit Phillippe Maduit is a good directeur sportif to be fair!

 

[Mayomaniac]

Re: Re:

It's not only this Tour UAE sucks. The whole year is bad.

The young Pogacar and Ulissi have been going very well.
https://www.procyclingstats.com/team/uae-team-emirates-2019/wins

Yeah, they've been a lot better than last year. The management changed most of the staff members and got rid of most of the old Lampre guys, that's the main reason.

Albeit Phillippe Maduit is a good directeur sportif to be fair!

Yes, it was mainly about doctors, coaches and other staff members, but we're probably in the wrong subforum to discuss the details.

 

[IndianCyclist]

I would say that drinkgate is a case for corruption wherein somebody in the top management decided to go for the idea over the objections of the staff for personal gain. Only thing is the idea blew up spectacularly in public damaging everybody. Ditto TBH and the Dennis case.

 

[movingtarget]

Seems like the team has some issues and not just drinks. Preparing proper meals gets forgotten ? How strange for a team of athletes.

 

[yaco]

It seems strange when you have two experienced DS's in Peiper and Stephens join the team.

 

[ciranda]

Re: Re:

It's not only this Tour UAE sucks. The whole year is bad.

The young Pogacar and Ulissi have been going very well.
https://www.procyclingstats.com/team/uae-team-emirates-2019/wins

Yeah, they've been a lot better than last year. The management changed most of the staff members and got rid of most of the old Lampre guys, that's the main reason.

Albeit Phillippe Maduit is a good directeur sportif to be fair!

Mauduit is with Groupama FDJ this year.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

It seems strange when you have two experienced DS's in Peiper and Stephens join the team.

Peiper hasn't been with the team as he is fighting cancer.

 

[staubsauger]

Re: Re:

It's not only this Tour UAE sucks. The whole year is bad.

The young Pogacar and Ulissi have been going very well.
https://www.procyclingstats.com/team/uae-team-emirates-2019/wins

Yeah, they've been a lot better than last year. The management changed most of the staff members and got rid of most of the old Lampre guys, that's the main reason.

Albeit Phillippe Maduit is a good directeur sportif to be fair!

Mauduit is with Groupama FDJ this year.

Yeah, hence why I explicitly mentioned him as being a competent person!

 

[NorthAmericanScum]

According to L'Equipe, he is headed to Total Direct Energie next year

 

[Leinster]

The “water weight from a new sports drink” line moves a little closer from “speculation” to “rumor.”

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/change-in-sports-drink-blamed-for-uaes-poor-tour-de-france-performance/?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=organic#disqus_thread

It still doesn’t address the obvious 2 questions, they being “why change sports drink right before the Tour?” and “Why didn’t they change back when they noticed something was wrong?”

 

[Leinster]

Out of the Dauphiné with a fractured lower back. He says he thinks he heals well and should be ready for the Tour. I hope he gives it a pass and looks to Liege and the Vuelta instead.

 

[Colonel]

Out of the Dauphiné with a fractured lower back. He says he thinks he heals well and should be ready for the Tour. I hope he gives it a pass and looks to Liege and the Vuelta instead.

going to the tour to stage hunt and going for GC at Vuelta

 

[Leinster]

Out of the Dauphiné with a fractured lower back. He says he thinks he heals well and should be ready for the Tour. I hope he gives it a pass and looks to Liege and the Vuelta instead.

Well I was half right I guess?

Sitting 2nd in gc, 2nd in points (wearing green because Rog) 2nd in KOM. He could do very well in all 3. Can anyone nail down a reason why he’s never really gone for KOM in a GT before? By all logic, it’s a competition he ought to be good at (get in the break, kick faster than others 500m from the top, repeat 3x per day, mix it with the gc guys at some MTFs).

 

[TomLPC]

Here was his interview after the stage,

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1319351647110311938

Isn't that just the nicest

 

[Leinster]

Picked a good day to pull out a top 20 ITT. I think keeping the time loss down was more impressive than the placing.


I can’t see him taking enough time back off any of the top 3, barring one of them having a total meltdown on stage 17, (especially since he looks like he has the weakest support team of the top 5) but he has at least a half chance of a podium right now, and he needs to ride like it.

 

[happytramp]

He seems to be able to open a gap on Carthy when the stages end with an uphill sprint but think there's only a couple more and they could go to the break.