Excuse me, I don't really understand the reference, can you explain, please?
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Excuse me, I don't really understand the reference, can you explain, please?
It's an obvious bot.
Ahh, I didn't look at the poster's history and saw people reacting with laughing so I assumed it was some kind of a joke (maybe about Nathan Haas?) that I didn't understand.
I've just realised Steinhauser is riding Tour de l'Avenir, which means he will not ride Deutschland Tour, which I think would be a good race for him.
Just a random thought.
Just a random thought.
I think Bettiol, Powless and maybe also Cort also don't want to have a 3 week GT in the legs before the WC (as the WC profile really suits the first two) + they can indeed be used to pick up points in the meantime. Which makes me wonder about Remco's WC ambitions, but that's not a discussion for this thread.
I wonder if this is Cofidis early season strategy? Try to place multiple riders in high placings for points reasons? They could put three in the top twenty for GC if all goes well.
On the other hand, if they get caught behind a split, there is no coming back without intercession from another team. They have exactly one rider for the flat.
I’d be surprised if EF have had much of a strategy when it comes to points until recently.
It was to be expected with this squad. The selection was extremely climbing oriented and the only rouleur included is like the 8th best rouleur on the team actually.
They took all the rouleurs to TdF where they were not really neded and here, where there's actually a TTT, they have almost none. But I still think it was the right decision to have a climbing oriented team for the Vuelta.
They took all the rouleurs to TdF where they were not really neded and here, where there's actually a TTT, they have almost none. But I still think it was the right decision to have a climbing oriented team for the Vuelta.
Well, they had five or six guys who could TT who also had very little chance on any other stage so the TTT was THE target/goal.
Who are their top TTers at the Vuelta?
Why do everybody always presume that Movistar are bad at every single aspect of cycling?
I don't think people presume they're bad at climbing.
Movistar has been pretty disastrous the past years.
It used to be my favourite team, but I have been shocked how bad they approach things. This year I think they changed some of the background staff? and the talk before the season sounded like things might be turned around with a different approach, but I don't see any results - either they didn't change much after all or the results are not yet visible. Anyway, they have been relying pretty much entirely on "we do things as we always have done/ Valverde". No ideas for the future, no interest in up to date approaches, endless "education" by "watching and following" Valverde of Enric Mas, not always but often questionable tactics, everyone works on their own before the races, relying on "feeling", no real leadership from the top etc. And then complaining about the big budget teams - while they themselves have at least a decent mid budget which comes to them very reliably. Is it a wonder people don't rate them high anymore?
The TTT didn't look great, too, with them losing 3 riders early - I don't know the reasons, might have been tactics or just bad luck, but it didn't look impressive, and yes, after they have done things pretty badly the last years, people didn't expect better (apart from them being more climber orientated as well).
EF indeed, like Anderis said, came with a complete climbers team. Nobody can really expect a team of Chaves-like riders to do better in a ttt.
Maybe they're moved to the development team? The WT teams are allowed to use the riders from their devo teams in lower category races as far as I'm aware. Though, the UCI website doesn't have Howes on EF's devo team.
Or maybe velonews are using an outdated preliminary startlist to tell who's going to be there.
Or perhaps my attempts to explain the situation are wrong and a third option is true.
Velonews is using an outdated start list, Howes didn‘t move to the development team and according to PCS he‘s not on the startlist. The US is starting a national team so perhaps he might ride for them.
Agree entirely - especially given that he was second in the race. In addition, Guerrero has had several top tens in Bretagne.
Perhaps they realize that if they looked at their team - Cort and Bissenger might be able to score almost as many points. Alternatively, either of the above could perhaps make a last-minute switch to fill the last slot.
Also, I suspect that a few teams, will be interested in making it a hard race - I doubt they want a sprint finish with De Lie in the mix. (perhaps the length is too long). We haven't seen negative racing yet, but it could happen where if you can't win, you at least want to make it hard for certain other teams to not score big.
As expected the points competition tightened up, which also makes for an interesting conundrum - as the races during Wollongong might be less competitive - which would thus require a bigger buffer vis-a-vis De Lie's penchant for 1.1 sprints.
They might but it's not very likely. Bissegger hasn't even been top20 in any proper classic as a pro, yet and the same can be said of Cort if we only include the last few years. Certainly "hey, we have Cort and Bissegger" doesn't seem like an argument to change Bettiol's calendar.
Bettiol almost won this race in the past so I think he has more chance of finishing on the podium or even in the top10 than the rest of the riders that will be actually sent to the race combined and I don't think he has a good chance for winning Detuschland Tour, as the queen stage seems too mountainous for him. Also I think Guerreiro has a better chance for a good result in Germany than Cort and Bissegger have in Bretagne, so it doesn't seem like a right way to balance the team. Also Bretagne gives 400 points for the win and Deutschland Tour only 200.
It only makes sense for me if you think that Bettiol needs more race days in his legs and that's more important at the moment than maximising UCI points. Alternate theory could be that they want a strong support team in Germany but that would be very far fetched to send your biggest classics star to do some domestique duties in such an unimportant race.
All in all, it doesn't make sense unless you think it will pay off with Bettiol having better results later in the year.
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