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Dylan Groenewegen discussion thread

Groenewegen discussion thread

Since nobody is doing it let the dutch maffia king do it.

Seems to have stepped it up again this season.
I had the feeling last season he already had the speed (finishing in the slipstream of Kittel with the highest speed sometimes in the TDF), but he had troubles with placement or making the right choices.

Now he seems to have adapted the technique of just going whenever you have the space and keep going. Wins a lot of his sprints going at 250m or even 300m. Reminds me a bit of Petacchi that way (long sprints), in style at least, not in palmares ofcourse.
I'd love to see a really majestic sprint this season between Kittel,Gaviria, Viviani, Groenewegen, Ewan and Cavendish this year
 
Sep 20, 2011
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Started off great this season and his first win in a major one week stage race. Roosen and Grondahl Jansen are constantly doing a great job which will probably also be reassuring for Groenewegen.

I'm really eager to see of he can keep this shape all season and if he can continuously challenge all the top sprinters
 
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Krokro said:
I have been following him closely since 2016 to be honest and he really keep improving. Physically speaking he makes me think about Gaviria. Small, crazy raw power and explosiveness. I don't know when his contract ends but good luck NL Jumbo!
He extended his contract alongside Roglic in January (during th team presentation), for two more years I think.
 
Dec 21, 2016
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After his display at Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne, I wondered how he would compare against other riders. I mean, the way he beat Démare was truly amazing, especially given the fact that Démare wasn't exactly badly positioned, but it's still early season and Démare is just a single point of comparison. So, I was eager to see how he would perform against the more mature field of sprinters in Paris-Nice.

And perform he did. With Viviani, Greipel, and Kristoff there (in addition to Démare) at a World Tour level stage race, the manner in which he won really signals that Groenewegen stepped it up a notch this year. Now, it's still early season and Kittel+Gav weren't there, but this was a great victory. It'll be interesting to see if he's already peaking now compared to the other riders or if he compete like this in the races to come. (I wouldn't be surprised if they chose to have him peak early to an edge on riders that are planning their peak somewhat later in the spring season; still, it was an amazing sprint.)
 
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portugal11 said:
I'm excited to see that netherlands is becoming (again) the force of cycling. it is just missing classicomanos like boogerd or dekker
Hm, while they don't have consistent classic riders, it should be noted that in the past few years Terpstra won PR (and was 2nd in Flanders), Mollema won San Sebastian and Poels won LBL. That's more than Boogerd accomplished in classics (all the 2nd places don't add up to 1 win)
 
Aug 6, 2015
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Re: Re:

Dekker_Tifosi said:
portugal11 said:
I'm excited to see that netherlands is becoming (again) the force of cycling. it is just missing classicomanos like boogerd or dekker
Hm, while they don't have consistent classic riders, it should be noted that in the past few years Terpstra won PR (and was 2nd in Flanders), Mollema won San Sebastian and Poels won LBL. That's more than Boogerd accomplished in classics (all the 2nd places don't add up to 1 win)
ok but terpstra and poels never were contenders to win those classics (in my opinion). Poels had probably the best day of his life in the middle of the snow and terpstra won because quickstep had the numbers in the final 10 km.
 
I thought Groenewegen's speed yesterday to hit the front and maintain that speed was very impressive, Viviani has had a great start to the year and is clearly on form and yet could not close that gap yesterday once Groenewegen hit the front
 
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The Hegelian said:
Netserk said:
D_T writes above that he won't ride MSR.

Maybe it's too long for him - but Gav and Ewan have both made it to the finale in recent years. I would have him pegged as one of the faves, simply because his form has been so good, confidence must be high - surely it's worth a crack?

Groenewegen said himself that he's not ready for it and despite the good start they won't change his schedule.
 
Im also pretty sure Groenewegen can't make the Poggio after 290 km, he just seems a little bit too heavy, a bit like Greipel but obviously a worse climber. Ewan is really different, as is Gaviria.

But what an amazing top speed he has got, I must admit I have been sleeping a bit on him, mainly because I don't really care that much about sprints.
 
Sep 12, 2017
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Definitely reminds you more of Kittel and Greipel than Gaviria.
But he could be an interesting challenger to Kittel in July and maybe give some kind of appeal to those wonderful flat stages.
 
Groenwegen is definitely more like Kittel. He's too bulky to get over hills comfortably. At least, the longer ones.
He did pretty well in some other Belgian semi-classics. So as long as the hill is short enough he can get over them.

PN type of climbs are already too tough so no chance he gets over the Poggio.
 
Jun 30, 2014
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Re:

Dekker_Tifosi said:
Groenwegen is definitely more like Kittel. He's too bulky to get over hills comfortably. At least, the longer ones.
He did pretty well in some other Belgian semi-classics. So as long as the hill is short enough he can get over them.

PN type of climbs are already too tough so no chance he gets over the Poggio.
Greipel also sucks on the longer climbs in MSR, but does pretty well on the Belgian cobbles, maybe you could compare him to him.
 
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Mayomaniac said:
Dekker_Tifosi said:
Groenwegen is definitely more like Kittel. He's too bulky to get over hills comfortably. At least, the longer ones.
He did pretty well in some other Belgian semi-classics. So as long as the hill is short enough he can get over them.

PN type of climbs are already too tough so no chance he gets over the Poggio.
Greipel also sucks on the longer climbs in MSR, but does pretty well on the Belgian cobbles, maybe you could compare him to him.
Groenewegen won the Ronde van Vlaanderen Beloften in 2014, beating, among others, Benoot, so I think it is fair to believe that Groenewegen, like Greipel, could be decent in the cobbled classics.