Gesink Discussion Thread

[Froome19]

Froome may be struggling a bit, but so far the struggling has led Gesink to take a full 4 seconds on him in the last uphill finish. He'll have to virtually collapse before Gesink has a chance of overtaking him.

No because Gesink also seems to be getting better and logically he should be getting better whilst Froome gets worse, that combination may turn the 5th into a 4th especially as with 5 more summit finishes that is 20 seconds per MTF considering 4 of those MTFs are as hard as any in the sport considering their current positions that should not be all that hard..

 

[cineteq]

Before we can even begin to speculate on sacrifising riders for Gesink, let's first wait how he does on the first major mountain finish. If he finishes 6th or something then it isn't worth it imho

It seems Rabo doesn't want to wait.

From rabosport.nl after the stage on the wall:
“We hebben vandaag veel vertrouwen opgedaan. We zijn niet gekomen met het idee dat we deze Vuelta gingen winnen, maar wel met een blik op het podium en daar gaan we nog steeds voor.”
"We've gained a lot of confidence today. We didn't come with the idea that we would win this Vuelta, but we did come looking at the poddium and we're still going for it."

 

[theyoungest]

It seems Rabo doesn't want to wait.

I think they'll have to

 

[classicomano]

I guess he will just fade away now in the next mountain stages.

 

[Forunculo]

I was completely wrong on him

I tought he would end 3rd

 

[hrotha]

I'm done trying to make predictions for Gesink. His results don't show the tiniest amount of internal coherence anymore.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

He's going the way of Kreuziger goddamnit. I really hope this is just the effect of a long year with trying to get back from a broken leg and the fall in the Tour. And he's back next year.

But it could also just be Gesink 2.0, a good time trialist after breaking his leg but a very average climber.

 

[Havetts]

Really strange.. Nothing would surprise me anymore, not even if he can keep up with Purito on Cuitu Negru final kms.

Oh well.. we'll have to wait. Maybe he had an extreme off day, lets wait till a tweet/pr messages comes out.

 

[SafeBet]

Very sad say. I was actually pretty confident he could podium the Vuelta

 

[Lanark]

He's going the way of Kreuziger goddamnit. I really hope this is just the effect of a long year with trying to get back from a broken leg and the fall in the Tour. And he's back next year.

But it could also just be Gesink 2.0, a good time trialist after breaking his leg but a very average climber.

His climbing wasn't that great in 2011 either...There were some decent explanations for it back then, but it looked like he lost a lot of his climbing potential when he started time trialing better.

I must say though, I really, really miss the Gesink of the Ventoux 2008 (Paris-Nice), the Vuelta of 2009, or La Punt in 2010. He wasn't an explosive climber, but he could really hurt a lot of guys with a long and high pace. He still got some good results the last 2 years, but there's barely a single interesting thing he has done in a race. I hope it's just a temporary setback because of his leg, but I'm starting to doubt it more and more.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

I'm done trying to make predictions for Gesink. His results don't show the tiniest amount of internal coherence anymore.

The curious case of Robert gesink.

 

[maxmartin]

His climbing wasn't that great in 2011 either...There were some decent explanations for it back then, but it looked like he lost a lot of his climbing potential when he started time trialing better.

I must say though, I really, really miss the Gesink of the Ventoux 2008 (Paris-Nice), the Vuelta of 2009, or La Punt in 2010. He wasn't an explosive climber, but he could really hurt a lot of guys with a long and high pace. He still got some good results the last 2 years, but there's barely a single interesting thing he has done in a race. I hope it's just a temporary setback because of his leg, but I'm starting to doubt it more and more.

Robo needs innovative training methods from SKY team.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

His climbing wasn't that great in 2011 either...There were some decent explanations for it back then, but it looked like he lost a lot of his climbing potential when he started time trialing better.

I must say though, I really, really miss the Gesink of the Ventoux 2008 (Paris-Nice), the Vuelta of 2009, or La Punt in 2010. He wasn't an explosive climber, but he could really hurt a lot of guys with a long and high pace. He still got some good results the last 2 years, but there's barely a single interesting thing he has done in a race. I hope it's just a temporary setback because of his leg, but I'm starting to doubt it more and more.

He has certainly had a very difficult and unfortunate two years, disastrous really. I hope he can regain his old self, but I dunno. I'm not too savvy on the medical side, but I often wonder the constraints and effects of the pin in his leg??

I really came to like gesink because of how he handled the mountains, I still hope - like dt - this is just the outcome of a difficult two years and return from the broken work, but I have serious doubts. Hopefully he can bounce back.

 

[Kwibus]

His climbing wasn't that great in 2011 either...There were some decent explanations for it back then, but it looked like he lost a lot of his climbing potential when he started time trialing better.

I must say though, I really, really miss the Gesink of the Ventoux 2008 (Paris-Nice), the Vuelta of 2009, or La Punt in 2010. He wasn't an explosive climber, but he could really hurt a lot of guys with a long and high pace. He still got some good results the last 2 years, but there's barely a single interesting thing he has done in a race. I hope it's just a temporary setback because of his leg, but I'm starting to doubt it more and more.

I miss him too.
Ah well **** happens. I guess he should focus on 1 week stage races.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

I guess he will just fade away now in the next mountain stages.

I don't think so. A top 10 is still in the cards, but that's hardly impressive in this field.

In any case it should be obvious by now that he doesn't have it anymore as a GT specialist. The fanboys that go on and on about his crashes or the metal pin in his leg have yet to explain why his flat time trialing is still on the same high level as the past few years, or has maybe improved even further SINCE he broke his leg.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

I don't think so. A top 10 is still in the cards, but that's hardly impressive in this field.

In any case it should be obvious by now that he doesn't have it anymore as a GT specialist. The fanboys that go on and on about his crashes or the metal pin in his leg have yet to explain why his flat time trialing is still on the same high level as the past few years, or has maybe improved even further SINCE he broke his leg.

I don't think anyone is arguing that the guy is struggling and not the same climber he once was. But it is undeniable that it has been a difficult two years, and definite comments that his gt aspirations etc are over are still very per-mature IMO. He is still pretty young considering the age if riders dominating gts recently.

He might never become the great climber he had potential to be, or a gt winner. But the definitive writing him off is stupid considering the hard two years he has, I'm sure it must have been physically and mentally exhausting the last two years, I feel mentally exhausted just reflecting his past 24 months. And yeah have you ever broken a femur, then forced to train even harder and recover, and do a full season? If so your input is valid.

 

[cineteq]

The curious case of Robert Gesink.

No kidding. Does he know what going on with him exactly? Probably.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

I don't think anyone is arguing that the guy is struggling and not the same climber he once was. But it is undeniable that it has been a difficult two years, and definite comments that his gt aspirations etc are over are still very per-mature IMO. He is still pretty young considering the age if riders dominating gts recently.

He might never become the great climber he had potential to be, or a gt winner. But the definitive writing him off is stupid considering the hard two years he has, I'm sure it must have been physically and mentally exhausting the last two years, I feel mentally exhausted just reflecting his past 24 months. And yeah have you ever broken a femur, then forced to train even harder and recover, and do a full season? If so your input is valid.

Anyone can observe that his flat time trialing is as good as it's ever been, and, in fact, far better than a couple years ago in his best years as GT rider. Somehow his horror crash didn't affect that at all. Maybe he ... you know... recovered? It happens, you know. So... I don't know where you're going with this. It's pretty obvious that he became a different type of rider. That started in 2010 already, before his difficult years. He didn't climb much if any better than Purito over the course of that Tour, who wasn't as consistent then.

The most obvious explanation by far is that it's mostly training-related. He was also smoking flat TTs in his first bad year. It's far too obvious to ignore.

 

[theyoungest]

I'm done trying to make predictions for Gesink. His results don't show the tiniest amount of internal coherence anymore.

I guess his weaknesses are just more prominent than before the leg break... he doesn't like a high pace at the foot of the climb, but whereas before he could handle it, now he explodes and immediately loses half a minute or more.

One thing is still the same: he bends but he never breaks.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

According to his own (or his teams) explanation he's been having heavy/bad legs the past 2 days.
Could be a downward form curve

 

[Red Rick]

According to his own (or his teams) explanation he's been having heavy/bad legs the past 2 days.
Could be a downward form curve

So the Vuelta came too soon for him?

 

[Pentacycle]

I don't think anyone is arguing that the guy is struggling and not the same climber he once was.

It's all due to his broken femur and Tour crashes, not TT training. Over the last few years I've never seen a rider who crashed in the Tour,
and who rode on for 1 week while being injured, still do well in the Vuelta GC. This is just reality.

He's done a better 2012 than anyone could expect, and a top 10 in any GT would be a huge surprise.
Next year he just needs to focus on 1-week races instead of GT's, he's much better at those.
I expect him back on the level he had in the Dauphine last year regarding his climbing, which is already close to what we're seeing this Vuelta.(close to Purito in top form)

He just needs time to regain his best climbing, but apparantly the public and even his fans are very impatient...

 

[No_Balls]

Robert Gesink is a unavoidable subject since i have never seen a rider who goes from worldclass-TT to a ****ty hill, then again being up there the next day and the day after losing massively as much as him. You just cant grip the lad and that makes me curious and a bit fascinated. He is a bookies nightmare.

But what if the problem is mental? With all his chrashes, punctures, injuries and formdips that could occur during a freaking stage this will surely affect the rider and that is another story altogheter.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Robert Gesink is a unavoidable subject since i have never seen a rider who goes from worldclass-TT to a ****ty hill, then again being up there the next day and the day after losing massively as much as him. You just cant grip the lad and that makes me curious and a bit fascinated. He is a bookies nightmare.

But what if the problem is mental? With all his chrashes, punctures, injuries and formdips that could occur during a freaking stage this will surely affect the rider and that is another story altogheter.

Yet up till his crashes, let's say 2010. He was a very very consistent rider. Whenever he didn't fall, he was simply up there. In every freaking race.

Only since 2011 he had remarkably unconsistent performances. Then again, that's nothing strange at Rabobank. Maybe Delahaye is ****ing up as well?

 

[maxmartin]

CN top headline is "Gesink preparing to launch attack?" probably should be changed into "Gesink preparing to crack?"

joke aside, I think he seems have recuperation problems, not sure it is crash or broken bone related. I can see him winning 7day, 10day stage race, but GT for him is probably over. Naturally your recuperation ability goes down as you passed your golden age (usually 24-28). Of course things can still turn around, Wiggins' recovering ability seems getting better when he gets old.