Grand Tour Wild Cards - 2011 Thread

[Grzdylu]

No, Saur in Paris - Nice, Bretagne(!) at the Tour

No, Saur in Tour, Bretagne in P-Nicea.

From official site:

http://www.letour.fr/2011/TDF/COURSE/fr/actus.html#zone164958

cyclingnews is wrong.

 

[Moondance]

This is sad. Geox would've contributed a lot to the Tour. Bretagne-Schuller, meh... They have some good riders, especially a few good, promising, Frech talents, names like Hardy, le Bon, Calzati, and a few others.

But to take those talents over Menchov, Sastre, and Blanco... Poor choice.

EDIT: So its Saur and not Bretagne-Schuller in the Tour. Well, Saur is a little better. They raced very well whenever I saw them last year. Nevertheless, I still would've chosen Geox myself.

 

[Frosty]

Hm, according to this article around xmas time the tour going through Brittany is one one of the main things in Bretagne's favour

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bretagne-schuller-a-candidate-for-the-tour-de-france

Maybe also a case of picking a team to be the neutral's favourite, a bit like Skil-Shimano the other year?

 

[Sum_of_Marc]

What a fail by Cyclingnews.

They read: Saur in Tour, Bretagne in Paris-Nice

They report: Bretagne in Tour, Saur in Paris-Nice

 

[CraZyCaLL]

...Bretagne(!) at the Tour

WTF?

 

[nobilis]

What a fail by Cyclingnews.

They read: Saur in Tour, Bretagne in Paris-Nice

They report: Bretagne in Tour, Saur in Paris-Nice

Ok, i'm a bit releived for Saur, but still disappointed for Geox, nevertheless, they deserve a place over Cofidis.

 

[riobonito92]

An insult to Menchov - He may not have won the TdF but he is one of the great GT riders.

 

[janraaskalt]

All 4 correct in the poll

 

[jens_attacks]

WTF?

OMFG!!!!!unfuccinbelievable.
even cofidis in.
i really,really hope that armstrong will buy aso next year.

 

[ttrider]

Total disgrace sorry
Geox has a very good stage race team, Giro and Vuelta will both have superb Geox team now:
Menchov
Sastre
Duarte
Blanco
Cobo
Florencio

With names like that it is certainly the tours loss

 

[Moondance]

If the UCI weren't so keen on ostracising the French teams, they mightn't be backed into this position. The Giro is more Italian, and the Vuelta more Spanish, than the Tour is French, because of the international circus that comes with the Tour. The ASO will be keen to keep some of that French identity. And in order to keep it just as nominally French as it has been for the last few years means spending at least 3 of the 4 wildcards on French teams.

The UCI hasn't ostracized... That's bull. There were better teams out there for the Pro/World team licenses than the likes of Cofidis, Europcar or FDJ the last two years. Should the UCI discriminate against non-French teams and allow a weaker team in ahead of them?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Just seriously. Are they ****ing kidding us?

Which organisator with any kind of brain cell would leave out an ex-winner and defending nr 3, to invite some funny french continental team who normally don't even get invited in continental HC races because they suck so much.

Seriously, the TDF organisers are the most chauvinistic *** idiots I've ever seen on this planet.
Can anybody please export them to Canada or something? Put them all in Quebec where they won't bother us cycling fans with idiotic decisions

 

[Moondance]

I will agree with those who try to see the silver lining here, and say that the Giro just got even juicier now that Menchov is going to be gunning for it as his main season's goal.

 

[royalpig180]

Hmmm could be that ASo is trying to prove a point to Patty and the UCI... Don't let us choose the majority of the teams for our race, we'll just screw over all the non-French procontinental teams. Seems to me that if they could have, they may have left out the likes of Vacansoleil or maybe Lampre (just a thought) in order to invite Geox.

 

[issoisso]

Menchov at the Giro + course that forces him to attack = awesomeness.

 

[jaylew]

Saur, not Bretagne at the Tour, people.

 

[DAOTEC]

I will agree with those who try to see the silver lining here, and say that the Giro just got even juicier now that Menchov is going to be gunning for it as his main season's goal.

 

[Frosty]

L'equipe reporting it is Saur to the tour.

http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme/breves2011/20110120_153015_avec-cofidis-europcar-et-la-fdj.html

 

[will10]

apols, i made the error in thinking that CN was right :lol:

 

[taiwan]

It sucks for Denis Menchov, though. He's not a day racer, so there's only one thing left for him to do in his career.

 

[DAOTEC]

cause it is

L'equipe reporting it is Saur to the tour.

http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme/breves2011/20110120_153015_avec-cofidis-europcar-et-la-fdj.html

I: [http://www.letour.fr/2011/TDF/Saur-Sojasun-tour-2011]

II: http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=11284&page=5

 

[Dewulf]

Going back to the point about PT licenses meaning that you have to send three teams to 3 GTs. Very few teams have the strength to send strong teams to three GTs - the only teams I can think of are Garmin, HTC and maybe Movistar.

There are quite a few teams BMC, Saxo, RS who probably only have the strength to send a strong team to one GT.

It is ridiculous that we have a situation where we have teams that don't really want to be invited to the Giro and Vuelta have to send teams, and the situation is made even worse because 'local' teams for whom it is the biggest race of the year get excluded.

+1....and I'll add (probably to no one's surprise) that the whole team classification and application system is fvcked...eg. "Oh, you're a this-level team, you have to do this, but you can't attend that", or "ok, we like you guys so you get a 3 year license, but you others only get a 2 year shot"...wtf. If only we could elect governments on that basis.

So I think Pro Tour and Pro Conti teams should all be in the same group, get the same length license, and attendance to races should be based on performance/ranking, with teams being required to race a certain no. of races a year (to ensure all races are filled, but allowing them to non-attend the Giro or Vuelta if they can't send a decent team).

Teams would nominate their preferred races at the start of the year, with second choices in case they didn't get their first pick. The 'biggest and best' teams would be likely get to race the TdF, and the others have to try and improve their standing by doing well in the Giro, Vuelta, and so on. Wild cards would be reduced to 2, allowing former pro conti teams that up their rating to get in based on performance, whilst still saving 2 spots for the local teams.

And surely that's enough? If your country isn't supporting cycling through the grass roots and up into professional teams, and consequently getting good results, do you really deserve to auto-send teams like Saur? Either that, or make the 4 wild cards obtainable through a pre-race qualification event that lower ranked teams compete against each other in. The guy who got 3rd last year and his well-funded team should be going fer crissakes.

 

[Jancouver]

What a BS.

This is the reason the French are so hated around the world. Screw this sh*t

2011 Tour de France teams
Omega Pharma-Lotto (Bel)
Quickstep Cycling Team (Bel)
Saxo Bank Sungard (Den)
Euskaltel-Euskadi (Spa)
Movistar Team (Spa)
Ag2R La Mondiale (Fra)
Sky Procycling (GBr)
Lampre - ISD (Ita)
Liquigas-Cannondale (Ita)
Pro Team Astana (Kaz)
Team Leopard - Trek (Lux)
Rabobank Cycling Team (NEd)
Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team (Ned)
Katusha Team (Rus)
BMC Racing Team (USA)
HTC-Highroad (USA)
Team Garmin-Cervelo (USA)
Team Radioshack (USA)
Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne (Fra)*
Saur - Sojasun (Fra)*
FDJ (Fra)*
Team Europcar (Fra)*

* indicates wild card selection.

 

[DAOTEC]

In pole position to replace as reserve:

1st. Androni Giocattoli-Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Bianchi (ITA)
2nd. Bretagne-Schuller (FRA)

 

[tofino]

Its called the tour de FRANCE for a reason

Folks,

I'm happy for all the four French teams. Remember its call the Tour de FRANCE. Just becuase everyone wants to see what they think are the best teams in the race to bad. What about French cycling? Its the Tour de France.

The racing will be out of control, attack and attack from the French teams. Good stuff.

If GEOX did not get in to f'*&^ bad for them. They should have understood the UCI rules correctly and got a ProTour license. The management of Geox totally messed up from the get go. Don't blame the ASO because GEOX is not in the Tour.