Most disappointing riders so far

[blaxland]

Here,s my list:
Keukeire cofidis=Breakthrough season last year
Ciolek=Massive potential
Hoshovd=Currently not winning very much(Rainbow curse maybe?)
Van Den Broek=?still waiting to see his 2011 TDF result.
Lloyd=not being able to defend Giro Mtn Class.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Machado is a good rider, hopefully he can get amongst it at the giro.
I think he will be between 5th-10th.

He will be one of the riders I'm supporting at the giro anyway.

Rui Costa owened in my PCM team

 

[c&cfan]

Machado is a good rider, hopefully he can get amongst it at the giro.
I think he will be between 5th-10th.

He will be one of the riders I'm supporting at the giro anyway.

Rui Costa owened in my PCM team

with that field, in his first GT, i don't believe that top ten is possible. still, i want him to be some sort of vino he has the style.

rui costa is, in my opinion, another guy for some stage races and hilly classics. i just hope that they don't end like paulinho.

time will tell.

still, we are just a few in this sport. but step by step we are conquering every sport. i can't even wait for what's coming in the next 15 years!! (bang ryo lol)

maybe me and parrulo should form the portuguese mafia?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

You seem to forget who Lulu beat at the Clasica San Sebastian. I also never said they would win any of them, I said do well in them.

And most races I watched Boom actually did disappeared at the sight of the 200km border.

1997 · Davide Rebellin
1998 · Francesco Casagrande
1999 · Francesco Casagrande
2000 · Erik Dekker
2001 · Laurent Jalabert
2002 · Laurent Jalabert
2003 · Paolo Bettini
2004 · Miguel Ángel Martín Perdiguero
2005 · Constantino Zaballa
2006 · Xavier Florencio
2007 · Leonardo Bertagnolli
2008 · Alejandro Valverde
2009 · Carlos Barredo
2010 · Luis León Sánchez

Bolded winners have already proven them self in the Ardennes classics. And last year Vinokourov was second. You know, the winner of LBL that year? Who came with good shape out of the Tour de France?

If you don't think Lulu's performance at CSS isn't an indication he could do well in the Ardennes with that form then your boy Lars Boom has no hope what so ever to ever come close to a classic win I'm afraid.

I've so far seen no indication that Lars Boom will ever come close to a classic win. He's already 25 years old, and I've yet to see a sparkle for him at the Monuments.

Exactly, bolded winners HAD ALREADY PROVEN THEMSELVES in the Ardennes classics

You reversed it by saying CSS winners should do well at Ardennes, which is not the case for the non-bolded winners here.
Fail.

Also, on the final cobble strokes, Lars Boom was the 3rd strongest in the peloton, only Hushovd could hold Cance's wheel, Boom was the 3rd one at every cobble stroke. I call that a pretty significant sign.

 

[El Pistolero]

No he wasn't. Ballan surely was better than Boom and if had worked together with Canc they would have flown away

What I said was Lulu should have done way better at the Ardennes this season and also at Paris-Nice. If you don't believe that then why did they buy him? In his form he's not going to help anyone anywhere. And you know it.

They put him in their team selection for the Ardenens for a reason you know. To help out.

 

[theyoungest]

These discussions between Dekker_T and Pistrollero never get old...

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

No he wasn't. Ballan surely was better than Boom and if had worked together with Canc they would have flown away

What I said was Lulu should have done way better at the Ardennes this season and also at Paris-Nice. If you don't believe that then why did they buy him? In his form he's not going to help anyone anywhere. And you know it.

I recommend you rewatch the final hard cobble stroke, carrefour it is i think?

 

[El Pistolero]

this.

look at all his posts in the thread, he makes no sense. Even contradicts himself.
Clearly just looking to troll.

You have to be a fool to not accept rabo are having a much better start to the season. Even if el pickle doesn't think so I am sure the team prefers 3rd and 5th places to 41st. And those results are common in most stage races also. Plus they have roughly double the total wins.

he also suggest that who cares about comparison to last year, lol who do you think made the comparison first;



wrong.

you're like a little boy who can't accept your wrong.

And yeah they were awful at agr. yet I'm sure they prefer 3 in the top 10 compared to none last year.

Hey, I just think a win in Milan-San Remo is better than a third place in Roubaix from a breakaway and a fifth place in Flanders.

So what if they had 3 in the top 10? As a team they did awful in AGR. I remember something from the HTC DS saying that he was always furious to find out there were multiple guys in the top 10 of his team but none on the podium. It means they didn't give it their all for the one with the best legs on the road. That definitely goes up for Raboshank at AGR. They were made fools in their home race. If that doesn't hurt you as a team manager then I don't know what does.

It's the equivalent of Cavendish working him self to catch the breakaway in a flat Tour stage while leading out his own sprint and still beat Farrar in the sprint.

Yes, I already said they had a much better start of the season. And then they dropped the ball after Tirreno-Adriatico. You would have expected more from a team that had such a great start to the season. Hence I find them disappointing.

Quite honestly, a fifth place in Flanders buys you nothing. Saxo was non existent as a team in Flanders until the final kilometers. So was Rabobank. We didn't see anything of Nick Nuyens until he followed Cancellara's deciding attack. Sebastian Langeveld didn't even do that. As a team, Rabo was just as non existent in the race as Saxo. Only Saxo won and Rabo got fifth. Results, results, results, blablabla. It's about how you get those results and of course also about winning the big races.

As for their result in Paris-Roubaix. Their podium had nothing to do with Rabobank as a team, but with Garmin-Cervelo and BMC.

 

[Angliru]

As for point 2: well Contador won the Tour this year without winning any solo MTF. It's not needed to do so. And Andy's win at Tourmalet was practically solo as Contador just remained in his wheel the whole time. If he has no balls then no one he's going to face this year at the Tour will have them anyway. It's a moot point you have there. There's no Pantani in this peloton.

That's technically untrue (Tourmalet). It was Andy's responsibility to drop Contador in order to gain enough time to compensate for what he anticipated to lose in the ITT, in addition to the time that he was already behind at the time. Contador did put in an attack just to see if Andy could respond and didn't contest the final sprint-that was quite plain to see IMO.

 

[El Pistolero]

That's technically untrue (Tourmalet). It was Andy's responsibility to drop Contador in order to gain enough time to compensate for what he anticipated to lose in the ITT, in addition to the time that he was already behind at the time. Contador did put in an attack just to see if Andy could respond and didn't contest the final sprint-that was quite plain to see IMO.

It's not technically untrue. He said Andy never did a solo MTF as if he wasn't capable of something like that or didn't have the balls for it. While I think we can all agree that what he did at the Tourmalet was a solo. Contador's attack at Tourmalet was very short and just to show to Andy that he wasn't going to get dropped. I'm not questioning Contador's tactics here, he didn't have to attack. All I'm saying is that Andy can win a MTF solo and he also has the balls for it. Andy is still only 25 years old.

With Contador not there this year he'll definitely finish some mountain stages solo. Unless Franki's legs are good again. Then they'll just mock with the competition together.

 

[Angliru]

I'll have to agree the poster who said sprinters in general. The high profile sprinters like Cavendish, Farrar, Greipel have all had mediocre early seasons, Cavendish especially. The wins seem to be more evenly spread out as opposed to there being one or two who have generally in the past been dominant.

 

[El Pistolero]

I'll have to agree the poster who said sprinters in general. The high profile sprinters like Cavendish, Farrar, Greipel have all had mediocre early seasons, Cavendish especially. The wins seem to be more evenly spread out as opposed to there being one or two who have generally in the past been dominant.

Definitely true although Cav seemed back on great form @Scheldeprijs. But let's not forget Cav will do 3 GTs this year and have good changes at the Worlds this year. It's even easier than last year according to Gilbert and Boonen.

Farrar has been the most disappointing one imo. Didn't expect all that much from Greipel anyway without the HTC train.

 

[seldon71]

Big, big disappointments :

POZZATO (5th in M-SR is ok, but as a highlight of your classics captain???)
HAUSSLER (any sightings after Qatar?)
GREIPEL (he has been present in quite many sprints - like in the 3rd row and placing 12th)
AG2R (while they were not expected much from, they have been such colossal under-achievers as Pro Tourers in comparison to ProContinental French teams like Cofidis, FdJ, Europcar or Saur-Sojasun that they warrant their own post!)


Minor disappointments :

LuLu Sanchez (lesser expectations, spectacularly below those)
Samu Sanchez (about there in quite a few races, but unable to capitalize, The edge gone?)
Hushovd (good form, no results to speak about)
BMC Classics season result-wise (a bit of bad luck though, Quinziato was in position to win/podium Paris-Roubaix without misfortune, Ballan one of the strongest too, but without a result)
Hoogerland (is he just yesterday's De Gendt?)
 

 

[masking_agent]

add to my list now, Thor Hushvod for his comments in velonation

 

[boomcie]

Taylor Phinney: Not so much on his performance but injuries, so I don't think he'd count.

Andre Greipel: So far one victory right? Could he still be getting used to the change of teams? Hopefully he'll get better once the Tour starts.

Tyler Farrar: Is there any rider in the peloton that can not beat him?

2 actually.

 

[FignonLeGrand]

And you think that's good?

G-W is the weakest of the classics. Next year will be better though, course will be 235km again with more hills in the final.

Well its not RvF or PR but there are only so many (semi) classics and he won one. So that makes him a dma sight better than a great many others. . . . . Farrar/ Huschovd spring to mind

 

[FignonLeGrand]

Trust me, without crashes or disease there's no way they'll lose.

Contador won't ride the Tour and if by any miracle he does then he'll be to tired anyway after that gruesome Giro.

Firstly I think having both the Schlecks fit and racing is a disadvatage for le tour. Frank dropping out last yeat left a clear leader and enahnced Andys chances. One of them could/ should have won in 2008 but it was left to Sastre to take some initiative and go win it.

I think the whole leopard thing has created a super team of super egos who dont seem to have grasped that they need to race to actually win.

If bertie isnt there I am not quite sure who will win, but I tihnk we may see someone a little less well known come through and take it.

Personally if Berite isnt there liquigas should go with nibali in the team

 

[dlwssonic]

no if contador isnt there the odds on favorite A schleck, he cant possibly screw up this time around.

 

[Parrulo]

maybe me and parrulo should form the portuguese mafia?

consider it formed

our paint logo spreads fear across the world.

we all know rui costa will win at least 3 monuments (LBL RVV and GdL) and tiago machado and nelson oliveira will win every GT they enter.

 

[hrotha]

Malian Mafia?

 

[c&cfan]

Malian Mafia?

aren't you spanish?

didn't you study history? don't you remember the name of the nation that kicked your latino's a-ss several times?

 

[Parrulo]

damn it i lost a bet on amstell gold so i have to wear the Belgian flag till the giro. i will be using our mafiavatar after that tho

 

[PedalCastro]

As an Irish fan, Roche has been major dissapointment

 

[c&cfan]

As an Irish fan, Roche has been major dissapointment

isn't he supposed to be a GT rider?
usually, does he win in the first half (pre-giro) of the season?
ag2r as a whole is disappointing so far.

 

[boomcie]

Malian Mafia?

aren't you spanish?

didn't you study history? don't you remember the name of the nation that kicked your latino's a-ss several times?

The flag you drew on your logo is the flag of Mali

I'm sorry, but he's right. It does not look like the Portuguese flag at all...