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Lead Outs

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Jul 24, 2010
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None of the teams have really brought, or are using, a full train to try and compete with HTC; most have 2 or 3 at most before their sprinter, so the battle is all happening in the final K, by which time HTC are in full control.

Sky, for instance, for most of the Tour have just had Thomas and EBH, so Thomas is having to do so much more work than Renshaw to position his sprinter. He's basically drag racing Goss and then Renshaw. Same goes for Hondo.

HTC are the only team at the moment willing to throw their whole team at it. Manpower wins.
 
Jul 24, 2010
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kjetilraknerud said:
That's a good point. It seems to me that EBH lacks a bit of the non-nonsense attitude needed in fast sprints, and thus loses wheels too easy.

Yeah. Wiggins has said EBH is just far too nice to be a sprinter. He did try and use a bit of muscle on Sunday to stop Goss getting Thomas' wheel, which was nice to see.
 
Aug 18, 2009
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Swabian Lass said:
HTC is built around Cavendish and delivering Cavendish to the perfect place to complete the sprint in GTs. They might make noises about the GC, but in reality their team know that they're there to win the sprint stages and they might get permission to do their own thing if it doesn't interfere with that. I can't think of any other team currently, who has that as a sole goal. Thats's why I think that Thomas should think carefully about his future if Cavendish goes to Sky.
Agree with this.
 
hatcher said:
Yeah. Wiggins has said EBH is just far too nice to be a sprinter. He did try and use a bit of muscle on Sunday to stop Goss getting Thomas' wheel, which was nice to see.

He lacks a bit of top end speed, too. He's not Cav/Griepel/Farrar quick. He can lead out though, and has done a good job with that with Cav previously.

Off topic, but is there an uglier looking sprinting style than EBH's? He looks great at cruising speed, but at top speed - talk about fighting your bike!
 
Tuarts said:
No need to get narky, I want a discussion first, not an argument. :)

I just don't agree, based on what I've seen this year with your original statement that Thomas is not good enough at positioning himself.
I think what he means is that unlike Renshaw, Geraint Thomas doesn't simply push people away and off their own leadouts in order to get the ideal position. Renshaw's most important role is to be a bully. In one stage this year he pushed EBH off the wheel of Thomas so he flew across half the road in wet conditions and almost fell...and that's what Renshaw is the best at.
 
maltiv said:
I think what he means is that unlike Renshaw, Geraint Thomas doesn't simply push people away and off their own leadouts in order to get the ideal position. Renshaw's most important role is to be a bully. In one stage this year he pushed EBH off the wheel of Thomas so he flew across half the road in wet conditions and almost fell...and that's what Renshaw is the best at.

I think Renshaw has shown on this Tour that he's the perfect lead out man. He has good top speed, can keep it there for a long distance (see Sunday), knows how to position Cav and (usually) where to draw the line and is a big guy, so Cav gets great shelter from the wind. Thomas is probably as good as anybody else, maybe Hondo aside.
 
King Of The Wolds said:
Off topic, but is there an uglier looking sprinting style than EBH's? He looks great at cruising speed, but at top speed - talk about fighting your bike!
Djamolidine Abdoujaparov.
riobonito92 said:
If the sprinter gets lost whose fault is it - the lead-out man or the sprinter's?
Depends on why they got lost.



For my money, if you're after a guy to be the last part of the train, then Renshaw is the best. It has been mentioned that he is there to be a bully, and he certainly does his fair share of bullying, but only when he needs to. Sometimes he does his job so well that no bullying is necessary.

However, I stand by my case that Danilo Hondo is the best leadout man in the world. He's almost a lone forager leadout, and he and Petacchi just find each other when they need to, sometimes from the most unlikely of places, and I think that Hondo could do a better job of copycatting Renshaw's job than Renshaw could do of copycatting Hondo's.

Of course, we haven't often seen Renshaw doing the kind of job Hondo does, so I guess the point is moot as we're only going on what we think, but I think Hondo is the best leadout man in the sport.
 
Jun 7, 2011
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Renshaw can't usually make it over any hills near the end of a stage which is usually the only times that Cavendish doesn't win the sprint, while Hondo can climb well enough. I'd like to see a Renshaw, Hondo, Dean drag race in Paris.
 
Mar 11, 2009
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Swede1 said:
Renshaw can't usually make it over any hills near the end of a stage which is usually the only times that Cavendish doesn't win the sprint, while Hondo can climb well enough. I'd like to see a Renshaw, Hondo, Dean drag race in Paris.

All depends on distance. Renshaw wins anything up to 300m, Dean probably gets 300-500, Hondo blows them both away over longer.
 
Aug 4, 2009
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McEwan won 12 stages without a lead out OK he had fast freddie to take him up there but it was up to him in the end.

Grab any wheel and hold it.
 

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