Teams & Riders Froome Talk Only

[thehog]

I see what you did there.

iphone keyboard I can assure you!

 

[Energy Starr]

I moved this discussion from the Nibali thread because it was moving off topic.



As I write below, I have never considered Froome to be the sharpest tool in the shed. And I am not intimately familiar with Froome's history, so I am not the best at disproving your points. However, ditching Wiggins on Angliru was a pretty good tactical move, knowing that he was the better bet to win the Vuelta at that point. Or sending Porte back for energy bars last year in the TDF? No matter what I list, you will discount it because you have already made up your mind. Belief dependent reality. My greater point is that Froome will never be given credit for things like bravery or tactical sense, because many (most?) people believes that he is solely a product of dope, whereas Nibali and Contador are not treated in a similar regard. Contador has crashed frequently in the tour and his positioning is not characterized as lack of intelligent positioning as you stated for Froome. That is the double standard of the clinic.



I have stated that Froome is probably the weakest tactical rider to win the TDF in the last couple decades. Please don't put words in my mouth, because I did not equate Froome performing well on the cobbles to exhibiting nous. I just responded to the poster who said Froome was incapable of being at the front of the race. Finishing ahead of every GC guy except Nibali was a great performance by Thomas and Porte. IMO, that is pretty good evidence that finishing at the front is not beyond their capability if the right situation arises. See Andy Schleck in 2010.

Froome doesn't get credit because he has never shown tactical nous. Contador gets credit (or less criticism) because he has shown tactical nous....a couple of occasions big enough to win grand tours.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

This has been mostly a hypothetical argument, feel free to look at the actual discussion.

??? I read the posts. Hypothetical argument or not, they still stink.

Team leaders do not return to the car to get supplies when a domestique is riding with them. That's team racing 101, not an example of tactical nouse.

Seriously. What? When did you start watching cycling?

I find it funny whenever a person can not respond intelligently to an argument that they resort to personal attacks. If that is your best argument, you have none.

I find it funny that I responded intelligently, to a suggestion by you that sending Porte back to get energy bars is evidence of tactical nouse on the part of Froome, by pointing out this is de rigeur for a teams based cycling race. Only for you to say it is unintelligent. Right. Clearly I missed the unintelligent bit, perhaps you could quote it and highlight it in bold for me?

As for personal attack: we have had a number of Sky loving newbies come on here, and my sincere question of "when did you start watch watching cycling" was to determine if you
1. have watched for a while, and therefore were trolling (re Porte going back = tactical nouse) and should be added to the ignore list OR
2. have only just started, in which case some additional info to help you understand the reality of cycling racing may assist your ongoing posting.

If you see "when did you start watching cycling?" as a personal attack it was most definitely not my intent, and I am sorry you were offended.

I also apologise for expressing surprise that you seriously thought sending Porte back for food by the current GC leader of the TdF was proof of tactical nouse.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

I'll ask you the same question. If Froome and Nibali roles here reversed yesterday would you be giving credit to Froome? I doubt many here would. But that is just my opinion.

And I'll respond for myself, and not the clinic.

FWIW, I posted some time ago a video of Froome riding a TT bike on the aerobars, on a set of rollers, with the suggestion that he is not as poor a bike handler as many on here suggest. Having also ridden like this, I know the skill level involved, and am comfortable many posters here, including the Froome skill denigrators, couldn't.

Here's my truth, based on my experience of racing: sh*t happens. You make your own luck, but there's still an element of luck in cycling, every time you race.

Nibali did some things that can be perceived as skilled during the Roubaix stage, and many people point it out as skilled, but for me it was just as much luck. If he attacks on a descent and puts time into chasers, that's definitely skill for me. But the Roubaix stage result was down to luck as much as skill.

If Froome made it to the end of the stage, having ridden over a team mate that had just fallen in front of him near the end of the stage, going around a blind corner, I would have said exactly the same thing: he was lucky.

Bottom line: I don't give credit to Nibali for that stage, nor would I Froome if the roles were reversed.


The thing you may not realise, having only just started posting here, is there is a measurable amount of inertia tied to the phrase "tactics" when it comes to Froome: namely, he was utter pack fodder until 2011's Vuelta, and the explanation for his meteoric rise to world domination in the sport of cycling is: tactics, as taught by Bobby Julich.

Pishtosh.

 

[skippythepinhead]

I some ways I think Froome wanted to crash. He really was looking for a way out. And I think it's worked out nicely.

End of last year the Dawg was talking about 7 Tour titles, more recently about no testing on Tenerife; he'd just become a joke in the peloton and amongst the fans who mew anything about bike racing.

It's funny now the Tour is not missing him. Everything thing feels better. Even if Porte does well he's a lot more realistic than Froome. I honestly don't think I could have watched another win by Froome. I would have lost all faith in cycling. I think even Brailsford wants to cut the Dawg loose as well. He's a liability to Sky.

you had me at "he's a liability"

 

[thehog]

I completely agree

We now have a race on our hands. And will be beautiful to watch no matter who the winner. The Sky train leading Froome around at 500w is not racing.

Why the UCI allows it to occur is beyond me.

 

[ChewbaccaD]

Nobody wants to see a guy watch his stem all the way into Paris.

I also bet they'll be one fewer discussion about wind direction this Tour. Thank god.

 

[BYOP88]

Nobody wants to see a guy watch his stem all the way into Paris.

I also bet they'll be one fewer discussion about wind direction this Tour. Thank god.

I heard it was a Westerly wind that got him on stage 4 then on stage 5 it was the same wind but coming back the other way.

 

[mewmewmew13]

I see what you did there.

...............

 

[Granville57]

We now have a race on our hands. And will be beautiful to watch no matter who the winner. The Sky train leading Froome around at 500w is not racing.

With all the hype about the rain, cobbles and crashes, most people seem to have missed the little known fact that Richie rode the entire Stage 5 no-handed!

True story.

 

[BYOP88]

With all the hype about the rain, cobbles and crashes, most people seem to have missed the little known fact that Richie rode the entire Stage 5 no-handed!

True story.

He's just mocking Froome.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

Compared to Froome, Porte looks obese.

 

[thehog]

He's just mocking Froome.

550w seated acceleration?

No problems.

 

[Race Radio]

Nobody wants to see a guy watch his stem all the way into Paris.

The winner of this Tour will be a real bike racer, and that is a good thing.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

550w seated acceleration?

No problems.

Gettin' the band back together.

 

[Granville57]

Gettin' the band back together.

 

[Athame]

Nobody wants to see a guy watch his stem all the way into Paris.

I feel like I'm in some weird unedited version of Trading Places...........

 

[thehog]

Gettin' the band back together.

They're not gonna catch us. We're on a mission from God!

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

The winner of this Tour will be a real bike racer, and that is a good thing.

Unless it´s somebody aged 346 riding on one leg with punctured lungs out of the saddle at 620 watts... nah, that´s too crazy to imagine... Or isn´t it?

 

[BYOP88]

Unless it´s somebody aged 346 riding on one leg with punctured lungs out of the saddle at 620 watts... nah, that´s too crazy to imagine... Or isn´t it?

Methuselah is clean I tell you, CLEAN!!!!!!!

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Methuselah is clean I tell you, CLEAN!!!!!!!

That´s the amazing thing about him, he does it all clean with superb bike handling, even being half death. He will easily erase the 4 1/2 minutes once his Lampre train leads him up the first few mountains. Then, on the last mountain, he´ll just ride away from the peloton at 620 watts on one leg in good ol Gewiss style.

 

[mewmewmew13]

That´s the amazing thing about him, he does it all clean with superb bike handling, even being half death. He will easily erase the 4 1/2 minutes once his Lampre train leads him up the first few mountains. Then, on the last mountain, he´ll just ride away from the peloton at 620 watts on one leg in good ol Gewiss style.

lololzz
Foxxy!
punctured lungs broken ribs and a few weeks later BOOM!

 

[thehog]

Compared to Froome, Porte looks obese.

Hopefully an end to the insanity of extreme weight loss and heightened power outputs. I have a feeling we will not see Froome again. Well not as we knew him from 2011 onwards.

This is the end.

 

[Archibald]

That´s the amazing thing about him, he does it all clean with superb bike handling, even being half death. He will easily erase the 4 1/2 minutes once his Lampre train leads him up the first few mountains. Then, on the last mountain, he´ll just ride away from the peloton at 620 watts on one leg in good ol Gewiss style.

and he'll be led out by none other than that legendary lampre rider that Phil was telling us about - Rui Contador

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

lololzz
Foxxy!
punctured lungs broken ribs and a few weeks later BOOM!

and he'll be led out by none other than that legendary lampre rider that Phil was telling us about - Rui Contador

LOLZ back.
Didn´t know senile Phil said Rui Contador. Amazing, he gets better with age, like wine, and once great-US-around-the-corner-rides-cleanist-bike-champ-Horner...

Porte, AC, Valv pity and all those clean guys will look in shock and awe when Grandpa & Rui Costa do 1-2s á la Saunier. The Froome-Porte show last year was nothing in comparison. More like a light fart in the wind. The perfect storm is yet to come...

Who needs AICAR, extreme weight loss, marginal gains and other Kindergarten stuff when you have super knowledge of "Siberia-Blood-Bag-plus-EPO-dope". Horner knows it all. He´s a warrior with super beautiful baldness, bike handling and ballness (even 100% more than younger buddy LA)...