Garmin Vuelta

[johngoat]

3 GC contenders. Who will be there sprinter? Good old Koldo or mr. Haas?

 

[roundabout]

TTT crash incoming.

 

[Roude Leiw]

3 GC contenders. Who will be there sprinter? Good old Koldo or mr. Haas?

Talansky showed some promise in his last outing as a sprinter....

 

[the sceptic]

team looks strong on paper, but in this field I doubt they can do anything significant in the GC. Top 10 at best. Riding for stage wins with Dan Martin is probably their best shot.

The battle of who will get the most crashes between Talansky and Dan Martin will be interesting too.

 

[Afrank]

I have a feeling about Dan Martin for GC. Was thinking the same at the Giro, but a crash ruined that race for him. As long as he stays on his bike this time, I think he could surprise.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

I have a feeling about Dan Martin for GC. Was thinking the same at the Giro, but a crash ruined that race for him. As long as he stays on his bike this time, I think he could surprise.

It's a good opportunity for him to show that he can do something over three weeks. In theory he should be very fresh compared to most others and have had longer to come back from injury than the Tour casualties.

 

[Roude Leiw]

I have a feeling about Dan Martin for GC. Was thinking the same at the Giro, but a crash ruined that race for him. As long as he stays on his bike this time, I think he could surprise.

Same here, i think Dan can do sth great here. He also deserves a break from being unlucky this season.

 

[Luigi_Max]

Nathan Haas is not really a sprinter.

 

[BYOP88]

Martin and Talansky to have both left the race before stage 14.

 

[BigMac]

It's a good opportunity for him to show that he can do something over three weeks. In theory he should be very fresh compared to most others and have had longer to come back from injury than the Tour casualties.

Less race days and competitition, though. Hope that doesn't reflect too much.

 

[dduff442]

If there's one thing Martin does to perfection it's to time his peaks in form. He worked on his TT skills over the winter and made the Giro his main target for the early season so he at least feels he's realistic GC ambitions.

As regards staying the three weeks, recuperation was one of his uncle's main strengths.

He'll be under a certain amount of pressure to do well. If he doesn't manage to beat at least one much higher rated GC contender who raced either a full Tour or Giro it'll count as a disappointment. He needs to either score well here or get at least one strong result in a flat ITT between now and the end of the season if his GC credibility is to match his talents in other areas.

 

[l.Harm]

Climbs should suit Martin, top 10.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

At least 50% on the original "favorites" list will fail. This is the Vuelta after all.
So yea, no reason why somebody from Garmin couldn't get a top 5 GC wise.

 

[cineteq]

Talansky will win La Vuelta.

 

[durtyfat]

Talansky will win La Vuelta.

1. Hesjedal 2. Talansky 3. D. Martin 4. Quintana 5. Rodriguez
Garmin is going to dominate this race.

 

[Anderis]

Nathan Haas is not really a sprinter.

Still the most capable sprinter from Garmin's Vuelta roster and won even one flat bunch sprint this year. Fernandez is not a sprinter anymore, his last top10 place came during Vuelta 2012. But he seems to have improved his climbing. Plenty of selective, tough, mountainous or hilly stages this year finished in the top50-60.
I get the feeling neither of them will even try to sprint and they will focus on helping their GC guys.

There's no way to predict what will happen in GC. Every second Vuelta tends to go crazy with some very unexpected outcomes. If Horner or Cobo could win, why someone like Talansky, Hesjedal or Martin couldn't in equally friendly circumstances? In theory, the field is very strong there, but every single top rider brings lesser or bigger question mark over his form. Hardly anyone peaks for Vuelta nowadays.

Also it's harsh to give Talansky a crasher's reputation. Barring TdF2014, his only other crash I'm able to recall was prologue of Tour de Romandie in 2011. So basically there's one race in two years average of crashing.

 

[cineteq]

1. Hesjedal 2. Talansky 3. D. Martin 4. Quintana 5. Rodriguez
Garmin is going to dominate this race.

TTT win to start?

 

[Anderis]

Not a strong team for TTT.
Talansky- good TT-er.
Martin- poor TT-er
Cardoso- very poor TT-er.
Hesjedal- performing poor in TTs recently.
Brown- kinda TT-specialist, but not good enough yet to make a difference.
Haas- decent in short TTs but not really a specialist.
Van Summeren- average TT-er.
Fernandez- poor TT-er.
Millar- once a very good TT-er, but really on a downgrade recently.

A couple of years ago they were contenders for pretty much every TTT, but they've signed a lot of poor TT-ers recently. But it was a cost of gaining some climbing depth and I like it.

 

[movingtarget]

Another poor stage for Garmin. Sprinters can make the front group but Talansky and Hesjedal can't ? Martin manages to get back which saved a total disaster as he has looked good so far. Garmin seem to be masters at losing time on relatively easy stages. It seems to happen in every GT. If they are going to be serious about riding for GC they need to get their act together.

 

[Afrank]

At least now they have a single GC leader they can get behind and put all their efforts into helping.

And Martin did have the best chance of the three IMO.

 

[Pricey_sky]

At least now they have a single GC leader they can get behind and put all their efforts into helping.

And Martin did have the best chance of the three IMO.

I agree, its now all for Martin rather than the unrealistic expectation of 3 leaders. Potentially he now has 2 very strong helpers in Talansky and Hesjedal. If he fails then they can always go stage hunting.

 

[Kotar_Rhakoz]

I agree, its now all for Martin rather than the unrealistic expectation of 3 leaders. Potentially he now has 2 very strong helpers in Talansky and Hesjedal. If he fails then they can always go stage hunting.

Exactly, Hesjedal and Talansky could be extremely good helpers for him. If he fails on a stage then they can all go stage hunting.

 

[Anderis]

Talansky was never going for GC, he was bridging the groups for his team-mates yesterday.

3 minutes for Ryder is not a huge loss. This usually makes a difference of 1 or 2 places in GC at the end of ther ace. And now he is more likely to gain something back via breakaway.

But Garmin just ride careless GT after GT.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Talansky was never going for GC, he was bridging the groups for his team-mates yesterday.

3 minutes for Ryder is not a huge loss. This usually makes a difference of 1 or 2 places in GC at the end of ther ace. And now he is more likely to gain something back via breakaway.

But Garmin just ride careless GT after GT.

Hesjedal needs to drop more time to be effective/successful in a breakaway attempt imo. Noone will let him go up the road at 3 minutes.

Anyway, I think he should go for a stage win and help out Martin rather than GC.

 

[Anderis]

Hesjedal needs to drop more time to be effective/successful in a breakaway attempt imo. Noone will let him go up the road at 3 minutes.

It really depends on what kind of breakaway we're thinking of. If he rides away 15-20kms to go on a medium mountain stage and gain 40-50 seconds, like he did on stage 4 of Dauphine, I think there's a chance nobody will bother.

Anyway, I think he should go for a stage win and help out Martin rather than GC.

I think he should wait and see how strong he is today, on an uphill finish. There's no point of giving up his GC ambitions at this point, if he turns out to be stronger than Martin today. 4 minutes back is where he was after a couple of days in the Giro, but he still found himself in a contention for GC podium after that Val Martello stage (less than a minute loss for 3rd guy in GC at that point of the race).