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Michal Kwiatkowski Thread

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He has become one of my favourite riders. But I've just looked up and it's pretty incredible this was only 18th win of his career. I often compare him to Sagan, not as type of rider but because the amount of talent both riders have and also because the recent history between those two (recent battles, same age...), and to think Sagan already has 97 wins (.1 and above) it shows you just what a monster the Slovak is. I know Sagan is faster in a sprint but Kwiatkowski is not slow himself either. I was genuinely expecting the Pole to be around 30 victories. But with him it's about quality rather than quantity (then again Sagan has both). Also having to be a domestic during a GT doesn't help. I'm pretty sure he would have won 1 or 2 stages in this Tour if he was allowed to go stage hunting. Anyway happy for his victory today and there's hoping for a strong last part of the season for him. What does his schedule look like going forward? Does anybody know?
 
Difference is Kwiatkowski can't get the easy wins which Sagan can, just look at Tour of California. Kwito has to do it the hard way, like Van Avermaet. Im also a bit surprised Kwiatkowski only has 18 victories, but honestly, that doesn't really matter if he can win 5 races each year and 3 or 4 of them are big classics. Kwito also played with some GC-riding earlier in his career which obviously doesn't benefit such a statistic either and he has been fairly inconsistent, especially last year. But seems he has hit his prime now and gone are the races where he doesn't have any legs for whatever reason.

Kwiat has the potential to be the best classics rider, better than Sagan. He has definitely been this year. His repertoire is bigger in those races than Sagan's IMO, especially because the distance more often than not cancels Sagan's advantage, his finish, out. You don't have to look any further than Avermaet who has his number in a finish, or Kwito beating Sagan in San Remo.
 
2 x Strade Bianche
1 x WC RR
1 x Milano Sanremo
1 x E3
1 x Amstel Gold Race
1 x Clasica San Sebastian

To be honest, I'd take 18 victories if these are amongst them. However, he still hasn't won a gt stage. Thats definitely something very big missing in his palmares
 
Re: Re:

Gigs_98 said:
Blanco said:
Valv.Piti said:
Dan Martin is behind Valverde, Sagan, GvA, Kwito, Gilbert, Froome....

Don't know for Sagan, but I'd say Dumoulin is ahead as well. Maybe even Porte...
I'd probably even rate guys like Quintana or Kittel ahead of Martin.
What about Roglič? I'm curious to hear what season would you consider better so far. Roglič has 6 wins (4 of them WT) to Martin's one, on the other hand Martin has a high Tour GC finish, two 2nd places in the Ardennes and is higher in the rankings (PCS, UCI, WT, you name it). Both have a lot of high GC placings in one week races and both a lot of top10 (Martin leads 29 to 24). If you rate victories the most it's Rogla pretty easily, but then again Martin's been up there in every race he's entered for the whole season. It's not that easy to compare. Who you got?
 
I don't think it's (mostly) the distance in itself that cancels Sagan's sprint as it is the tactical scenarios that are in play in longer and more selective races, where Sagan often uses more energy than most.

In the Doha worlds, while not the hardest nor the longest (in time), he still had an excellent sprint after a longer race, since he didn't really work more than his opponents.

Of course, the truth is in the middle, but I think the tactical aspect plays a larger role.
 
Re: Re:

johnymax said:
Gigs_98 said:
Blanco said:
Valv.Piti said:
Dan Martin is behind Valverde, Sagan, GvA, Kwito, Gilbert, Froome....

Don't know for Sagan, but I'd say Dumoulin is ahead as well. Maybe even Porte...
I'd probably even rate guys like Quintana or Kittel ahead of Martin.
What about Roglič? I'm curious to hear what season would you consider better so far. Roglič has 6 wins (4 of them WT) to Martin's one, on the other hand Martin has a high Tour GC finish, two 2nd places in the Ardennes and is higher in the rankings (PCS, UCI, WT, you name it). Both have a lot of high GC placings in one week races and both a lot of top10 (Martin leads 29 to 24). If you rate victories the most it's Rogla pretty easily, but then again Martin's been up there in every race he's entered for the whole season. It's not that easy to compare. Who you got?
I actually thought about Roglic as well and I think it's reasonable to think he had a better season. Still I think at some point wins in "smaller" races don't overtake top 10's in really big races anymore so I'd maybe rate Martins season slightly higher but it's close.
 
Gigs_98 said:
2 x Strade Bianche
1 x WC RR
1 x Milano Sanremo
1 x E3
1 x Amstel Gold Race
1 x Clasica San Sebastian

To be honest, I'd take 18 victories if these are amongst them. However, he still hasn't won a gt stage. Thats definitely something very big missing in his palmares

He will struggle with that at Sky, as he should go to the Tour every year where he will be expected to have full devotion.
 
Ruby United said:
Gigs_98 said:
2 x Strade Bianche
1 x WC RR
1 x Milano Sanremo
1 x E3
1 x Amstel Gold Race
1 x Clasica San Sebastian

To be honest, I'd take 18 victories if these are amongst them. However, he still hasn't won a gt stage. Thats definitely something very big missing in his palmares

He will struggle with that at Sky, as he should go to the Tour every year where he will be expected to have full devotion.
Yes, it will be difficult but bear in mind he was 1 second off a GT win at the Tour. If he goes to the Vuelta next year, well, you never know.. :p
 
JRanton said:
I'm still disappointed about LBL. For such a tactically astute rider his positioning was ridiculous.

He obviously lack the strength there, he was dropped on St.Nicholas, came back on the decent and save strength on the back of the group for one last punch. Which he did, but Valverde was already gone. If he had the strength, he would cruise through the group and catch Valverde's or Martin's wheel, cause everybody knew these two would make a move. Just look at Gerrans win in 2014, look who's wheel he held there.
 
Kwiat's always been an incredible rider tactically. Out of his 18 wins, I wonder in how many he actually was the strongest. Out of his seven big wins, it's certainly just Strade and San Sebastian.

But this season, he's been incredibly strong, especially over the last month, and now that's he's genuinely one of the strongest as well doesn't bode well for his rivals
 
Gigs_98 said:
2 x Strade Bianche
1 x WC RR
1 x Milano Sanremo
1 x E3
1 x Amstel Gold Race
1 x Clasica San Sebastian

To be honest, I'd take 18 victories if these are amongst them. However, he still hasn't won a gt stage. Thats definitely something very big missing in his palmares

team-sky-vuelta-a-espana-team-time-trial_3769043.jpg
 
Re:

PremierAndrew said:
Kwiat's always been an incredible rider tactically. Out of his 18 wins, I wonder in how many he actually was the strongest. Out of his seven big wins, it's certainly just Strade and San Sebastian.

But this season, he's been incredibly strong, especially over the last month, and now that's he's genuinely one of the strongest as well doesn't bode well for his rivals

He was one of the strongest when he won in the past as well. But yeah, it does indeed seem like he's upped his game this year (his consistency in particular). The way he ripped things up at the Tour was ridiculous, almost seems unfair to have a guy like that as a dom. He could have had a "Sagan tour" with 3-4 stage wins.
 
So the guy who started as a classics specialist, later tried to become a stage racer, noticed that doesn't work and returned to one day racing now wants to become a stage racer again :eek:

Ffs, the guy is an one day race monster but just doesn't want to accept what he is strong at
 
Gigs_98 said:
So the guy who started as a classics specialist, later tried to become a stage racer, noticed that doesn't work and returned to one day racing now wants to become a stage racer again :eek:

Ffs, the guy is an one day race monster but just doesn't want to accept what he is strong at

Barely had the same reaction after reading cyclingnews post about him. The most twisted thing is that after having tried and failed to be a stage racer (last year was a real waste given his potential), he seemed to regain some weight and power to be the monster he is on one day races. What an amazing campaign classics for him...To finally be a monster on TDF, superdom without any hesitation to me.
I mean Kwiatek, why u do dis? I'm quite lost when I try to understand his skillset, but that guy is a pure gem.

To conclude, I just don't wanna see him wasting his potential by becoming another Skybot. I mean, EBH, which has a lot of similarities with him, was the perfect example. If he succeed in GTs I'd be glad for him but I think he really should focus on classics and one-week long races. With his strength, punch and those climbing legs, he is one of the few that could win the 5 Monuments. To me, he found the perfect balance to become a fantastic classic rider.
 
He basically said the opposite, didn't he? That he doesn't want to be pushed in a particular direction, but if his climbing and TTing develop, then he'll consider thinking about riding for grand tours.
 

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