Teams & Riders EF Pro Cycling

[StryderHells]

Re: Cannondale-Drapac

Maybe if they raced him a little more Cannondale might get some results from him. Same with Pat Bevin.

Some merit in that statement ! Sadly this team is becoming an ever increasing conundrum. The deal with Drapac brings in insufficient $$ to be meaningful and nothing talent-wise. There IS worthwhile talent present at this team but zero direction

Funny thing is that Bevin has been racing but not for Cannondale, he raced a Kermesse last week in Belgium with his old team Avanti. He did crash out of Suisse so possibly he's been injured? Do we know if they are taking him to the Vuelta or being his first season with the big boys they are skipping GT's this year.

I don't know why so many posters on here think the Drapac merger will bring in extra $$$, it would be a marginal increase at best in budget and I doubt much will change with the back of house staff as I'd think most of the Drapac staff will run the Devo squad. It will be interesting to see how they try and turn this team around because they really are a shambles at the moment

 

[Billie]

Re: Re:

At one point you start to wonder if Vaughters' training style is the problem.

I don't know if it's his training style but his management of the squad lacks something that's for sure, he really does come across as incompetent

Vaughters leaves a lot of day to day stuff to Charly Wegelius and it's long been known he's hopelessly incompetent.

especially when it comes to racing schedules

 

[thehook]

Re: Cannondale-Drapac

Dombrowski is showing promise IMHO. The rider I was hoping to see more from this season was Formolo.

 

[Cannibal72]

Re: Re:

CheckMyPecs, be honest with me here. Did Bryan Coquard laugh at your muscles?

He could win bigger races if he had bigger muscles.

To be fair, he lost a TDF stage and DDV (I think) by a bike throw, so there might be some merit in that.

 

[El Pistolero]

With regards to Coquard: 28 pro wins, but not a single one on WT level, that's pretty impressive, but not in a good way. He's still young of course.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

With regards to Coquard: 28 pro wins, but not a single one on WT level, that's pretty impressive, but not in a good way. He's still young of course.

Yes, that number of wins in small races sends something of a contradictory message. He has been what cricket fans call a "flat track bully", cleaning up in the eighty thousand little French races with no other sprinters in them.

But (a) there is a certain value in someone who is a very reliable winner against weak fields for any team. And (b) he did show in the Tour that he can mix it with the big guns, even though he didn't win a stage. At the very least that means that he already should be able to win quite a lot at the very many races where the opposition is neither a bunch of French non-sprinters nor the very best sprinters in Tour form but somewhere in between. And as he's young he should still improve further.

 

[Anderis]

Talansky also has contract for 2018 with the team, apparently:
http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/07/news/talansky-its-been-two-years-since-i-rode-my-best_416215

 

[Anderis]

Re: Cannondale-Drapac

Slagter finally showing something decent. I kinda felt he was the most likely Cannondale rider to finish top10 here, because Uran, Woods and Formolo are top5 Cannondale riders in UCI WT Ranking, so the points needed to be scored by someone who doesn't count for Team Ranking. :lol:

Once again they're looking decent as a team, but they don't have the leader who would do something better than the lower end of top10.

 

[jahn]

Yes I'm sure it's their training methods and not some other seedy variable that completely dwarfs the impact of training methods.

Or maybe Sky is right and they need to start warming down more often?

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re:

With regards to Coquard: 28 pro wins, but not a single one on WT level, that's pretty impressive, but not in a good way. He's still young of course.

That's exactly my point. If you hire people based on the also-ran mentality, you're gonna get also-ran results.

 

[StryderHells]

Re: Re:

With regards to Coquard: 28 pro wins, but not a single one on WT level, that's pretty impressive, but not in a good way. He's still young of course.

That's exactly my point. If you hire people based on the also-ran mentality, you're gonna get also-ran results.

From all available evidence he doesn't have a also-ran mentality so I honestly don't know why you think that, he doesn't get to ride that many WT events compared to young sprinters on WT squads and being with a French PCT team he spends a large portion of the year racing in France so it's really no surprise he has the baulk of his wins there. He's a talented young rider and he will win WT races

 

[Anderis]

Re: Cannondale-Drapac

Sad to read that Moser will not be part of the team for 2017 even though I could see that coming.

I wonder if Cannondale will sign someone decent for next year.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re: Re:

From all available evidence he doesn't have a also-ran mentality so I honestly don't know why you think that, he doesn't get to ride that many WT events compared to young sprinters on WT squads and being with a French PCT team he spends a large portion of the year racing in France so it's really no surprise he has the baulk of his wins there. He's a talented young rider and he will win WT races

It's not Bryan who's got an also-ran mentality, it's those who think finishing third or fourth in a couple of minor Belgian races makes him a great signing for WorldTour teams.

 

[Cannibal72]

DDV isn't a minor race by any definition. It's going to be WorldTour next season.

 

[liamito]

Re: Cannondale-Drapac

I wonder if Cannondale will sign someone decent for next year.

I have just been told they apparently signed Carthy.

 

[Anderis]

Re: Cannondale-Drapac

I have just been told they apparently signed Carthy.

That would be a great signing from Cannondale's point of view! I've been really thinking about him as one of the best riders that are realistic to sign for the team.

Carthy and Canty in one team may bring some confusion, though. I wonder why riders with those simillar names end up in the same team so often. We had Guarnieri and Guardini at Astana, Roy and Roux at FDJ, Gatto and Ratto at old Cannondale, even two non-related Kings last year at Cannondale, let alone legendary 2010 Androni with Bertagnolli, Bertogliatti and two Bertolinis. And I'm perhaps missing few others.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Carthy is a great signing. There will have been a lot of competition for him, so presumably they've offered him whatever calendar he wants plus some opportunities to lead.

If they bring in Vanmarcke as well, it will be an astonishingly good transfer period for them.

 

[staubsauger]

Lots of riders have developed well at Garmin/Cannondale over the years and they have a record of overperforming their status as one of the smaller WT teams in terms of winning big races - up until the season before last they won a monument or GT every year for four years. Cannondale have been poor for a season and a half. It's not at all a bad place for a young climbing prospect to go if you take a very slightly longer term perspective. They can offer him a great calendar and as many leadership roles as his is ready for.

It's actually a clever move if he does continue to improve. He is after all moving on to a team with a lot of good climbers and no outstanding leader. Get ahead of one or two of Uran/Rolland/Talansky in the queue and suddenly he's in a very good place.

I honestly believe it's Dombrowski becoming their big leader at the Giro d'Italia next year. It might not be for the general classification of course. But he certainly gets a free role and might go for mountain stage wins as well as the blue jersey based on his performances this year. Utah's gonna be a good indicator whether he's ready to take the step up, already! Since he won last year's edition and now has got the pressure to repeat! They've putten him quite good back on track compared to Uran, Rolland and Talansky, apparently.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

Lots of riders have developed well at Garmin/Cannondale over the years and they have a record of overperforming their status as one of the smaller WT teams in terms of winning big races - up until the season before last they won a monument or GT every year for four years. Cannondale have been poor for a season and a half. It's not at all a bad place for a young climbing prospect to go if you take a very slightly longer term perspective. They can offer him a great calendar and as many leadership roles as his is ready for.

It's actually a clever move if he does continue to improve. He is after all moving on to a team with a lot of good climbers and no outstanding leader. Get ahead of one or two of Uran/Rolland/Talansky in the queue and suddenly he's in a very good place.

I honestly believe it's Dombrowski becoming their big leader at the Giro d'Italia next year. It might not be for the general classification of course. But he certainly gets a free role and might go for mountain stage wins as well as the blue jersey based on his performances this year. Utah's gonna be a good indicator whether he's ready to take the step up, already! Since he won last year's edition and now has got the pressure to repeat! They've putten him quite good back on track compared to Uran, Rolland and Talansky, apparently.

I don't think that they will have Carthy as a GT leader next year. Unless something weird happens and he shows he's already ready for three weeks at the Vuelta (is he in the CR team?). But it's a two year contract.

 

[TMP402]

Re:

If they bring in Vanmarcke as well, it will be an astonishingly good transfer period for them.

It often is. It's the racing bit they find difficult.

 

[janraaskalt3]

Re: Re:

If they bring in Vanmarcke as well, it will be an astonishingly good transfer period for them.

It often is. It's the racing bit they find difficult.

 

[Anderis]

Re: Re:

If they bring in Vanmarcke as well, it will be an astonishingly good transfer period for them.

It often is. It's the racing bit they find difficult.

Nah. Just 2, maybe 3 times in team's history they had really good transfer periods. The norm was losing some good, established riders and replacing them with young riders, unproven at WT level (not like Carthy, who already has a top10 finish in Catalunya).

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Say what you like about Vaughters, and God knows many people here say quite a lot about him, there are two things he's unquestionably good at: Finding new sponsors and transfer wheeling and dealing.

Vanmarcke and Carthy are excellent signings.

 

[Anderis]

Re: Cannondale-Drapac

These are exactly my thoughts, Zinoviev Letter! Vaughters is undoubtedly good at convincing people that his team is a good option for them. His team has never seemed to be in danger of not finding enough sponsorship to keep going on at a WT level, which is quite admirable considering the increasing reluctance of sponsors to pour big money into the sport in general. They're not state-backed team from some authoritarian country, neither the marketing exercise of a company that decided they want to build their brand through creating a cycling superteam. They rely on finding some independent sponsors that share the vision of the team with Vaughters and they always manage to get it done.

I said earlier in this thread that my dream was Vanmarcke or Coquard signing for Cannondale and I've got my dream coming true! Still can't believe this!

And Carthy was probably top5 on my wish list too!

This sounds almost too good to be true!

Now keep at least 2 out of these four: Formolo, Cardoso, Navardauskas, Woods and it will be excellent transfer period no matter what other movements will be. And with how things are going recently, I wouldn't be shocked if there is another 1 or 2 good signings from other teams. You can't have everything with Cannondale budget, but I would really welcome a decent TT-ist.

But there is one thing more important than some good signings and that's getting back on right path with training and riders development. It's the thing they used to have good record at, but not in the last 2 years. I hope Vaughters realises it needs to be improved massively and brings in some good people in this area too. Now we know that Sep's brother Ken Vanmarcke will be a member of the performance staff. I've read about some people joining from Drapac but it wasn't stated who they are and what are they responsible for. I keep hoping that 2017 will be the year that many riders in the team will be finally back to performing as well as they're capable of.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

On the bringing in a TT guy front, the rumour that Phinney may join has persisted even after Vanmarcke was announced. Now I know that Phinney would be on less money post-injury, and Talansky's new contract is presumably smaller than the one he signed just after winning the Dauphine, but even so if they manage to bring in Carthy, Vanmarcke and Phinney while still having their three GC riders under contract, I can only conclude that Drapac must be bringing more of a budget increase than was assumed.