Teams & Riders EF Pro Cycling

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Dani Martinez!!

Though I think Uran will lose SHITLOADS in the TTT.

 

[Escarabajo]

According to Vaughters he has three big engines for the TTT.

https://www.efprocycling.com/ef-education-first-drapac-cannondale-for-2018-tour-de-france/

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Scully, Vanmarcke, Uran and Phinney will be the main engines I imagine so who will hang on? Clarke?

 

[Anderis]

Wow, I've got 7 out of 8 riders right this time! My best "result" ever. Scully is the only surprise. Man, I would've never suspected he would be selected for 2 GTs in row. I guess Langeveld has not recovered from his PR crash, otherwise he would be in. Scully seems to have become one of Vaughters' favourite riders.

Scully, Vanmarcke, Uran and Phinney will be the main engines I imagine so who will hang on? Clarke?

Craddock has been one of their best TT riders this season. In fact, clearly better than Phinney in terms of individual TT results.

This roster is as strong TT-wise as you could expect from this team. Rolland is the only below average TT rider in here (well, apart from Uran on most occasions in recent years ). Scully's TTs results have been really solid recently. Craddock has been good in TTs this season. Martinez narrowly missed national TT title in Colombia and showed a good TT in California. Clarke rode many good TTTs with Orica, including a TdF stage win. Of course they are not finishing top3 in the TTT and Uran will still lose significant time to some of the contenders there but with a different selection and some health problems it could be much worse.

The squad seems to be a solid compromise with decent support for Uran in all posible terrains. Phinney and Vanmarcke for cobbles and flat stages, Rolland and Martinez for mountains, Clarke for hilly stages, and for TTT, as I wrote, they're not one fhe top teams but they couldn't line-up a better team for limiting losses.

 

[42x16ss]

Re:

Dani Martinez!!

Though I think Uran will lose SHITLOADS in the TTT.

Scully, Vanmarcke, Phinney and Craddock can all do a good job pulling for Uran. I’m tipping them to be around 4th - 6th in the TTT.

 

[jaylew]

That's a surprisingly good team.

 

[Anderis]

Re: Re:

Dani Martinez!!

Though I think Uran will lose SHITLOADS in the TTT.

Scully, Vanmarcke, Phinney and Craddock can all do a good job pulling for Uran. I’m tipping them to be around 4th - 6th in the TTT.

That's a bit ambitious. I think somewhere around 8th would already be a success, given their recent record in TTTs and lack of truly top TT-men in their team (Phinney is no longer the rider he used to be). And I honestly think something like 12th is perhaps more likely than 4th. There are way more than 3 teams out there with much bigger focus on TTs in general. Something that Bettiol and Bevin highlighted after moving from Cannondale to BMC.

 

[Valv.Piti]

4th would be a HUGE surprise. If we are taking teams thats definitely better: BMC, Sky, QS, MS, Movistar, Sunweb. I'd say Bahrain and Ag2R also definitely are better teams, at least they should be...

But nice team, tbh I have never heard of Scully. Dani Martinez is a nice addition, he has been going well, but Im afraid JV is overrating him a fair amount. He is at best Michael Matthews to Bernal's Sagan at the moment.

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

Dani Martinez!!

Though I think Uran will lose SHITLOADS in the TTT.

Scully, Vanmarcke, Phinney and Craddock can all do a good job pulling for Uran. I’m tipping them to be around 4th - 6th in the TTT.

That's a pretty solid group for the TTT but others definitely look better. Wouldn't put it in the top five.

 

[jmdirt]

Let's move away from what 'place' they might get because that doesn't really mean anything. If they get 18th but only lose 40 second, that's better than getting 10th and losing a minute (to the main GC rivals). It sounds like its a technical course with a steep climb at about the halfway point so is that enough to tighten the time gaps?

 

[Leinster]

At 40s they’ll be a lot higher placed than 18th, but yes, the time gap is the main thing. They’re unlikely to challenge for the stage win, but limiting the losses for Uran is the key for the first 10 days, and the squad picked looks surprisingly capable of that.

 

[hazaran]

Uran a main engine for the TTT? You better hope it's a quadjet, better chances of reaching the finish when two engines inevitably fail

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

It’s a good team. The selection looks like some serious thought was put into maximizing their capacity to help Uran with their limited resources. I fear though that all but two or three teams will be in a huge hole after the TTT and I am dubious about EF’s ability to avoid that hole. They just don’t have enough TTT horsepower in their team to pick from.

 

[Rollthedice]

Re:

It’s a good team. The selection looks like some serious thought was put into maximizing their capacity to help Uran with their limited resources. I fear though that all but two or three teams will be in a huge hole after the TTT and I am dubious about EF’s ability to avoid that hole. They just don’t have enough TTT horsepower in their team to pick from.

Then Duran Duran will attack on every mountain to make up the time lost in the TTT.

 

[Leinster]

Re: Re:

It’s a good team. The selection looks like some serious thought was put into maximizing their capacity to help Uran with their limited resources. I fear though that all but two or three teams will be in a huge hole after the TTT and I am dubious about EF’s ability to avoid that hole. They just don’t have enough TTT horsepower in their team to pick from.

Then Duran Duran will attack on every mountain to make up the time lost in the TTT.

:lol:

No he won’t. He’ll defend 6th place with his life. He’s not Bertie.

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

It’s a good team. The selection looks like some serious thought was put into maximizing their capacity to help Uran with their limited resources. I fear though that all but two or three teams will be in a huge hole after the TTT and I am dubious about EF’s ability to avoid that hole. They just don’t have enough TTT horsepower in their team to pick from.

Then Duran Duran will attack on every mountain to make up the time lost in the TTT.

:lol:

No he won’t. He’ll defend 6th place with his life. He’s not Bertie.

Not that I think he'll constantly attack but I don't think 6th means a whole lot to a guy like Uran who's got 3 runner up GT placings.

 

[Escarabajo]

6th place means nothing to Uran. With this hard route just by being consistent during the 3 weeks can net him the podium again. Winning is out of the question IMHO.

 

[42x16ss]

Re: Re:

It’s a good team. The selection looks like some serious thought was put into maximizing their capacity to help Uran with their limited resources. I fear though that all but two or three teams will be in a huge hole after the TTT and I am dubious about EF’s ability to avoid that hole. They just don’t have enough TTT horsepower in their team to pick from.

Then Duran Duran will attack on every mountain to make up the time lost in the TTT.

:lol:

No he won’t. He’ll defend 6th place with his life. He’s not Bertie.

Second or third maybe, but not an anonymous top 10. He wants a GT win.

 

[jmdirt]

Re:

Let's move away from what 'place' they might get because that doesn't really mean anything. If they get 18th but only lose 40 second, that's better than getting 10th and losing a minute (to the main GC rivals). It sounds like its a technical course with a steep climb at about the halfway point so is that enough to tighten the time gaps?

I'm going to buy a lottery ticket today! :lol:
That's a good result for the team and RU!

 

[Leinster]

Re: Re:

Let's move away from what 'place' they might get because that doesn't really mean anything. If they get 18th but only lose 40 second, that's better than getting 10th and losing a minute (to the main GC rivals). It sounds like its a technical course with a steep climb at about the halfway point so is that enough to tighten the time gaps?

I'm going to buy a lottery ticket today! :lol:
That's a good result for the team and RU!

Thought about this post when I saw the times. It’s a great result for EF, and puts Uran 2nd behind Dumoulin of the “serious contenders.”

 

[Escarabajo]

Re: Re:

Let's move away from what 'place' they might get because that doesn't really mean anything. If they get 18th but only lose 40 second, that's better than getting 10th and losing a minute (to the main GC rivals). It sounds like its a technical course with a steep climb at about the halfway point so is that enough to tighten the time gaps?

I'm going to buy a lottery ticket today! :lol:
That's a good result for the team and RU!

And actually you were spot on about the comments and time gaps.

 

[Anderis]

This TTT was certainly above my expectations, especially with Craddock injured (he wasn't even the first guy in the team to drop off, respect). Only 35 secs lost on 35 kms. Beating teams like Bahrain, Movistar, Katusha and BORA after almost going bust last year and having the last transfer window heavily compromised. Long time since the team has performed this well in TTT in a big race.

And Rolland finished finished s.t. I didn't expect that. Maybe those hills were harder than I expected so they didn't want to drop good climbers early.

 

[Anderis]

Did Roglic teach him how to use the Telemark landing technique?

 

[Anderis]

A bad day for Uran. While, according to the team, he had a crash, I'm more worried about his performance than about the time loss. It looked to me that every time the peloton split, Uran was always in trouble. And other GC riders caught in trouble were able to limit their losses much better. He didn't look good in stages 5 and 6 as well. I'm afraid something went wrong and he is not in great form. Tuesday will give us more clue.

On the other hand, Rolland is doing surprisingly well on stages that were supposed not to suit him. It wouldn't surprise me if he ends up in top10 GC and ahead of Uran in the end.

 

[MuskyOurSaviour]

They will end blaming today for Uran's poor showing later in the race to save face. I think the sponsors expected Uran to replicate last year's results.