Giro 2014 Field Speculation

[theyoungest]

Ohh, that's bad. There was a talk from Vaughters before the season that Garmin would focus on GC in stage races, and what? Hesjedal, Martin and Cardoso- that's all who can climb and will be in the Garmin's roster for the Giro.

And while I can understand that Slagter has a great season and deserved to be moved to a TdF roster, I can't understand why Howes, Fairly, King, Gaimon and Morton and maybe even Acevedo will probably all (or all but one ) left in home in both Giro and TdF and there will be a couple of guys in Giro's roster who have shown nothing over the last one or two years and are probably worse climbers than all of mentioned. That's how a team with focus on GC in stage races works?

Thomas Dekker was a great climbing domestique for Rasmussen

I think when Hesjedal won the Giro they had Vande Velde and Stetina as climbers, having Dan Martin and Cardoso is maybe even better?

 

[Anderis]

Thomas Dekker was a great climbing domestique for Rasmussen

WAS is the key. Dekker is getting very good starting program since he joined Garmin but he was nowhere to be seen in any mountain stages anywhere.

I think when Hesjedal won the Giro they had Vande Velde and Stetina as climbers, having Dan Martin and Cardoso is maybe even better?

Yes, Hesjedal didn't have much support in 2012. He was lucky with how did the race progress then. He almost lost the race to De Gendt through lack of support. I remember also him doing the work on himself from 100-men peloton, because there wasn't enough Garmin riders in it to help him.

3 climbers in the team is too little for 3 weeks if you have serious GC ambitions. With luck, you might do it, but you're too vulnerable for any long-range attack from teams that have multiple GC options.

 

[Cookster15]

3 climbers in the team is too little for 3 weeks if you have serious GC ambitions. With luck, you might do it, but you're too vulnerable for any long-range attack from teams that have multiple GC options.

Not sure I'd agree with that. Cadel Evans had no true climbers at BMC in the 2011 TDF. And he had to cover multiple attacks from Frank, Andy, Contador and even Sammy Sanchez. All your GC competitors have their own ambitions. You can use that to your advantage tactically but you also need to be strong enough to take responsibility for chasing sometimes. In 2011 Evans showed it could be done without proper climbers in his team.

 

[Anderis]

That 2011 BMC had some decent climbers: Morabito, Hincapie, Moinard and Santaromita. That made it 5 BMC riders in 100-men peleton, compared to 3 Garmin riders in 100-men peleton in 2012 Giro, and what may possibly be in 2014.
Evans could have been alone when selection was done, but he has enough men to help him early.

As I said earlier- it's a matter of how the race goes. Mind you. Evans almost lost to Andy in 2011, because there was nobody to help him on a crucial part of Galibier stage. He was able to regain the lost on ITT, but that does not always happen. It's possible to win with little support, but it requires a bit of luck. I feel, if Garmin really want to be considered a GC team, they shouldn't leave it that way IMO. Unless, of course, they believe they leave their best for some other races. But I doubt it's the case.

Vaughters said they would lose a bit of their sprinting, classics and TT strength to bring in some more climbers, because he felt his GC riders were undersupported, and then he takes as many climbers as before for the most important races. That doesn't really make sense.

We'll see. Haas climbed surprisingly good on Criterium International. Maybe he will be able to help. But I feel Howes or Fairly instead of Van Baarle/Wegmann/Dekker/Fernandez would make more sense.

 

[theyoungest]

WAS is the key. Dekker is getting very good starting program since he joined Garmin but he was nowhere to be seen in any mountain stages anywhere.

Of course, I was just kidding. Even Tjallingii outclimbed him in a breakaway in the Giro last year.

Yes, Hesjedal didn't have much support in 2012. He was lucky with how did the race progress then. He almost lost the race to De Gendt through lack of support. I remember also him doing the work on himself from 100-men peloton, because there wasn't enough Garmin riders in it to help him.

It's fair to expect that either Martin or Hesjedal won't quite have the legs to go for GC. The remaining GC rider then has a great domestique on his side. Let's face it, Movistar will play the role of Team Sky and control this race for Quintana. No need for Garmin to do any controlling whatsoever.

 

[movingtarget]

That 2011 BMC had some decent climbers: Morabito, Hincapie, Moinard and Santaromita. That made it 5 BMC riders in 100-men peleton, compared to 3 Garmin riders in 100-men peleton in 2012 Giro, and what may possibly be in 2014.
Evans could have been alone when selection was done, but he has enough men to help him early.

As I said earlier- it's a matter of how the race goes. Mind you. Evans almost lost to Andy in 2011, because there was nobody to help him on a crucial part of Galibier stage. He was able to regain the lost on ITT, but that does not always happen. It's possible to win with little support, but it requires a bit of luck. I feel, if Garmin really want to be considered a GC team, they shouldn't leave it that way IMO. Unless, of course, they believe they leave their best for some other races. But I doubt it's the case.

Vaughters said they would lose a bit of their sprinting, classics and TT strength to bring in some more climbers, because he felt his GC riders were undersupported, and then he takes as many climbers as before for the most important races. That doesn't really make sense.

We'll see. Haas climbed surprisingly good on Criterium International. Maybe he will be able to help. But I feel Howes or Fairly instead of Van Baarle/Wegmann/Dekker/Fernandez would make more sense.

Evans in 2011 had a strong team but the climbers mentioned are not top level climbers. His team worked hard to keep him out of trouble, they rode a great TTT and were there to be used up when he needed them. That plus hapless tactics by the Schlecks including the inability to descend into Gap as well as the other GC contenders and leaving it much too late in the race to work Evans over cost them the race. On the Galibier Frank sat at the back of Evans group for the entire climb and only attacked him in the last few hundred metres which summed up the Schlecks attitude. By the time they realised Evans was a big danger on stage 18 it was much too late and Andy's effort on that stage cost him on the next two stages where Evans was much fresher.

Movistar are the obvious team to try and control the Giro. Garmin probably are not strong enough to do that. They will probably stage hunt if Martin and Hesjedal lose too much time in the first half of the race.

 

[Anderis]

No need for Garmin to do any controlling whatsoever.

You never know. The same thing was said about them in 2012 and they almost lost the race to De Gendt, because other realised they couldn't drop Hesjedal in mountains so why do the work?

It's all the question of how will the race go. They may well get away with lack of support or they might find themselves with nobody able to place himself well in GC.
But what if other teams realise soon enough that Hesjedal or Martin is a real threat? Then things won't be easy, for sure.

But OK, not lack of support is the biggest problem for me, personally, but some kind of hypocrisy. "Hey, we sign some more climbers for this year, because we want to be a GC team and our leaders used to be undersupported in mountains.", but then "Why bother to send more climbing support for races than we did before?".
A few years before they were sending little amount of climbers for GTs, but at least Farrar and his lead-out train were a real deal. And they were always a strong contender for the TTT.
Nowadays, the quantity of climbers is still low in the team, but the quality in other areas doesn't really balance it and I see it a problem.

I also feel bad for some guys in the team for being consistently omited in the selection for biggest races at the expense of guys who don't show anything special as well.

What's going on with Acevedo by the way? He has been completely invisible this year so far.

 

[whittashau]

Cannondale's team announced:

Basso, Gatto, Koch, Longo Borghini, Marangoni, Moser, Ratto, Villella and Viviani

Worst Liquigas/Cannondale team for a Giro ever? Basso looks terrible right now, Moser even more so. Ratto hasn't shown much this season, and Gatto has disapponted as well. Villella as Basso's main mountain domestique? Viviani is the only one of them who I can imagine winning a stage.

on the plus side they should have a decent team for the TTT

 

[qwerty16]

Cannondale's team announced:

Basso, Gatto, Koch, Longo Borghini, Marangoni, Moser, Ratto, Villella and Viviani

Worst Liquigas/Cannondale team for a Giro ever? Basso looks terrible right now, Moser even more so. Ratto hasn't shown much this season, and Gatto has disapponted as well. Villella as Basso's main mountain domestique? Viviani is the only one of them who I can imagine winning a stage.

on the plus side they should have a decent team for the TTT

Last years team was way weaker. No Basso, Viviani wasn't in good shape like he is now. Moser, Gatto and Ratto haven't really been lighting it up this year but last year they only really had Caruso (who overperformed) besides Viviani.

71. CARUSO Damiano
72. DALL'ANTONIA Tiziano
73. LONGO Paolo
74. MARANGONI Alan
75. SABATINI Fabio
76. SALERNO Cristiano
77. SARMIENTO Jose Cayetano
78. VIVIANI Elia
79. WURF Cameron

 

[coimbrawu]

at least Cannondale finally knew that Basso will no way back to his 2010 form and focus on stage hunting
As an Italian team, no stage nor GC podium in last 2 years is a disaster (comparing to other Italian teams)

 

[fgrune]

How do you guys think EBH will do in the Giro? Does he have a free role and could he even win the points jersey?

 

[Opalius]

Hope for him that he'll at least accomplish something of note, though I highly doubt it. He seems a shadow of himself. Wonder what happened.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Has there been any confirmation that the Colombia team members' visa issues in the UK are now sorted? Is their participation in serious doubt?

 

[Afrank]

How do you guys think EBH will do in the Giro? Does he have a free role and could he even win the points jersey?

I could see him take a stage or two, but there are better riders in better form who I think will contend for the points jersey.

Hasn't raced since AGR as well, so we don't know really know where his form is at the moment. He had good form back in February, but that was nearly 2 months ago.

 

[search]

Has there been any confirmation that the Colombia team members' visa issues in the UK are now sorted? Is their participation in serious doubt?

most issues have been sorted out:

"After some weeks of worry and tension, we are finally receiving the first UK Visas, and we hope the issue will be completely solved in time to leave to Belfast."

http://www.colombiacyclingpro.com/97th-giro-ditalia-line-up-revealed/

 

[maltiv]

How do you guys think EBH will do in the Giro? Does he have a free role and could he even win the points jersey?

No, and no.

Leadout for Ben Swift. Free to go in breakaways probably, but there aren't really any stages that suit him (where he won't be helping Swift).

His form is pretty good in terms of watt output, but he's probably still far too heavy to climb well due to his whole season being devoted to P-R.

 

[JRanton]

No, and no.

Leadout for Ben Swift. Free to go in breakaways probably, but there aren't really any stages that suit him (where he won't be helping Swift).

His form is pretty good in terms of watt output, but he's probably still far too heavy to climb well due to his whole season being devoted to P-R.

Which by the way is entirely his own choice. I wonder if BMC management will sit him down and tell him to go a different route but they probably see him as a big part of their cobbles team (replacing a retired Hushovd?)

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

most issues have been sorted out:

"After some weeks of worry and tension, we are finally receiving the first UK Visas, and we hope the issue will be completely solved in time to leave to Belfast."

http://www.colombiacyclingpro.com/97th-giro-ditalia-line-up-revealed/

Yeah, that was the most recent that I had seen, and no further word in 5 (now 6) days is why I was asking whether there has been any progress in the matter.

Spanish as a language is not good, as I recall, at distinguishing between hope and expectation, so the quote above is ambiguous.

Do we have any word on whether this is an optimistic hope that is out of their hands with no real evidence that the matter is being expedited by the UK Border Agency, or whether it is a confident expectation based on reassurance and commitments from those in a position to make such?

 

[Butterhead]

Roche and Majka will lead Tinkoff-Saxo at the Giro.

And I would say it´s now Majka have to show what he´s made of, time is up, he can´t hide behind hes a young talent any longer it´s time to perform, if he really want to be counted among the GC contenders in the future, then I would say a podium must be the goal, if he can podium then he can also win.

Roche is "just" a top 10 contender, he will never win a GC.

 

[coimbrawu]

Lampre-Merida
Cunego, Niemiec, Anacona, Bono, Cattaneo, Ferrari, Mori, Ulissi y Polanc

Bardini-CSF
Pirazzi, Battaglin, Boem, Bongiorno, Canola, Colbrelli, Barbin, Ruffoni y Zardini

So Niemiec works for Cunego?

 

[Gloin22]

Cunego works for Niemiec.

 

[ILovecycling]

Cunego works for Niemiec.

Really?

10ch

 

[Ferminal]

Gotta hate the two weeks between Romandie and Turkey ending and the Giro commencing.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Gotta hate the two weeks between Romandie and Turkey ending and the Giro commencing.

lol,

Don't know if expectations can get lower. Upside only left.

 

[RichieTheBest]

The line up saddens in a way. i'd point the gc riders squad is the weakest since 2004. we have a top fav nairo, veteran purito, oldies evans and basso and uran (no one knows what to expect from)