Michael Storer - too good to be true?

[TourOfSardinia]

Vuelta 2021:
Wins two mountain stages!
Then yesterday he soloed into the Mountains Jersey and was first to start the last climb.
Today he was back to pulling on the front for DSM

 

[Ilmaestro99]

DSM has phases when they all come back from a camp and are flying.

 

[BlueRoads]

Vuelta 2021:
Wins two mountain stages!
Then yesterday he soloed into the Mountains Jersey and was first to start the last climb.
Today he was back to pulling on the front for DSM

I don't really know. He seems to be up in the air ever since the Giro this year. But this Vuelta, I'm simply not sure about the general level. He has two very convincing stage wins, Cort now has three. Most guys have done absolutely nothing in this Vuelta - there is definitely a split in the peloton... but here it could simply be a question of form, as most seem to be out of it. So that might make someone like Storer look like he rules... when maybe he has simply reached an age where a very strong rider emerges. His performances don't look Padun-level to me.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

It isn't too rare to see somebody come out swinging at the Vuelta like this, even ignoring the unexpected GC tilt guys (hey, 2011) - often riders who've had gaps in their early season due to injury or illness or other issues so have more left in their legs than most can become monster stagehunters, especially as the heat lends itself to a slower average pace than the Tour (not always but frequently) and breaks contesting stages. Storer has had very few race days since the Giro and a lot of the people he's beaten from those breakaways have more race days in their legs. It is a bit weird to have a totally unexpected breakaway rider take multiple stages as opposed to an obvious stagehunting specialist like a Sylvain Chavanel, a Philippe Gilbert or a Paolo Bettini, but it's not unheard of. Ben King won two mountaintop finishes and was flying all over the breakaways in 2018, Tomasz Marczyński won two medium mountain stages as a 33-year-old baroudeur in 2017, Warren Barguil won two stages as a seeming new starlet in 2013, and Pablo Lastras won two stages from escapes in 2002 and nearly repeated the feat in 2011. David Moncoutié back in his GPM days won a stage in four consecutive editions, because he decided that after his success there in 2008, he would target the Vuelta, and arrived in a lot better form than many, especially those who were riding to save the season after poor Tours. There are a lot of riders winding their way to the end of the season here, and a lot of domestiques who aren't going to be expended as aggressively to catch breaks. If you're a young rider who can power over a lot of different terrains and has some great form, as Storer clearly does, there's definitely ways to get some wins out of that form if you plan your days out well.

 

[Cookster15]

24 year old Storer doesn't warrant a thread in the Clinic. A 10 second glance at his record should explain why. Natural progression and the manner of his wins. He is no Mark Padun. Highly premature.

 

[Ghirmay4Ever]

24 year old Storer doesn't warrant a thread in the Clinic. A 10 second glance at his record should explain why. Natural progression and the manner of his wins. He is no Mark Padun. Highly premature.

Honestly, it's very similar to Padun and neither are particularly suspicious in my eyes compared to everything else going on. Not sure why Padun even aroused that much suspicion because it was far from the most flagrant display of doping we've seen in the past couple of years.

 

[Fergoose]

It's not remotely likely Padun. Let's see Storer defeat full gas GC contenders on a climb. Then it'll be like Padun.

 

[JosefK]

Storer is not at thermonuclear level, yet. Low-grade fission, maybe. Tactical nukes. No alien technology demonstrated (so far).

 

[Cookster15]

Honestly, it's very similar to Padun and neither are particularly suspicious in my eyes compared to everything else going on. Not sure why Padun even aroused that much suspicion because it was far from the most flagrant display of doping we've seen in the past couple of years.

The only thing that saves Padun is that he wasn’t in GC contention when he won those stages. In every other way he is more suspicious than Storer. I really don’t understand why Storer even warranted a thread.

 

[Unterlenkerfahrend]

Honestly, it's very similar to Padun and neither are particularly suspicious in my eyes compared to everything else going on. Not sure why Padun even aroused that much suspicion because it was far from the most flagrant display of doping we've seen in the past couple of years.

This is a list of riders that have ridden the Joux Plane in under 35 minutes:
Pantani, Ullrich, Virenque, Riis, Escartin, Heras, ..... Padun.
Obviously these two Dauphine days were different than Storer, who also looks a bit random but has a lot of more arguments on his side (not against GC contenders, often very weak breaks this Vuelta, not on back to back days etc.).

 

[Serpentin]

He is fat and can climb, nothing to see here. Move along.

 

[King Boonen]

This is a wind up, yeah?

 

[Tim Cahill]

Every bit of rumour and innuendo I hear about DSM is that a some of their more authoritarian antics are part and parcel of their attempts to be legit cleanz.

Even Antoine the sceptic seems to rate them

Indice de confiance de TEAM DSM : 17,3

Le Team DSM est né en 2005, sous le nom Shimano-Memory Corp. L'équipementier japonais reste longtemps un des principaux parrains avant de passer la main à Giant puis Sunweb et, depuis cette année, DSM. La société néerlandaise est spécialisée dans la nutrition et… les produits pharmaceutiques....

www.cyclisme-dopage.com

 

[BlueRoads]

It isn't too rare to see somebody come out swinging at the Vuelta like this, even ignoring the unexpected GC tilt guys (hey, 2011) - often riders who've had gaps in their early season due to injury or illness or other issues so have more left in their legs than most can become monster stagehunters, especially as the heat lends itself to a slower average pace than the Tour (not always but frequently) and breaks contesting stages. Storer has had very few race days since the Giro and a lot of the people he's beaten from those breakaways have more race days in their legs. It is a bit weird to have a totally unexpected breakaway rider take multiple stages as opposed to an obvious stagehunting specialist like a Sylvain Chavanel, a Philippe Gilbert or a Paolo Bettini, but it's not unheard of. Ben King won two mountaintop finishes and was flying all over the breakaways in 2018, Tomasz Marczyński won two medium mountain stages as a 33-year-old baroudeur in 2017, Warren Barguil won two stages as a seeming new starlet in 2013, and Pablo Lastras won two stages from escapes in 2002 and nearly repeated the feat in 2011. David Moncoutié back in his GPM days won a stage in four consecutive editions, because he decided that after his success there in 2008, he would target the Vuelta, and arrived in a lot better form than many, especially those who were riding to save the season after poor Tours. There are a lot of riders winding their way to the end of the season here, and a lot of domestiques who aren't going to be expended as aggressively to catch breaks. If you're a young rider who can power over a lot of different terrains and has some great form, as Storer clearly does, there's definitely ways to get some wins out of that form if you plan your days out well.

You always find a way to say what I want to say way more eloquently and embedded in cycling history facts.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

May be they'll drop storey like hirschi at the end of the season.

 

[King Boonen]

It's already been announced he's going to Groupama-FDJ for next season, a 30 second Google search would have brought that up.

 

[MADRAZO]

Storer was literelly seen as one of the absolute biggest talents back in 2016, I think a lot had him in their cq-17-19 or 18-20 and youthteams back then, doing top 10 in Avenir as 19 year old also with a history as a first year junior world time trial bronce medalist also (ahead of a certain Ganna btw, ) His delopment since then has been a bit slow but the big breakthruogh has been awaited for a long time and cant be a big surprise, and his great performance here was still less than would have been expected of him back then now, and for instance much less significant than that of 1 year older Hindley from the same backgroud last year. Padun was also a great talent as young but his breakthrough for a few days destroying the world elite climbers out of nowhere, was even crazier than Pecharroman back in the days and cant be compared to Storer very natural progression at all and ofcourse also cant be seen without also noticing so many other Bahrain riders suddenly improving significantly this year.

 

[ciranda]

Storer has gone from like the sixth last rider to be dropped from breaks in semihard stages in stage races to riding away easily from Sivakov, Kuss and Haig in a tough stage in the Vuelta. It is a big step forward.

 

[Cookster15]

Nah, looking at his results over time I still think its natural progression - he is still only 24. He had some good but not outstanding results in 2016 (6th) and 2017 (9th) Tour de l'Avenir. Has not dropped genuine GC contenders on climbs. No more suspect than anyone else really. More evidence needed.