Teams & Riders Froome Talk Only

[Ripper]

Did Wiggo just throw his own teammate [Froome] under the bus with this comment?

"I’ve been fourth in the Tour de France, third in the Vuelta last year, it’s not like I’ve just come from nowhere. I’ve got an incredible pedigree behind me, junior world champion and an incredible rise through the ranks and so I don’t feel like I lost my cool, I just said what I think.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/wiggins-im-not-some-s-t-rider-who-has-come-from-nowhere?ns_campaign=news&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=cyclingnews&ns_linkname=0&ns_fee=0

I seriously doubt that was aimed at Froome. That was all about Brad thinking about Brad and his pedigree. Ego ego ego. Trying to mellow the folks that say this appears to be a transformation, etc.

 

[blackcat]

If I were Froome I'd ride against Wiggins like Lemond did against Hinault. I mean Froome simply rode Wiggins off his wheel on the top of that climb.

Oh, but he'll be a robot like all the other drones who work for their million dollar men nowadays. No spine.

this

b a DS bigboat

 

[Cancellator]

This stage seals the deal for me on Froome. It looks like what prevented him from catching and passing Rolland was team orders - nothing else.

 

[frenchfry]

Froome-tastic. Chicken-like in his uphill sprints.

 

[Merckx index]

This stage seals the deal for me on Froome. It looks like what prevented him from catching and passing Rolland was team orders - nothing else.

Anyone else reminded of Lemond/Hinault, 1985? And no, I'm not trying to compare Froome/Wiggins to the other two in any way except this.

 

[goggalor]

I wish Froome would win. He just goes wild on the climbs, chucks his brain out at the bottom and beats his bike senseless for 45 minutes. I love it.

Also, if there was ever an argument to ban race radios...

 

[Dr.Sahl]

After Froome's performance today I urge all other riders in the peleton to be scanned for Parasites, because if the removal of such thing can make you this strong, they better hope they have it.

 

[hfer07]

After Froome's performance today I urge all other riders in the peleton to be scanned for Parasites, because if the removal of such thing can make you this strong, they better hope they have it.

I was thinking exactly the same thing last night- It appears to be that kind of "illness" makes you a better rider indeed...

Froome is just a joke!!!

 

[maxmartin]

what is going on in sky?
what a freak show showed by Froom?

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Good sandbagging there for a few seconds.

 

[T_S_A_R]

compare froome to a rider of the past.....

there is only one valid comparison. lance armstrong.

mystery illness. late career GT contender. unbelievable TT and climbing ability.

 

[maxmartin]

compare froome to a rider of the past.....

there is only one valid comparison. lance armstrong.

mystery illness. late career GT contender. unbelievable TT and climbing ability.

the explosiveness he showed when he attacked is scary, I hope his heart would work fine when he getting old

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

compare froome to a rider of the past.....

there is only one valid comparison. lance armstrong.

mystery illness. late career GT contender. unbelievable TT and climbing ability.

This guy is ever better than my nickname, besides he cannot downride.

He is or the second coming or he is the greatest fraud ever.

I made up my mind, now you do the math...

 

[Dr.Sahl]

mystery illness.

No no, Froome has Always been better than the rest, its just that the Parasite he had, was sucking out his performance, so he only did 70% of what he could the other years...

Damn, even the children makes fun of Froome this year, saying "Froome Froome on their bikes instead of Vroommm"

 

[Maxiton]

If I were Froome I'd ride against Wiggins like Lemond did against Hinault. I mean Froome simply rode Wiggins off his wheel on the top of that climb.

Oh, but he'll be a robot like all the other drones who work for their million dollar men nowadays. No spine.

Brave words. But would, say, Tyler Hamilton have done that to Armstrong? No.

This stage seals the deal for me on Froome. It looks like what prevented him from catching and passing Rolland was team orders - nothing else.

I wonder if this came up in Sky's private, pre-Tour meeting with ASO? We'd like some French teams to . . . have an opportunity to win some stages . . . .

 

[Libertine Seguros]

compare froome to a rider of the past.....

there is only one valid comparison. lance armstrong.

mystery illness. late career GT contender. unbelievable TT and climbing ability.

Santiago Pérez

 

[Fearless Greg Lemond]

Santiago Pérez

You mean good old Santi?

Not possible, nowadays we have the bio passport...

 

[egtalbot]

Quite true, and perhaps more importantly the burning desire to win at any cost. A study was done in 1967, where elite runners were asked, if they would take a pill that would kill them in a year, but make them Olympic champions. More than half said yes.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/athletic-drug-test.htm

And this study was repeated at least half a dozen times on groups of Olympians between 1972 and 1988 (no links, sorry), with similar results.

The human ability to justify things to oneself is amazing - doing it for something as significant as doping is merely an extension of the same impulses that cause most of us to justify doing the wrong from time to time in much less important circumstances. The idea that someone without a long-term close relationship with an individual could determine with a shred of accuracy whether or not that person would (or wouldn't) dope is preposterous on its face.

As for Froome, he may be clean, he may not. I still tend to think it's still too easy to get away with some forms of doping for most of the top riders not to be. I've known one or two runners well enough to know they were clean, who have made greater jumps - though we're not talking from "decent pro" to FT podium, we're talking from competitive locally to Olympic "A" standard in less than a year. This probably isn't apples to apples with a pro cyclist training at a high level on a pro team for a number of years before making the leap.

Drugs or not, I love watching the guy. I loved watching Armstrong dominate as well, but Froome's apparent nice guy nature enhances his appeal.

 

[hrotha]

Not sure if this has already been posted:

http://www.cyclesportmag.com/features/inside-the-mind-of-dave-brailsford/

5. Riders in this area are borderline for us. As you get older, the potential for improvement disappears and so it’s much more a judgement call. A rider might bring something to the team in terms of his personality that makes him a good guy to have around.

Now note where CF, or Chris Froome, was, according to Brailsford, a mere year ago.

 

[roundabout]

I see Wiggins is on a downward slope.

Some should tell him this.

 

[Fergoose]

Not sure if this has already been posted:

http://www.cyclesportmag.com/features/inside-the-mind-of-dave-brailsford/

Now note where CF, or Chris Froome, was, according to Brailsford, a mere year ago.

Fantastic catch with that article. Says it all really. You might just about keep someone like Froome on your books if they are decent for team morale! If any of you do go to Brailsford's post-tour Q&A session please run this article under his nose and quote him.

Delighted to see the race opened up with Nibali today to prove Froome was in Vuelta form and to also highlight the gulf in quality between him and his teammates. I feared Sky would have it so easy that it'd be difficult to tell who really has the energy in that team.

I was stunned when they re-hired Froome after the Vuelta, now I'm even more baffled as it's hard to buy Brailsford's line about "we always knew he had the numbers" when he's classifying him as borderline unhireable!

 

[Bala Verde]

Not sure if this has already been posted:

http://www.cyclesportmag.com/features/inside-the-mind-of-dave-brailsford/

Now note where CF, or Chris Froome, was, according to Brailsford, a mere year ago.

From the same article:

Brailsford seems happiest when he’s studying a graph or analysing some statistics. Taking in the information, identifying the flaws and limiting factors, coming to a conclusion and seeing how he can apply what he’s learned to a practical problem. He spends hours looking at the Cycling Quotient website, cqranking.com, studying results. A cycling fanatic has created, in his spare time, a more effective ranking system than anything the UCI has come up with in the ProTour era. “It’s on my favourites and I look at it every day,” Brailsford says. “There are some flaws in it. For example, a rider will get the same amount of points for a sprint win as another rider will get for a summit finish but they are very different challenges. When you look at the rankings, Cav [Mark Cavendish] has 1,400 points and Hesjedal has 1,200 points but they’ve won them in completely different ways. As riders they don’t overlap at all.

“There are things you can’t tell from statistics but it’s useful as a guide. The site tells you how many days a rider has raced, how many kilometres they’ve raced. The ranking system tells you more than the UCI’s ProTour ranking. It’s the best source of information in pro cycling at the moment. You can see how many points a rider wins per kilometre raced, which is an interesting little fact.”

I wonder what he saw when he looked at this:

http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/rider_palm.asp?riderid=5789&year=0&all=0&current=0

Great judgement call in retrospect. Potential Vuelta and TdF winner.

 

[Chris85]

Looking at Froomes past results hes only completed three grand tours since 2008. In 2008 he placed 84th in the tof and in '09 he placed 36th in the Giro. We all ofcourse know that he placed 2nd on the tour of spain last year. Has their been a gradual progression? Yes, but nothing too spectacular, until now. Froome's Results: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Froome

I think a lot of people are wondering...who is this guy? Unfortunately for him, people may have forgotten how strong he was in Spain last year. To his merit, last night he looked incredible...Bertie like even. If he's clean, this is great for cycling as we may have another contender for the 100th anniversary of the tour next year. But, unfortunately, i know what to expect from performances like this.

 

[Paco_P]

Even assuming Froome has always had the talent of, say, Ullrich or Contador, one should remember that in order to ride in as dominating a fashion as Froome is doing, both of them were doping ...

 

[fatsprintking]

Froome - Extraterrestial

The thing that worries me most about Froome?....He looks very much like ET, or that alien they found in the crashed ufo.



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So maybe genuine extraterrestial? The other thing that I am hung up on is the fact that he rides like he has prosthetic arms. I just hope that all this marginal gains stuff does not lead to everyone riding like giant alien grasshoppers!!