Giro 2017 Field Discussion/Speculation

[Escarabajo]

There has to be something else with Landa that we don't know. Maybe is his discipline or something like that. They will know better. Last year it turned out to be a fluke year. He is a great talent and should have been the rightful leader. Not to say that it was one of the main reasons for what he was hired for.

Hope he can shine again one day.

 

[Squire]

This is just an anglophone media thing. It was the same in 2006 with Hincapie. When push comes to shove, Landa will be Sky's man. Let's hope he can handle it.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

This is just an anglophone media thing. It was the same in 2006 with Hincapie. When push comes to shove, Landa will be Sky's man. Let's hope he can handle it.

It is, but I wouldn't be surprised if Sky went into the Giro supporting Thomas more than Landa...

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

This is just an anglophone media thing. It was the same in 2006 with Hincapie. When push comes to shove, Landa will be Sky's man. Let's hope he can handle it.

It is, but I wouldn't be surprised if Sky went into the Giro supporting Thomas more than Landa...

It could also be a good thing, it could take some of the pressure and attention away from Landa.

 

[Squire]

Re: Re:

This is just an anglophone media thing. It was the same in 2006 with Hincapie. When push comes to shove, Landa will be Sky's man. Let's hope he can handle it.

It is, but I wouldn't be surprised if Sky went into the Giro supporting Thomas more than Landa...

It doesn't really matter anyway, because Landa will not be called back to pull Thomas, or work on the front for any "train". Natural selection will decide.

 

[Jolene]

Re:

There has to be something else with Landa that we don't know. Maybe is his discipline or something like that. They will know better. Last year it turned out to be a fluke year. He is a great talent and should have been the rightful leader. Not to say that it was one of the main reasons for what he was hired for.

Hope he can shine again one day.

I don't think it's discipline, I think it's more to do with this Cytomegalovirus virus he has. He's stated a few times recently that the illness last winter was a relapse of it (though Sky kept insisting it was a cold ). And that's been the 'news' on him all winter, that he's having a normal, illness-free time if it so far. So I do wonder if this is playing on their minds.

 

[Jungle Cycle]

if he wants help from the team he'll have to attack hard on Etna(#4) and Blockhaus(#9), after the TT(#10) might be too late...

 

[HelloDolly]

This has nothing to do with Landa's fitness or ability to go well in the Giro

Thomas, like Froome and Wiggins is British and this is a British team....so a British rider will be first choice for leadership. Wiggins got leadership while going terrible incomparison to Uran

Thomas is a good rider and team mate but he is imo not a good enough climber to win a Giro ....he hasn't even done a top 10 in a GT... In Paris Nice last year Henao was a better climber than Thomas...he needed the whole team to dedicate themseleves to his victory...The trouble for Landa is if Thomas is ahead of him on GC before the big mountains thne he could be called into pulling Thomas

But Sky seem to have a pattern....Win the Tour, have a disaster at the Giro

 

[Red Rick]

It could very well be that the first GC stages of the Giro involve hanging on for dear life to Quintana. Pretty sure Landa would handle that a lot better than Thomas.

 

[staubsauger]

Re:

This has nothing to do with Landa's fitness or ability to go well in the Giro

Thomas, like Froome and Wiggins is British and this is a British team....so a British rider will be first choice for leadership. Wiggins got leadership while going terrible incomparison to Uran

Thomas is a good rider and team mate but he is imo not a good enough climber to win a Giro ....he hasn't even done a top 10 in a GT... In Paris Nice last year Henao was a better climber than Thomas...he needed the whole team to dedicate themseleves to his victory...The trouble for Landa is if Thomas is ahead of him on GC before the big mountains thne he could be called into pulling Thomas

But Sky seem to have a pattern....Win the Tour, have a disaster at the Giro

Landa is out of contract and could ironically enough just call up Martinelli and / or Unzue if / because Aru and Betancur might / gonna fail dramatically (again) this season. He ain't gonna follow any instructions to babysit Thomas imho! Just change his approach to long-range attacks maybe. There's still Boswell anyway. And probably one of Intxausti and Nieve.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

It could very well be that the first GC stages of the Giro involve hanging on for dear life to Quintana. Pretty sure Landa would handle that a lot better than Thomas.

Contador, Etna 2011, Landa being Rujano?

 

[sQiD]

The lineup for this Giro is just unbelievable : Nibali, Quintana, Aru, Pinot, Landa, Kruijswijk, Yates, Dumoulin, Zakarin, Mollema, Thomas and TVG. Can't wait !

 

[Valv.Piti]

Time trial rankings v. 3.0

1. Tom Dumoulin
2. Rohan Dennis (lets consider him a GC-contender until proven otherwise)
3. Jungels
4. Pinot
5. Mollema
6. G. Thomas
7. Amador
8. König
9. Nibali
10. Kruijswijk
11.Zakarin
12. Rui Costa
13.TJ
14. Quintana
15. Adam Yates
16. Aru
17. Simon Yates
18. Landa
19. Rolland

 

[Breh]

Landa lost like 7seconds to Nibali last year.

 

[rick james]

Re:

This is just an anglophone media thing. It was the same in 2006 with Hincapie. When push comes to shove, Landa will be Sky's man. Let's hope he can handle it.

what the hell does that even mean?

 

[pastronef]

Re: Re:

[quote="staubsauger
Landa is out of contract and could ironically enough just call up Martinelli and / or Unzue if / because Aru and Betancur might / gonna fail dramatically (again) this season. He ain't gonna follow any instructions to babysit Thomas imho! Just change his approach to long-range attacks maybe. There's still Boswell anyway. And probably one of Intxausti and Nieve.[/quote]

Thomas is out of contract too
Nieve is going to the Tour and Vuelta, no Giro

 

[Squire]

Re: Re:

This is just an anglophone media thing. It was the same in 2006 with Hincapie. When push comes to shove, Landa will be Sky's man. Let's hope he can handle it.

what the hell does that even mean?

It means that the media need "our guy". English-speaking media are particularly concerned about this. It sells, and Sky know it. "Follow our G in his quest for the Giro crown" is more appealing than "Can this Basque feller get it together this year?" or "Quintana vs Nibali". Think back to 2006: "See Armstrong's friend take up the mantle" instead of "Will Basso finally win the Tour and the double?". And since then the hype has been around Evans (to a lesser extent), Armstrong 2.0 (for both Giro and Tour), and of course Wiggins ever since 2009, until Froome took over. "Johnny Foreigner" is not the preferred selling point for British Eurosport, Cyclingnews, Sky, BBC etc.

 

[kingjr]

Re: Re:

This is just an anglophone media thing. It was the same in 2006 with Hincapie. When push comes to shove, Landa will be Sky's man. Let's hope he can handle it.

what the hell does that even mean?

It means that the media need "our guy". English-speaking media are particularly concerned about this. It sells, and Sky know it. "Follow our G in his quest for the Giro crown" is more appealing than "Can this Basque feller get it together this year?" or "Quintana vs Nibali". Think back to 2006: "See Armstrong's friend take up the mantle" instead of "Will Basso finally win the Tour and the double?". And since then the hype has been around Evans (to a lesser extent), Armstrong 2.0 (for both Giro and Tour), and of course Wiggins ever since 2009, until Froome took over. "Johnny Foreigner" is not the preferred selling point for British Eurosport, Cyclingnews, Sky, BBC etc.

In what place in the world where cycling is not as culturally relevant as it is in Belgium, Italy or France is that any different?

 

[Netserk]

I don't think it's nearly the same here in Denmark. There was ofc focus on Fuglsang in the Giro last year, especially during the first MTF where he attacked, but he (or any other Dane) wasn't the main focus before the race nor during the majority of it.

 

[yaco]

TJ rates too low in the TT - In form he's in the top 5.

 

[Squire]

Re: Re:

This is just an anglophone media thing. It was the same in 2006 with Hincapie. When push comes to shove, Landa will be Sky's man. Let's hope he can handle it.

what the hell does that even mean?

It means that the media need "our guy". English-speaking media are particularly concerned about this. It sells, and Sky know it. "Follow our G in his quest for the Giro crown" is more appealing than "Can this Basque feller get it together this year?" or "Quintana vs Nibali". Think back to 2006: "See Armstrong's friend take up the mantle" instead of "Will Basso finally win the Tour and the double?". And since then the hype has been around Evans (to a lesser extent), Armstrong 2.0 (for both Giro and Tour), and of course Wiggins ever since 2009, until Froome took over. "Johnny Foreigner" is not the preferred selling point for British Eurosport, Cyclingnews, Sky, BBC etc.

In what place in the world where cycling is not as culturally relevant as it is in Belgium, Italy or France is that any different?

Having had first-hand experience of sports media in a number of places, including the UK, my impression is that making home sportsmen the main selling point for international events is more prevalent in Britain. Of course there is a lot of interest in local athletes in all countries, but British media is where I most consistently see home athletes portrayed as legitimate winner candidates, even in cases where that's totally unrealistic, like the one discussed here.

But that is not even my point. Regardless of how other countries' media behave, the whole "Thomas can win the Giro" hype is very much an anglophone media thing. If this was, let's say, a Polish website, Thomas would hardly be discussed in this thread, because most posters would be unaware that he was even being mentioned by some as a potential winner.

And I agree that Valv.Piti rates TJ's time trial way too low!

 

[Jolene]

Re: Re:

[quote="staubsauger
Landa is out of contract and could ironically enough just call up Martinelli and / or Unzue if / because Aru and Betancur might / gonna fail dramatically (again) this season. He ain't gonna follow any instructions to babysit Thomas imho! Just change his approach to long-range attacks maybe. There's still Boswell anyway. And probably one of Intxausti and Nieve.

Thomas is out of contract too
Nieve is going to the Tour and Vuelta, no Giro[/quote]

Nieve's been training with Landa at altitude, along with Rosa.

 

[rick james]

Re: Re:

This is just an anglophone media thing. It was the same in 2006 with Hincapie. When push comes to shove, Landa will be Sky's man. Let's hope he can handle it.

what the hell does that even mean?

It means that the media need "our guy". English-speaking media are particularly concerned about this. It sells, and Sky know it. "Follow our G in his quest for the Giro crown" is more appealing than "Can this Basque feller get it together this year?" or "Quintana vs Nibali". Think back to 2006: "See Armstrong's friend take up the mantle" instead of "Will Basso finally win the Tour and the double?". And since then the hype has been around Evans (to a lesser extent), Armstrong 2.0 (for both Giro and Tour), and of course Wiggins ever since 2009, until Froome took over. "Johnny Foreigner" is not the preferred selling point for British Eurosport, Cyclingnews, Sky, BBC etc.

so in other words a lot of crap...Ok then.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

[quote="staubsauger
Landa is out of contract and could ironically enough just call up Martinelli and / or Unzue if / because Aru and Betancur might / gonna fail dramatically (again) this season. He ain't gonna follow any instructions to babysit Thomas imho! Just change his approach to long-range attacks maybe. There's still Boswell anyway. And probably one of Intxausti and Nieve.

Thomas is out of contract too
Nieve is going to the Tour and Vuelta, no Giro

Nieve's been training with Landa at altitude, along with Rosa.[/quote]

Thomas has an option for 2018 - Had a couple of good offers that he declined for 2017.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

I don't think it's nearly the same here in Denmark. There was ofc focus on Fuglsang in the Giro last year, especially during the first MTF where he attacked, but he (or any other Dane) wasn't the main focus before the race nor during the majority of it.

I definitely think Fuglsang got way too hyped. There was even talk about him winning and being the captain at Astana. Meanwhile, people forget that the same happened on PSM the year before - then he had an offday the day after to Cauterets and then theres that. Different glasses I guess, but I was annoyed at the focus and hype surrounding Fuglsang in the wake of Trentino and during at least the first week, culminating with his impressive MTF. That wasn't realistic at all to me. Especially since the arguments were he had gotten more explosive - say hi Giau, Agnello and Lombarde. Not of much use there, is it.