Maaskant squabble

[boomcie]

Agree with D_T about Maaskant potentially being a leader. Right now, if he was riding, Maaskant would be the third best cobbled rider on that team.

I also agree with this.

Dekker_T just gave the whole thing his own twist. That way you're always right. Initially it was about talent, not about current capabilities, he made it about that.

 

[ingsve]

Road Captains
Klier

This is the important thing when talking about Klier. He's one of the very best road captains for the cobbles in the world right now. Any team would be better with him on the team no matter what leaders they had.

 

[The Hitch]

 

[ergmonkey]

Okay, this is more about Garmin than Maaskant per se, but this whole "superteam" concept is pretty silly as applied to Garmin--and Maaskaant helps to illustrate the point. He's got very solid results, but on Quickstep he'd basically serve the classics role of a guy like Steegmans.

Meanwhile, there are several individual riders out there with more Classics victories than the entire Garmin squad: Boonen, Cancellara, Gilbert.

As long as these legit stars have a better chance of winning than Garmin does, the teams of these riders also have better "Classics teams" than Garmin since only one rider can win a given Classic, anyway.

In other words, having Maaskant and Klier on your squad is only a big deal when Maaskant gets to shepherd someone like Boonen or Klier gets to look out for Wesemann.

 

[skidmark]

We're talking about now. Not the future, not the past. Right now. Maaskant is better than both those guys.

Actually, right now Maaskant probably couldn't beat anyone in the peloton, as he likely can't even breathe without it hurting yet.

 

[boomcie]

Actually, right now Maaskant probably couldn't beat anyone in the peloton, as he likely can't even breathe without it hurting yet.

I was trying to keep it civil!.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

anyone else think garmin could have used a maaskant yesterday

 

[ergmonkey]

anyone else think garmin could have used a maaskant yesterday

Garmin might have done well to have healthy and be able to focus on all of their reliable game day players--like Hammond, Klier, Maaskant, and Vanmarcke.

I'm not convinced that anybody on that team deserves more than equal priority with Roger Hammond at Paris-Roubaix, and no one other than a truly in-form Haussler (which he's not right now) is capable of lighting up Flanders in anything but a surprising small group sprint.