Teams & Riders EF Pro Cycling

[Anderis]

Re: Cannondale Pro Cycling

Yeah.

And Cardoso up to 14th in GC. I think that's his best ever in a GT.

According to my calculation, they've gained several minutes on Astana in Team Classification today, but not enough to overtake them.

It was a Giro of "almost" for Cannondale. They were close to winning Team Classification, to win a stage with Moser and Uran could keep up with the best on some stages. But in the end, no stage wins and no top5 overall in what they called their main goal of the season is disappointment. At least it was a joy for me to see them outnumbering other teams in mountains when there were 40-50 riders left at the front. And to have riders on 7th and 14th overall in the end seemed like a long shot few stages ago.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

US Pro championships brought another bitter second for Cannondale:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/usa-cycling-professional-road-championships-2016/mens-road-race/results/

 

[Anderis]

Re: Cannondale Pro Cycling

Michael Woods is on a provisional Tour de Suisse startlist! Funny thing is that out of 8 Cannondale riders who are there, Breschel is the only one to have ever finished this race.

I hope Woods can rebuild his form soon and make the TdF squad. Who do you think will make it?

I would say Rolland, Talansky, Slagter and Van Baarle are quite certain.

Then who? Craddock has been reported to be in the frame and he has a good season. He deserved to be included.

There's question mark over Woods due to his injury. If he can rebuild his spring form, I would take him without hesitation.

Villella has missed Giro due to knee problems but he is on a TdS startlist as well. Can he potentially make the TdF squad?

Howes and King could be in the frame as well. Howes had a strong Ardennes campaign and King rode well in Callifornia. Both made the TdF squad in 2014.

Then you need some men for flat.

Koren was IMO the strongest Cannondale's rider in TdF2015. But he hasn't shown much this year. Can he peak for TdF once again?

One year ago you would take Langeveld without doubt, but he hasn't really done much since Eneco 2014.

Bauer is the man who made the TdF selection 3 times in row between 2013 and 2015 but is he good enough right now?

And then you have 2 quickish guys with Breschel and Bevin. The former is the disappointment and the latter is the revelation of early season. Can one of them provide the team option for reduced sprints?

Out of Giro guys I could only see Navardauskas and Cardoso in the frame. The former rode Giro-Tour double in 2013 already and the latter proved he can race competitively 2 GTs in a year. And he is one of the best climbers in the peloton who are yet to have one TdF participation!

My wish would probably be: Talansky, Rolland, Slagter, Craddock, Woods, King, Van Baarle, Koren, Bevin, but I kept being surprised by at least one Tour nomination from the team pretty much every single year since I started to follow them, maybe apart from 2012, so I wouldn't be shocked to see at least one guy who I didn't mention going there!

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Very well-rounded analysis there, Anderis.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Why wouldn't they pick Navardauskas for a sprint with a small group?
He was third on the worlds and 3 in Paris in 2014

 

[davebqvst]

Re: Cannondale Pro Cycling

And then you have 2 quickish guys with Breschel and Bevin. The former is the disappointment and the latter is the revelation of early season. Can one of them provide the team option for reduced sprints?

What about Wippert? He came close a couple of times this season so far, and while I don't think he can flat out compete with Kittel, Greipel, Cav etc., he could maybe get lucky in a reduced sprint late in the race.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Re: Cannondale Pro Cycling

And then you have 2 quickish guys with Breschel and Bevin. The former is the disappointment and the latter is the revelation of early season. Can one of them provide the team option for reduced sprints?

What about Wippert? He came close a couple of times this season so far, and while I don't think he can flat out compete with Kittel, Greipel, Cav etc., he could maybe get lucky in a reduced sprint late in the race.

He's set for the vuelta

 

[Anderis]

Re:

Why wouldn't they pick Navardauskas for a sprint with a small group?
He was third on the worlds and 3 in Paris in 2014

1. He seems to be nowhere near his 2014 form.
2. He rode Giro.
3. I didn't rule him out.

What about Wippert? He came close a couple of times this season so far, and while I don't think he can flat out compete with Kittel, Greipel, Cav etc., he could maybe get lucky in a reduced sprint late in the race.

I don't think Wippert goes over hills well enough to be even considered for reduced sprints. He would be one of the first riders dropped on hills in a race like Tour de France IMO. He could be only option for the whole bunch sprints but I don't think he is ready to face the challenge of Tour de France yet. He is also not much of a domestique and I fear he would be kind of waste of space in their roster.
And as GenericBoonenFan says, he is on provisional Vuelta startlist.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

After a promising Giro d’Italia, Joe Dombrowski’s stock is on the rise. Is a move in store?

“Yeah, I like it here,” Dombrowski said of his Cannondale team. “I haven’t signed a contract yet, but I’m getting ready to go through that now. Hopefully I can get something agreed and worked out. I don’t know for sure where I’ll be next year, but I’ve enjoyed my two years with the team, and I definitely would like to stay, but I don’t know for sure.”

http://cyclingtips.com/2016/06/after-a-promising-giro-ditalia-joe-dombrowskis-stock-is-on-the-rise-is-a-move-in-store/

Hopefully he'll be staying at Cannondale. He's a huge talent.

 

[Anderis]

Re: Cannondale Pro Cycling

Craddock is not on provisional startlists for neither Dauphine nor Tour de Suisse.

I'm starting to fear that Cannondale's selection for TdF will be uninspiring once again i.e. they'll bring a lot of men whose strength is flat terrain but they'll neither do a job for stage-hunting nor keeping GC riders out of trouble. I see no point in bringing in more than 3 men for flat if you don't have a sprinter with realistic chance of winning a stage. Increasing the team's depth for breaks in hilly and mountainous stages would be a bigger benefit IMO. Their 2015 selection was awful. 6 men for flat who alltogether did nothing in breaks apart from Navardauskas pulling for Hesjedal in Alpe d'Huez stage, they couldn't prevent Martin and Hesjedal from losing time in 1st week and then it hurt their chances of winning a stage from breaks because they didn't have enough men climbing well enough to put a fresh rider in a break each time the opportunity arose.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

They sent a lot of climbers to the Giro. If one or two of the remaining ones haven't got form, have picked up an injury or have been sick, they may not have a huge amount of choice in the matter. It will be big lumps for the flat or tired or out of form mountain domestiques.

I wonder if there's any chance that Cardoso could do the Tour. He never has before, but he's their most reliable climbing domestique by a mile and he does usually do two GTs in a year.

Who else can they send? Slagter will presumably go and can climb although he's not really a high mountains guy. Woods and Craddock seem like obvious choices if they are healthy and have form, but they may not.

 

[Anderis]

Re: Cannondale Pro Cycling

Assuming we discount Giro guys, we have Talansky, Rolland, Slagter, Woods, Craddock, Howes, King and Villella. If they take at least 5 of them, it's acceptable for me.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

I'm intrigued by Talansky's objectives at the Tour. He's not up to the GC task and he doesn't look strong enough to win a stage in the high mountains, even from a breakaway.

Perhaps chasing wins in transitional stages?

 

[Anderis]

Re: Cannondale Pro Cycling

Well, he was not that far off from winning a mountain stage last year from a very strong break including Uran, Pinot, Frank, Kruijswijk, Adam Yates and Majka. He was the strongest guy uphill there and didn't win only because Geschke surprised the rest of the break by attacking solo from far off. I think it's too early to determine that his form will be worse than last year, especially after decent California.

If he can't fight on mountain stages, then I doubt he can fight anywhere (maybe apart from TT, but surely he is not going to win a TT at this level) because his skillset makes him stronger on longer climbs rather than on more dynamic stuff. He has a decent sprint as for climber, but it would require unusual circumstances to form a small group sprint where he would be the fastest one and if he can drop the rest on of the break on transitional stage, he surely can in big mountains too.

Let's wait and see how he fares during Tour de Suisse at least.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

If he's in good shape, the lack of field depth at the Tour de Suisse surely makes Talansky one of the favourites for the podium, if not to win the race outright,

 

[Anderis]

Re: Cannondale Pro Cycling

Neither Michael Woods nor Lawson Craddock is on the Tour de Suisse starlist.

It's really starting to look like the TdF roster might be Rolland+Talansky+Slagter+6 "flat" guys.

Nice to see Breschel doing better recently.

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Cannondale Pro Cycling

Well, he was not that far off from winning a mountain stage last year from a very strong break including Uran, Pinot, Frank, Kruijswijk, Adam Yates and Majka. He was the strongest guy uphill there and didn't win only because Geschke surprised the rest of the break by attacking solo from far off. I think it's too early to determine that his form will be worse than last year, especially after decent California.

If he can't fight on mountain stages, then I doubt he can fight anywhere (maybe apart from TT, but surely he is not going to win a TT at this level) because his skillset makes him stronger on longer climbs rather than on more dynamic stuff. He has a decent sprint as for climber, but it would require unusual circumstances to form a small group sprint where he would be the fastest one and if he can drop the rest on of the break on transitional stage, he surely can in big mountains too.

Let's wait and see how he fares during Tour de Suisse at least.

That was a bit of a fail, he had Ryder with him and yet they didn't try to bring Geschke back when he attacked.
Talansky is one hell of a descender, on that stage he gapped Uran and all the other riders on the technical Col d'Allos descent and Uran is a great descender himself.
Rolland will probably be the leader at the Tour and he isn't the kind of guy that needs lots of climbing domestiques, protect him on the flat stages and he should be able to ride a great gt.
That said, not bringing Craddock would be a mistake, they send all the other climbing domestiques to the Giro and now they don't have anyone for the Tour.
Uran will probably ride Poland before the Olympics, right?

 

[Anderis]

Re: Cannondale Pro Cycling

Uran will probably ride Poland before the Olympics, right?

That's the plan. I wonder whether he will ride the Vuelta later in the year.

It might be hard to make Cannondale's Vuelta roster. If none of the Giro guys does TdF, then I can see pretty much all of both GT rosters from this year to be considered for Vuelta and then you have guys like Wippert and Skujins, who are on provisional startlists to make their GT debut at Vuelta as well.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re: Cannondale Pro Cycling

Uran will probably ride Poland before the Olympics, right?

That's the plan. I wonder whether he will ride the Vuelta later in the year.

It might be hard to make Cannondale's Vuelta roster. If none of the Giro guys does TdF, then I can see pretty much all of both GT rosters from this year to be considered for Vuelta and then you have guys like Wippert and Skujins, who are on provisional startlists to make their GT debut at Vuelta as well.

Looking at the route of the 2016 Vuelta, I'm conflicted as to whether it favours Urán or not. Lots of hilly and medium-mountain stages with only three real mountain stages (Covadonga, Aubisque and Aitana).

 

[janraaskalt2]

Re: Cannondale Pro Cycling

Uran will probably ride Poland before the Olympics, right?

That's the plan. I wonder whether he will ride the Vuelta later in the year.

He says "no": http://www.revistamundociclistico.com/ruta/21245-uno-corro-vuelta-a-espana-mi-objetivo-juegos-olimpicos-rigoberto-uran.html

 

[Anderis]

Re: Cannondale Pro Cycling

Rolland finished in the top10 overall in a WT race other than GT for the first time since Dauphine 2010.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

I see few threats to Dombrowski if today's breakaway makes it to the finish. Atapuma, Siutsou and perhaps one or two more.

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Cannondale Pro Cycling

Uran will probably ride Poland before the Olympics, right?

That's the plan. I wonder whether he will ride the Vuelta later in the year.

He says "no": http://www.revistamundociclistico.com/ruta/21245-uno-corro-vuelta-a-espana-mi-objetivo-juegos-olimpicos-rigoberto-uran.html

That's probably the smart thing to do, he has never been great in the 2nd gt of the season and the hilly one day races durning the 2nd half of the season should suit him well.

 

[Anderis]

Re: Cannondale Pro Cycling

Talansky is back!

What happened to Dombrowski? I know he was in the break but when I turned on with 10kms to go and he was nowhere to be seen. Was he that weak or was he dropped with ease as every time when the road does not go uphill?

 

[BigMac]

Re: Cannondale Pro Cycling

Talansky is back!

What happened to Dombrowski? I know he was in the break but when I turned on with 10kms to go and he was nowhere to be seen. Was he that weak or was he dropped with ease as every time when the road does not go uphill?

Talansky is not back, sorry. He looked awful on that climb and only managed to come back when a) the road eased up and because b) the favourites sat up / did not work together and d) he sucked every wheel he could to get there.