le Tour team thread

[Cimber]

yes exactly! I think that team has a chance of winning the TTT. riis might want to change his squad after seeing this

Nah Riis knows that he is sacrificing the TTT (he said so in a danish magasine), but since the TTT is so short the time loss wont be significant.

Besides the TTT I do hope that Leopard with that team will make some gutsu moves before the last climb. Would be awesome.

 

[just some guy]

yes exactly! I think that team has a chance of winning the TTT. riis might want to change his squad after seeing this

Bet they don´t. HTC and Radioshack and I would even put money on Garmin finishing higher than Lepoard

 

[theyoungest]

Leopard is official too:

LEOPARD-TREK
CANCELLARA Fabian Switzerland
FUGLSANG Jakob Denmark
GERDEMANN Linus Germany
MONFORT Maxime Belgium
O'GRADY Stuart Australia
POSTHUMA Joost Netherlands
SCHLECK Andy Luxembourg
SCHLECK Frank Luxembourg
VOIGT Jens Germany

great team!

Strong team, although the Schlecks no longer have their (in my book) strongest mountain domestique C.A. Sorensen. Maybe Monfort can fill his shoes, he's probably my favourite rider on that team.

 

[Ferminal]

Strong team, although the Schlecks no longer have their (in my book) strongest mountain domestique C.A. Sorensen. Maybe Monfort can fill his shoes, he's probably my favourite rider on that team.

What is different to last year?

Gerdemann, Monfort and Posthuma in for CAS, Nicki S and ...? Can't think of the last one! Plus Frank was gone after four days.

A stronger team overall, but yeh, agreed with you about CAS. Fuglsang and the rest will have to improve if they want to put other leaders under pressure. Their "tidy" pace at the TdS was hardly devastating.

 

[roundabout]

Sorensen wasn't particularly great last year.

 

[JRanton]

What is different to last year?

Gerdemann, Monfort and Posthuma in for CAS, Nicki S and ...? Can't think of the last one! Plus Frank was gone after four days.

A stronger team overall, but yeh, agreed with you about CAS. Fuglsang and the rest will have to improve if they want to put other leaders under pressure. Their "tidy" pace at the TdS was hardly devastating.

Breschel was the other one. They have an extra man for the mountains this year which should make up for the loss of CAS.

 

[just some guy]

Sorensen wasn't particularly great last year.

Fuglsang was very disappointing as well if my memory serves

 

[theyoungest]

Sorensen wasn't particularly great last year.

No, but still better than the rest. Which probably meant he had to do a lot of work.

I was very unimpressed by Saxo's team in the mountains last year, and adding someone like Gerdemann doesn't really help in that regard, IMO.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Fuglsang was very disappointing as well if my memory serves

He's very overrated.

 

[roundabout]

Fuglsang was very disappointing as well if my memory serves

True. Apart from last 2 mountain stages I don't remember him really featuring.

No, but still better than the rest. Which probably meant he had to do a lot of work.

I was very unimpressed by Saxo's team in the mountains last year, and adding someone like Gerdemann doesn't really help in that regard, IMO.

CAS has the ability to be better in the mountains than all of the Leopard except for Schlecks but on 2010 form he isn't a huge loss that can't be replaced.

I do still have slight doubts about him over 3 weeks thouggh.

 

[theyoungest]

Vacansoleil pour le Tour:

Wout Poels, Rob Ruijgh, Lieuwe Westra, Johnny Hoogerland, Björn Leukemans, Thomas De Gendt, Borut Bozic, Marco Marcato, Romain Feillu.

Nice team, let's hope Hoogerland goes on some old fashioned chasses patates again.

 

[roundabout]

Vacansoleil should be grateful for all the uphill finishes and trickier than usual stages ASO put in because otherwise the team would have been pretty meh.

Although thinking more about it they would have been interesting to follow on the route like last year's as well.

 

[bjaelkesex]

Well as I wrote earlier a few weeks ago a Danish cycling expert wrote that Larsson was an obvious choice for the Tour but that he had disqualified himself for not being a team player. He didnt elaborate, and it was kinda new to me so I dismissed it. But since he was left out of the Giro at the last moment and now left out of the Tour that comment kinda comes back to me, and I am thinking that maybe there is something about it.

That rumor also came up after their last team building trip. Some insider apparently spilled some details although I have trouble finding the article right now.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Supposedly Henderson is not happy again about missing out on TdF selection.

 

[Anonymous]

Supposedly Henderson is not happy again about missing out on TdF selection.

well hes leaving at the end of the year

 

[auscyclefan94]

well hes leaving at the end of the year

I imagine he will. HTC are likely to select Goss who's likely to leave next season.

Your thoughts about Gerrans being selected?

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Nah Riis knows that he is sacrificing the TTT (he said so in a danish magasine), but since the TTT is so short the time loss wont be significant.

Besides the TTT I do hope that Leopard with that team will make some gutsu moves before the last climb. Would be awesome.

I think Bertie would still expect to attain a net gain across the 2 TT stages, and this team will have partly been designed with that in mind. Assuming Bertie is in competitive shape still after the Giro, I think his strategy might be the same as last year - follow Andy up the mountains and make the difference in the chrono stuff.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

LOL Ryo, Noval is not a climber, never has been. He is for the flat parts, he will be nowhere once the road goes up.
The 'El Toro' nick means he will keep his captain safe, on flat roads.

again you can't read? I say noval is not a BAD climber, where do I say he's a climber??

noval has been 6th and 9th in volta catalunya, and even as a helper done 40th in vuelta.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Nah Riis knows that he is sacrificing the TTT (he said so in a danish magasine), but since the TTT is so short the time loss wont be significant.

Besides the TTT I do hope that Leopard with that team will make some gutsu moves before the last climb. Would be awesome.

riis is known for always lieing in the media

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

So Vcd with 4 dutchies and 2 belgians. Where is Pistoletje claiming it's a Belgian team

 

[Cimber]

riis is known for always lieing in the media

Only about clinic related stuff (0;

 

[Cimber]

Fuglsang was very disappointing as well if my memory serves

Ye CA Sørensen did better than Fuglsang

 

[Cimber]

That rumor also came up after their last team building trip. Some insider apparently spilled some details although I have trouble finding the article right now.

Cheers. If u find the article or remember more pls enlighten me further.

 

[hrotha]

again you can't read? I say noval is not a BAD climber, where do I say he's a climber??

noval has been 6th and 9th in volta catalunya, and even as a helper done 40th in vuelta.

I think it's just that Noval has got so comfortable under Contador's wing he no longer does anything other than protect him from the wind, but yes, when he was young he could climb a little. He wasn't Pantani, obviously, but he could have been a solid top 40.

 

[theyoungest]

So Vcd with 4 dutchies and 2 belgians. Where is Pistoletje claiming it's a Belgian team

I think we'll see more of the 2 Belgians than the 4 Dutchies. Although with Leukemans it will mostly be helping Gilbert win stages.