Net App

[johngoat]

Sam Bennet isn't selected for Tdf. Who will that play in the flat stages Voss or Dempster?

 

[mudplugger]

I doubt they would have been competitive in the flat stages even with Bennett. He has done well in his first year but the team have been strategic in putting him in races with predominantly 3rd tier sprinters which has clearly helped the results. He has also struggled with recovery in stage races which would have reduced his effectiveness further into the race.
They will probably just be grateful if they sneak a top 10 in any flat stages and hope for a bit better on the lumpier ones where the pure sprinters do not figure and the sprint comes from a small group ....where either Voss or Dempster could figure. In California they adopted this approach and went with Dempster and Thwaites, but Thwaites was ill so Dempster did the sprinting.

 

[dduff442]

I doubt they would have been competitive in the flat stages even with Bennett. He has done well in his first year but the team have been strategic in putting him in races with predominantly 3rd tier sprinters which has clearly helped the results.

Seriously?

3rd - Tour of Oman Stage 6 (Choppy finish. Kristoff 4th, Sagan 10th, Swift 11th, 29. Tom Boonen).

4th Tirreno Adriatico Stage 2 (Sagan 5th, Modolo 8th; Choppy again, Cavendish, Kittel etc further back)

5th Scheldeprijs (Kristoff 15th, Demare 21st, Viviani 42nd -- this one was pancake flat)

Finished 12th in the elite front group at Gent Wevelgem after four of his team mates crashed in the final stages having achieved a position of excellent strength.

He has also struggled with recovery in stage races which would have reduced his effectiveness further into the race.

They will probably just be grateful if they sneak a top 10 in any flat stages and hope for a bit better on the lumpier ones where the pure sprinters do not figure and the sprint comes from a small group ....where either Voss or Dempster could figure. In California they adopted this approach and went with Dempster and Thwaites, but Thwaites was ill so Dempster did the sprinting.

I don't know about recovery but it's certainly believable in a young rider. IMO the major reason behind the selection is that wildcard teams aren't brought along to sprint. Everybody wants to sprint. Wildcard teams liven up the races they're invited to if they want to be invited back.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Although I would have liked the chance to really see where Bennett is in comparison to the second tier sprinters (ie the 4th to 10th fastest guys), I think that NetApp's decision makes some sense.

Bennett wasn't going to win a bunch sprint against the big three. He also wasn't going to last into the mountains - he's very good on hills by sprinter standards, but at Tirreno it was clear that he's not yet ready for real WT mountain stages. They quite reasonably pointed out that he is already on a race schedule twice as busy as any previous year and that they have a duty of care to him. They expect big things from him over the next year and a half and throwing him into the Tour without adequate preparation wouldn't do him or them any favours.

They know how ready Bennett is better than we do, and it's notable that one person who isn't complaining about his exclusion is Bennett himself.

On the team more generally, a huge amount depends on Konig's form after his endless injury problem. I hope he has the opportunity to show his best form and sneak a top 10. But I also hope that they don't put all their eggs in that basket. They should be in every break, and in particular Machado should dump time early and target the medium mountain stages. He will have to help Konig on the real GC stages, but he should be sent to attack otherwise.