- Oct 8, 2009
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A couple of weeks ago, the general manager of the Rabobank team was a guest in a TV show in the Netherlands. He then said the following..:
Knebel: ''Gesink will be riding the Tour next year.''
Interviewer: ''What about Menchov?''
Knebel: ''We'll have to see about that.''
What do you guys think about this? I think Gesink has huge potential, but being Dutch myself, I want to make sure that I'm not viewing him with pink glasses on, since he's the only Dutch hope in a general classification in a GT. I like Menchov very much, but I don't think he can win the Tour, he comes up short in the highest mountains. However, he CAN win the Giro and the Vuelta. Gesink I think is much more capable of following the best riders in the high mountains, and if he can improve his time trial (which he has done already, but I think there's still room for improvement, since he's only 23), I think he could be a bigger contender for the podium in the Tour than Menchov. On the other hand, he's only done 2 GT's in his short career, although he came 7th and 6th. But we all know the Tour is still a different animal when compared to the other GT's. So you could say it might be too early to build the entire Rabobank team around him for the Tour. And more, if Menchov isn't riding, who of Rabo is there to help him in the mountains?
So how would you compare the two? Who stands the biggest chance to do well in the Tour next year? Which rider would you play out for each GT if you were Rabobank? Is it too early to build a team around Gesink for the Tour?
Knebel: ''Gesink will be riding the Tour next year.''
Interviewer: ''What about Menchov?''
Knebel: ''We'll have to see about that.''
What do you guys think about this? I think Gesink has huge potential, but being Dutch myself, I want to make sure that I'm not viewing him with pink glasses on, since he's the only Dutch hope in a general classification in a GT. I like Menchov very much, but I don't think he can win the Tour, he comes up short in the highest mountains. However, he CAN win the Giro and the Vuelta. Gesink I think is much more capable of following the best riders in the high mountains, and if he can improve his time trial (which he has done already, but I think there's still room for improvement, since he's only 23), I think he could be a bigger contender for the podium in the Tour than Menchov. On the other hand, he's only done 2 GT's in his short career, although he came 7th and 6th. But we all know the Tour is still a different animal when compared to the other GT's. So you could say it might be too early to build the entire Rabobank team around him for the Tour. And more, if Menchov isn't riding, who of Rabo is there to help him in the mountains?
So how would you compare the two? Who stands the biggest chance to do well in the Tour next year? Which rider would you play out for each GT if you were Rabobank? Is it too early to build a team around Gesink for the Tour?