Me Thinks Andy Should Ride The Giro in 2012

[richo36]

Should go for this now.

i agree. it would be stupid for him to ride the tour now if this route is true.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

i agree. it would be stupid for him to ride the tour now if this route is true.

He'll have his usual target of Ardennes week, I imagine, so the Giro probably won't be a good fit. La Vuelta may be a better option. Certainly, I agree that Andy should go nowhere near this year's tour though. He could lose the best part of 10 minutes to Wiggins and Evans in the TTs.

 

[movingtarget]

If the TT's are both individual TT's and it seems they are, will Schleck be a possibility of making the podium, let alone winning. Also looks like a lack of high mountain stages. 2013 looks as though it will have lots of mountains. Does Schleck rethink his plans ? Probably not.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Don't exagerate.

To someone like Wiggins and Evans He'll lose like 30 seconds in the prologue, 2 minutes in the first T and 3:30 in the last one.

So more like 6 minutes then 10. Still a lot of course.

 

[richo36]

He'll have his usual target of Ardennes week, I imagine, so the Giro probably won't be a good fit. La Vuelta may be a better option. Certainly, I agree that Andy should go nowhere near this year's tour though. He could lose the best part of 10 minutes to Wiggins and Evans in the TTs.

I always thought the ardennes always fitted with his tour prep. So if he doesnt ride the tour he doesnt need to ride the ardennes. could be wrong though.

 

[richo36]

Don't exagerate.

To someone like Wiggins and Evans He'll lose like 30 seconds in the prologue, 2 minutes in the first T and 3:30 in the last one.

So more like 6 minutes then 10. Still a lot of course.

The mountains are not big enough though to gain back 6 minutes IMO.

 

[Fus087]

I always thought the ardennes always fitted with his tour prep. So if he doesnt ride the tour he doesnt need to ride the ardennes. could be wrong though.

Oh, but he wants to.

 

[royalpig180]

After the unveiling of the Giro route today, I think it is clear more than ever that if A Schleck is serious about winning a GT next year, he should focus on the Giro (and possibly subsequently La Vuelta) rather than the tour. The Giro route is obviously very well suited to him. Just around 40km of ITT and in addition there's a TTT which his team should be able to do well in provided they send a strong squad to the Giro. The mountains are certainly tough enough for him to get more than enough time over the stronger time trialists, and with Contador and Evans focusing on the Tour, he would have a real shot at winning the race, which would also be a big morale boost going forward. This calendar would give him the ideal preparation for another big tilt at the centenary tour in 2013 (which by all indications should have a rather difficult route).

*This is also largely contingent on the actual Tour route matching what was recently leaked.

 

[Christian]

In the cyclingnews video on the front page Fränk says Andy and him will focus on the Tour but Bruyneel is quoted on cyclism'actu as saying "Andy for the Giro? Why not, I don't exclude anything".

So maybe there is hope after all??

http://www.cyclismactu.net/news-2012-bruyneel-andy-sur-le-giro-pourquoi-pas-20083.html

 

[the asian]

He should ride the Giro. He'll be lucky if can keep his eternal bridesmaid position at the 2012 Tour, with the course it has. He might even not make the podium at the Tour.

 

[Cimber]

I agree with the OP, but I dont think he will.

 

[auscyclefan94]

andy should do the giro, frank the vuelta and let guys like levi and kloedi do the tour.

 

[Nick C.]

andy should do the giro, frank the vuelta and let guys like levi and kloedi do the tour.

Isn't Levi with OmegaPharmaQuickStep? I would be surprised if Bruyneel said that as anything more than a generic response to a question. Has he ever (other than "the comeback" in '09) sent a team to the Giro that wasn't full of the "B" listers (yes Salvoldelli won but still)?

 

[roundabout]

2008. They had the best team there.

 

[The Hitch]

Frank had his chance at the Tour. There will not be a better one.


Attack on Alpe d huez. Everyone knew it. Everyone expected it. He didnt do it. Coming top 10 in this Tour is a more challenging task for him than attacking on Alpe this year would have been.

 

[cineteq]

Andy will do the Tour for sure (commitment to sponsors). But I wouldn't be surprise if the Giro is his real target for 2012.

edit: as I posted the above, this below came out!
Jakob Fuglsang keen to race Giro as RadioShack Nissan’s captain
Read more: http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/1...RadioShack-Nissans-captain.aspx#ixzz1bDwrAvyZ

 

[The Hitch]

Maybe Brunyeel will lead with Bushce.


Wouldnt take too much more of a Brunyeel transformation to have him do well on this course.

 

[karlboss]

Andy must ride the tour, noone would have more incentive to attack in the mountains. If Andy isn't there all the TT specialist will hold hands and wait for the TTs, instead of thinking " this guy just attacked 100km out, what should i do about that"

 

[The Hitch]

Andy must ride the tour, noone would have more incentive to attack in the mountains. If Andy isn't there all the TT specialist will hold hands and wait for the TTs, instead of thinking " this guy just attacked 100km out, what should i do about that"

Cadel will need to attack in the mountains if Menchov and Contador are there

 

[karlboss]

Cadel will need to attack in the mountains if Menchov and Contador are there

there are some descents to attack, maybe we should pray for rain.

 

[Shardi]

Bruyneel hinting about dividing up the Schlecks for the GTs. Never before has a team containing the Schlecks had such big chance of winning a GC!

 

[Shardi]

Bruyneel hinting about dividing up the schlecks for the GTs. Chance for a GT-GC win just increased drastically for the RadioSchlecks!

 

[Sophistic]

If Evans cant beat Contador in flat TTs, no way he is gonna do it in the mountains.

 

[roundabout]

Hitchens is still holding on to his notion that Contador is undoubtedly better time trialist than Evans.

 

[The Hitch]

Hitchens is still holding on to his notion that Contador is undoubtedly better time trialist than Evans.

The notion was actually that Cadel was a better tter than Contador, and I opposed

And I was hardly alone. Especially towards the end of the thread, large numbers of posters came, more convinced even than me posting many results to back it up.

Either way the above comment was clearly a joke, running gag about the fact that there were so many heated discussions about the subject. As the stick toungue out smiley demonstrates.