Teams & Riders Froome Talk Only

[Gung Ho Gun]

Re: Re:

I am not *100%* sure but I'd say most pros only turn pro at 21-22. So Froome is not that different.

I would say that at that time Froome knew how to ride a bike (kind of) but not really how to race to any consistency. Contador, for comparison, also turned pro at 21 but he had been racing in Europe since he was 15 and I think he was already quite developed in terms of a racing brain and knowing tactics by the time he turned pro. Nibali too was on a similar path. Froome was more like a headless chicken pointed forward and then just told to keep going until he learned how to race more effectively.

But the Nibali-Astana story was about the Tour of Oman in 2013
Froome was a class above Nibali in the Tour one year earlier and similarly crushed him in that Tour of Oman
Despite being at a clear disadvantage by racing like a headless chicken?
(although I disagree with anyone claiming he doesn't race "pointed forward and then just told to keep going" anymore)

 

[Catwhoorg]

Re:

"being locked by his brother in a pen full of angry ostriches".

In his book it was one angry Turkey.

Its pretty clear they just make these stories up as they go along.

Being chased by hippos, yeah doubt that one too.

To be fair a lot of sports biographies do the same sort of thing.

I think about a dozen different rugby players all claimed to be the one who made the same smart alec comment at Fran Cottons bedside during a Lions tour. (The one about no-one having a big enough heart to replace his)

 

[thehog]

The Tour of Oman, 2013, first stage. ‘Who was that Astana guy? He’s quick!’ ‘Mate, it’s [Vincenzo] Nibali.’

The quote comes from Stage 1, which was a short, flat sprinters stage. Was Froome just picking random jersey’s out in the peloton and asking “who is that”? Why would he even ask who a rider is on a flat stage of 150km?

 

[StryderHells]

Re:

I am not *100%* sure but I'd say most pros only turn pro at 21-22. So Froome is not that different.

Agree! Froome turned Pro when pretty much most riders do, he raced as a junior just like most riders do so I also understand why people want to argue that he didn't know how to ride/race a bike and that's one of the reasons it took him so long to get that breakthrough that happened in 2011.

 

[zlev11]

The Tour of Oman, 2013, first stage. ‘Who was that Astana guy? He’s quick!’ ‘Mate, it’s [Vincenzo] Nibali.’

The quote comes from Stage 1, which was a short, flat sprinters stage. Was Froome just picking random jersey’s out in the peloton and asking “who is that”? Why would he even ask who a rider is on a flat stage of 150km?

the specifics don't matter because it never actually happened.

 

[thehog]

The Tour of Oman, 2013, first stage. ‘Who was that Astana guy? He’s quick!’ ‘Mate, it’s [Vincenzo] Nibali.’

The quote comes from Stage 1, which was a short, flat sprinters stage. Was Froome just picking random jersey’s out in the peloton and asking “who is that”? Why would he even ask who a rider is on a flat stage of 150km?

the specifics don't matter because it never actually happened.

Agreed. More BS from the Sky propaganda machine.

 

[zlev11]

i don't even see this as the usual propaganda. it's more along the lines of "sh*t we made up to sell more books".

 

[djpbaltimore]

I imagine that there is an element of truth about Froome not knowing that Nibali had made the switch to Astana, but the story has been embellished on re-telling to the point of sounding apocryphal. Why let facts get in the way of a good anecdote?

 

[The Hitch]

Re:

Know froome knows what everyone is doing what training, where and that gives him an idea on who to look out for during races a huge advantage imo.

Iirc in one of the most quoted pieces from his book, froome says pretty much the opposite. He says he has no idea what Contador is doing for training but likes to imagine that Contador just drinks coffee and does no training.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

I am not *100%* sure but I'd say most pros only turn pro at 21-22. So Froome is not that different.

Agree! Froome turned Pro when pretty much most riders do, he raced as a junior just like most riders do so I also understand why people want to argue that he didn't know how to ride/race a bike and that's one of the reasons it took him so long to get that breakthrough that happened in 2011.

Am just checking out the top 15 on CQ ranking

Valverde: turned pro in 2002, at 21 years 8 months old
Kristoff: 2010, 22yrs 5mo
Sagan: 2010, 19yrs 11mo
Froome: 2008, 22yrs 7mo
Contador: 2003, 20yrs 1mo
Aru: 2013, 22yrs 6mo
Rodriguez: 2001, 21yrs 5mo
Quintana: 2011, 20yrs 10mo
Van Avermaet: 2007, 21yrs 7mo
Pinot: 2010, 19yrs 6mo
Nibali: 2005, 20yrs 2mo
Greipel: 2005, 22yrs 5mo
Degenkolb: 2011, 22yrs 0mo
Porte: 2010, 24yrs 11mo but he did tri first
Dumoulin: 2012, 21yrs 2mo

So while Froome turned pro slightly later than the average successful pro, the difference really isn't that large and definitely not 4 years later "Basically froome breakthrough in 2011 was only 4 years after turning full time pro. So really he wasn't 26 cycling years but 22 so normal." <-- suggesting a normal pro turns pro at 18

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Know froome knows what everyone is doing what training, where and that gives him an idea on who to look out for during races a huge advantage imo.

Iirc in one of the most quoted pieces from his book, froome says pretty much the opposite. He says he has no idea what Contador is doing for training but likes to imagine that Contador just drinks coffee and does no training.

Perfect way to motivate yourself "my rivals are doing nothing while I am working my ass off"

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

I am not *100%* sure but I'd say most pros only turn pro at 21-22. So Froome is not that different.

I would say that at that time Froome knew how to ride a bike (kind of) but not really how to race to any consistency. Contador, for comparison, also turned pro at 21 but he had been racing in Europe since he was 15 and I think he was already quite developed in terms of a racing brain and knowing tactics by the time he turned pro. Nibali too was on a similar path. Froome was more like a headless chicken pointed forward and then just told to keep going until he learned how to race more effectively.

I am sure you have a point there but it wasn't really what Ramon posted. He suggested that Froome turned pro way later than others (4yrs) so it was normal that he only had his breakthrough at 26
By the way, it is completely normal for a rider to start winning big races at 26, however it isn't when the same rider had to hang onto motorbikes to get over climbs a year earlier and his biggest win up to that point was the Atomic Jock race or stage 3 of the Tour of the Cape

But the Nibali-Astana story was about the Tour of Oman in 2013
Froome was a class above Nibali in the Tour one year earlier and similarly crushed him in that Tour of Oman
Despite being at a clear disadvantage by racing like a headless chicken?
(although I disagree with anyone claiming he doesn't race "pointed forward and then just told to keep going" anymore)

Lol I had not even thought about it that way. Way to go, Dawg (or maybe "G" is just making *** up)

 

[Black Betsy]

I can only imagine what will accomplish as soon as he become acquainted with some Philip K. ***'s books.

 

[LaFlorecita]

I was talking out of my arse, he did not win stage 3 of the Giro del Capo (Tour of the Cape) (who thought it was a good idea to give a South-African race an Italian name ) he came 2nd overall in 2008 though and won this 1.2 race with the same name in 2009
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=10559
What the hell , over 3 minutes advantage , why have Sky fans not yet pointed towards this as evidence of his talent, instead of his 382th place at the U23 Commonwealth ITT

 

[Rollthedice]

Of course it's just making things up. Maybe they picked up Nibali this time because maybe later in the book he'll become the villain who rides for a disgraced doped team, throws bottles at G's mate Froomey and has the nerve to attack him while he's struggling with his gears. And of course he is a lazy dude, not training enough and eating pizzas all day.

 

[thehog]

I remember when I was riding the Atomic Jock Race back in 2006. I said to my friend at the time, “who’s the odd looking white guy with sandshoes on a bike over there?”, he said “that’s Chris Froome mate, one day he’ll win the Tour de France pushing numbers of known dopers clean, they’ll call him Dawg”.

Who would have thought that it all came true...

 

[Gung Ho Gun]

It's the Anatomic Jock Race

 

[Rollthedice]

There might be some truth though that he has a problem with cycling knowledge even pre-badzilla. This is from 2009, good ol Barloworld times:

Q: Who is the president of British Cycling?
Chris Froome: Uhm, the guy with the beard, what?s his name?
Steve Cummings: Brian something?.
Geraint Thomas: ?Cookson.
CW: A bad start to the test. Froome met the president at last year?s world championships.

 

[pastronef]

Re:

Of course it's just making things up. Maybe they picked up Nibali this time because maybe later in the book he'll become the villain who rides for a disgraced doped team, throws bottles at G's mate Froomey and has the nerve to attack him while he's struggling with his gears. And of course he is a lazy dude, not training enough and eating pizzas all day.

bolded: you said it right. Froome was right to complain
disgraced team and attacking while he struggles with his gears: both topics are part of the game, no problem with that for me.

 

[SeriousSam]

Cool sounding anecdotes are all made up ***. All of them.

 

[The Hitch]

Re:

Cool sounding anecdotes are all made up ***. All of them.

What "cool" anecdotes?

Poulidor used to appeal to middle aged French housewives. Thomas is like the British, gay version of that. Designed to appeal to middle aged male lycra warriors.
Dad humour, but not much cool about it.

 

[The Hitch]

I remember when I was riding the Atomic Jock Race back in 2006. I said to my friend at the time, “who’s the odd looking white guy with sandshoes on a bike over there?”, he said “that’s Chris Froome mate, one day he’ll win the Tour de France pushing numbers of known dopers clean, they’ll call him Dawg”.

Who would have thought that it all came true...

hog you need to make extra clear in your post that you are posting your own parody. As far as we know, that could actually be something from Thomas or Walsh.

 

[the sceptic]

The best thing about the Dawg myths is that Walsh is such a terrible writer but at the same time he has this image in his own head of being a modern poet and robin hood for saving cycling from Lance. This makes his deluded rambling so much better.

I really hope he has another Sky book in him before he becomes completely incoherent

 

[thehog]

Re:

The best thing about the Dawg myths is that Walsh is such a terrible writer but at the same time he has this image in his own head of being a modern poet and robin hood for saving cycling from Lance. This makes his deluded rambling so much better.

I really hope he has another Sky book in him before he becomes completely incoherent

Walsh has been channeling his inner Phil Liggett. Walsh is now 60 and becoming just as senile as Phil has become.

I too do dream of another book from Walsh, it will complete me.

 

[Electress]

Re:

Of course it's just making things up. Maybe they picked up Nibali this time because maybe later in the book he'll become the villain who rides for a disgraced doped team, throws bottles at G's mate Froomey and has the nerve to attack him while he's struggling with his gears. And of course he is a lazy dude, not training enough and eating pizzas all day.

Surely it's more about who the defending Tour champion was when G was actually making all this stuff up. Because of that, he's going to be much more familiar to your average July Tour watcher, and Sky fanboy who will buy this in the Christmas following the TdF15.

It's been evident for a while that G. is being wheeled out as the personable, British face of Team Sky.

What I really wish for Christmas is a cycling version of Primary Colours…the potential for a vitriolic, satirical roman a clef from Inside Team Sky is so high.