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Teams & Riders Hot Foss - The Tobias Foss Thread

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I think DSM is completely shitting the bed with their youngsters. Leknessund was 13th in the WCC ITT last year. He has actually regressed since signing for DSM. I'm sure Foss made some progression, but now Leknessund is over a minute down on Waerenskjold as well.

By the way, Foss really isn't "a big boy". He has very lean legs and i think it's just his face giving the impression he's "fat".
That's not a fair or sensible take in my opinion. I think it's pretty easy to say that Leknessund, while riding for Uno-X and as an U23 rider, had made all of the nationals ITT as well as the Euro ITT and the Worlds ITT big goals for himself, to which Uno-X and him worked very intensely for months. You can see that if you watch their Youtube series from last year.
Whereas this year, riding in the WT, for DSM, he very likely has a completely different build-up and not so intense a TT focus as last year. Furthermore he is just coming out of a demanding TdS, where he was leading the young rider classification until the last day when he decided to take risks and ride offensively.
Foss is coming out of the Giro where he had amazing TTs and has the super compensation in his legs, while Waerenskjold made this one of his goals, where again, Uno-X worked for with him for some time. And he is strong as an Ox that guy.

And with Leknessund it was always the plan for him to ride a diverse calendar this year and not go down the GC rode full throttle. So him not climbing super strong is to be expected while they/he are still figuring him out as a rider.

I think there can be a fair bit of criticism for DSM for their approach and how they handle riders etc. but just because not every talent is performing in some competitions as we like them to or expect them to, doesn't mean they handle them wrong. Or at least we just can't know that. There is a lot of variables and circumstances unknown to us.

I think you are also referring to Van Wilder with your dissapointment, but I can't really see that either. He is doing amazing TT's and is a yet inconsistent climber at the top level who was also hampered by a crash big time in Dauphine. Nothing unsual there as far as I can see it with his perfromances. Also he had the chance to be GC leader in about every race he rode this year, which is pretty great and include three of the biggest One week stage races of the year.
 
As I said in the Leknessund thread, I have the impression Leknessund haven’t prioritized TT training since his transfer to DSM, so regression in ITT should more or less be expected.
And Wærenskjold is a great TT prospect, he did beat Leknessund head to head in June last year when they raced for the national record over 30 kilometers during the competition break (I think it was in June, so quite close to Leknessunds impressive WC result)
He beat Waerenskjold last year in the NC with over a minute. It's possible he hasn't prioritized TT's this year, but that would be the exact opposite of what he stated he wanted to do late last year, when he said he didn't want to go for GC's or climbing, but focus on TT. His climbing also hasn't exactly improved since the U23 where he was probably the hottest prospect of the entire peloton. Last week was the first time i saw him climb on an acceptable level.

That's not a fair or sensible take in my opinion. I think it's pretty easy to say that Leknessund, while riding for Uno-X and as an U23 rider, had made all of the nationals ITT as well as the Euro ITT and the Worlds ITT big goals for himself, to which Uno-X and him worked very intensely for months. You can see that if you watch their Youtube series from last year.
Whereas this year, riding in the WT, for DSM, he very likely has a completely different build-up and not so intense a TT focus as last year. Furthermore he is just coming out of a demanding TdS, where he was leading the young rider classification until the last day when he decided to take risks and ride offensively.
Foss is coming out of the Giro where he had amazing TTs and has the super compensation in his legs, while Waerenskjold made this one of his goals, where again, Uno-X worked for with him for some time. And he is strong as an Ox that guy.

And with Leknessund it was always the plan for him to ride a diverse calendar this year and not go down the GC rode full throttle. So him not climbing super strong is to be expected while they/he are still figuring him out as a rider.

I think there can be a fair bit of criticism for DSM for their approach and how they handle riders etc. but just because not every talent is performing in some competitions as we like them to or expect them to, doesn't mean they handle them wrong. Or at least we just can't know that. There is a lot of variables and circumstances unknown to us.

I think you are also referring to Van Wilder with your dissapointment, but I can't really see that either. He is doing amazing TT's and is a yet inconsistent climber at the top level who was also hampered by a crash big time in Dauphine. Nothing unsual there as far as I can see it with his perfromances. Also he had the chance to be GC leader in about every race he rode this year, which is pretty great and include three of the biggest One week stage races of the year.
I know he didn't want to go down the GC/climbing road, but he did want to keep TT'ing. And i'm not talking about one rider.
 
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He beat Waerenskjold last year in the NC with over a minute. It's possible he hasn't prioritized TT's this year, but that would be the exact opposite of what he stated he wanted to do late last year, when he said he didn't want to go for GC's or climbing, but focus on TT. His climbing also hasn't exactly improved since the U23 where he was probably the hottest prospect of the entire peloton. Last week was the first time i saw him climb on an acceptable level.

I know he didn't want to go down the GC/climbing road, but he did want to keep TT'ing.
Last year his main focus was TT’ing and they worked a lot with the Euro and WC ITT in mind.
This winter (news came in January) when he decided to skip the mountain/GC direction he said pretty clearly to the Norwegian media that the hilly classics would be his focus and that his program would be based on that focus. TTs were not mentioned, so I think you maybe have mixed up something.

I was disappointed he decided to go this way, but he knows probably better than me. He said back then that he is heavier than he look (and heavier than people believe) and as a young rider he don’t want to focus on losing weight. Instead he meant his power in the short hills and explosiveness is better than people think, which is why he believe this is the right direction.
 
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Last year his main focus was TT’ing and they worked a lot with the Euro and WC ITT in mind.
This winter (news came in January) when he decided to skip the mountain/GC direction he said pretty clearly to the Norwegian media that the hilly classics would be his focus and that his program would be based on that focus. TTs were not mentioned, so I think you maybe have mixed up something.

I was disappointed he decided to go this way, but he knows probably better than me. He said back then that he is heavier than he look (and heavier than people believe) and as a young rider he don’t want to focus on losing weight. Instead he meant his power in the short hills and explosiveness is better than people think, which is why he believe this is the right direction.
Considering this is off-topic in this thread, i saw the discussion is already on the way in the Leknessund thread (i actually forgot he had one).
 
Foss the Fox

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I think there can be a fair bit of criticism for DSM for their approach and how they handle riders etc. but just because not every talent is performing in some competitions as we like them to or expect them to, doesn't mean they handle them wrong. Or at least we just can't know that. There is a lot of variables and circumstances unknown to us.

Well I dont know that much, but from what I hear it sounds like DSM is doing most things wrong. They can't even fit a proper ITT bike for Leknessund.
 
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