Teams & Riders Geraint Thomas

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

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?

Geraint was one of the best allrounders in the peloton, extremely versatile and a rider I very much respected. His 2015-showing in Le Tour must have given him some serious delusions, unfortunately. He didn't even climb well in P-N and won that race by accident.

But I don't know, I hope his 2016-campaign has convinced him that he just isn't that kind of rider, but I highly doubt it.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re: Re:

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?

Geraint was one of the best allrounders in the peloton, extremely versatile and a rider I very much respected. His 2015-showing in Le Tour must have given him some serious delusions, unfortunately. He didn't even climb well in P-N and won that race by accident.

But I don't know, I hope his 2016-campaign has convinced him that he just isn't that kind of rider, but I highly doubt it.

He nearly won the MTF stage.

 

[pastronef]

Re: Re:

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?

Geraint was one of the best allrounders in the peloton, extremely versatile and a rider I very much respected. His 2015-showing in Le Tour must have given him some serious delusions, unfortunately. He didn't even climb well in P-N and won that race by accident.

But I don't know, I hope his 2016-campaign has convinced him that he just isn't that kind of rider, but I highly doubt it.

He nearly won the MTF stage.

well said, he won the race there. Contador and co lost time, while he and Zakarin fought for the stage

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

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?

Geraint was one of the best allrounders in the peloton, extremely versatile and a rider I very much respected. His 2015-showing in Le Tour must have given him some serious delusions, unfortunately. He didn't even climb well in P-N and won that race by accident.

But I don't know, I hope his 2016-campaign has convinced him that he just isn't that kind of rider, but I highly doubt it.

He nearly won the MTF stage.

He was good on the MTF, but that was kinda shallow. Not climbing well was probably kinda harsh, but the stage into Nice really exposed him for who he is, despite it really not being that hard and him having Henao.

 

[yaco]

My guess is Thomas will move to another team in 2018 - He will have no shortage of suitors.

 

[PlanZ]

Re:

My guess is Thomas will move to another team in 2018 - He will have no shortage of suitors.

To become a team leader?

 

[TMP402]

If he were to leave and focus on the classics, he'd have one of the best routes to victory at RVV or P-R in the peloton. The template is his E3 win: make a select group and attack from 4km out. It's the team pursuit way, as seen with a lot of Cummings' wins.

 

[JRanton]

Re: Re:

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?

Geraint was one of the best allrounders in the peloton, extremely versatile and a rider I very much respected. His 2015-showing in Le Tour must have given him some serious delusions, unfortunately. He didn't even climb well in P-N and won that race by accident.

But I don't know, I hope his 2016-campaign has convinced him that he just isn't that kind of rider, but I highly doubt it.

He nearly won the MTF stage.

Exactly. He also rode nearly the entire Tour with a fractured rib apparently but still finished the race strongly. He was in the mix at the Olympics before crashing, which unfortunately happens to him far too much and can't purely be put down to bad luck.

I think the most disappointing part of his season was the period after his Paris-Nice win in races like Catalunya, Romandie and Suisse. He has said on quite a few occasions that the biggest problem with stage racing for him is keeping his weight down, in order for him to be competitive on the climbs.

As for the classics, personally I've never thought he has the explosiveness needed to win Flanders, especially on the new course. He's excellent on the first half of the Kwaremont but struggles a bit on the second half and he's always going to really struggle to match the likes of Sagan and GVA on the Paterberg. If he completely forgot about stage racing and getting his weight down then Roubaix is probably his best chance but it would still be a long shot.

 

[yaco]

Think Thomas should focus on the classics - He's a versatile rider who is effective on a variety of terrains - He could still ride 2 or 3 stage races per year - Possibly a different team could give him a change in fortune.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Thomas is such a good all-rounder that there are incentives to prioritise things that someone with his talents really shouldn't be prioritising. In particular that means trying to be a GT GC rider because there's so much more money and prestige in that than in other elements of the sport. And it also means track, which is a backwater of the sport but for local reasons can make someone into a minor celebrity in Britain at the moment.

As a result, while he has excellent palmares by the standards of most pros, he has a very limited palmares by the standards of someone who is definitely in the fifteen most talented riders in the peloton.

 

[qwerty16]

Re: Re:

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?

Geraint was one of the best allrounders in the peloton, extremely versatile and a rider I very much respected. His 2015-showing in Le Tour must have given him some serious delusions, unfortunately. He didn't even climb well in P-N and won that race by accident.

But I don't know, I hope his 2016-campaign has convinced him that he just isn't that kind of rider, but I highly doubt it.

He nearly won the MTF stage.

Exactly. He also rode nearly the entire Tour with a fractured rib apparently but still finished the race strongly. He was in the mix at the Olympics before crashing, which unfortunately happens to him far too much and can't purely be put down to bad luck.

I think the most disappointing part of his season was the period after his Paris-Nice win in races like Catalunya, Romandie and Suisse. He has said on quite a few occasions that the biggest problem with stage racing for him is keeping his weight down, in order for him to be competitive on the climbs.

As for the classics, personally I've never thought he has the explosiveness needed to win Flanders, especially on the new course. He's excellent on the first half of the Kwaremont but struggles a bit on the second half and he's always going to really struggle to match the likes of Sagan and GVA on the Paterberg. If he completely forgot about stage racing and getting his weight down then Roubaix is probably his best chance but it would still be a long shot.

I think he said he maybe took the slimming down too far which cost him some power, mainly during Switzerland and going into the Tour de France.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

well said, he won the race there. Contador and co lost time, while he and Zakarin fought for the stage

Contador lost 1 second
Valv.Piti is right, Thomas won the race by accident: because the hardest MTF got cancelled and because Gallopin likes to talk about rugby with him.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re:

Think Thomas should focus on the classics - He's a versatile rider who is effective on a variety of terrains - He could still ride 2 or 3 stage races per year - Possibly a different team could give him a change in fortune.

I agree with you. Another point is that his way of racing is a lot more exciting to watch in the cobbled classics than in stage races.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

well said, he won the race there. Contador and co lost time, while he and Zakarin fought for the stage

Contador lost 1 second
Valv.Piti is right, Thomas won the race by accident: because the hardest MTF got cancelled and because Gallopin likes to talk about rugby with him.

If it eases your pain, I don't think Henao and Thomas needed Gallopin, they caught up to the group with plenty of time to spare.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

well said, he won the race there. Contador and co lost time, while he and Zakarin fought for the stage

Contador lost 1 second
Valv.Piti is right, Thomas won the race by accident: because the hardest MTF got cancelled and because Gallopin likes to talk about rugby with him.

If it eases your pain, I don't think Henao and Thomas needed Gallopin, they caught up to the group with plenty of time to spare.

The gap was over 20s (I believe even close to 30), they brought it back to 5. The gap on GC was 4s. You don't think Gallopin (1/3rd of the group) might have contributed 4s?
And of course we have that cancelled MTF, considering Contador's show in the final stage it's not strange to think he could have grabbed time there, or Porte, or Bardet.
So all in all it's not weird to say Thomas won "by accident".

 

[Alexandre B.]

Gallopin likes scoring WT points for his team too.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Gallopin likes scoring WT points for his team too.

So? You don't agree Thomas had luck on his side to win the race?

Don't get me started on Gallopin

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re: Re:

Gallopin likes scoring WT points for his team too.

So? You don't agree Thomas had luck on his side to win the race?

Don't get me started on Gallopin

What do you call "luck", to begin with? On that particular stage where everyone was racing to achieve a result.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Gallopin likes scoring WT points for his team too.

So? You don't agree Thomas had luck on his side to win the race?

Don't get me started on Gallopin

What do you call "luck", to begin with? On that particular stage where everyone was racing to achieve a result.

Have you completely missed the point? The MTF was cancelled, as you know. Thats why we refer to the win as lucky, fluky, whatever.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

well said, he won the race there. Contador and co lost time, while he and Zakarin fought for the stage

Contador lost 1 second
Valv.Piti is right, Thomas won the race by accident: because the hardest MTF got cancelled and because Gallopin likes to talk about rugby with him.

If it eases your pain, I don't think Henao and Thomas needed Gallopin, they caught up to the group with plenty of time to spare.

The gap was over 20s (I believe even close to 30), they brought it back to 5. The gap on GC was 4s. You don't think Gallopin (1/3rd of the group) might have contributed 4s?

Thomas, Henao and Gallopin caught the big group chasing Contador with 3.6km to go (and Contador was in sight of that group at the time so Thomas didn't have to try overmuch to chase him further). So yes, Gallopin's help was unnecessary.

 

[Gloin22]

Wew wew wew I understand some can be bitter about that win, but not LaFlorecita. Contador had many riders from opposite teams helping him down the ages... but of course those times we can conveniently forget them :lol:

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Wew wew wew I understand some can be bitter about that win, but not LaFlorecita. Contador had many riders from opposite teams helping him down the ages... but of course those times we can conveniently forget them :lol:

And we can also conveniently forget the cancelled stage

 

[Red Rick]

That's about enough really. Surely it's been established right now who's happy Thomas won and who's unhappy Contador lost that Paris Nice. That's not gonna be changed. This is getting petty.

 

[Red Rick]

I deleted a bunch of posts on why Gallopin cooperated in the Col d'Eze descent. I said it was enough, and frankly none of the posts had anything to do with Geraint Thomas.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Could have been competing at E3 yesterday instead of busting his gust where he doesn't belong