Joseph Dombrowski

[JackRabbitSlims]

I thought T. Phinney was the next great USA Cycling Hope........or maybe Talansky??

Joe gets some "Cool Points" for having his own beer http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/01/news/dombro-beer_393283

 

[jmdirt]

Re:

I thought T. Phinney was the next great USA Cycling Hope........or maybe Talansky??

Joe gets some "Cool Points" for having his own beer http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/01/news/dombro-beer_393283

TP was the next great classics guy from the USA until his leg got blasted. There is a handful of guys trying to become the next great USA GC guy (Dombrowski, Talanski, Craddock, Stetina, Powless, a few guys from Holo-Citidel...). I hope that he, they, can battle for victory at a top one week race, and then a GT in the next few years.

 

[perico]

Re: Re:

He rode the 4th fastest time on the 2nd part of the Siusi; faster then Bala and Zakarin.

Impressive stuff.

One of these days he needs to figure out how to move about in the peloton.

Seems to be a trend within this team going back to the Garmin days

 

[Arredondo]

Re: Re:

He rode the 4th fastest time on the 2nd part of the Siusi; faster then Bala and Zakarin.

Impressive stuff.

that's after two consecutive breakaway. His recovery is very impressive. He also did very well in the queen stage (sticking to Valverde until he had mechanical problem in the descend)

If he goes well in the 3rd week, that will remind me of Aru in Giro 2013.
Sigh, he was a future star 4 years ago, but injury stopped him during his 2 years in Sky.

He was a class above Aru in that GiroBio. Of course riders tend to develope different during their careers, but Dombrowski has way too much talent to only win the Tour of Utah.

 

[staubsauger]

Aru came back from illness and was short of shape though, if I remember correctly? Anyway, it would be nice if Dombrowski could relaunch his career from here on! Or from his Utah win on.

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

He rode the 4th fastest time on the 2nd part of the Siusi; faster then Bala and Zakarin.

Impressive stuff.

that's after two consecutive breakaway. His recovery is very impressive. He also did very well in the queen stage (sticking to Valverde until he had mechanical problem in the descend)

If he goes well in the 3rd week, that will remind me of Aru in Giro 2013.
Sigh, he was a future star 4 years ago, but injury stopped him during his 2 years in Sky.

He was a class above Aru in that GiroBio. Of course riders tend to develope different during their careers, but Dombrowski has way too much talent to only win the Tour of Utah.

Yeah, but even back then when he obliterated everyone on the climbs he was a pure climber, he lost the leaders jersey on the Strade Bianche stage than was won by a young Ilnur Zakarin (who also took the leaders jersey).
He's a huge climbing talent, but I don't know if he'll ever become a gc contender, maybe he'll become a rider who goes for stage wins/epic mountain raids in the high mountains and fights for the mountains jersey. He could also become a great climbing superdomestique for a strong gc contender.

 

[jmdirt]

Joe had a solid ride at the end of a GT so I hope he can finish putting the pieces together for next year.

 

[jmdirt]

Solid ride from Joe today.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

Solid ride from Joe today.

Finally

Took a while to recover from the early season injury, but he's getting somewhere now

 

[hazaran]

Re: Re:

Solid ride from Joe today.

Finally

Took a while to recover from the early season injury, but he's getting somewhere now

Where is this particular somewhere? It sure seems like nowhere. It's been 4 years.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re: Re:

Solid ride from Joe today.

Finally

Took a while to recover from the early season injury, but he's getting somewhere now

Where is this particular somewhere? It sure seems like nowhere. It's been 4 years.

Are you talking about the leg injury years ago?
He had a serious crash early this year.

 

[Anderis]

Good ride by Joe today. Maybe his season hasn't been spectacular so far but I think he has been more consistent than ever this spring. Good for him that he performs because that's a contract year for him.

 

[perico]

This guy is a head scratcher. He can climb with Simon Yates one day. Crash another and completely disappear for a year. We all know he is a talented climber, but doesn't seem to want to take the next step.

He has looked very good so far this year and could still end up in 9th or 10th overall with the right break.

 

[Bolder]

Re:

This guy is a head scratcher. He can climb with Simon Yates one day. Crash another and completely disappear for a year. We all know he is a talented climber, but doesn't seem to want to take the next step.

He has looked very good so far this year and could still end up in 9th or 10th overall with the right break.

It's a head-scratcher in general. It seems to be a pattern with post-LA American riders. Look at TJ, Talansky etc. We've seen them climb with the best only to fade. The problem could be structural -- lack of truly hard races in the US/limited spots for the few world-class stage races mean that there's no clear pipeline. Also, the size of the US makes it hard to race week in/week out, unlike in Europe. Unlikely that he doesn't "want" to take the next step -- he may have reached his potential as a mountain stage hunter...

The one constant seems to be the US riders are pretty good at TTs.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I see Dombrowski as a guy who could be a perfect climbing superdomestique.
Many American prospects seem to peak really early. My impression is that Axel Merckx could be part of the problem. He signs most of the best junior racing prospects and tries to squeeze everything oit of them, many of them perform really well in the us stage races at a young age. After they turn pro most of them seem to burn out pretty fast.
With the Tour of Utah you have at least one hard stage race with consecutive mountain stages.

 

[jmdirt]

Nice ride today Joe!

 

[Anderis]

TBH, as I realised he had managed to get into the break today, I hoped for a bit more from him on Mortirolo (based on his form in a couple of previous stages), but to be fair, he has never finished in an European pro race inside top20 of GC so it's safe to assume he is probably having the best form of his life and can be happy with this race so far.

 

[Leinster]

Re: Re:

This guy is a head scratcher. He can climb with Simon Yates one day. Crash another and completely disappear for a year. We all know he is a talented climber, but doesn't seem to want to take the next step.

He has looked very good so far this year and could still end up in 9th or 10th overall with the right break.

It's a head-scratcher in general. It seems to be a pattern with post-LA American riders. Look at TJ, Talansky etc. We've seen them climb with the best only to fade. The problem could be structural -- lack of truly hard races in the US/limited spots for the few world-class stage races mean that there's no clear pipeline. Also, the size of the US makes it hard to race week in/week out, unlike in Europe. Unlikely that he doesn't "want" to take the next step -- he may have reached his potential as a mountain stage hunter...

The one constant seems to be the US riders are pretty good at TTs.

Tejay has lived and raced in Europe since he was 19. A background of hard or easy races isn’t his problem. There just isn’t a Lemond/Armstrong-level talent coming out of American cycling right now, and that’s ok.

You’d settle for a Hincapie/Farrar type, who could win stages and compete in some classics, though. It’s great to see Rusty Woods at the pointy end of Liege and Worlds, no reason an American can’t ride as well as a Canadian.

 

[jmdirt]

Good race today Joe!

I just don't feel like he has lived up to his potential...maybe I'm wrong and he has. But I hope there is more to come!

 

[Anderis]

He is 28 already so it's hard to expect a breakthrough.

This season at least seems to be by far the most consistent in his pro career so far.

 

[staubsauger]

It doesn't necessarily need a breakthrough. Winning the mountains classification at the Giro d'Italia as an confirmation of his abilities would be fine enough!

On his day he still has the potential to be a superb climber! He's more of a diesel engine, can't TT and is too fluctuating to really ride for GC.

Actually he's tailor-made for stage hunting & KOM if only he could get his act together, once in May!

 

[Anderis]

Actually he's tailor-made for stage hunting & KOM

He's not IMO.

Breakaways are rarely calm and organised. He's a poor descender and poor on flat. His breakaway rivals will always try to take advantage on that and if not drop him, then at least tire him out before the decisive climb. He's a diesel who can't sprint so he is unlikely to win any contested sprints for KOM points. He has no acceleration so he will struggle to drop any decent climber uphill unless the climb is very hard and he is a class above the rest.
There's a reason he hasn't won anything in his pro career outside of Utah. His most impressive climbing performances have pretty much always come where he could hide the whole stage in the peloton instead of fighting it out the whole day from a breakaway. In breakaways he is usually outclimbed by inferior climbers, probably for reasons I've mentioned above. A good example is this year's Giro Mortirolo stage. It was a golden opportunity for him to win something big but he was dropped like a stone by riders like Hirt, Ciccone and even Masnada. Riders who were not necessarily stronger than him uphill across the race.

 

[proffate]

How did you come to the conclusion that Ciccone and Masnada are inferior climbers?

 

[Anderis]

I'm not going to defend or concede that point actually because that's not what my post was about.

The point is that to become a profficient stage hunter, Dombrowski should be able to outclimb guys like them on a climb like Mortirolo from a breakway (because he is unable to win a stage in any other way) but he failed despite being in good form. Not only did he not outclimb them but he wasn't even able to stay close to them, whereas he was able to outclimb guys of similar class on stages where he stayed in peloton, thus it suggests he doesn't have the skills that make a good breakaway rider as the pattern has been repeating itself since the beginning of Dombrowski's pro career.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I'm not going to defend or concede that point actually because that's not what my post was about.

The point is that to become a profficient stage hunter, Dombrowski should be able to outclimb guys like them on a climb like Mortirolo from a breakway (because he is unable to win a stage in any other way) but he failed despite being in good form. Not only did he not outclimb them but he wasn't even able to stay close to them, whereas he was able to outclimb guys of similar class on stages where he stayed in peloton.

Tbf, Ciccone and Hirt climbed the Mortirolo only 6 seconds slower than Roglic and Mollema, while being in the breakaway for the whole day and sprinting for kom points on every single climb, so staying with them was not exactly easy.
I agree with you went it comes to his best climbing performances, he seems to lack the engine/endurance on the flat, so he's cooked when the final climb starts and he had to work on the flat in the breakaway.