Froome is Sky's best chance to win Le Tour

[movingtarget]

Martin has a better chance than Velits of winning a stage and losing 10 minutes on the first mountain stage, but a better chance of finishing high on GC? Martin is completely unproven over three weeks, Velits finished 3rd at the Vuelta. Nuff said

Pretty much agree. Martin will make up big time in the TTs but he will lose most of it in the mountains if he climbs the way he did last year. I think he is too heavy to do well in the mountains.

 

[jens_attacks]

didn't know froomy is tintin too...i wonder what is rebellin's opinion about that...
anyway i'm sure chris will have an excellent 2012 season.

 

[Kvinto]

I never said they were that bad, just not great.

OK, but it sounds a bit confusing when while pointing out that Basso and Scarponi are not great tters you use a 'who can time-trial' about Cobo

 

[theyoungest]

Froome targets leading role:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ol...-Tour-de-France-and-London-2012-Olympics.html

Badly written article.

Intro: Froome is like Tintin.

20 paragraphs with no link to Tintin whatsoever.

Name random Tintin character in the final line.

End.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

didn't know froomy is tintin too...i wonder what is rebellin's opinion about that...
anyway i'm sure chris will have an excellent 2012 season.

I guess that means Wiggins is Capitaine Haddock, so it's not all that inaccurate.

 

[Mambo95]

I guess that means Wiggins is Capitaine Haddock, so it's not all that inaccurate.

Does that make Cavendish & Eisel Thompson & Thomson (aka Dupont & Dupond)?

 

[El Pistolero]

Does that make Cavendish & Eisel Thompson & Thomson (aka Dupont & Dupond)?

Cavendish is Rastapopoulos.

 

[maltiv]

Froome targets leading role:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ol...-Tour-de-France-and-London-2012-Olympics.html

I think it's quite funny that he repeatedly says that "Wiggins learned me how to conserve energy" etc. Apparently how you do that is to hit the wind at the bottom of the climb, ride the entire peloton off your wheel and still lose no time whatsoever despite being on the front for the entire climb. Seems like a very energy-conserving tactic right there

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I think it's quite funny that he repeatedly says that "Wiggins learned me how to conserve energy" etc. Apparently how you do that is to hit the wind at the bottom of the climb, ride the entire peloton off your wheel and still lose no time whatsoever despite being on the front for the entire climb. Seems like a very energy-conserving tactic right there

Well, he probably means in flat stages, in the péloton and so on. He didn't exactly conserve energy when he suddenly decided to just lead people out and drop people all climb like Ezequiel Mosquera.

 

[Carlo Algatrensig]

I think it's quite funny that he repeatedly says that "Wiggins learned me how to conserve energy" etc. Apparently how you do that is to hit the wind at the bottom of the climb, ride the entire peloton off your wheel and still lose no time whatsoever despite being on the front for the entire climb. Seems like a very energy-conserving tactic right there

I think what he might have meant was that he would previously go to hard to early. At the vuelta this year he seemed to me to ride the climbs by gradually winding it up as they got higher up the climb. I think the Froome of riding for barloworld would have got himself into the red much earlier and as such blown and lost a lot more time.

One thing I'm still not sure about with Froome is how much did this Bilharzia infection effect him. If he had it while he produced fairly decent results at Romandie and Castilla y Leon then his performance at the Vuelta would not have been so surprising as his results at those races might have been better and so we might have seen the improvement in shorter stage races that would have suggested he was capable of what he did in the vuelta.

 

[jens_attacks]

this bilharzia west nile whatever is a blessing from the sky.
what the other contenders will see in july when froomy will attack:

grande!!!

 

[mb2612]

I think what he might have meant was that he would previously go to hard to early. At the vuelta this year he seemed to me to ride the climbs by gradually winding it up as they got higher up the climb. I think the Froome of riding for barloworld would have got himself into the red much earlier and as such blown and lost a lot more time.

One thing I'm still not sure about with Froome is how much did this Bilharzia infection effect him. If he had it while he produced fairly decent results at Romandie and Castilla y Leon then his performance at the Vuelta would not have been so surprising as his results at those races might have been better and so we might have seen the improvement in shorter stage races that would have suggested he was capable of what he did in the vuelta.

He said in an interview over the winter that he had had Bilharzia for 3 years, discovered it in the off season last year, then had to re take the medicine in June or so because it had reoccurred.

 

[ferryman]

Well, he probably means in flat stages, in the péloton and so on. He didn't exactly conserve energy when he suddenly decided to just lead people out and drop people all climb like Ezequiel Mosquera.

Yep that is all he has learn't at the coal face riding with Sky and Wiggins. The rest comes naturally.

 

[Orvieto]

This:

Sky would certainly be wise to keep both balls in play for as long as possible. Froome won't need to set the pace again like he did in the Vuelta (Radioshack will do that - it's all Bruyneel knows).

But also this:

Please, neither Froome nor Wiggins will be a GC threat at the Tour. Both of them (if selected) will be towing the peloton for km after km a la Grabsch/Eisel/Hansen to bring back breaks for Cavendish.

It will happen - Cav in a sprint is a much safer bet than Wiggins/Froome in the race for GC.

Sky's best chance to win the 2012 is to keep both Froome and Wiggins in play. Froome ought to be deployed to attack and force other teams to play their hands. Wiggins ought to bide his time and hope to win it in that 52km time trial on the penultimate day. Wiggin's best chance of winning the tour is if other teams rate Froome and pursue. Froome's best chance of winning the tour is if they underestimate Froome and let him get away.

But really, let's be serious, neither Sky rider is going to win the Tour de France in 2012, not when half the team is focused on the World Champion sprinter who is expected to go grab multiple stage wins. Brailsford will want Cavendish happy and confident in advance of the London Olympic road race. Without full team support best either GC rider can expect is a top 5.

If Froome is smart he'll cede tour leadership to Wiggins and return to the Vuelta for a chance to actually win a GC.

 

[webvan]

Not sure about his TDF but Froome is still out of commission, no Catalunya for him...

 

[El Pistolero]

Well, that's a cross over a large part of his season already.

 

[hatcher]

He's doing Criterium International on the weekend instead.

 

[Duartista]

He was never going to do it, he's on the Crit Int team.

 

[Gloin22]

He's doing Criterium International on the weekend instead.

Excatly. He was never scheduled for Volta, Crit begins his 'season' for him, then Ardennes. He'll go to altitude camp after that I guess and back to racing at Dauphine.

 

[El Pistolero]

2 days of racing will not be enough I'm afraid.

 

[thehog]

2 days of racing will not be enough I'm afraid.

I'm sure he'll dig deep like her did at the Vuelta....

 

[theyoungest]

Criterium International, Ardennes, Dauphine... that's it

Goddammit Froome, this is what I get for putting you on my CQ team?

 

[Froome19]

Criterium International, Ardennes, Dauphine... that's it

Goddammit Froome, this is what I get for putting you on my CQ team?

Dont see the problem that is something like 1200 points, even before the tour.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I hope you're right, counting on his points in another game

 

[blackcat]

So says Stephen Roche:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/froome-is-skys-best-chance-to-win-the-tour-de-france-roche-says
His logic on 1) doesn't compute with me as it will be each man on his own over 100K of ITT and no way Froome will sneak in under the radar on any climb after his perfomance in the Vuelta.

I'm sure more knowledgeable posters can provide a deeper analysis

he put time into BW on the chronos in the Vuelta. Froom could always tt. Wiggins timetrialling is overrated and he has never been able to pull out a result within a 3 week tour on his chrono.

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=15116&highlight=Froome