Teams & Riders EF Pro Cycling

[Sciatic]

The TDF startlist on PCS still only shows 6 riders. Will Craddock make the list? He's never looked better but the recent article about him just mentions the olympics in his future.

I would think that he would not be in the U.S. this week competing (winning) in Nats if he was likely to be on their Tour squad. In normal times that wouldn’t be an issue but if there’s even the slight chance he might run into COVID-related entry issues going back to Europe, it wouldn’t be worth the risk? That’s why McNulty, Kuss, and Powless weren’t at Knoxville this weekend, no?

 

[carolina]

I was told Guerreiro is doing the Tour.

 

[Anderis]

That’s why McNulty, Kuss, and Powless weren’t at Knoxville this weekend, no?

I don't remember US national championships ever featuring all of the best American riders so this might have been far from the sole reason.

But yeah, I've read the Cyclingnews article about Craddock and it really sounded like he was not going to the Tour in a sense that going to the Tour would be far too important to not be mentioned in the context of the article.
It's a little weird because EF don't have many riders in good form this year and Craddock seemed really strong in Dauphine. Could it be that Craddock himself puts Olympics over TdF and would actually prefer to skip TdF?

I was told Guerreiro is doing the Tour.

Makes sense. When his contract extension was announced, he said that he wanted to ride one more GT this year.

So I guess it's most likely Uran, Higuita, Guerreiro, Powless, Valgren, Cort, Bissegger and I have completely no idea who for the last spot. If not Craddock, then it feels like nobody really deserved it this year, unless they throw another Giro rider like Bettiol in there. Otherwise?

• Beppu or Nakane for Nippo? Beppu has only had DNFs this year and Nakane too had more DNFs than non-DNFs so taking any of them to the TdF would be a bit of a joke.
• Kind of a solid climber but thoroughly uninspiring El Fares?
• One of the heavier classics guys like Scully, Langeveld or Rutsch who's had some flashes of TT form recently but otherwise were completely nowhere for the rest of the year? MIght as well throw Docker in there with the difference being that he's not even had those flashes of TT form.
• Will Barta who's done nothing this year and why would he get a spot ahead of Craddock?
• Howes has actually had some half-decent climbing performance on TdS but otherwise had done very little in the past 2 years.

I previously thought that Van Garderen could ride 2 GTs but he's just retiring.

I guess we'll find out... at the latest possible moment.

 

[Potomac]

It is Tuesday before the tour and still only 6 riders listed on PCS.
Talk about drama.
I think you gotta take Craddock if only to see him in t he stars and stripes on the ITT stages.

 

[triley36]

Rutsch and Guerrero round out the roster. Not going to lie, this looks better than I could have imagined in the spring. They have several riders (Cort, Bissegger, Valgren and maybe even Guerrero or Powless) who can win a stage, and if Higuita comes in to form, that would be a great bonus. Rigo has a great chance to do a good GC. I’m excited. Which means they will all crash on stage one.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Early afternoon on the Tuesday: remarkably ealry for JV. Maybe he is finally growing up a bit.

 

[Anderis]

It is Tuesday before the tour and still only 6 riders listed on PCS.
Talk about drama.

If you waited just a few more minutes before writing this comment, you could see EF confirming their roster on twitter.

Talk about drama.

 

[Potomac]

JV read my post above and got moving.

 

[Anderis]

I think the information must have been passed to the PR department well before your post to be able to be posted on social media with all the graphics and interviews in such a short time.

 

[Anderis]

So relieved to see the team avoiding major damage in today's crashes. I guess it helps that riders like Dan Martin, Vande Velde and Farrar are not the team leaders anymore.

 

[BlueRoads]

So relieved to see the team avoiding major damage in today's crashes. I guess it helps that riders like Dan Martin, Vande Velde and Farrar are not the team leaders anymore.

Lol, yes, I was thinking "which team can be considered to have come through pretty well today" and the answer was EF for me.

 

[Anderis]

Lol, yes, I was thinking "which team can be considered to have come through pretty well today" and the answer was EF for me.

I think in the first crash only one EF rider hit the ground and not very hard and I didn't see anyone from the team on the ground during the 2nd crash so unless I missed something it's almost too good to be true.

 

[Oldermanish]

So relieved to see the team avoiding major damage in today's crashes. I guess it helps that riders like Dan Martin, Vande Velde and Farrar are not the team leaders anymore.

To be fair to Tyler: he was a front line sprinter and got taken out more than any mistakes he's made. Anyone watch the rear wheel of Cav or Caleb during a sprint? There is alot of conscious side-flicking to back people off.
Good job for EF so far.

 

[Anderis]

To be fair to Tyler: he was a front line sprinter and got taken out more than any mistakes he's made. Anyone watch the rear wheel of Cav or Caleb during a sprint? There is alot of conscious side-flicking to back people off.

Vande Velde also often got taken out rather than cause crashes himself. It doesn't change the fact that he would probably find a way to break some bones even if he was in a room with no furniture and with pillows all over the floor and walls.

 

[Oldermanish]

Vande Velde also often got taken out rather than cause crashes himself. It doesn't change the fact that he would probably find a way to break some bones even if he was in a room with no furniture and with pillows all over the floor and walls.

You know TJ retired? Maybe there was some bad Voodoo associated with him (not that I'd wish it). There didn't seem to be a traffic island he couldn't locate.....
Maybe the ghosts have been exorcised at last.

 

[Oldermanish]

You know TJ retired? Maybe there was some bad Voodoo associated with him (not that I'd wish it). There didn't seem to be a traffic island he couldn't locate.....
Maybe the ghosts have been exorcised at last.

Looks like EF largely avoided the bad vibes and crashes today.

 

[Anderis]

You know TJ retired? Maybe there was some bad Voodoo associated with him (not that I'd wish it). There didn't seem to be a traffic island he couldn't locate.....
Maybe the ghosts have been exorcised at last.

I don't quite understand what you were trying to imply.

Garmin riders had been crashing consistently above average a good few years before the team hired Van Garderen. Not so much when Tejay was already on the team.

 

[Anderis]

What a ridiculous couple of stages!

Yesterday Guerreiro got dropped on a flat as the only rider from a 25 or so men breakaway that could've put him in contention for GC. I was super disappointed and didn't enjoy the rest of the stage as much for this reason. Later in the day I thought "tough luck". Perhaps his form was just that bad and he was neither going to do anything on that stage nor in GC.
Today he was Uran's only team mate who could keep up with the main group at the beginning of the stage. Go figure.
It doesn't end here. The way he rode today was ridiculous. He was all over the place, wasting energy attacking all the time at the wrong time (when BikeExchange pulled for Matthews for intermediate sprint, for example) but of course missed the break that finally got away.
Higuita- what's up with this guy? Once the most consistent rider in the team, now hasn't got a single result in 1.5 years. His form wasn't useless all the time but he can never put together a solid race these days it seems. Disappointing to see him miss the main group today.
Powless- with his recent form I thought he should have been able to stay with the main group at the beginning of the stage. If Guerreiro managed to get away, Uran would've been isolated in a group of 70 men or so.

Now we're left with Uran, who has shown very little so far but sits 4th in GC, behind 2 non-climbers. What an Uran way to ride a GT. He even looked like was getting dropped together with Van Aert but got his act together and re-joined the main group somehow. Now I don't know if I should be excited or cautiously pessimistic about what's to come from EF in this race.

 

[SafeBet]

Higuita's year has been truly terrible. Whenever things get tough he gets dropped early and loses 20-30 minutes. It's odd because as you say he used to be a very consistent rider (at 21-22 years old) but he's been a shade of himself after the lockdown.

 

[SafeBet]

Quite the turnaround compared to yesterday! Great to see him on the attack.

Edit: blew up again in the end.

 

[Anderis]

The ridiculousness continues.

Higuita had 3 minutes over the 4th rider on the road at the beginning of the last climb. "Great, at least he will finish this stage in top3"- I thought. LOL. Don't know what's going on with this guy. One moment he looks great and another he blows up completely. Don't forget he finished 3rd on Tirreno's queen stage so it's not like he is without any form this year.

I saw one team mate lasting very long with Uran on the final climb. Higuita and Guerreiro were in the break. That has to be Powless then, I thought. No, it was frickin' 82kg heavy Jonas Rutsch! He would've finished in the top20 on this big mountain stage if not the breakaway riders. Powless on the other hand was the only EF rider to finish outside top100 today. It just doesn't make any sense at all.

And Uran 3rd in GC. Imagine that Pogacar crashes out now and Uran loses the TdF because of the time O'Connor gained today.

 

[triley36]

Powless has been very disappointing so far. Guerrero comes from the John Gadret school of domestiques- so unless he wins a stage (not looking likely), he is useless. I hope uran never needs a wheel. Higuita is a mystery. Looked great for all but the last 20k today. Cort still in with a chance from a breakaway. Uran is Uran. I don’t know that a leader and team have ever been as well matched as uran and EF. Maybe Bissegger can keep enough form to challenge for the last TT if Pogacar sandbags so as to not appear so alien? Valgren has been no where to be seen. That is surprising and disappointing as he looked good in the dauphine.
Alternatively, Lachlan is looking good to beat the tour to Paris?

 

[Anderis]

Guerrero comes from the John Gadret school of domestiques- so unless he wins a stage (not looking likely), he is useless.

I think that's unfair! He did a lot for Carthy last Giro.

Valgren has been no where to be seen. That is surprising and disappointing as he looked good in the dauphine.

I've seen him with Uran today quite late into the stage. I also think he was the one pulling after Carapaz' attack on stage 7? I don't think he's been too bad. There haven't been a lot of stages that suited him so far so you can't expect too much.

 

[triley36]

I think that's unfair! He did a lot for Carthy last Giro.


I've seen him with Uran today quite late into the stage. I also think he was the one pulling after Carapaz' attack on stage 7? I don't think he's been too bad. There haven't been a lot of stages that suited him so far so you can't expect too much.

I admit, I could be wrong about Valgren. I thought I saw only rutsch and Cort with Uran late today. But I’ve been wrong before. As for Guerrero, I stand by my assessment. Don’t get me wrong: he can win and winners in the pro peloton are at a premium. Especially at a low/mid budget team like EF. However, as far as supporting a leader, i don’t see that he is willing to do much. Unless he is getting team orders, why is he up the road from an isolated Uran in stage 8? If he came to the tour with the understanding that he had a free role, then fair game. And with his palmares, that would not be an unreasonable position , but if supporting his team leader/podium candidate is/was his role, he is lacking.

 

[Mayomaniac]

With Higuita it is worth mentioning that he's from Medellin, much lower altitude and higher temperatures than the high altitude regions where the Colombian climbers usually come from. I guess that's why he suffers a lot more than his countryman in cold, rainy weather.