Geraint Thomas, the next british hope

[thehog]

To be fair on Thomas, he had better pedigree than Froome. He won junior Paris-Roubaix. Never thought he’d win a GT though!

He hasn't. He's won a stage.

No, he won a stage and is leading the race, did you not see today’s stage?

 

[macbindle]

Oh right. So Greg Van A has also won a GT by your logic :lol:

Did you miss last year's Tour when Geraint Thomas won too? :lol:

 

[thehog]

Re:

Oh right. So Greg Van A has also won a GT by your logic :lol:

No, it’s not logic, it pure observation as we know you didn’t watch today stage so we’ll give you a pass. I guess you still think Tom D attacked alone and up hill

 

[macbindle]

To be fair on Thomas, he had better pedigree than Froome. He won junior Paris-Roubaix. Never thought he’d win a GT though! :cool:

According to you getting a yellow jersey is winning a GT.

You said you never thought he'd win a GT.

Did you miss last year's Tour when he was winning a GT after the first stage?

Not surprised you are trying to change the subject...

 

[thehog]

Re:

yeah and Hincapie never dropped the entire group of GC climbers either

Hincapie was in a break, he got lucky. Sat on Oscar P for an awful long time.

 

[DFA123]

Ridiculous performance today. Hopefully, he's just doing a Yates and peaking too early - and will crack in the Pyrenees. Imagine though if his first top 10 result in a GT is winning the Tour de France aged 32. Absolutely ludicrous.

 

[macbindle]

He won't win.

 

[Cookster15]

Re:

Ridiculous performance today. Hopefully, he's just doing a Yates and peaking too early - and will crack in the Pyrenees. Imagine though if his first top 10 result in a GT is winning the Tour de France aged 32. Absolutely ludicrous.

For the sake of cycling I hope you are right. 32 best Grand Tour finish 15th. Today drops all the best riders in the world on a multiple mountain stage. Yes completely ludicrous and I can't believe the excuses being written on the CN threads. Is anyone who is not British believing this?

 

[DFA123]

Re:

He won't win.

I don't think so either. And if he does crack big time as usual, then it certainly will put this performance in perspective. Just like Yates's performances at the Giro look a bit less suspicious knowing how he collapsed in the last week.

But still, this guy was a second-rate competitor to the likes of Degenkolb and Kristoff three years ago. Now he's the strongest climber in the world in the second week of the Tour. It's a bit ridiculous however you spin it.

 

[ruamruam]

Obviously Thomas has had a long term undiagnosed illness that inhibited his performances. Luckily it has been diagnosed this year. This mysterious illness didn't inhibit him on the track luckily enough. He was also hopelessly naive in his race tactics up to this point.

If only he had sorted out these two problems earlier in his career he would have won many GTs won by this stage.

 

[pastronef]

Re:

Ridiculous performance today. Hopefully, he's just doing a Yates and peaking too early - and will crack in the Pyrenees. Imagine though if his first top 10 result in a GT is winning the Tour de France aged 32. Absolutely ludicrous.

he got twice 15th GC at the Tour, as a domestique, and crashing (in 2015)

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Ridiculous performance today. Hopefully, he's just doing a Yates and peaking too early - and will crack in the Pyrenees. Imagine though if his first top 10 result in a GT is winning the Tour de France aged 32. Absolutely ludicrous.

he got twice 15th GC at the Tour, as a domestique, and crashing (in 2015)

Thanks for the info. If they are his best results it just shows what a limited GC rider he has always been at Grand Tours. The amount of dross that has managed at least one top 10 over the years is pretty considerable. Thomas has never even been that good.

 

[pastronef]

Re: Re:

Ridiculous performance today. Hopefully, he's just doing a Yates and peaking too early - and will crack in the Pyrenees. Imagine though if his first top 10 result in a GT is winning the Tour de France aged 32. Absolutely ludicrous.

he got twice 15th GC at the Tour, as a domestique, and crashing (in 2015)

Thanks for the info. If they are his best results it just shows what a limited GC rider he has always been at Grand Tours. The amount of dross that has managed at least one top 10 over the years is pretty considerable. Thomas has never even been that good.

Dumo went from no GC performance to 6th in the Vuelta 2015 to no GC performance in 2016 to Giro winner beating Quintana 2017

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Ridiculous performance today. Hopefully, he's just doing a Yates and peaking too early - and will crack in the Pyrenees. Imagine though if his first top 10 result in a GT is winning the Tour de France aged 32. Absolutely ludicrous.

he got twice 15th GC at the Tour, as a domestique, and crashing (in 2015)

Thanks for the info. If they are his best results it just shows what a limited GC rider he has always been at Grand Tours. The amount of dross that has managed at least one top 10 over the years is pretty considerable. Thomas has never even been that good.

Dumo went from no GC performance to 6th in the Vuelta 2015 to no GC performance in 2016 to Giro winner beating Quintana 2017

What's that got to do with Thomas's lack of any decent results as a GT rider?

Dumoulin's transformation is ludicrous as well. It would have been even more so if he had done it aged 32 having spend the previous 10 years as a largely second-rate cobbled specialist.

 

[bambino]

Re: Re:

Ridiculous performance today. Hopefully, he's just doing a Yates and peaking too early - and will crack in the Pyrenees. Imagine though if his first top 10 result in a GT is winning the Tour de France aged 32. Absolutely ludicrous.

he got twice 15th GC at the Tour, as a domestique, and crashing (in 2015)

Thanks for the info. If they are his best results it just shows what a limited GC rider he has always been at Grand Tours. The amount of dross that has managed at least one top 10 over the years is pretty considerable. Thomas has never even been that good.

Dumo went from no GC performance to 6th in the Vuelta 2015 to no GC performance in 2016 to Giro winner beating Quintana 2017

He was 24 years old with 2 GT experience in that Vuelta... bit different than coming magically up with the age of 32 with 12 GT's in the pocket, isn't it?

 

[pastronef]

Re: Re:

Ridiculous performance today. Hopefully, he's just doing a Yates and peaking too early - and will crack in the Pyrenees. Imagine though if his first top 10 result in a GT is winning the Tour de France aged 32. Absolutely ludicrous.

he got twice 15th GC at the Tour, as a domestique, and crashing (in 2015)

Thanks for the info. If they are his best results it just shows what a limited GC rider he has always been at Grand Tours. The amount of dross that has managed at least one top 10 over the years is pretty considerable. Thomas has never even been that good.

Dumo went from no GC performance to 6th in the Vuelta 2015 to no GC performance in 2016 to Giro winner beating Quintana 2017

He was 24 years old with 2 GT experience in that Vuelta... bit different than coming magically up with the age of 32 with 12 GT's in the pocket, isn't it?

magically?
after a 2nd in Suisse GC, a Paris-Nice GC, a domestique role that didnt allow him to go for GC?

 

[bambino]

Yes magically. Ask Richie Porte. Valverde has won loads more one week races and is a clown compared to Welch track cyclist.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

magically?
after a 2nd in Suisse GC, a Paris-Nice GC, a domestique role that didnt allow him to go for GC?

He was allowed to go for the GC. He was the 'second card' in 2015-16 whose role was to stay high in the standings. Yet he couldn't do it - he tried to limit his losses, but he had to go so deep just to stay within a few minutes that he ended up cracking big time.

Henao, Poels, Landa, Froome and Nieve all managed to get top 10 GC finishes playing the same domestique role at Sky in recent years. So it was hardly an impossible task. But Thomas wasn't able to do it - because he was nowhere near a good enough climber. Now, two years later, aged 32, he's dropping everyone on multi-mountain Alpine stages of the Tour. It's a ludicrous transformation.

 

[vedrafjord]

Forget about beating his previous top 15 GT finish, what about his chances of beating his UCI Index of Suspicion 6/10 "overwhelming circumstantial evidence of doping" from the 2010 Tour?

 

[topcat]

Cycling died a little bit more today. The only way out of this farce is a police raid.

 

[Angliru]

Re:

Cycling died a little bit more today. The only way out of this farce is a police raid.

I'm dropping the dime right now!

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

He simply HAS to collapse, I don't believe it.

 

[ppanther92]

Re:

Forget about beating his previous top 15 GT finish, what about his chances of beating his UCI Index of Suspicion 6/10 "overwhelming circumstantial evidence of doping" from the 2010 Tour?

Sky riders are all a 0/10 of course.

 

[The Hegelian]

Re:

Cycling died a little bit more today. The only way out of this farce is a police raid.

Has been dead for 6 years now. We're watching zombies.

 

[buckle]

Re: Re:

Cycling died a little bit more today. The only way out of this farce is a police raid.

Has been dead for 6 years now. We're watching zombies.

It was alive and kicking before that?