Teams & Riders General topic for riders who don't deserve their own thread (yet)

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Almeida becoming a bit of a phenom, 7th in GC
Vanhoucke with a nice 12th in GC
Van Wilder got smacked from the hammer and lost 20 minutes today, dropped to 35th in GC. Surprising since he's always very consistent. I think he went too deep yesterday trying to keep up with the Almeida group while finishing solo. EDIT: According to his mom, that theory is correct. Went too deep yesterday to hang on and paid the price today. Heat didn't help.

 

[memyselfandI]

Kid Hanninen took decent result out of this race, seems to handle hot weather pretty well. Maybe he lifted his position in AG2R a bit now as Bardet is leaving. More to be seen after Giro, if we get to the Giro..

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I don't know what direction Hänninen is taking. Does he want to become an Ardennes guy, a climber/stagehunter, a GC guy (i think not)... but he's definitely got quality. He surprised me most by finishing that close after having been on the break in a mountain stage. Most guys would finish 15 minutes down.

 

[memyselfandI]

Maybe it was possible because they didn't have Bardet here, so he could take free role, maybe, I don't know. Yes, interesting to see what he choose to be, needs lots of tt power to become a GC contender.

 

[SafeBet]

Almeida becoming a bit of a phenom

Best thing about him: he's very good at pacing himself despite the young age.
I've noticed he has a tendency to drop earlier than a lot of riders he would later overtake. He seems very conscious of his limits.

Overall he's definitely a surprise for me. Let's see if he can hold his peak or will hit the wall before October. As of now I'd take him to the Giro as Remco's lieutenant.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Completely agree, with Knox and Almeida, he'd have some guys at least until the final.

 

[SafeBet]

Completely agree, with Knox and Almeida, he'd have some guys at least until the final.

Plus Cattaneo who's a very handful tempo climber.
Honestly I don't think there would be many teams better equipped for mountain stages (assuming these guys are all in good shape).

 

[Mayomaniac]

I guess it's still a bit early to start the "Andrea Bagioli is the new Di Luca thread".
He seems to pack a good sprint and is realistic and pragmatic about his progress. In an interview with Tuttobici he said that he's still not ready to ride for the gc in stage races, not even short ones, but that he can already make an impact in the hilly one day races.
It's also good that he's on a team that won't just push him towards being a gc rider, just ask Formolo about that one.

 

[SafeBet]

I guess it's still a bit early to start the "Andrea Bagioli is the new Di Luca thread".
He seems to pack a good sprint and is realistic and pragmatic about his progress. In an interview with Tuttobici he said that he's still not ready to ride for the gc in stage races, not even short ones, but that he can already make an impact in the hilly one day races.
It's also good that he's on a team that won't just push him towards being a gc rider, just ask Formolo about that one.

From my understanding it was Formolo's choice to focus on GTs while some of his Cannondale coaches pushed him towards Classics.

I'm glad Bagioli is more realistic about his (current) potential. Curious to watch him ride Lombardia after what he did in the u23 version of the race.

 

[Mayomaniac]

From my understanding it was Formolo's choice to focus on GTs while some of his Cannondale coaches pushed him towards Classics.

I'm glad Bagioli is more realistic about his (current) potential. Curious to watch him ride Lombardia after what he did in the u23 version of the race.

He said that the whole team will be riding for Remco.

 

[SafeBet]

Since it's too easy to talk about Almeida and Vlasov after their excellent performances in Emilia I'll mention Andrea Piccolo.
29th in a tough race like Emilia, beating a lot of seasoned pros as a first year u23. I like it.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Was thinking it might have been too early to start jumping on the bandwagon even on this thread yesterday, but now Jake Stewart signed a contract with the senior Groupama FDJ team from their Conti team, I think its time.

He's had a good few races this year while racing with the WT Squad thanks to the UCIs new rule with a top twenty in a rammed Tour de l'Ain and has now followed that up with two 2nds a 7th and 2nd on GC at the Tour du Limousin. He's was also going well in the U23 ranks with top 10s and podiums at the Triptique, Eschborn Frankfurt and Flanders last year, plus a 2nd in Gent Wevelgem in 2018.

With the contact he's definitely got a good future in hilly races with a sprint at the end as well as having had a decent set of results in short prologue TTs.

 

[tobydawq]

Was thinking it might have been too early to start jumping on the bandwagon even on this thread yesterday, but now Jake Stewart signed a contract with the senior Groupama FDJ team from their Conti team, I think its time.

He's had a good few races this year while racing with the WT Squad thanks to the UCIs new rule with a top twenty in a rammed Tour de l'Ain and has now followed that up with two 2nds a 7th and 2nd on GC at the Tour du Limousin. He's was also going well in the U23 ranks with top 10s and podiums at the Triptique, Eschborn Frankfurt and Flanders last year, plus a 2nd in Gent Wevelgem in 2018.

With the contact he's definitely got a good future in hilly races with a sprint at the end as well as having had a decent set of results in short prologue TTs.

He was pretty unlucky not to win Limousin overall. A pretty random far out attack for third ob the stage caught him by surprise so he didn't manage to secure the necessary bonus seconds and nab the overall.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

He was pretty unlucky not to win Limousin overall. A pretty random far out attack for third ob the stage caught him by surprise so he didn't manage to secure the necessary bonus seconds and nab the overall.

Yeah, the race seems to have been dominated by small attacks at the end of every stage with Jake himself being involved in one yesterday aswell as getting second once the group was brough back. Only seen a few clips and FDJs tweets about the race, but it seemed to be raced pretty aggressively so more akin to a junior or U23 race. I guess it suits him as that's the basis of what he's done over the last four/five years.

 

[skidmark]

He was pretty unlucky not to win Limousin overall. A pretty random far out attack for third ob the stage caught him by surprise so he didn't manage to secure the necessary bonus seconds and nab the overall.

Well, even if he got second, he can still celebrate.

 

[tobydawq]

Well, even if he got second, he can still celebrate.

Ha, yeah, that's true.

It would be a bit weird to mistake a GC second for a win, though.

 

[DNP-Old]

Posted it in the National Championships thread as well, but since we need to follow this kid from here on out, I'll post it here as well: unless something crazy happens, Javier Romo Oliver will become the new Spanish champion in the U23 ranks, in severely dominating fashion. This is noteworthy because it's only the second bike race of his life, as he was a triathlete prior. Spain might have found their Evenepoel story.

 

[BlueRoads]

And I guess Spanish cycling needs its Evenepoel story.

 

[DNP-Old]

After doing some reading: he had only starting riding bikes competitively until after the corona break. Prior to that, he didn't do much other than training. It was the great Oscar Sevilla, whom he was training with, who advised him to give a serious shot at this cycling thing. Like I said, he was a triathlete before this and, apparently, was quite good, but because it didn't earn him *** in regards to money, cycling seemed like a good option to him.

 

[Koronin]

I suspect a Pro Conti team if not a WT team will be in talks with him.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

In his newspaper column, Patrick Lefevere wonders how Sunweb manages to reel in those talented youngsters like Hirschi, Van Wilder and Brenner, while their names are on everybody's shortlist. It's a strange statement, since i know for a fact that Van Wilder was actually open to joining Lefevere's team, but that DQT never got in contact with him.

 

[SafeBet]

Lefevere is truly the ultimate sh*t stirrer.
When DQS signs the biggest talents around like Alaphilippe, Gaviria, Evenepoel, Bagioli, etc it's ok. But when Sunweb signs them there must be something fishy going on?

 

[tobydawq]

He is 65. What is the retirement age in Belgium? I can't wait till that day.

 

[BlueRoads]

Who says he's talking ***? He's probably admiring Spekenbrinks charisma and convincing character, wishing he was like that. "Yes, I know, we get boys like Remco and Julian, but if I was just better at my job I could be like Spekenbrink."

Some of you seem to lack the sensitivity required to get into the head of a complex, vulnerable man who loves to give credit to others.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Lefevere is truly the ultimate sh*t stirrer.
When DQS signs the biggest talents around like Alaphilippe, Gaviria, Evenepoel, Bagioli, etc it's ok. But when Sunweb signs them there must be something fishy going on?

It was in fact not a negative statement towards Sunweb, more like "they are getting a lot of flack, but you have to hand it to them". He even said they are very different yet share some principles.

I was only posting regarding the Van Wilder statement.