Teams & Riders EF Pro Cycling

[Escarabajo]

This is not their race. Not at all. LBL fits them better.

 

[shalgo]

I thought that Woods should have tried a move on the steeper part of the climb, but he may just have not had it in him.

 

[SafeBet]

Speaking of Trentino, it's good to see Rolland finding his climbing legs.

 

[jaylew]

Who do you guys think will wind up Cannondale's best placed at the Giro? I honestly don't know at this point.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Who do you guys think will wind up Cannondale's best placed at the Giro? I honestly don't know at this point.

Davide Formolo.

Rolland is Rolland, Dombro won't be anywhere in this shape. Im intrigued by Hugh Carthy, I think he will be a great GC rider, but too early.

 

[StryderHells]

Re: Re:

Who do you guys think will wind up Cannondale's best placed at the Giro? I honestly don't know at this point.

Davide Formolo.

Rolland is Rolland, Dombro won't be anywhere in this shape. Im intrigued by Hugh Carthy, I think he will be a great GC rider, but too early.

Dombrowski looks to be in similar shape to last year going by his lead up form so who knows what he can do, all depends on how the GC drops away but I could see him making up good time in the high mountains.

To be straight up Cannondale should be looking for stage wins at the Giro and forget about the GC, they have enough climbing types to do that but I don't see anyone in the squad who could claim to be a GC leader.

 

[SafeBet]

Rolland was 4th in the Giro d'Italia 3 years ago. The shape seems to be there. If he can avoid crashes and time losses in the first week, he's top10 material. On the other hand, Formolo has yet to show he's a GT rider.

 

[HelloDolly]

Hopefully for Cannondale Dombro, Formolo,Carthy, Woods, Villella and Clarke will win a stage or 2

GC is definitley Rolland ...and who knows if he can hang in there and getter better with the race he can be in the top 6

Cannondale really need to hit those breakaways early...they have enough riders to win mountain stages or rolling stages
No point in having several riders in top 15 on GC....get some stages early on

 

[Anderis]

Re:

Who do you guys think will wind up Cannondale's best placed at the Giro? I honestly don't know at this point.

I have little doubt that Formolo will be the best unless something bad happens to him.

Rolland said he doesn't enjoy riding for GC anymore and for Carthy it's still a bit too early to do a good GC in a GT I'm afraid. In Dombrowski's GC I don't trust. He is too easy to drop anywhere but on long climbs.

Woods did okay and let's be honest that he performed about to the level as expected, he's a solid gutsy rider but these guys are a level above.

Valverde and Martin are probably a level above, but Molard or 20 y.o. Gaudu (as talented as he is)? I don't buy it. I believe that Woods really could have won that Pais Vasco stage with supersteep climb if Valverde wasn't there. I think that combined with last year's Fleche gave a justified hope for more. Would most of people honestly bet for Teuns to finish higher of the two before the race if they knew that Woods would be well positioned?

 

[lenric]

Since both Talansky and Uran won't ride the Giro and considering the two ITTs, it's really hard to think about one GC leader... but maybe Rolland, if he can find the legs. But I doubt he will achieve a top 5.

 

[damian13ster]

Re: Cannondale-Drapac

I kind of like the Giro lineup. As long as they give up any idea of going for GC they can really animate the race

 

[Escarabajo]

Hey, so maybe Vaughters believe that they have a chance:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/formolo-and-caruso-under-fire-for-quitting-tour-of-the-alps/

Seriously, sometimes I think Cannondale think too much of themselves!

 

[Ruudz0r]

Re: Re:

Who do you guys think will wind up Cannondale's best placed at the Giro? I honestly don't know at this point.

I have little doubt that Formolo will be the best unless something bad happens to him.

Rolland said he doesn't enjoy riding for GC anymore and for Carthy it's still a bit too early to do a good GC in a GT I'm afraid. In Dombrowski's GC I don't trust. He is too easy to drop anywhere but on long climbs.

Woods did okay and let's be honest that he performed about to the level as expected, he's a solid gutsy rider but these guys are a level above.

Valverde and Martin are probably a level above, but Molard or 20 y.o. Gaudu (as talented as he is)? I don't buy it. I believe that Woods really could have won that Pais Vasco stage with supersteep climb if Valverde wasn't there. I think that combined with last year's Fleche gave a justified hope for more. Would most of people honestly bet for Teuns to finish higher of the two before the race if they knew that Woods would be well positioned?

Woods: “I came down with some bad allergies over the course of the last week,” said Woods. “I’ve been coughing a lot and not sleeping much. That probably impacted the very top end speed. Had I not had three or four days of bad sleep, I would have had that extra percentage that would have been good enough for a top five, top three.

http://slipstreamsports.com/perfect-execution-lacking-legs-fleche-wallonne-final/

He was very happy with the job of the team and frustrated with himself for not having that little extra I like to hear that.

 

[hrotha]

"Sorry to the organizers but perhaps this race should just disappear?"
https://twitter.com/Vaughters/status/855419217667031041

 

[DBotero]

Re:

"Sorry to the organizers but perhaps this race should just disappear?"
https://twitter.com/Vaughters/status/855419217667031041

:lol: Jens tweet to Vaughters.

 

[Anderis]

Re:

Hey, so maybe Vaughters believe that they have a chance:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/formolo-and-caruso-under-fire-for-quitting-tour-of-the-alps/

Seriously, sometimes I think Cannondale think too much of themselves!

Last year Cannondale was criticised for going for placing instad of race wins (which I don't believe was the case but it was a convinient way to play down their decent placing in team rankings).

Now they do everything they can to ensure they are in position to win LBL and they get criticised that they didn't keep Formolo to finish 5th in a race that is not even in WT (because I don't believe he would've gained time on last stage, no other rider did). When every year a dozen or so riders quits Vuelta early to prepare for the Worlds and a couple of riders quits Giro to be in better shape for TdF.

The team had 2 podiums in the last 4 monuments and 3 top4's in the last 4 monuments (despite Vanmarcke's problems!). They certainly know how to ride them. Uran was 3rd in last Lombardia and also proved in 2011 that he could be a factor in LBL. He was supposed to focus on one day races more than on stage races this year, maybe for the first time during the career. This race is perhaps their best opportunity to take a big win this season. Are they the biggest favourite? Certainly no. But they have a chance and they're going for it. What's the point of being in the sport if you don't believe you can win?

 

[Escarabajo]

This is one of those occasions when I want to be wrong!
Hope they do something good.

 

[Anderis]

I don't think anyone can blame Cannondale for not trying today.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

They seem to be going all out to find a bigger money sponsor at the moment. Vaughters has an interview in the Wall Street Journal about them looking for a backer who can provide a more competitive budget, and he also has a piece in Business Insider about what a great deal cycling allegedly is for a sponsor. The venues are obviously targeted at a business audience. The WSJ interview seems pretty honest - they don't win as much as they used to as they are getting outspent by everyone.

Vaughters has historically been very good at pulling in a succession of low to medium size sponsors. But that kind of traditional commercial cycling sponsorship just doesn't provide enough money to compete with non commercial rich man's toy teams or quasi national set ups. There just aren't very many companies out there that think it makes sense to spend the kind of money it takes to bankroll a medium to high budget cycling team on sponsorship in a niche sport.

 

[barmaher]

I find it peculiar that Garmin didn't stay in bed with him.

 

[Anderis]

I'm not even excited when watching cycling anymore because I know Cannondale won't win a thing.

 

[Valv.Piti]

They could have selected a random poster from CN who most likely would have been doing a better job than Dombrowski so far.

 

[yaco]

Cannondale got it right today - Good ride by Rolland.

 

[Davesta]

Re: Cannondale-Drapac

2 years, and the wait is finally over!

 

[hazaran]

Tour of California is a faux WT race. Of course if the UCI makes every race a WT race no matter if all WT teams are even attending, Cannondale was bound to win something.