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Teams & Riders Froome Talk Only

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FoxxyBrown1111 said:
Sky-2012-TdF-Supporting-Cast/Train:
(assuming Froome should have been the leader back then too)
Wiggins (3rd TdF w/GAR the clean team)
EBH (super talent since erarly, big timer at Columbia)
Knees (T20-TdF w/Milram)
Porte (7th-Giro w/SAX, i give you the benefit of the doubt and add him the 14 mins he gained in the breakaway stage = still good for 13th that year)
Rogers (two T10 in GT´s w/Columbia)
Sivtsov (three T20 in GT´s w/Columbia)

That is no less than 5 riders who would be the sole GT-Rider w/other teams & one super domestique.

Sky-2013-TdF-Supporting-Cast/Train:
EBH (see 2012)
Kiryienka (T20 in GT w/GCE, finsihing btw. 25th-37th another four times w/different teams. Very solid climber before joining Sky)
Lopez Garcia (T20 in GT w/GCE, hovering around 40th in another 5 GT´s. Very solid domestique over the years)
Porte (see 2012)
Sivtsov (see 2012)

That is 5 riders who can lead the train up the mountains. Even Jens Voigt (for AS in 2011) could do it before he had to give in 10 km from the finish.
Anyway, there should be no surprise if 5 riders lead Froome until the last mountain in each stage...

And all those riders "were made" ;) before joining Sky. They can´t be blamed then.

Add in Kennaugh and GThomas, let the fireworks begin (hopefully). :D

Now you tell me which teams field better squads.
The point is, they're being led by a guy who was nothing - who has now vaulted ahead of all of these former GT top 20 guys... overnight. And his 2nd in command, who is also destroying every other team's top guys, lost 5 minutes in almost every mountain stage he entered in GTs before joining Sky.

The support squad is strong, but it's not "Sky have bought the best riders", because they haven't. Because that doesn't work. BMC had that problem, and it leads to too many chiefs and not enough Indians. Sky have bought a strong support squad but with few riders who have their own ambitions.

And a couple of those support squad guys have turned from reasonable support squad guys to guys who squash all comers, all season. And if Froome has four guys with him at the base of the last mountain that's not so surprising, what would be surprising is if, like 2012, he still has them when the group's trimmed to single figures. The Saxo train of pain couldn't do that with shady Riis power. And I'm also not convinced HTC, Satan's favourite team, were clean either. Ashes of T-Mobile, and all these guys who have had good results for them then faded away somewhat (Kirchen, Löfkvist, Velits, Gerdemann).

Froome was hired because of his passport. Nothing less, nothing more. Anything else is revisionist history. Yet here we are, justifying his being the best rider by saying Sky buy all the best riders, conveniently ignoring that the guy who now leads them was never, ever even considered under anything even remotely resembling that description until he'd been putting together nondescript results even with all the benefits of Marginal Gains for nearly 2 years.
 
Oct 16, 2009
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DirtyWorks said:
Hilarious. He's losing touch. Next comes adopting Brunyeel slogans. As someone mentioned, he's reaching Brunyeelsford personality much faster than I thought.
The brilliant thing is that he's giving these ridiculous answers before we've had any mountain stages or TTs. He doesn't even have any outrageous performances to excuse yet! Walsh's write up at the end of this Tour should be brutal.
 
May 23, 2010
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Ferminal said:
"At some point in time, clean performances will surpass the doped performances in the past."

That is a pretty awesome troll, either that or he's an idiot.

Unbelievable. Poor guy thinks species evolve at the same pace that Sky domestiques improve their climbing ability.
 
Aug 31, 2012
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Only a select few can interpret and understand the data according to brailsfraud? hahahaha this **** isn't string theory, bro.

looks like we can add basic statistical concepts to the growing list of innovations Sky have developed whilst revolutionising cycling
 
Oct 16, 2009
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SeriousSam said:
Only a select few can interpret and understand the data according to brailsfraud? hahahaha this **** isn't string theory, bro.

looks like we can add basic statistical concepts to the growing list of innovations Sky have developed whilst revolutionising cycling
I hear Brailsford is trying to snap up Stephen Hawking to do their power data analysis. Sky hire only the best scientists.
 
goggalor said:
I hear Brailsford is trying to snap up Stephen Hawking to do their power data analysis. Sky hire only the best scientists.

In an analysis team led by a guy who dropped out of university during his science degree, yet has inexplicably suddenly risen in prominence to the pinnacle of the scientific community.

But then, he did get an A for an assignment when he was 16, so we ought to have predicted it.
 
May 26, 2010
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Libertine Seguros said:
In an analysis team led by a guy who dropped out of university during his science degree, yet has inexplicably suddenly risen in prominence to the pinnacle of the scientific community.

But then, he did get an A for an assignment when he was 16, so we ought to have predicted it.

Therein lies the whole PR BS built on a gigantic mound of stinking lies.
 
Mar 16, 2013
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Libertine Seguros said:
In an analysis team led by a guy who dropped out of university during his science degree, yet has inexplicably suddenly risen in prominence to the pinnacle of the scientific community.

But then, he did get an A for an assignment when he was 16, so we ought to have predicted it.

i wholeheartedly agree that Brailsford is making power data sound more complicated than it is, but your reasoning here is pretty far off the mark.

it's not abnormal for those at the "pinnacle" of their field to have been dropouts.
 
May 26, 2010
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jw1979 said:
i wholeheartedly agree that Brailsford is making power data sound more complicated than it is, but your reasoning here is pretty far off the mark.

it's not abnormal for those at the "pinnacle" of their field to have been dropouts.

Hard to study for doping unless you went to Feirburg or were under Dr Conconi or similar institute ;)

Gerrison is at the pinnacle of 'Marginal Gains'.
 
Nov 6, 2009
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is this the definition of "Going full genius"

not even into the first rest day of the tour and the first two placings have been made.

Lauaghabe. Its just like US Postal all over again
 
Mar 18, 2009
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chrisb said:
is this the definition of "Going full genius"

not even into the first rest day of the tour and the first two placings have been made.

Lauaghabe. Its just like US Postal all over again

Not sure which ones worse - Froome or Porte, fresh as a daisy & grinning as he crosses the line
 
May 27, 2010
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Stage 8. Ax-3-Domaines (8.90 km, 7.46 %, 664 m). Chris Froome: 23 min 14 sec, 22.98 Kph, VAM 1715 m/h, 6.24 W/kg [DrF]

Not bad...

Ridiculous how the Belgian commentators answering their own question 'is this normal' with ' you'ld expect them to put 1.15 on Mollema and Porte has beaten these guys all year'
 
S--t, that was more dominant than Postal ever was. Not even with Heras or Landis did you see the top domestique drop the best rider of the last 6 years, and then recover to drop everyone else and finish 2nd on the stage with a gap to those following.
 
Jun 15, 2009
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I LOVE IT. NO MORE DULL TOURS. :D

I guess the clinic exploded already, or did it implode? :p

Go Froome. :)

P.S.: Great call "Hog". Your call was 100%. Hope you made some bucks off it... If so, Congrats!
 

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