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Garmin's Goals for Le Tour

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What should Garmin's Goal be for Le Tour De France?

  • Team classification

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
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Orvieto

Orvieto

Feb 1, 2011
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It's been a weird season for Garmin so far. They expected a lot from the Classics and got something for someone, but likely not the someone they'd expected. They raced for second in California and lost some sprints they should have won, but Millar and Zabriskie have some time trial wins.

As they go into the TDF they'll be talking up the depths in their team, but will this be another year where Garmin's protected rider fails early and an erstwhile domestique becomes their GC hope (Danielson's turn this year?).

What do you do with this team of super domestiques without a clear GC leader? They don't have anyone who could win the GC and even a podium would be a huge upset, so will they once again again be happy with a top 10?
Should they try to get their leadout train in order and set up sprint wins for Farrar and Thor? Should they go for glory in an early escape to bask in yellow for a few days? Is green the jersey they should focus on and if so, for whom? Should they just pretend they are a French team and go for stage wins? How about the much coveted Radioshack memorial team classification?
 
taiwan

taiwan

Aug 18, 2009
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Would have said sprints for Farrar because on paper he'd be at least the third fastest in the race. Can't expect so much of him, though, after the loss of his friend. If Thor's in shape, which he apparently is, there will be opportunities for him, and Barbie also: when he's good he's strong and fast. Don't know about Vende Velde, Hesjedal or Martin winning a mountain stage, but it's possible, maybe an intermediate stage from the break. Probably Vande Velde should just ride a quiet GC for a top ten himself.
 
spalco

spalco

Feb 1, 2011
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I'd say stage victories. I don't think Farrar can beat an in-shape Cavendish and especially not after his training and probably motivation was disrupted so badly by Weylandt's death (I don't mean that as cold as it sounds, of course nobody can blame Farrar for that, but from a purely athletic perspective I think it's true). Of course if the green jersey is within reach that would be a significant win too.
 
taiwan

taiwan

Aug 18, 2009
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Bavarianrider said:
They are lucky if the get a stage win in a breakaway. That's really the only realist thing they can achieve.
Click to expand...

A bit harsh I feel. Not as if the team has no strong riders. Apart from anything else, you just saw Hushovd gap the field with Sagan, winning a hard uphill sprint in Switzerland.

In fact he must be in shape, because I'm sure I saw him riding on the front himself in the last few k.
 
K

kjetilraknerud

Apr 28, 2009
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Thor always wins a stage in the tour, and he has a couple of good chances during the first week this year. A breakaway victory could also very well happen, for example with Martin or Hesjedal.
 
The Hitch

The Hitch

Jun 14, 2010
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A bit of everything. Augusterone is coming to July.

I hope Dan Martin is for the GC, would love to see Thor put up a challenge against the ASO Cav coalition, Millar should place well in tts and might go for a stage, they will be 1st or 2nd favourites for the ttt and in the mountains, they have at least 3 guys who could challenge and if they play it well, they can win stages there.
 
Orvieto

Orvieto

Feb 1, 2011
147
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I should note that I chose stage victories for my own poll answer.
Sure you could try to get Hesjedal and/or Vandevelde another top 10, but that seems a modest goal for a team of Garmin's ambitions.
If this had been last year, I would have said to ride for Green, but with the points re-jigged to favour stage winners, you'd have to count on beating Cavendish a few times and stealing lots of points in intermediate sprints. That seems like a low probability strategy.
They have a half dozen riders who could win a stage, I would love to see them going for it nearly every day. At the very least it would animate the race, and I'd rather see that than another year of marking the favourites and minimizing their losses.
Two or three individual wins plus the team TT would be a much better result, in my eyes than another top 10.
 
Granville57

Granville57

Dec 7, 2010
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spalco said:
I don't think Farrar can beat an in-shape Cavendish and especially not after his training and probably motivation was disrupted so badly by Weylandt's death (I don't mean that as cold as it sounds, of course nobody can blame Farrar for that, but from a purely athletic perspective I think it's true).
Click to expand...
Nothing wrong with your perspective. Tyler has recently said that he may take himself out of the TdF because of everything he's been through.

This also plays into the strength in numbers that JV established at the start of the season. Of course it looked like the team was over-burdened with too much similar talent, but one never knows how a season is going to unfold with sickness, injury, etc.

With Farrar, Haussler and Hushovd, who would've imagined six months ago that Thor would possibly be their only viable option for the Tour?

Interesting times.

(I didn't vote yet though. No podium option? :) )
 
hrotha

hrotha

Jun 10, 2010
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I hope JV finally gives Danielson a chance. Come on, JV. Just this once. He's actually having a decent season and all, better than Vande Velde to name just one rider who's more likely to be selected.

And if you select him, you know he'll podium. That'll be Garmin's goal.
 
ElChingon

ElChingon

Mar 10, 2009
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I hope they go for the Thor/Farrar battle for the Green, as in the team splits in two and each side fights for the green, I miss the inter team battles ;) the old T-Mobile team tactics at le Tour were always fun to watch, not to mention the Hinault/Lemond battle for Yellow, team inter battles at its best.

If not Garmin should go for the award for repeating "we support anti-doping" the most times before Paris.
 
goggalor

goggalor

Oct 16, 2009
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Thor might have a shot at green, but he won't win any flat sprints. Farrar on the other hand, doesn't look too hot for green, but could possibly steal one of Cav's stage wins.

Thor has said he wants to win stages in the first week, in particular stage one, so they should aim for that, which would also put Thor in yellow. Whoever wins the stage 2 TTT could possibly hold the jersey till stage 12 (Luz Ardiden), so this is probably every non-GC team's goal.
 
Ryo Hazuki

Ryo Hazuki

Mar 31, 2010
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they should focus all on team time trial and yellow for few days, maybe green with hushovd but who knows
 
Eric8-A

Eric8-A

Nov 11, 2010
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They should focus on all of the options if possible. But realistically, it seems like they'll be more focused on getting a stage win. Mostly with the TTT, after they finish in the top 3, they're gonna focus on Tyler and Thor to produce a sprint win.

They have two GC leaders with Hesjedal and Vandevelde. It will be interesting to see how they handle that. It seems like they'll also take Dan Martin along. I mentioned it would be a good idea, a better one to take him than Danielson. But looking at Dan's performance and comparing it to Danielson's, I take it back and Garmin should take Tommy D.

Tyler hasn't done much this year and neither has Thor. Don't get me started on Hesjedal and Vandevelde. And by this I mean they don't have any results that make me say "they have a shot at doing something great at the Tour"
 
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