Teams & Riders Geraint Thomas

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Red Rick

Red Rick

Feb 20, 2012
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Gigs_98 said:
It's funny how these kind of things go. All of a sudden one really has to ask why he didn't attack Roglic in the 2nd week. Who knows, Ineos might have thrown this Giro away by not applying any sort of pressure in Crans Montana.
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I think it's hard to blame Ineos. Crans Montana did have the headwins, and Thomas did push to the line in that stage and it's not like Roglic was close to dropping there.

Maybe you can blame them for not putting Arensman or De Plus in a breakaway, but that's once again similar to the Jumbo 2020 scenario. When riders are in the lead or virtual lead, they generally won't use team tactics to put a teammate in GC.

In hindsight you can say they should have gone harder on Bondone, but I don't think Thomas ever had the surplus of strength needed to make a big move that he didn't.

The equation with TGH in the picture would of course have been way different.
 
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skippo12

May 14, 2017
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He cracked pretty badly on the last two km. Even compared to Almeida, Pinot or Caruso he lost 10s. Any chance that he defends the jersey with better pacing?
 
Ilmaestro99

Ilmaestro99

Apr 13, 2021
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skippo12 said:
He cracked pretty badly on the last two km. Even compared to Almeida, Pinot or Caruso he lost 10s. Any chance that he defends the jersey with better pacing?
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In my opinion slightly better pacing + no helmet swap + better cornering on stage 9 Cesena ITT and he win il giro
 
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tonymikejoe

Aug 1, 2018
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Let's not overlook Thomas beat the entire Giro field in that brutally tough ITT - apart from one opponent - so let's not beat him up too much.
Everybody is an expert with hindsight and will suggest 'Thomas should have attacked here and there,' but a 26 second lead seems decent on Saturday morning.
In fact, Thomas did attack at the end of the Friday mountain stage in an attempt to pad his 29 second lead and what happened? He lost three seconds.
His 26 second lead at the start of the ITT was largely down to following Almeida's attack in the mountains.
Thomas, almost certainly would not have attacked on his own. At no point in the Giro did he leave Roglic behind riding solo.
His advantage on Saturday morning was via his previous two ITT's and following Almeida.
That was the best he could have done.
 
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Savant12

Jul 18, 2011
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G lost to the better rider on the day. It would have been more if Roglic was in better shape from the start.
 
Rob5091

Rob5091

Apr 8, 2023
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Savant12 said:
G lost to the better rider on the day. It would have been more if Roglic was in better shape from the start.
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I agree - When Hart was still in the race Ineos should have been more aggressive, but the parcours and typical Ineos defensive riding meant they missed the opportunity.
 
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Savant12

Jul 18, 2011
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Rob5091 said:
I agree - When Hart was still in the race Ineos should have been more aggressive, but the parcours and typical Ineos defensive riding meant they missed the opportunity.
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There were just some horrible days to be on a bike and I think if the weather was better then they could have put a weaker Roglic under more pressure because apart from Kuss, the Jumbo domestiques didn't really seem to be there.
 
Rob5091

Rob5091

Apr 8, 2023
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So what was on G's shorts? PR lotion or salt or breakfast? I suppose we should be glad G didn't have a gilet on.
 
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theyoungest

Jan 11, 2010
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Savant12 said:
There were just some horrible days to be on a bike and I think if the weather was better then they could have put a weaker Roglic under more pressure because apart from Kuss, the Jumbo domestiques didn't really seem to be there.
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Usually in a peloton of 20 riders, 5 of them were Jumbo, so I don't know what you're talking about. It was of course their B or even their C-team to begin with. In the end it didn't really matter anyway because Kuss was stronger than all of Ineos bar Thomas.

I do think that it's a miracle Roglic managed to win this Giro, because he really didn't seem at his best and after the restday it looked like he would crack completely. Kuss really saved his race there, but Thomas looked way stronger at that point. And in the time trial things really seemed to go his way as well. He just completely exploded in the final k of the climb, that's where he lost the race.
 
Blanco

Blanco

Jun 6, 2017
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tonymikejoe said:
Let's not overlook Thomas beat the entire Giro field in that brutally tough ITT - apart from one opponent - so let's not beat him up too much.
Everybody is an expert with hindsight and will suggest 'Thomas should have attacked here and there,' but a 26 second lead seems decent on Saturday morning.
In fact, Thomas did attack at the end of the Friday mountain stage in an attempt to pad his 29 second lead and what happened? He lost three seconds.
His 26 second lead at the start of the ITT was largely down to following Almeida's attack in the mountains.
Thomas, almost certainly would not have attacked on his own. At no point in the Giro did he leave Roglic behind riding solo.
His advantage on Saturday morning was via his previous two ITT's and following Almeida.
That was the best he could have done.
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He did attack Roglic. Almeida was up front, but the intention was not to follow him, but to attack Roglic. He noticed that Roglic is not that good, and that Kuss pacing is more not to hurt Roglic, then to close Almeida. And he attacked, not to follow, but to make difference, which he did. He hit the front immidiatelly, and out of 3-4 km's he was on the front at least 80% of time.
 
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Avoriaz

Avoriaz

Mar 7, 2009
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tobydawq said:
I am a bit surprised that people are so surprised by all the nice things about Geraint Thomas (his interview yesterday, his helping Cavendish today). He's not exactly an unknown rider nor has he hidden that personality through the years.
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Kind of this. I think he oozed class these last couple of days- and a class that was always there
 
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Savant12

Jul 18, 2011
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theyoungest said:
Usually in a peloton of 20 riders, 5 of them were Jumbo, so I don't know what you're talking about. It was of course their B or even their C-team to begin with. In the end it didn't really matter anyway because Kuss was stronger than all of Ineos bar Thomas.
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This ain't the Tour domination team. Week 3, Kuss was there for Roglic and....? The rest were all dropped at the pointy end.
 
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theyoungest

Jan 11, 2010
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Savant12 said:
This ain't the Tour domination team. Week 3, Kuss was there for Roglic and....? The rest were all dropped at the pointy end.
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Yes, but so was everybody else. In the Tour it was just the same. They used more agressive tactics there with satellite riders though. In this Giro they rode very conservatively, maybe because on the only stage where they didn't, Roglic got dropped and almost lost the race.
 
Blanco

Blanco

Jun 6, 2017
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Izzyeviel said:
No, the tour last year. The opposition here wasn't that great... last year he was up against 2 of the best GT riders this century & kept close to them.
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His opponent in this Giro is actually among the very best GT riders of this century, and one of those 2 from last year's Tour isn't there just yet.
 
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CyclistAbi

May 29, 2019
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It was a good match. Although i wanted for Roglič to win i still was a bit gutted for Thomas. Thomas acted very classy in defeat and on top of that the next day helped his old friend to win a stage. For sure some new fans earned.

Chapeau!
 
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