Teams & Riders Geraint Thomas

[Richeypen]

Re:

Hoping that because he took it easy when he was dropped he will be right up there again tomorrow helping Froome, one thing I for sure Froome needs a strong G tomorrow!

That waould have been the logical thing to do. He finished 6 mins ahead of the gruppetto so he was either taking it easy or was totally and utterly spent. Roche and Porte both finished in the bus though so you would expect one of them to have some legs tomorrow.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

Hoping that because he took it easy when he was dropped he will be right up there again tomorrow helping Froome, one thing I for sure Froome needs a strong G tomorrow!

That waould have been the logical thing to do. He finished 6 mins ahead of the gruppetto so he was either taking it easy or was totally and utterly spent. Roche and Porte both finished in the bus though so you would expect one of them to have some legs tomorrow.

I guess that because of his upbeat interviews and tweets at the end of the stage today he just decided to sit up and save himself rather than completely blow up.

 

[cineteq]

Re:

He's had a great Tour, chapeau to him.

Glad he went back to his usual self.

 

[Taxus4a]

He has not the potential of Valverde, as I started to think this Tour, but he has help a lot, so he is close...
I dont know if he can improve, he has been not so many years in this way to climb better, but he is 29 already, maybe he can improve one year more, no more, later just keep this or lose something if he go for the track again in the olimpics.

 

[Ramira]

Not surprising he ended up cracking, and he seemed quite serene about it.

I'm curious what caused it though. Obviously we'll never truly know, but I can't help but feel that if he didn't have to work for Froome and/or didn't get torpedoed by Barguil he might not have ran out of energy.

Especially the crash could have taken a lot out of him, you don't need to break things for your body to use huge amounts of energy recovering from something like that.

 

[Billie]

The guy gave up once he was dropped. Konigs on bike camera showed Thomas stopping alongside to him ask if leo was okay when he crashed on Croix de Fer descent.

 

[Ramira]

Seems Geraint is suffering, he's clearly not as good as in the first two weeks.

I really hope Sky give him free reign in either the Giro or Vuelta next year. He seems like a great guy and I find him to be an admirable rider.

 

[fungusbear]

Re:

I really hope Sky give him free reign in either the Giro or Vuelta next year. He seems like a great guy and I find him to be an admirable rider.[/quote]

This

 

[Tank Engine]

Re:

Seems Geraint is suffering, he's clearly not as good as in the first two weeks.

I really hope Sky give him free reign in either the Giro or Vuelta next year. He seems like a great guy and I find him to be an admirable rider.

The tank was just empty in the last two days. Probably a combination of the work he had put in earlier and the crash, although he looked really strong on the second day in the Alps. I was beginning to hope he would hold out until the end for a top 5 place.

If Landa is coming to Sky, there's not going to be much room for GC leadership, but a free role in one of the other GTs might be an interesting proposition. As always, G's problem is that he is a Jack of all trades master of none. I'd love him to win Flanders probably above all (OK PR really, but Flanders suits him more), but for that he'd have to run more under the radar than this year.

 

[TMP402]

Re:

The guy gave up once he was dropped. Konigs on bike camera showed Thomas stopping alongside to him ask if leo was okay when he crashed on Croix de Fer descent.

Do you have a link to that video?

 

[Billie]

Here you go
http://sporza.be/cm/sporza/videozone/sporten/v-wielrennen/TourDeFrance/Tour_Opvallend/1.2399663

edit: it's georestricted

here on youtube:
https://youtu.be/84KfE3nWBPE?t=45

 

[TMP402]

Re:

Here you go
http://sporza.be/cm/sporza/videozone/sporten/v-wielrennen/TourDeFrance/Tour_Opvallend/1.2399663

edit: it's georestricted

here on youtube:
https://youtu.be/84KfE3nWBPE?t=45

Thanks!

 

[kenk09]

Re:

Not surprising he ended up cracking, and he seemed quite serene about it.

I'm curious what caused it though. Obviously we'll never truly know, but I can't help but feel that if he didn't have to work for Froome and/or didn't get torpedoed by Barguil he might not have ran out of energy.

Especially the crash could have taken a lot out of him, you don't need to break things for your body to use huge amounts of energy recovering from something like that.

He has always tired over the course of races, even one week races. Of course he's always been working his tail off for someone else, so it will be interesting to see if he could stretch that 18 great stages into 21 great stages if he has less work to do for others.

 

[elfed68]

Re: Re:

Not surprising he ended up cracking, and he seemed quite serene about it.

I'm curious what caused it though. Obviously we'll never truly know, but I can't help but feel that if he didn't have to work for Froome and/or didn't get torpedoed by Barguil he might not have ran out of energy.

Especially the crash could have taken a lot out of him, you don't need to break things for your body to use huge amounts of energy recovering from something like that.

He has always tired over the course of races, even one week races. Of course he's always been working his tail off for someone else, so it will be interesting to see if he could stretch that 18 great stages into 21 great stages if he has less work to do for others.

Surely if he's protected and not having to chaperone Froome we can expect more?

 

[cantpedal]

Re: Re:

Based on his development I see no reason why Thomas couldn't win the Tour, provided we get a better designed route.

8 stages of 4km IP... I mean ITT
7 stages of 4km TTT
1 MTF stage to drop Cancellaro
5 sprint stages

seemed to out ride your guy for 18stages while riding for someone else. you might want to show him a little respect. probably to much to expect

 

[DBotero]

Very good Tour for Thomas.15th place after working hard for Froome and being victim of that crash is a decent performance.Next year i suppose he'll get a chance to lead Sky in Giro/Vuelta and his fully deserving it.

 

[Kwibus]

Actually the day before he cracked he said he said that it wasnt unlikely he would make a tumble in the GC. So maybe he felt it was coming, but it wasnt an unrealistic statement either way. He's not a pure climber and we've seen it happening more in the past of GT. A rider punching above his weight suddenly cracking.

Really great TdF by him though. So strong until stage 19!

Sky really did it well btw with their doms. Every day there was a rider to help Froome and it could be different one to the day before. Like Porte all of the sudden back yesterday was a surprise, but they intentionally kept him at ease the previous days. Also Poels doing great during the last 2 mtfs while he wasnt good in the pyrenees at all.

 

[kenk09]

Re:

Actually the day before he cracked he said he said that it wasnt unlikely he would make a tumble in the GC. So maybe he felt it was coming, but it wasnt an unrealistic statement either way. He's not a pure climber and we've seen it happening more in the past of GT. A rider punching above his weight suddenly cracking.

Really great TdF by him though. So strong until stage 19!

Sky really did it well btw with their doms. Every day there was a rider to help Froome and it could be different one to the day before. Like Porte all of the sudden back yesterday was a surprise, but they intentionally kept him at ease the previous days. Also Poels doing great during the last 2 mtfs while he wasnt good in the pyrenees at all.

Yes, two years ago they got into a panic and blew themselves up. This time around they learned if you're having a bad day then have a bad day, don't go too deep. Poels obviously went deeeep the last two days, but they were the last 2 days.

 

[TMP402]

Interesting quote from 2011:

After winning the junior Paris-Roubaix Thomas has gone on to glory on track and road. Gold medalist ith the team pursuit team at the 2007 Worlds and 2008 Olympics. Became national road champion in 2010 just before going to the Tour de France where he wore the white jersey as the best young rider for three days. Returned to France in July where he reacquainted himself with the white jersey. A future general classification rider.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/cycling/8790330/UCI-Road-Cycling-World-Championships-2011-the-team-that-delivered-a-world-champion-for-Great-Britain.html?image=5

 

[fungusbear]

Re:

Actually the day before he cracked he said he said that it wasnt unlikely he would make a tumble in the GC. So maybe he felt it was coming, but it wasnt an unrealistic statement either way. He's not a pure climber and we've seen it happening more in the past of GT. A rider punching above his weight suddenly cracking.

Really great TdF by him though. So strong until stage 19!

Sky really did it well btw with their doms. Every day there was a rider to help Froome and it could be different one to the day before. Like Porte all of the sudden back yesterday was a surprise, but they intentionally kept him at ease the previous days. Also Poels doing great during the last 2 mtfs while he wasnt good in the pyrenees at all.

Yeah he said on stage 17 that he had felt pretty bad but had limited his losses.

 

[fungusbear]

G said in an interview on BBC website that he is aiming for the road race and time trial at the olympics next year and so said riding the giro might be too hard (with the tour afterwards) for him. He also seemed to say that he is riding the vuelta this year too.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re:

Actually the day before he cracked he said he said that it wasnt unlikely he would make a tumble in the GC. So maybe he felt it was coming, but it wasnt an unrealistic statement either way. He's not a pure climber and we've seen it happening more in the past of GT. A rider punching above his weight suddenly cracking.

Really great TdF by him though. So strong until stage 19!

Sky really did it well btw with their doms. Every day there was a rider to help Froome and it could be different one to the day before. Like Porte all of the sudden back yesterday was a surprise, but they intentionally kept him at ease the previous days. Also Poels doing great during the last 2 mtfs while he wasnt good in the pyrenees at all.

Hmm, not too sure about that. They were clearly keeping him back during the first week, but I doubt they would have intentionally kept him rested through stage 19 in particular, but also 18.

 

[rick james]

I think a grand tour is out his reach...

 

[Taxus4a]

Re: Re:

Not surprising he ended up cracking, and he seemed quite serene about it.

I'm curious what caused it though. Obviously we'll never truly know, but I can't help but feel that if he didn't have to work for Froome and/or didn't get torpedoed by Barguil he might not have ran out of energy.

Especially the crash could have taken a lot out of him, you don't need to break things for your body to use huge amounts of energy recovering from something like that.

He has always tired over the course of races, even one week races. Of course he's always been working his tail off for someone else, so it will be interesting to see if he could stretch that 18 great stages into 21 great stages if he has less work to do for others.

Surely if he's protected and not having to chaperone Froome we can expect more?

More in the term of clasiffication? Obvious.

 

[TMP402]

Re:

G said in an interview on BBC website that he is aiming for the road race and time trial at the olympics next year and so said riding the giro might be too hard (with the tour afterwards) for him. He also seemed to say that he is riding the vuelta this year too.

Any news on if he's Team GB's leader for Richmond? I heard something about Sky saying it would be Kennaugh, but we haven't heard much more.