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- Nov 12, 2010
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Martin does not have a choice. He will attack where he can. In the third week he is usually weak and the TT is his biggest weakness. He will not care about Sky or anybody else except to improve his positionZinoviev Letter said:
- Jun 7, 2011
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- Aug 18, 2010
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Chris Froome won his first GT as a mere child of 28 and at that point had already achieved two GT podiums. Geraint Thomas is 32, has no GT podiums, no GT top 5s, no GT top 10s. His best ever GT result, in no less than twelve starts, has been fifteenth. If Thomas wins this Tour (I don’t think he will), he will be the biggest GT nobody to win a Tour de France since WW2 and in a class of two modern GT winners with Mauri.
You can make a reasonable argument that Thomas was at least always obviously talented as a cyclist. You cannot make a reasonable argument that Thomas showed any signs of being a GT winner. Doing so is simply partisan dishonesty. Cheer for a rider you admire if you like. Lie to yourself if you like. But don’t lie to the rest of us.
Geraint Too Fast said:
Chris Froome won his first GT as a mere child of 28 and at that point had already achieved two GT podiums. Geraint Thomas is 32, has no GT podiums, no GT top 5s, no GT top 10s. His best ever GT result, in no less than twelve starts, has been fifteenth. If Thomas wins this Tour (I don’t think he will), he will be the biggest GT nobody to win a Tour de France since WW2 and in a class of two modern GT winners with Mauri.
You can make a reasonable argument that Thomas was at least always obviously talented as a cyclist. You cannot make a reasonable argument that Thomas showed any signs of being a GT winner. Doing so is simply partisan dishonesty. Cheer for a rider you admire if you like. Lie to yourself if you like. But don’t lie to the rest of us.
Re:
Based on the flags from some of the spectators I would say that there was a headwind for the first half. Froome and GT where in the skytrain at that part. And GT was sucking Toms wheel. Might explain some of that gap. But I have no illusions, the sky team where the better climbers today.
Dekker_Tifosi said:
Based on the flags from some of the spectators I would say that there was a headwind for the first half. Froome and GT where in the skytrain at that part. And GT was sucking Toms wheel. Might explain some of that gap. But I have no illusions, the sky team where the better climbers today.
Re: Re:
If anyone ever does say that Thomas has always been obviously talented, you turn up and say how obviously hopeless he is at everything.Zinoviev Letter said:
- Jun 27, 2013
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Ehmmmm like in 2015 he was 4th till 18th stage while being a domestique and gave up his GC to give Froome his bike.
Is that not potential to be a GT winner nowdays ??? :lol:
Zinoviev Letter said:
Ehmmmm like in 2015 he was 4th till 18th stage while being a domestique and gave up his GC to give Froome his bike.
Is that not potential to be a GT winner nowdays ??? :lol:
- Apr 15, 2016
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Track #2 is also suitable for him.
Haha, that song was what came to my mind after seeing Mayo's post.GuyIncognito said:
Track #2 is also suitable for him.
- Aug 18, 2010
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What a stupid statement. If anyone argues that Thomas showed potential as a cobbled classics contender, I’ll agree with them. If they say he was very good on the track, I’ll agree although with the proviso that the competition pool in track has the depth of a paddling pool. I’ve stood by the side of the road in Belgium cheering for him to win the Ronde. I’m not biased against him as a rider. I’m just capable of looking at his GT record.
rlntlssly said:
What a stupid statement. If anyone argues that Thomas showed potential as a cobbled classics contender, I’ll agree with them. If they say he was very good on the track, I’ll agree although with the proviso that the competition pool in track has the depth of a paddling pool. I’ve stood by the side of the road in Belgium cheering for him to win the Ronde. I’m not biased against him as a rider. I’m just capable of looking at his GT record.
- Aug 18, 2010
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No, finishing 15th (that’s fifteenth) in your strongest GT in finish in 12 (yes twelve) GTs by the time you are 32 (thirty bloody two) is not “potential to be a GT winner nowadays” or ever. Nobody in the modern history of the sport has ever won the Tour with such a record and only one guy has ever won a GT with such a record, a Vuelta with an infinitely weaker field). Nobody. Ever.
MuskyOurSaviour said:
No, finishing 15th (that’s fifteenth) in your strongest GT in finish in 12 (yes twelve) GTs by the time you are 32 (thirty bloody two) is not “potential to be a GT winner nowadays” or ever. Nobody in the modern history of the sport has ever won the Tour with such a record and only one guy has ever won a GT with such a record, a Vuelta with an infinitely weaker field). Nobody. Ever.
Re: Re:
Yes so if you completely disregard what happened in races and what potential he has shown then yes he is nothing.
What useless comparison than you're making.
Zinoviev Letter said:
Yes so if you completely disregard what happened in races and what potential he has shown then yes he is nothing.
What useless comparison than you're making.
- Feb 18, 2015
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Oh boy, this again. The guy who closed his eyes for the whole 2015 tour the France just to open them to look at the final gc. Yeah, Thomas never showed any potential at all. This must have been the first time he has ever climbed well, right?Zinoviev Letter said:
- Aug 12, 2012
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Thomas would have been a good leader for SKY in this race, but not to win, he is not as reliable as Froome for 3 weeks, he will have at least a bad day, and we will see how tomorrow he will finish in yellow, but with some time lost with several riders.
Zinoviev Letter said:
Thomas would have been a good leader for SKY in this race, but not to win, he is not as reliable as Froome for 3 weeks, he will have at least a bad day, and we will see how tomorrow he will finish in yellow, but with some time lost with several riders.
- Nov 16, 2013
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I agree. You can't read Thomas' true level by looking at his results the past few years. You just can't because he has had so much bad luck!
In the 2015 Tour without aiming for it, he was lying fourth 18 stages into the race until he cracked (which he expected himself, although he hoped he could wait with cracking until the Monday after Paris).
Last year, he would have won Tirreno-Adriatico if the team hadn't broken almost all their wheels in the TTT. In the mountains, he was second only to Quintana. In Catalunya, he was riding for Froome until they were annihilated from the GC.
Then he was the Sky captain (alongside Landa) in the Giro after having comfortably won the Tour of the Alps. We all know how that project was derailed by a parked motobike when he was lying second after eight stages that hadn't included a time trial of any sort. Then he was second in the ITT for good measure even though he was injured and soon after had to retire.
Then came the Tour were he won the ITT, was in yellow, crashed a million times until he had to forfeit while lying second.
This year, a chain accident prevented him from winning Tirreno and Algarve was lost because Kwiatkowski was a little tactically innovative. Then he won Critérium du Dauphiné when he finally did not have any bad luck.
That he could be a contender for the Tour GC is something I have seen for a very long time, and so have Sky. But they are apparently not as smart as Zinoviev.
The final thing Thomas needs to prove is of course that he can maintain his level for three weeks but given that he was so close three years ago while unprepared and Sky's general knowhow on the principle, I'll assume he'll be able to pass that hurdle too.
MuskyOurSaviour said:
I agree. You can't read Thomas' true level by looking at his results the past few years. You just can't because he has had so much bad luck!
In the 2015 Tour without aiming for it, he was lying fourth 18 stages into the race until he cracked (which he expected himself, although he hoped he could wait with cracking until the Monday after Paris).
Last year, he would have won Tirreno-Adriatico if the team hadn't broken almost all their wheels in the TTT. In the mountains, he was second only to Quintana. In Catalunya, he was riding for Froome until they were annihilated from the GC.
Then he was the Sky captain (alongside Landa) in the Giro after having comfortably won the Tour of the Alps. We all know how that project was derailed by a parked motobike when he was lying second after eight stages that hadn't included a time trial of any sort. Then he was second in the ITT for good measure even though he was injured and soon after had to retire.
Then came the Tour were he won the ITT, was in yellow, crashed a million times until he had to forfeit while lying second.
This year, a chain accident prevented him from winning Tirreno and Algarve was lost because Kwiatkowski was a little tactically innovative. Then he won Critérium du Dauphiné when he finally did not have any bad luck.
That he could be a contender for the Tour GC is something I have seen for a very long time, and so have Sky. But they are apparently not as smart as Zinoviev.
The final thing Thomas needs to prove is of course that he can maintain his level for three weeks but given that he was so close three years ago while unprepared and Sky's general knowhow on the principle, I'll assume he'll be able to pass that hurdle too.
- Feb 29, 2012
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Yeah, he finished top 10 from the main group in one mountain stage that was contested in that entire tour but that obviously showed talent to sprint up mountains at a young age of 32.
Feel free to kid and lie to yourself but don't except to people believe this BS. What we have seen is more ridiculous than Mauri or Froome.
Gigs_98 said:Oh boy, this again. The guy who closed his eyes for the whole 2015 tour the France just to open them to look at the final gc. Yeah, Thomas never showed any potential at all. This must have been the first time he has ever climbed well, right?Zinoviev Letter said:
Yeah, he finished top 10 from the main group in one mountain stage that was contested in that entire tour but that obviously showed talent to sprint up mountains at a young age of 32.
Feel free to kid and lie to yourself but don't except to people believe this BS. What we have seen is more ridiculous than Mauri or Froome.
- Aug 18, 2010
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Yet marks insist on arguing as if Thomas is some kid whose talent can be divined from the entrails of one performance when he once looked pretty good for a while before finishing way outside the top 10. He’s 32, for Gods sake and this is his 13th GT. Nobody has ever done what you are suggesting we should now accept as normal, even predictable, in the whole inglorious history of the sport. Lie to yourself if you must, but the rest of us are capable of reading the record books.
I’m not disregarding what happened in races. I’m paying attention to the most important thing about races, their results. And I’m paying attention to those results in the way which tells us most about the capacities of the riders in question, their slow accumulation over time. Nobody in the history of the sport has such bad GT GC results for so long before winning the Tour or any GT. Not one rider, on any team, with any excuse, in any era since the war.MuskyOurSaviour said:
Yet marks insist on arguing as if Thomas is some kid whose talent can be divined from the entrails of one performance when he once looked pretty good for a while before finishing way outside the top 10. He’s 32, for Gods sake and this is his 13th GT. Nobody has ever done what you are suggesting we should now accept as normal, even predictable, in the whole inglorious history of the sport. Lie to yourself if you must, but the rest of us are capable of reading the record books.
- Apr 16, 2009
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Re:
What Bardet and him did was the same thing. Really. Two mountain goats being exposed by the Sky riders and playing with each other like idiots. You blame one, you need to blame the other.Alexandre B. said:
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