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Mikel Landa Discussion Thread

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Re: Re:

HelloDolly said:
MatParker117 said:
Did good work this week.


Yeah but he is supposed to be the best climber in the peloton and he is dropped on climbs before at least 14 other riders ?

Heano is there after him ??

He needs to be in the last 5 (as porte was) for Froome to chase Quintana/Contador in the final week
Nothing he did in this Dauphine convinced me of this

Sure yesterday he rode at the front for 10km but we have seen other riders at SKY do this as well
Where is the extra that makes him a GT winner .. I didn't see this as a Dom

Henao & Poels are too similar in my book and not consistent over 3 weeks...I'd only bring one of them to the Tour

He just abandoned the Giro, give him some time. He attacked/pulled hard for Froome on every stage, I think he has looked good. He isn't supposed to be at 100% at all yet, he has time to improve his climb further. Just you wait Dolly!
 
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Re:

HelloDolly said:
Ha ha ...Its HelloDolly to you btw :D

I hope Landa rides well at the Tour and should be in the team but he is certainly not where he needs to be if last man for Froome in the mountains

Give the guy a break! :p He's coming off an illness and, according to Spanish media, was in a lot of pain on his right hip from that fall yesterday (looking at the pic of it on twitter it looks like he couldn't swing his right leg over the bike) so IMHO he did great. Plus he was the guy who pulled the most for Froome in the mountains,what more was he supposed to do?
 
Re: Re:

Jolene said:
HelloDolly said:
Ha ha ...Its HelloDolly to you btw :D

I hope Landa rides well at the Tour and should be in the team but he is certainly not where he needs to be if last man for Froome in the mountains

Give the guy a break! :p He's coming off an illness and, according to Spanish media, was in a lot of pain on his right hip from that fall yesterday (looking at the pic of it on twitter it looks like he couldn't swing his right leg over the bike) so IMHO he did great. Plus he was the guy who pulled the most for Froome in the mountains,what more was he supposed to do?


I made the point that he is not where he needs to be ...whatever the reason

And you come back about give the guy a break

This is a discussion about his form....not a personal validation
If I cannot make a valid point without being made to feel I am attacking the rider ....what is the point

I thought we re discussing cycling not forming a fan club
 
Sky should send Landa to the Tour as a second leader instead of Thomas (who should be a pure domestique). Landa is more unpredictable and may easily fail, but he has that wildcard value which would give the team an extra dimension.

Unlike Thomas, who is just a follower in the big mountains, Landa is able to take initiative and change a race in favour of his team, if he is close enough in GC. Choosing Thomas as a second leader would make Sky only able to use their team strenght in a defensive capacity.
 

KGB

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What?SKY with second leader?That never worked.There is only one leader.If Froomestrong will not win then whole SKY team will be in dust.Sky will come with only plan A.They will talk about plan B but never exists.
 
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Põhja Konn said:
Sky should send Landa to the Tour as a second leader instead of Thomas (who should be a pure domestique). Landa is more unpredictable and may easily fail, but he has that wildcard value which would give the team an extra dimension.

Unlike Thomas, who is just a follower in the big mountains, Landa is able to take initiative and change a race in favour of his team, if he is close enough in GC. Choosing Thomas as a second leader would make Sky only able to use their team strenght in a defensive capacity.
Thomas will leave Sky without leadership. Even as plan B for the Tour, he has only agreed to a further year with Sky with the option of adding to that, to keep his options open.

Landa will be a worker at the Tour, and nothing else.
 
SeriousSam said:
Põhja Konn said:
Sky should send Landa to the Tour as a second leader instead of Thomas (who should be a pure domestique). Landa is more unpredictable and may easily fail, but he has that wildcard value which would give the team an extra dimension.

Unlike Thomas, who is just a follower in the big mountains, Landa is able to take initiative and change a race in favour of his team, if he is close enough in GC. Choosing Thomas as a second leader would make Sky only able to use their team strenght in a defensive capacity.
Thomas will leave Sky without leadership. Even as plan B for the Tour, he has only agreed to a further year with Sky with the option of adding to that, to keep his options open.

Landa will be a worker at the Tour, and nothing else.

Yeah, I know it well be like that, but I just don't think it is the best usage of their resources. Team will become one-dimensional and overly dependent on Froome being clearly stronger than his rivals. Which might be good for the race of course.
 
Re: Re:

HelloDolly said:
MatParker117 said:
Did good work this week.


Yeah but he is supposed to be the best climber in the peloton and he is dropped on climbs before at least 14 other riders ?

Heano is there after him ??

He needs to be in the last 5 (as porte was) for Froome to chase Quintana/Contador in the final week
Nothing he did in this Dauphine convinced me of this

Sure yesterday he rode at the front for 10km but we have seen other riders at SKY do this as well
Where is the extra that makes him a GT winner .. I didn't see this as a Dom

Henao & Poels are too similar in my book and not consistent over 3 weeks...I'd only bring one of them to the Tour

He got a peak for le Giro and now he will likely be at le Tour, so he cant be at the Dauohine at hisbest, just well,orrclose to his best.

I amnot surehe is the best climber, b ut one of the best in the big mountains stages, in this auohinñe, just one.

He did a great job in that day. henao is better for one Km, so Landa did 10 Km and henao one. the work of Landa was bigger and he showed more than Henao yesterday, it is not just a question of to be later or before, if a rider is the first to work for SKY but he do 100 Km at a good level, he is the most important domestique.
 
Re:

HelloDolly said:
Vasilis


You mistake my meaning...Of course SKY are good ...they have leaders in their own right on the team

My point is not as good as I expected...not Poels, not Kwait ...not even the climbers, Heano didn't last long and Landa did a good pull but not spectacular and didn't gain alot of time on the front men...We have seen riders like Kiry do long pulls before without as much fanfare
Froome is very good
Team is good but no Astana/Movistar yet to contend with I don't think they are unbeatable

That is my point
(and I never said they should all be there at the end ..I do know cycling :rolleyes: ...my point is what the climbers are like at the end)
Well yeah Kwiatkowski is obviously ill and that doesn't bode well, and I see your point. However, we only get to see an hour or so live and Sky have actually been put under tremendous pressure, Poels did a lot of work before the final climb and has been in early breakaways as well, Landa and Henao had to work earlier as well. They actually looked very strong today, with four riders among the last 20. I think all their riders here will be in the Tour team, plus Thomas, but maybe not with Kwiatkowski, but with Kiryienka instead, depending on how Kwiatkowski recovers.
 
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Re: Re:

HelloDolly said:
Jolene said:
HelloDolly said:
Ha ha ...Its HelloDolly to you btw :D

I hope Landa rides well at the Tour and should be in the team but he is certainly not where he needs to be if last man for Froome in the mountains

Give the guy a break! :p He's coming off an illness and, according to Spanish media, was in a lot of pain on his right hip from that fall yesterday (looking at the pic of it on twitter it looks like he couldn't swing his right leg over the bike) so IMHO he did great. Plus he was the guy who pulled the most for Froome in the mountains,what more was he supposed to do?


I made the point that he is not where he needs to be ...whatever the reason

And you come back about give the guy a break

This is a discussion about his form....not a personal validation
If I cannot make a valid point without being made to feel I am attacking the rider ....what is the point

I thought we re discussing cycling not forming a fan club

We are discussing his form...and then you make comments about him not being great without looking at the facts. He's been ill with the flu (and looking at the Giro I'd argue that he was ill with this flu bug before he actually stopped, based on his performance and the false comments about allergies) and now he's sore from a hard fall. Now before the fall yesterday he was doing the best of Froone's helpers. And even with the tumble he took the most important pull yesterday, and even after pulling off he only finished right behind Sergio. And today he twice was the main helper for Froome.

All I was saying is look at what he's done for Froome based on what his condition is right now. :)

I wouldn't be worried about him, I'd be worried about Poels.
 
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This night I dreamed that I was Mikel Landa. :p

I (i.e. Mikel Landa) was caught in a prison but managed to escape. Then Contador and Froome came chasing after me. I was running desperately trying to lose them in a forest and they sent a Warg (one of those big ugly wolf things from LoTR) after me, but it got killed by an ent, because apparently Landa is buddies with ents. Then I stumbled upon a frozen river and I decided I would try to distance Contador and Froome by skating over the frozen river. At that point I was wondering what the time gaps were and somehow I was aware that people on CN were watching this and they were also confused about the time gaps and were complaining about the unreliable GPS. Then it was reported that Landa (i.e. me) had a 2 minute gap, but it wasn't clear whether this gap was on the Froome/Contador group or on another chasing group. Somebody from CN (I think it was Miburo) said that the gap on Froome/Contador was actually much bigger, namely - dead serious, not in a hyperbolic fashion - 2 years. Then I was relieved to know I'd definitively lost my chasers and I woke up. :D
 
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Maaaaaaaarten said:
This night I dreamed that I was Mikel Landa. :p

I (i.e. Mikel Landa) was caught in a prison but managed to escape. Then Contador and Froome came chasing after me. I was running desperately trying to lose them in a forest and they sent a Warg (one of those big ugly wolf things from LoTR) after me, but it got killed by an ent, because apparently Landa is buddies with ents. Then I stumbled upon a frozen river and I decided I would try to distance Contador and Froome by skating over the frozen river. At that point I was wondering what the time gaps were and somehow I was aware that people on CN were watching this and they were also confused about the time gaps and were complaining about the unreliable GPS. Then it was reported that Landa (i.e. me) had a 2 minute gap, but it wasn't clear whether this gap was on the Froome/Contador group or on another chasing group. Somebody from CN (I think it was Miburo) said that the gap on Froome/Contador was actually much bigger, namely - dead serious, not in a hyperbolic fashion - 2 years. Then I was relieved to know I'd definitively lost my chasers and I woke up. :D

That. Is. Awesome.
PS- Was Taxus in your dream?

--
I once dreamed I was in a POW camp somewhere in Spain during some sort of war, and Rui Costa was a prisoner there too, who led a group of us in an escape. This was when Rui was World Champion, and in the dream, he'd somehow gotten hold of some markers and drawn the rainbow bands on his prisoner shirt. We all escaped during the night. We almost got captured again when we almost ran into some enemy troops but were spared when JRod, who was in that army and out on a scouting expedition, recognized Rui from their racing days and directed us to go a different way. Then Rui led the whole gang over the border into Portugal, where we were met by his whole family - parents, grandparents, a brother, various cousins, etc - and everybody took one or two prisoners and hid them in wagons and trucks, etc and sneaked everyone off to safety. I was put on a boat that was crossing to America. It actually ended up being pretty nice in the end because all the Rui relatives were all super nice. :D
 
IMO Sky will be a bit uncertain about G as a 2nd Leader and will keep Froome, Mikel and G up there in the GC if they can.
Froome and Landa's personalities are very different and Landa hasn't already been cost a Vuelta as he had to work for Froome. Wiggins didn't like the challenge of a team mate where as I think Froome would use it to his advantage.
 
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This is a good point. Landa being in the tour, has his year finish in terms of grand tours possibilities...

But i think he will give everything for froome. He was brilliant with aru.
 

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