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You cant keep somebody when they've decided to move on.bigcog said:Think Sky will come to regret letting him go, or not giving him a better deal so he stayed.
Libertine Seguros said:Well, at least the soap opera is done with. Let's face it, he was never going to be option A at Sky, I dare say Movistar will have had to give him certain guarantees on his calendar to get him to sign, since let's face it, he got one chance to lead at Sky, then a supposed co-leadership role at this year's Giro alongside George Hincapie, and when both of them went down George got the team riding to limit his losses and Mikel was abandoned to his fate. The inevitable problem with a team like Sky is that the budget can buy you a lot of great riders and the success can tempt a lot of great riders, but they will eventually outgrow their role in the team, and especially as long as Froome has unfinished business in Spain that's two GT leader roles out the window, and with riders like Thomas and Kwiatkowski developing into GT level climbers as well as the pantheon of world class super-doms they've got like Poels and Landa, that's a lot of riders left to compete over a limited calendar of grade A leadership. The fact Landa's skillset means he's not got the option of being repaid in Classics leadership will also impact what freedom he's given. He won't be the first or the last rider to go to Sky after going well at a GT only to leave later feeling he wasn't given the freedom, but that's the price you pay when you sign for a team where the competition for the top roles is so fierce.
Yes, because the bad BBQ was obviously cooked by Landa and the moto crash this year was Landa's fault as wellhazaran said:Libertine Seguros said:Well, at least the soap opera is done with. Let's face it, he was never going to be option A at Sky, I dare say Movistar will have had to give him certain guarantees on his calendar to get him to sign, since let's face it, he got one chance to lead at Sky, then a supposed co-leadership role at this year's Giro alongside George Hincapie, and when both of them went down George got the team riding to limit his losses and Mikel was abandoned to his fate. The inevitable problem with a team like Sky is that the budget can buy you a lot of great riders and the success can tempt a lot of great riders, but they will eventually outgrow their role in the team, and especially as long as Froome has unfinished business in Spain that's two GT leader roles out the window, and with riders like Thomas and Kwiatkowski developing into GT level climbers as well as the pantheon of world class super-doms they've got like Poels and Landa, that's a lot of riders left to compete over a limited calendar of grade A leadership. The fact Landa's skillset means he's not got the option of being repaid in Classics leadership will also impact what freedom he's given. He won't be the first or the last rider to go to Sky after going well at a GT only to leave later feeling he wasn't given the freedom, but that's the price you pay when you sign for a team where the competition for the top roles is so fierce.
He dropped 30 minutes in the second Giro, not sure what the team has got to do with that. Should they push him up the entire climb because he obviously wasn't remotely able to ride that day.
He got two chances and screwed up both before the team even became a factor.
Red Rick said:Landa Giro and Quintana Tour seems all but certain.
The real decision is whether Landa doubles up in the Tour or the Vuelta, especially looking at how good Landa was in the Tour this year. A lot is gonna depend on routes, how the Giro goes though and how Valverde recovers. That could well be a climbing squad that is better than Sky.
Forever The Best said:Yes, because the bad BBQ was obviously cooked by Landa and the moto crash this year was Landa's fault as wellhazaran said:He dropped 30 minutes in the second Giro, not sure what the team has got to do with that. Should they push him up the entire climb because he obviously wasn't remotely able to ride that day.
He got two chances and screwed up both before the team even became a factor.
But if Froome wants Tour and Vuelta, how do they square that with the other guys who they've been fobbing off with minor races and co-leaderships for the last however long? Remember Leopold König signed for them off the back of finishing top 10 at the Tour, and the following year was nothing more than a middling domestique at the Giro. Guys like Poels and Thomas can't be palmed off forever (notwithstanding that I'm convinced that they'd rather back Sky lifer Thomas than wildcard Landa even in co-leadership positions and believe that what we saw on the road backs that up. And that frankly, even now, the team would rather back Thomas than a hypothetical Landa that stayed with them for 2018, all being equal) and the team's clearly committed itself to Froome long-term which restricts the other options, as they've shown themselves to be quite tactically inflexible in the past - such as having Froome domestiquing in the leader's jersey in the 2011 Vuelta or making both Urán and Henao drop back to pace Wiggins after he lost his nerve in the 2013 Giro, so Froome would have to fall apart Indurain '96 style for them to consider a plan B in a race Froome was leading.rick james said:Would have preferred him to stay at sky and be the leader at the giro, not a co leader just Landa as top dog at the giro for sky so I can understand why he's moved on....
vedrafjord said:Yep says in interviews "I want to ride for myself" and then joins Quintana's team. I would have liked to see him join Trek.
vedrafjord said:Yep says in interviews "I want to ride for myself" and then joins Quintana's team. I would have liked to see him join Trek.
portugal11 said:Hate to see him in movistar. Unzue is very conservative and i'm hoping he will not ruin landa's panache like he did with quintana.