Garmin for PR

[Captain Chaos]

Just curious if anyone else agrees with me questioning garmin's squad for PR. Granted everything is subject to change and they are still one short of the max but I gotta wonder what JV is thinking.

Granted outside of Maaskant they are pack fodder but I'm still perplexed.

Garmin Slipstream for Paris-Roubaix

1. COZZA Steven
2. FRIEDMAN Michael
3. MAASKANT Martyn
4. SUTTON Christopher
5. TUFT Svein

I'm Good Up to here.
WIGGINS Bradley - Could someone tell me why a TT guy would be put on the cobbles?
DEAN Julian - Is Dean not a sprinter (or at least a lead out man) OK, he rode MSR but no Pave. Don't get it.

WHY NOT:
Ryder Hesjedal & Huub Duyn, hell even farrar who lives in Belgium and sees himself a Classics rider.

 

[Kazistuta]

No doubt Garmin isn't exactly a classics team. I totally agree that Farrar should be given the chance to start, I'm very anxious to see him perform in these sort of races.

Wiggins is clearly in-form and he's a "team first" worker, who'll probably be very useful for Maaskant (I guess he's the captain) the initial 150 k. Dean is also a proven domestique. I don't think Hesjedal would stand a chance in RVV, and I must admit I don't see Huub Duyn as a valuable asset either...

 

[Epicycle]

Dean rode Paris-Roubaix last year and they had a very successful result. They lost two from last year's squad...Backstedt and Laurent. Add Tuft, Wiggins or Cozza. So eight from Maaskant, Frischkorn, Tuft, Wiggins, Friedman, Sutton, Dean, Cozza and Farrar.

 

[TRDean]

On a race like this I wouldn't call Tuft pack fodder...

Also, Ferrar is hurt if I'm not mistaken...which is why he is not racing.

 

[Graham]

WIGGINS Bradley - Could someone tell me why a TT guy would be put on the cobbles?

Being a TT guy has never hurt Cancellara in Paris-Roubaix...

Magnus Backstedt describes riding Paris Roubaix as like doing a series of 4'30 pursuits. Wiggins has confirmed that the wattage that Maggie was outputting on each of his cobbled runs looked like a 4'30 compared to what he puts out on a 4'15.

Paris-Roubaix is completely flat. A durable rouleur is always going to do well there. We know that Wiggins is a good rouleur, I would say that whether he is durable has still to be answered. Guess we'll find out in a few days time.

Graham.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Duyn is more a guy for the Ardennes classics. He had some trouble with his left leg for the past 2 years, but then they operated it and now it goes well.

But he is not a cobble specialist, so I'm glad he doesn't ride there

 

[Captain Chaos]

Thanks for the input. Never said I know everything.

couple comments.

1. No one loves Tuft like I do. Anyone that hopped trains as a kid, road a bike from Vancouver to Mexico on a bike for fun and then lived in a trailer behind his teams' office is a cool cat in my book. I've been following him since he won the US Championship race in the spring on 2007 in sub zero weather but the fact is going from a team like symmetrics to being thrown into the European schedule like he has has got to be a shock to the system. I don't look to see him hit his stride until much later in the year. However I'm still glad he is on the PR squad.

2. I did forget that farrar was hurt in a crash at MSR and is out for a month.

3. Hesjedal has had 2 good showings in Monte Paschi Eroica an although is white gravel and a roller I still see it as a race for durable riders which he is.

4. As far has Wiggins goes I can't disagree with the points stated but the whole question of durability is what concerns me. Wiggins was brought to garmin to make them the world's best TT team not for him to be a domestique for Maskaant. No one is saying he isn't a better and more experience rider than Duyn or not for mentioned Killian Patour but if Wiggins goes down as Millar already has I think it will be a choice JV will regret.

Cancellara is a slightly different type of rider (more durable) so I can't agree with the comparison plus Saxo's team dynamic is different. Perhaps I'm looking for Wiggins down the road and already looking past the Classics for Garmin.

 

[LugHugger]

Wiggins spent years riding in northern Europe with Cofidis. Dean has done the miles with Credit Agricole. PR is all about protecting the team leader and both of those guys can put in exactly the high wattage turns needed to safely negotiate the pave sections. After that, it all about having the legs and timing your attack(s).

It looks to me as though JV has thought carefully about having the watts to get Maaskant through the pave in good condition ready to launch or respond to an attack in the last 35km or so. Not sure that Tuft will make after yesterday's spill in de Panne. Good luck to GS though. It's going to be a great race this year. Hell, it's a great race every year.

 

[skidmark]

CC, I've gotta agree with you on Tuft, I've definitely been enamored since I read his ridiculous story. Man, did you see that flip in de Panne, and then he just sorta limps it off, rides to the finish, and gets top 10 in a time trial a few hours later? I'd love to see him shock some folks in a race like P-R, but you're right, it probably won't happen until later in the season if it does at all.

 

[TRDean]

Cc and Skid...We seem to be brothers at heart with our admiration of Tuft. I agree that PR probably won't be a good result...but I also think that it could be a race taylor made for his abilities. I think that his troubles will be positioning himself at the run in to the cobbled sections and that is were he will have the trouble. All I can say is that Tuft is a true "hard man" on and off the bike!! Rock on my Canadian brother!!

 

[Mr.DNA]

Why is Magnus Backstedt on the Garmin start list for Flanders? I thought he retired.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2009/apr09/rvv09/?id=startlist

Edit: Never mind. It's been corrected.

 

[Laurent]

yeah he retired a month or two ago. He's making a brand of coffee and running a development team I think. As you do.