Leaders for the GTs of 2017

[Valv.Piti]

So let me ask you this, Red Rick: What would you have done? I think this makes the most sense. Poels get to lead P-N and Switzerland and gets a free role in the Ardennes and will probably be captain in L-B-L. I'd assume he would ride Catalunya as well where Froome has a very subpar, for him, record. He will have a free role there as well.

If its one thing Landa, Poels and Thomas has in common it has to be inconsistency and unreliability in a 3 week bike race. Landa deserves another shot and Thomas is still higher in the pecking order than Poels. Besides, the Giro has 70 km of ITT, so apart from being really inconsistent in the mountains, he would also have to show how to time trial well.

Poels doesn't 'deserve' anything. He signed with Sky knowing he would have low chances of getting to lead a GT. He gets plenty of races to prove himself and will need to show Sky why he deserves to lead a GT in 2018 by being much more consistent in his performances. Sometimes he is hot, sometimes he is OCRR. He was, basically, signed as a domestique to help Chris Froome win the without comparison biggest race of the season. Thats his job-description and I can't see why he should be given a chance in this year's Giro all things considered.

You dutch guys have plenty of riders to cheer for the upcoming Giro, be happy about that instead. A constellation of Landa/Thomas + Rosa makes the most sense with the roster they have available.

 

[portugal11]

Re:

So let me ask you this, Red Rick: What would you have done? I think this makes the most sense. Poels get to lead P-N and Switzerland and gets a free role in the Ardennes and will probably be captain in L-B-L. I'd assume he would ride Catalunya as well where Froome has a very subpar, for him, record. He will have a free role there as well.

If its one thing Landa, Poels and Thomas has in common it has to be inconsistency and unreliability in a 3 week bike race. Landa deserves another shot and Thomas is still higher in the pecking order than Poels. Besides, the Giro has 70 km of ITT, so apart from being really inconsistent in the mountains, he would also have to show how to time trial well.

Poels doesn't 'deserve' anything. He signed with Sky knowing he would have low chances of getting to lead a GT. He gets plenty of races to prove himself and will need to show Sky why he deserves to lead a GT in 2018 by being much more consistent in his performances. Sometimes he is hot, sometimes he is OCRR. He was, basically, signed as a domestique to help Chris Froome win the without comparison biggest race of the season. Thats his job-description and I can't see why he should be given a chance in this year's Giro all things considered.

You dutch guys have plenty of riders to cheer for the upcoming Giro, be happy about that instead. A constellation of Landa/Thomas + Rosa makes the most sense with the roster they have available.

I'm with you. Poels can perform very well in classics or in 2 or 3 mountains stages but when it comes to consistency in gt's, he usually has two bad days

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

Poels gets the Tour of Switzerland. Which he really might be able to win actually.

I don't know, the guy even has off days in one week races, he's world class when he's on (he has been for years), but he often has one or two bad days.

 

[rick james]

Re:

So let me ask you this, Red Rick: What would you have done? I think this makes the most sense. Poels get to lead P-N and Switzerland and gets a free role in the Ardennes and will probably be captain in L-B-L. I'd assume he would ride Catalunya as well where Froome has a very subpar, for him, record. He will have a free role there as well.

If its one thing Landa, Poels and Thomas has in common it has to be inconsistency and unreliability in a 3 week bike race. Landa deserves another shot and Thomas is still higher in the pecking order than Poels. Besides, the Giro has 70 km of ITT, so apart from being really inconsistent in the mountains, he would also have to show how to time trial well.

Poels doesn't 'deserve' anything. He signed with Sky knowing he would have low chances of getting to lead a GT. He gets plenty of races to prove himself and will need to show Sky why he deserves to lead a GT in 2018 by being much more consistent in his performances. Sometimes he is hot, sometimes he is OCRR. He was, basically, signed as a domestique to help Chris Froome win the without comparison biggest race of the season. Thats his job-description and I can't see why he should be given a chance in this year's Giro all things considered.

You dutch guys have plenty of riders to cheer for the upcoming Giro, be happy about that instead. A constellation of Landa/Thomas + Rosa makes the most sense with the roster they have available.

Well said.

 

[HelloDolly]

I wonder is Rosa could challenge for Ardennes and how (and Poels) that will fit for Henao who was very good in 2016 helping everyone and had no chances for himself which must hurt abit

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

I wonder is Rosa could challenge for Ardennes and how (and Poels) that will fit for Henao who was very good in 2016 helping everyone and had no chances for himself which must hurt abit

Rosa said that only one of the Ardennes classics really suits him and that's LBL.
I think he'll be the leader for the Italian Autumn classics and maybe a protected/free role for LBL, but I'm not sure about that.

 

[DFA123]

Thomas as co-leader for the Giro is an absurd decision. There are half a dozen riders in Sky's squad who easily have more of a chance of challenging for the podium in any GT than Thomas does. Yet there is arguably no-one better than him at spring classics. You have to think that Thomas himself has insisted on wasting his career in this way, because there's no logical explanation as to why Sky are trying to turn him into a GT contender.

 

[yaco]

Matt White of Orica dropped a hint during his presser for the TDU - The bulk of our TDF team is at the TDU -Join the dots.

 

[staubsauger]

Re:

Thomas as co-leader for the Giro is an absurd decision. There are half a dozen riders in Sky's squad who easily have more of a chance of challenging for the podium in any GT than Thomas does. Yet there is arguably no-one better than him at spring classics. You have to think that Thomas himself has insisted on wasting his career in this way, because there's no logical explanation as to why Sky are trying to turn him into a GT contender.

Stannard is more likely to ever win both Flanders as well as PR than Thomas imho. Simply because he aces it in blizzard conditions. Thomas might get marked all the way. Anyway, Sky's best classics rider might be Moscon very soon anyway. They should actually use him in a Devolder way this year already!

I agree with you though that Thomas wastes his time with a shot at the Giro. He hasn't even won the Tour de Suisse yet. A race which was won by someone like Giorgio Furlan. There's zero chance Thomas gonna podium or even top 5 the Tour of Italy. He will simply get raped at one of those chaotic multiple mountain stages the Giro nearly always delivers.

The only positive thing I probably can read out of this is, that Landa might be forced to race for mountain stage wins and the blue jersey rather than a top 3-5 spot. That might actually turn out better for him personally (probably even gc wise) and especially for the race!