Teams & Riders Geraint Thomas

[DFA123]

Bit of a disappointing Tour for Thomas so far. Already lost 2'30 and seems to be far less useful to Froome than Landa and Henao have been so far.

I wish he would eat a bit more and go back to challenging for the classics. Seems a waste of talent what he is doing now.

 

[Velolover2]

Re:

Bit of a disappointing Tour for Thomas so far. Already lost 2'30 and seems to be far less useful to Froome than Landa and Henao have been so far.

I wish he would eat a bit more and go back to challenging for the classics. Seems a waste of talent what he is doing now.

Based on the shape he is in, they should use him before they use Nieve (who is doing a very good job)..

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Bit of a disappointing Tour for Thomas so far. Already lost 2'30 and seems to be far less useful to Froome than Landa and Henao have been so far.

I wish he would eat a bit more and go back to challenging for the classics. Seems a waste of talent what he is doing now.

Based on the shape he is in, they should use him before they use Nieve (who is doing a very good job)..

Absolutely. Nieve is a criminally underrated domestique, certainly one of Sky's best signings in recent years.

Whoever is advising Thomas needs to be sacked asap. It would be like GVA suddenly giving up classics and focusing on the Tour, just because he's had a few days in yellow and did well on a couple of climbs.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Bit of a disappointing Tour for Thomas so far. Already lost 2'30 and seems to be far less useful to Froome than Landa and Henao have been so far.

I wish he would eat a bit more and go back to challenging for the classics. Seems a waste of talent what he is doing now.

Based on the shape he is in, they should use him before they use Nieve (who is doing a very good job)..

Absolutely. Nieve is a criminally underrated domestique, certainly one of Sky's best signings in recent years.

Whoever is advising Thomas needs to be sacked asap. It would be like GVA suddenly giving up classics and focusing on the Tour, just because he's had a few days in yellow and did well on a couple of climbs.

Thomas has done quite a bit more than GVA to give himself belief that he can be a stage racer in races with real mountains. And the potential rewards are so much greater for being "Geraint Thomas Britain's Next Tour Contender" than they are for "Geraint Thomas Excellent Classics Rider" that it's not surprising that he's trying for the former.

I agree that it's a bad choice, by the way. But it's the way the sport is structured at the moment.

 

[fantomas]

Who would buy the "Geraint Thomas - Britain's Next Tour Contender" claim? He's 30 years old and hasn't done anything to convince anybody that he can keep up with the best for three weeks. Mind you, he'd have to keep up with Quintana, Bardet, Henao and other superior climbers in the mountains for three weeks straight. No way.

 

[AICA ribonucleotide]

Re:

Bit of a disappointing Tour for Thomas so far. Already lost 2'30 and seems to be far less useful to Froome than Landa and Henao have been so far.

I wish he would eat a bit more and go back to challenging for the classics. Seems a waste of talent what he is doing now.

He has a problem with his ribs after the opening day crash.

 

[movingtarget]

i don't think Thomas has recovered from his injuries. Nieve has been great and usually is but Landa has been surprisingly bad. Maybe he is ill or something. Landa should be the Porte substitute but so far he isn't.

 

[rick james]

Re:

i don't think Thomas has recovered from his injuries. Nieve has been great and usually is but Landa has been surprisingly bad. Maybe he is ill or something. Landa should be the Porte substitute but so far he isn't.

did you see the amount of time Landa spent at the front yesterday? he pretty much brought the front 3 back himself, he is coming good

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Bit of a disappointing Tour for Thomas so far. Already lost 2'30 and seems to be far less useful to Froome than Landa and Henao have been so far.

I wish he would eat a bit more and go back to challenging for the classics. Seems a waste of talent what he is doing now.

He has a problem with his ribs after the opening day crash.

He always seems to have some problem when he does GTs. Largely because he can't stay on his bike for very long. Yet another reason why it's ridiculous for him to be focusing on three week stage races.

 

[rick james]

Re: Re:

Bit of a disappointing Tour for Thomas so far. Already lost 2'30 and seems to be far less useful to Froome than Landa and Henao have been so far.

I wish he would eat a bit more and go back to challenging for the classics. Seems a waste of talent what he is doing now.

He has a problem with his ribs after the opening day crash.

He always seems to have some problem when he does GTs. Largely because he can't stay on his bike for very long. Yet another reason why it's ridiculous for him to be focusing on three week stage races.

no shame in being a strong week long racer

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Bit of a disappointing Tour for Thomas so far. Already lost 2'30 and seems to be far less useful to Froome than Landa and Henao have been so far.

I wish he would eat a bit more and go back to challenging for the classics. Seems a waste of talent what he is doing now.

He has a problem with his ribs after the opening day crash.

He always seems to have some problem when he does GTs. Largely because he can't stay on his bike for very long. Yet another reason why it's ridiculous for him to be focusing on three week stage races.

no shame in being a strong week long racer

There's no shame in it. But picking up the odd week long race where any half decent stage racer is miles away from top form, is a lot less impressive than winning classics imo.

 

[rick james]

totally agree and Thomas has it in him to win a classic

 

[willbick]

Strange discussion. Since Thomas has been concentrating more on stage races hes won the vuelta algarve twice, paris-nice and come 2nd in the tour de suisse (as well as being near the top on GC for most of last years tour) - not too shabby! Cant quite understand why u guys think it has been disasterous?? Just coz he probably will never climb well enough to win a GT doesnt mean it was a bad dicision. Dont think hes a good enough bike handler to win the cobbly classics anyway. Im sure Sky are pretty happy with what hes achieved in last two years

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Strange discussion. Since Thomas has been concentrating more on stage races hes won the vuelta algarve twice, paris-nice and come 2nd in the tour de suisse (as well as being near the top on GC for most of last years tour) - not too shabby! Cant quite understand why u guys think it has been disasterous?? Just coz he probably will never climb well enough to win a GT doesnt mean it was a bad dicision. Dont think hes a good enough bike handler to win the cobbly classics anyway. Im sure Sky are pretty happy with what hes achieved in last two years

Well most of those results were last season, when he was still also focused on the classics. Since switching his focus almost solely to stage races, he's won Paris Nice thanks to a TT, and that's about it. He's just not an elite climber and never will be.

Also, although he's not a great bike handler, but his problems seem to largely be on descents; he's generally been OK on cobbles. The shame is that the last couple of seasons looked a real break through for him on the cobbles; winning E3, top 10s in RVV and PR, good results in GW and Omloop as well. Now, his main role of the season is putting in a short pull for the Sky train - which, tbh, wouldn't miss him at all if he wasn't there. Just a waste of talent.

 

[SeriousSam]

Re: Re:

i don't think Thomas has recovered from his injuries. Nieve has been great and usually is but Landa has been surprisingly bad. Maybe he is ill or something. Landa should be the Porte substitute but so far he isn't.

did you see the amount of time Landa spent at the front yesterday? he pretty much brought the front 3 back himself, he is coming good

Hopes were very high for Landa, almost Froome-high. Froome was a domestique in 2012 and did some hard work, it didn't stop him from being the dominant climber in that Tour.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

i don't think Thomas has recovered from his injuries. Nieve has been great and usually is but Landa has been surprisingly bad. Maybe he is ill or something. Landa should be the Porte substitute but so far he isn't.

did you see the amount of time Landa spent at the front yesterday? he pretty much brought the front 3 back himself, he is coming good

Hopes were very high for Landa, almost Froome-high. Froome was a domestique in 2012 and did some hard work, it didn't stop him from being the dominant climber in that Tour.

To be fair to Landa, he is in a different role to Froome in 2012. Froome was the final man in a train designed to protect Wiggins all the way to the finishing line. Landa has been deployed as an earlier rider in a train designed to keep Froome out of trouble until all of the opposition domestiques are gone on the final climb. Froome doesn't need the same kind of babysitting and the role Landa is asked to is by design less prominent.

That said, there's no evidence that Landa would currently be capable of performing at Froome 2012 levels even if he was asked to.

 

[del1962]

What Froome needs is Landa performing the Richie role

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re:

What Froome needs is Landa performing the Richie role

He's already got Richie performing the Richie role.

 

[elfed68]

I thought Geraint was concentrating much less on The Classics this season to have a proper go at the stage races, to capitalise on his strong showing in last year's TdF.

Granted he's done well in the one week races, but I thought he'd have been a protected rider, seems he's just another member of the Sky Train, and provider of bike, anyone an idea why?

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re:

I thought Geraint was concentrating much less on The Classics this season to have a proper go at the stage races, to capitalise on his strong showing in last year's TdF.

Granted he's done well in the one week races, but I thought he'd have been a protected rider, seems he's just another member of the Sky Train, and provider of bike, anyone an idea why?

Poor performances in Suisse + Injured in the first stage by the Morkov crash

 

[elfed68]

Re: Re:

I thought Geraint was concentrating much less on The Classics this season to have a proper go at the stage races, to capitalise on his strong showing in last year's TdF.

Granted he's done well in the one week races, but I thought he'd have been a protected rider, seems he's just another member of the Sky Train, and provider of bike, anyone an idea why?

Poor performances in Suisse + Injured in the first stage by the Morkov crash

I think he's one of many in Team Sky's super team this year, but in The Classics squad he was quite prominent.

 

[TMP402]

Re:

What Froome needs is Landa performing the Richie role

That seemed to be Henao this year - although on the few MTFs they were setting Froome up on, they played a different hand and had Henao attack and let the other leaders chase him down.

 

[sienna]

Poels is da man at Sky.

 

[fungusbear]

He looked quite strong on yesterdays stage- seems like he just getting into his best form (maybe a good sign for the olympics).

 

[myrideissteelerthanyours]

Was 2015 peak G or did he aim for Olympics this year and it made him seem lacking the rest of the season? Or is he a 1 week racer now and so suddenly Im way way less impressed because hes not competing in classic and stage races in one season? 30 years old and signed a 1 year contract does this signal the beginning of the decline or at least a decline in interest for being another car in the skytrain?