Teams & Riders Geraint Thomas

[CycloAndy]

He's not better than Richie. Even on the day that Porte cracked terribly in the Alps, Thomas was dropped before him.

It's a moot point though anyway. Froome will have outright Tour leadership and any Sky plan B won't be anywhere near good enough to match Nibali, Quintana or Contador anyway.

As for the Giro, it sounds like Sky are trying to nick Aru from Astana for that gig.

I agree re Froome having outright leadership for the Tour and Aru (if the rumour are true, which I doubt) having leadership for the giro. However, Thomas still finished level with Richie despite being on dom duties for the first two weeks. I'm not suggesting a drastic improvement over Richie but if G solely focussed on GC riding he would likely improve his climbing and would be my preferred option.

 

[Catwhoorg]

G can win week long races.

He has yet to show the ability to be a GT leader.

I am a big fan, but right now the gap between his climbing ability on the long climbs and what is needed for GT leadership is vast.

 

[MBotero]

I'm glad that he extended for 2 more years,he's a great asset for Team Sky.Hopefully will get the leadership on some 1 week races and continue to give it a go to the classics.Seems that he's not ready for GT leadership yet,but time is still on his side.

 

[ciranda]

He's almost exactly like late era George Hincapie, pretty good in Paris-Roubaix, in time trials and in the TDF mountains. Big Geraint.

 

[SkyTears]

i think he is becoming a very good classics rider

would be a shame to try to go for GT GC, i think can be top in classics vs. a top10 in gt's if he really pushes it, it's not worth the trade.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Forgot about this thread but deserves a bump after his great efforts in E3 and GW.

 

[luckyboy]

Re:

He's almost exactly like late era George Hincapie, pretty good in Paris-Roubaix, in time trials and in the TDF mountains. Big Geraint.

Shouldn't this comparison be in the other section of the forum?

 

[ray j willings]

I hate Sky, but Thomas was the strongest. He was heavily marked and did a fair share of the chasing down. If Sky had another rider up there he would have won.

Sometimes the truth hurts

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Thomas is my favorite for both RVV and PR. Just seems the strongest to me. Only 2 doubts with him:
1) Can he remain cool until the finale in a 260km race and not overextend himself?
2) Does he have enough support? Stannard seems to go less and less since Omloop. And Wiggins will give up as soon as a drop falls or if there's a bit of wind. Plus Wiggins is probably more concerned with his own result.

 

[Pricey_sky]

In terms of team support I think he could have more for PR. Stannard said Ronde is a little too tough for him but he should be strong for PR. If Wiggins shows similar top-10 form this year he will also be a big help in terms of having a 2nd Sky rider near the final but that's a big question mark at the moment.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Thomas is my favorite for both RVV and PR. Just seems the strongest to me. Only 2 doubts with him:
1) Can he remain cool until the finale in a 260km race and not overextend himself?
2) Does he have enough support? Stannard seems to go less and less since Omloop. And Wiggins will give up as soon as a drop falls or if there's a bit of wind. Plus Wiggins is probably more concerned with his own result.

The only reason I wouldn't make him favourite is because he can only win in one way. He's clearly the strongest rider right now (possibly alongside Stybar), but he's shown his cards early. Everyone knows his form now and knows that his only real winning tactic is to go solo in the last 5km.

Today everyone seemed scared of his strength and just relied on him to close everything at the end - I think the same could happen at RVV and PR. He's well-marked now and, unlike a Cancellara or Boonen, he hasn't got a sprint to fall back on if plan A fails.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

Thomas is my favorite for both RVV and PR. Just seems the strongest to me. Only 2 doubts with him:
1) Can he remain cool until the finale in a 260km race and not overextend himself?
2) Does he have enough support? Stannard seems to go less and less since Omloop. And Wiggins will give up as soon as a drop falls or if there's a bit of wind. Plus Wiggins is probably more concerned with his own result.

The only reason I wouldn't make him favourite is because he can only win in one way. He's clearly the strongest rider right now (possibly alongside Stybar), but he's shown his cards early. Everyone knows his form now and knows that his only real winning tactic is to go solo in the last 5km.

Today everyone seemed scared of his strength and just relied on him to close everything at the end - I think the same could happen at RVV and PR. He's well-marked now and, unlike a Cancellara or Boonen, he hasn't got a sprint to fall back on if plan A fails.

Agree to a certain extent in that he will be a heavily marked man next week, however let's not forget the effort he put in on Friday to win as well as today's brutal stage, that's without mentioning his pretty epic spill! I think he's more than capable of going long to win if needs be, but obviously his lack of sprint will harm him.

 

[Netserk]

If you told me four years ago that he would be this good on cobbles, I would have believed you. That he would do it whilst also outclimbing someone like Kwiatkowski in P-N, not so much.

 

[JRanton]

He has crazy fitness at the moment. It was already obvious at Chaubouret when he was able to jump onto Porte's wheel having attacked earlier in the climb. That was insane.

 

[Bushman]

Agree with Netserk. He showed great potential at an early age in classics and tt's and also decent climbing. But the fact thar he is competing in the classics and stage races at the same time is quite incredible.

He definately has the engine to keep going in the +250k races and I would consider him a top favourite for Flanders (not for PR though). His main concern is, as has been mentioned, that he needs to get away and his competitors won't underestimate him. We haven't seem him go all out on the bergs yet, so it will be interesting to see if he can drop everyone on Oude Kwaremont and Paterberg.

 

[dastott]

Looked the strongest rider at Milan-San Remo too. Surely a matter of time before he lands a monument...

 

[TMP402]

Re:

I think Thomas has the potential to win all five monuments. There aren't many riders you can say that about.

Thomas is my favorite for both RVV and PR. Just seems the strongest to me. Only 2 doubts with him:
1) Can he remain cool until the finale in a 260km race and not overextend himself?
2) Does he have enough support? Stannard seems to go less and less since Omloop. And Wiggins will give up as soon as a drop falls or if there's a bit of wind. Plus Wiggins is probably more concerned with his own result.

Don't forget Knees, Rowe, and Eisel.

Thomas is my favorite for both RVV and PR. Just seems the strongest to me. Only 2 doubts with him:
1) Can he remain cool until the finale in a 260km race and not overextend himself?
2) Does he have enough support? Stannard seems to go less and less since Omloop. And Wiggins will give up as soon as a drop falls or if there's a bit of wind. Plus Wiggins is probably more concerned with his own result.

The only reason I wouldn't make him favourite is because he can only win in one way. He's clearly the strongest rider right now (possibly alongside Stybar), but he's shown his cards early. Everyone knows his form now and knows that his only real winning tactic is to go solo in the last 5km.

Today everyone seemed scared of his strength and just relied on him to close everything at the end - I think the same could happen at RVV and PR. He's well-marked now and, unlike a Cancellara or Boonen, he hasn't got a sprint to fall back on if plan A fails.

I disagree. I think against GVA or Sep, he has a chance. Against Kristoff or Degenkolb then of course no, but against a fellow classics specialist, I really don't think he's a complete outsider.

 

[hfer07]

Oh boy- "G" is on fire!!!!!!

Please SKY- don't screw his chances at the coming cobble classics by supporting Wiggo. GT's form this year is perfect and molded to win a monument. he's ready

 

[IndianCyclist]

Is this going to be like Froome Wiggins battle. I think so.

 

[Kwibus]

Great allrounder. Pretty much like Kwiatkowski good at a lot, but Thomas seems to be the better cobbled rider of the 2, but that is mostly because Kwiatkowski shifted his focus to the hilly classics.
Something Thomas is likely to be good at as well.
Kwiatek has the better tt and sprint, but Thomas seems to have the edge on climbing right now.

I say this because I noticed some clinic references, but Thomas isn't the only allrounder.

I really like his style. The way he put Stijn in the wind yesterday and dropped him off his wheel was great to see.

 

[jens_attacks]

superb rider. i don;t think he stands any chance for roubaix though, at least not this year
but flanders is definitely doable. go g!

 

[DBotero]

Great performance again,i hope he can keep it up.

 

[movingtarget]

Amazing form in the past few weeks. While Sagan just does not seem to have it at the moment. With Boonen and Cancellara out Sagan in form would have been primed for the elusive monument win but it's just not happening.

 

[nayr497]

Very impressive to simply be able to catch back on after he was blown over.

 

[Dog]

Re:

superb rider. i don;t think he stands any chance for roubaix though, at least not this year
but flanders is definitely doable. go g!

Doesn't stand any chance? I will be very surprised if he isn't competing for a chance to win in the final stages of the race.