is team sky the worst team tactically in cycling?

[Miburo]

Giro 2014, noticed aru was weak and attacked him a couple times. Noticing when others are weaker, confirmed by roche.

Fuente de 2012 duh.

Tour 2010 stage andy won, managed to bluff when he was weak.

Enough or want me to keep going? What does your boy got? Nothing

 

[TI-Raleigh]

Re:

What's your point walkman? What was so tactically amazing in that?

And i love it that many think froome has this. If he can't ride away from the 3 others of the big 4 he'll never win. I mean yea it's likely he will but if not he'll get destroyed.

If a rider doesn't ride away from the other riders, he won't win. Seems to me that is the goal of all the Big 4, not just Froome. You win by riding away from your opponents.

 

[Miburo]

Re: Re:

What's your point walkman? What was so tactically amazing in that?

And i love it that many think froome has this. If he can't ride away from the 3 others of the big 4 he'll never win. I mean yea it's likely he will but if not he'll get destroyed.

If a rider doesn't ride away from the other riders, he won't win. Seems to me that is the goal of all the Big 4, not just Froome. You win by riding away from your opponents.

Froome is ahead of them atm so he doesn't have to ride away, come on man this ain't rocket science. But he needs more time than this, which he definitely might get though.

 

[TI-Raleigh]

Re:

Giro 2014, noticed aru was weak and attacked him a couple times. Noticing when others are weaker, confirmed by roche.

Fuente de 2012 duh.

Tour 2010 stage andy won, managed to bluff when he was weak.

Enough or want me to keep going? What does your boy got? Nothing

Attacking weaker riders is the exact same strategy that Froome employs. Not sure how this point differentiates the two...

Also, it is important to note that Sky's strategy is to win. They have adopted a system that has been successful over the years and has been used by many teams (ex US Postal). When you have the strongest rider, it makes the most sense to create a race dynamic where that rider can use his superior strength. It is not Sky's job to alter their strategy to please those watching the race at home.

 

[Walkman]

Re:

Giro 2014, noticed aru was weak and attacked him a couple times. Noticing when others are weaker, confirmed by roche.

Is that being a tactical genius? Not impressed. "Noticed when Aru was weak?" You could say the same about Froome in 2013. He noticed when Contador was weak and attack. Wow, amazing tactics.

Fuente de 2012 duh.

I'd give him points for this one. Still does not change the fact that he was stronger then Purito in the end.

Tour 2010 stage andy won, managed to bluff when he was weak.

Which one? Morzine-Avoriaz I presume. But, how do you know Contador was weak? Because he lost 10 seconds? And how is this making him a tactical genius? It's more a case of Andy not testing the waters hard enough, but that's on him.

Enough or want me to keep going? What does your boy got? Nothing

Yes, please keep going because this is a really weak case you are building. In one GT, 2012, he did utilize tactics to win. And even then, he was the stronger rider.

And Froome is not "my boy". I am just here to try and and some objectivity to the fanboys crowd.

 

[the sceptic]

well, it doesn't take a genius to win when you have doms stronger than the other leaders and a course specifically designed for your team.

however sky have shown time and time again that they are clueless in real racing situations. And I highly doubt Froome is winning any more GT's unless he has the same alien watt advantage as in 13'

 

[Walkman]

Re:

well, it doesn't take a genius to win when you have doms stronger than the other leaders and a course specifically designed for your team.

Huh?

Porte was not as strong as Purito, Quintana nor Contador or Kreuzinger I'd say (2013). It's easy to climb fast if you take every other day off and relax as Porte did.

however sky have shown time and time again that they are clueless in real racing situations. And I highly doubt Froome is winning any more GT's unless he has the same alien watt advantage as in 13'

You think many GT-riders would win GT:s without having the best power output? Feel free to make a list where riders with less wattage has won. I am really interested to see it.

And could you give examples of all those occasions where SKY has acted "clueless". Should be easy to make a list here since it's apparently happening "time and time again".

 

[SlickMongoose]

There have been plenty of "real racing situations" in this last week. Sky have done very well.

Admittedly that hasn't been the case in the past.

 

[No_Balls]

Re:

Basically there are two Sky's:

The first one burst onto the scene in the home olympic year 2012 when they found themselves in a situation were zig-zaggers and trackriders had evolved into GT-winners and olympic medallists. During this period when Wiggins was the top dog they had to keep climbers or lone wolfs caged to keep control of procedures and not taking any risks. Therefore the strategy with making every dom a possible GT-prospect delivering a 450W-guarantee over the course of three weeks. This is whats needed to be done in order to avoid actual tactical situations and gain knighthood.

Secondly: the rise of Froome. Ever since the great discovery of the kenyan, and that he was willing to go the distance and develop beyond being a pure TT-rider and phantom climber, they figured in the tool box of Dawg was also a hill specialist and Paris Roubaix-strong man in the making. The perfect Tourminator who just had to stare on his stem for things to happen, and once again mask the tactical shortcomings. This has of course lessen the burden of superdoms. You simply have to had the rider to whom the law of physics no longer applies, who can pull back attacks on his own, go on breaks, soloing on cobbles, pull back breaks, sprinting with hill specialists while still have reserved wattages for crushing time trials and seated sprint attacks over cols with favourable tailwinds and 15% technology bonus.

I say yes they are tactically inept. But its not like they need tactics either.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re:

Giro 2014, noticed aru was weak and attacked him a couple times. Noticing when others are weaker, confirmed by roche.

Fuente de 2012 duh.

Tour 2010 stage andy won, managed to bluff when he was weak.

Enough or want me to keep going? What does your boy got? Nothing

Not sure that really is a tactical strength. Also, he should've noticed that Froome was weak when he lost the Dauphine to Talansky last year, then.

Contador is a proper bike rider, who rides by feel and takes risks. Froome is not. IMO, what Contador has, compared to Froome, is the rare ability to combine tactics/team strategies with brave long range attacking (like Funte De, you mentioned). He is capable of using his team in a variety of ways whereas Froome and Sky only have one way of riding.

 

[rick james]

Paris Roubaix-strong man in the making...I laughed

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Re:

does anyone bother to explain the nature of utterly absurd hate for sky on here? i presume had bertie or nibs ridden the stage this way some people could easily post smth like 'the guys chilling. training ride'

have you ever seen froome on a bike? hatred is putting it mildly

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re:

well, it doesn't take a genius to win when you have doms stronger than the other leaders and a course specifically designed for your team.

however sky have shown time and time again that they are clueless in real racing situations. And I highly doubt Froome is winning any more GT's unless he has the same alien watt advantage as in 13'

Just my opinion but I think he will be even stronger over the next 2 weeks than he was in 2013. However he will obviously need to be to keep Quintana at bay and possibly Contador if he has recovered fully from the Giro.

 

[IndianCyclist]

FDJ and Garmin appear to be even more

 

[cantpedal]

I would think Twinkoff saxo would be the worst. For all their work in stage 2 they drop time to Froome who sat in their rocking chair. AC tries to follow on the Huy knowing he's about blow. chasing a double with a rider arguably past his prime.

 

[rick james]

Re:

FDJ and Garmin appear to be even more

Yes but they ain't British so no one wants to talk about them

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

I would think Twinkoff saxo would be the worst. For all their work in stage 2 they drop time to Froome who sat in their rocking chair. AC tries to follow on the Huy knowing he's about blow. chasing a double with a rider arguably past his prime.

Funny guy

 

[cantpedal]

Re: Re:

I would think Twinkoff saxo would be the worst. For all their work in stage 2 they drop time to Froome who sat in their rocking chair. AC tries to follow on the Huy knowing he's about blow. chasing a double with a rider arguably past his prime.

Funny guy

funny yes but a little truth in it

 

[roundabout]

Too bad about their ineptitude, right?

 

[Pantani Attacks]

Team Froome is awesome. Team Sky are hilariously poor.

 

[dacooley]

bad perfomances are criticized, good perfomances are being criticized as well... what's next?

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re:

Team Froome is awesome. Team Sky are hilariously poor.

Sky did one of their best TTT performances in a while. Didn't expect them to be so strong and most predicted they would lose time today.

 

[Pantani Attacks]

Re: Re:

Team Froome is awesome. Team Sky are hilariously poor.

Froome did one of the best TTT performances in history. Didn't expect him to be so strong and most predicted he would lose time today.

FYP

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

Team Froome is awesome. Team Sky are hilariously poor.

Froome did one of the best TTT performances in history. Didn't expect him to be so strong and most predicted he would lose time today.

FYP

Incorrectly though, yes Froome was immense however most did ok and Froome barely led up the final climb, although that was probably because he didn't want to blow everyone up

 

[Ramira]

Re: Re:

Sky did one of their best TTT performances in a while. Didn't expect them to be so strong and most predicted they would lose time today.

Well Froome and Thomas have shown they're in great form all week. And Konig and Porte are pretty good time trialists. They did a bit better than I expected, considering they brought 3 climbers (Poels/Nieve/Kennaugh) and 2 others that aren't great in TT's (Rowe/Stannard) but the signs are pretty good.

Of course in the end it'll all be down to the climbing ability of Froome/Quintana/Contador, if one of them is stronger than the others (or with his good start none better than Froome) he'll probably win, regardless of the rest of his team. The only exception being if Contador (maybe with Nibali) goes crazy in descents, but at the very least rain is needed for that.