Ninja of the Tour

[Andy262]

Kreuziger has regularly appeared in the Eurosport coverage, whereas Cherel has been totally anonymous

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Re:

Kreuziger has regularly appeared in the Eurosport coverage, whereas Cherel has been totally anonymous

English ESP?
But you are right, Cherel is even better in hiding. Problem is, he is (still) behind Kreuziger. If he overtakes Kreuziger tomorrow, that´d be awesome. Cherel... Cherel... nobody ever heard of him being able to finish around T-15 in a TdF. I wish him all the best. Zubeldia, I never got warm with him (Monfort was more constant in hiding). But my all time favo is DeGreef. Spotting it between 17th and 23rd with fantastic consistency middling it at 21st three times. The all time great.

Edit: Just checked; Cherel 8th in stage 12.

 

[Gloin22]

Putting the top 10 rule aside, picking the new Zubledia of 2015 is preety tough, Frank or Mollema? You really can't split them....

 

[luckyboy]

Frank for sure

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Mollema actually pulled the group today so he failed

 

[hrotha]

If Frank wins this it'll be a travesty. It's clearly between Samu and Mollema, and I favour the former.

 

[Guybrush]

*** the rules! Pauwels is my man, almost 0 tv time

 

[Scarponi]

Those two Africans from eritrea cause Phil and paul never mentioned them

Almost had a mental meltdown when they told me they were from Eritrea and warren barguil won a stage in the Tour of Spain

 

[De Snelle Duif]

Re:

**** the rules! Pauwels is my man, almost 0 tv time

He got interviewed daily by the Belgian Press though, and spent loads of time in breaks

 

[Jancouver]

The "Ninja of the Tour" should be some well known name that you had no idea was even participating in this race.

My pick:

Stijn Devolder (2x Flanders winner, 3x Belgium Champ etc)

I really had no idea he was even here and dont even remember hearing his name or seeing his face on TV camera.

He is the real Ninja IMO

 

[Tank Engine]

Re:

If Frank wins this it'll be a travesty. It's clearly between Samu and Mollema, and I favour the former.

I saw a lot of Samu in the Alps, he didn't make the top 10, so I can't vote for him.

To be honest, no-one reached anywhere near the dizzy heights of Zubeldia in the Ninja jersey competition. Frank got into a break and did a lot of yo-yoing off the back of the group to hog the camera. Admittedly Mollema scored multiple penalty points today by pulling on the Alpe, but he gets my vote.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re:

**** the rules! Pauwels is my man, almost 0 tv time

What are you talking about? He has been in the break on half the stages.

 

[Tarnum]

Re:

By OP rules he is. But if you find another one, feel free to let us all know... SSanchez is out. At least german commentators talked lengths of him today, plus he was on finish line interview yesterday, and ofc finally got his T-10 placing...

57 mins or not, Kreuziger stands tall at 17th... the 2015 true TdF-Ninja

Nope. The OP rules for some reason said that if you're top 5 in the TTT, which Saxo was, you're disqualified.

 

[Rechtschreibfehl3r]

Re:

The "Ninja of the Tour" should be some well known name that you had no idea was even participating in this race.

My pick:

Stijn Devolder (2x Flanders winner, 3x Belgium Champ etc)

I really had no idea he was even here and dont even remember hearing his name or seeing his face on TV camera.

He is the real Ninja IMO

Devolder was in the race? Really? I had no Idea!

Of the top 10 Mollema is obviously the most Ninja, but his name was mentioned quite often (atleast on German Eurospot).

 

[MikeTichondrius]

Guys...There's no contest here. Zero attacks, zero pulls, 13th in the end. Vote for Samu. Mollema got too much attention!

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

Ok, no rules then its DURASEK Kristijan... its getting absurd. But it was a good thread to start...

 

[doperhopper]

Re:

The "Ninja of the Tour" should be some well known name that you had no idea was even participating in this race.

My pick:

Stijn Devolder (2x Flanders winner, 3x Belgium Champ etc)

I really had no idea he was even here and dont even remember hearing his name or seeing his face on TV camera.

He is the real Ninja IMO

Here's the challenger in this category: Pippo Pozzato!

Couldn't believe my eyes, but yes, he's there.

 

[Red Rick]

Yeah, Samu got this.

 

[Vino's Mum]

Mikaël Cherel for me. Began with a solid 198th in the ITT, and now up to 18th on GC.

Ok, there was a minor infraction of the ninja code when he placed 8th on the stage to Plateau de Beille, but he finished very discreetly on his own over 6 minutes down on Murito.

Excellent career-long ninja stats, with a best-ever result of second (once) in a Romandie stage won by Vino: http://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/Mikael_Cherel

 

[ILovecycling]

Re:

**** the rules! Pauwels is my man, almost 0 tv time

he was in the good break against majka in the pyrenees, lot of tv time


I think Cherel is the real winner, he was a bit on tv but lot less in comparison with others and he did great gc result

 

[carton]

OP, please make this a vote.

I'm still torn between Samu and Serge. Samu is the formulaic champion, but Serge was beyond uncovered. Samu got mentioned when he got dropped from the lead group, also as Tejay's helper and on the descents. Not so Pauwels. No one thought he had any kind of a chance for a top 10 on the GC at any point, even though he ended up thirteenth. Thirteenth. In the Tour de France. Ahead of Barguil, Thomas and Pinot. He was mentioned in the breakaways, but only listed, as no one seriously though he was a contender to even win the stage. I mean, Pauwels has one win in his pro career, and he didn't even get to stand on the podium -it was a hand down from a DQ 4 years after the race. Now that is some deep, deep level ninja stuff. You all know he deserves this award.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Can I change my vote?

To Pippo Pozzato. Who I didn't even know was in this Tour!

 

[Jancouver]

Re: Re:

The "Ninja of the Tour" should be some well known name that you had no idea was even participating in this race.

My pick:

Stijn Devolder (2x Flanders winner, 3x Belgium Champ etc)

I really had no idea he was even here and dont even remember hearing his name or seeing his face on TV camera.

He is the real Ninja IMO

Here's the challenger in this category: Pippo Pozzato!

Couldn't believe my eyes, but yes, he's there.

I have to agree, thats a pretty good choice.

... What a wasted talent anyway. But again, I'm not here to be judging anybody as apparently I'm not the Chosen One so perhaps one day he will take a good look at that tattoo on his back and do some reckoning himself

 

[FoxxyBrown1111]

On a more serious note: For me Kreuziger is the true ninja. He was barely mentioned by the (german) commentators, and never shown on TV, leave alone being interviewed. And his "T-10" in the TTT came by pure chance. Even the official TdF page doesnt count it (correctly) as a T-10, since 40+ % of riders do finish T-10 in a TTT. That is like we consider every rider who made a "normal" stage T-10 not available for ninja if he finished better than 80th. That would be ridiculous...

A close 2nd (even if having a T-10 in a "normal" stage) is Cherel. But he is one place down to Kreuziger in the CG. A undeniable fact, and thus out of contention...

 

[joe_papp]

Re:

On a more serious note: For me Kreuziger is the true ninja. He was barely mentioned by the (german) commentators, and never shown on TV, leave alone being interviewed. And his "T-10" in the TTT came by pure chance. Even the official TdF page doesnt count it (correctly) as a T-10, since 40+ % of riders do finish T-10 in a TTT. That is like we consider every rider who made a "normal" stage T-10 not available for ninja if he finished better than 80th. That would be ridiculous...

A close 2nd (even if having a T-10 in a "normal" stage) is Cherel. But he is one place down to Kreuziger in the CG. A undeniable fact, and thus out of contention...

Kreuziger seems like the moral victor here, "T-10" in TTT or not.

I saw SSanchez on NBCSports Tour coverage a lot, especially after TvG abandoned. But genuinely didn't catch any mention of Kreuziger before then (admittedly I didn't watch much of the first week tho).

Anyway, this has been the best thread on CN during TdF. Cheers.

OP - can we have your decision on the official ninja GC soon?