Philippe Gilbert on Fire!

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Unless we're talking about the # of wins, I'm confident he can do even better. The Worlds + 2 monuments is already better. Add a 3rd monument and 2 Tour stages and it's much better.

 

[jens_attacks]

Valverde as good as he is never dominated in this style.

agreed,neither were di luca,rebellin,bettini,bartoli and i dare to say not even jaja.
i don't think phil will win any ardennes classics next year but just because he will peak earlier for sanremo and flanders.the biggest shock of course will be when he will take roubaix too.it will be a good season.

 

[Anonymous]

You honestly think Phinney will be a leader at BMC with Phil working for him? Keep dreaming.

Did I say that?

Oh, I know what he meant. The only time you'll see Gilbert doing domestique work will be for Cadel Evans at the Tour. "

thank you for agreeing with me. As I said, Gilbert isnt too big to do domestique duties.

I would hazard though that it will be more than just the Tour, races like Ster ZLM Toer that he won this year, next year he may be happy to try and help one of his teammates win.

Of course I think he will be leader for all the big races, I never said he wouldnt, but there are a lot of smaller races like Ster, Eneco where for lotto he was there go to guy, but for bmc he may be happy to work as either co-leader or guide for some of the other riders, van avermaet, phinney etc.

you have a very strange way of interpreting my words.

 

[El Pistolero]

Did I say that?



thank you for agreeing with me. As I said, Gilbert isnt too big to do domestique duties.

I would hazard though that it will be more than just the Tour, races like Ster ZLM Toer that he won this year, next year he may be happy to try and help one of his teammates win.

Of course I think he will be leader for all the big races, I never said he wouldnt, but there are a lot of smaller races like Ster, Eneco where for lotto he was there go to guy, but for bmc he may be happy to work as either co-leader or guide for some of the other riders, van avermaet, phinney etc.

you have a very strange way of interpreting my words.

You do realize that in 2009, when Gilbert won the Ster ZLM Toer, he was already a teammate of GVA and Cadel Evans? The only other star that joined now that wasn't there in 2009, is Thor Hushovd. And he won't be riding the Ster ZLM Toer. And Phinney won't get to be a leader, he'll have to proof him self first.

Gilbert guiding GVA... Wouldn't count on it

 

[just some guy]

You do realize that in 2009, when Gilbert won the Ster ZLM Toer, he was already a teammate of GVA and Cadel Evans? The only other star that joined now that wasn't there in 2009, is Thor Hushovd. And he won't be riding the Ster ZLM Toer. And Phinney won't get to be a leader, he'll have to proof him self first.

Gilbert guiding GVA... Wouldn't count on it

GVA is a better rider now he know what rider he is and I bet BMC want Gilbert to in smaller races to create a better team and this will benefit Gilbert in the future.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

GVA is a better rider now he know what rider he is

.........................meaning: a rider who lucked out with Paris-Tours. His only competition was Marcato, a born loser. The race circumstances were all in his favor.

Van Avermaet is a strong rider, but not a winner. That hasn't changed.

 

[just some guy]

.........................meaning: a rider who lucked out with Paris-Tours. His only competition was Marcato, a born loser. The race circumstances were all in his favor.

Van Avermaet is a strong rider, but not a winner. That hasn't changed.

When he stopped playing football and started riding and in his early days at Lotto he thought he was a sprinter.

Now he is a classics rider and can sprint from a small group but a 1 day rider rather than a sprinter.

He has gone forward this after 2 backwards years he won more than Paris tours and luck plays a part in a lot of wins

 

[El Pistolero]

When he stopped playing football and started riding and in his early days at Lotto he thought he was a sprinter.

Now he is a classics rider and can sprint from a small group but a 1 day rider rather than a sprinter.

He has gone forward this after 2 backwards years he won more than Paris tours and luck plays a part in a lot of wins

Now he just needs to know what classics to really focus on, and imo it's not the hilly ones.

He'd be better of focusing on Milan-San Remo(it's a classic for everyone tbh), Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix. And then do some hilly classics like Clasica San Sebastian and such. Kinda like Johan Museeuw. But he should be a domestique in races like LBL and Lombardia because he isn't good enough to win those.

 

[just some guy]

Now he just needs to know what classics to really focus on, and imo it's not the hilly ones.

He'd be better of focusing on Milan-San Remo(it's a classic for everyone tbh), Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix. And then do some hilly classics like Clasica San Sebastian and such. Kinda like Johan Museeuw. But he should be a domestique in races like LBL and Lombardia because he isn't good enough to win those.

Agreed and Qatar, Eneco etc and go up the road so BMC can sit back in RVV and he might get lucky

 

[The Hitch]

In theory euskatel should be a real chance on the muur, with two excellent contendors.. samu goes first, anton follows wheels or vica-versa. But it is of course difficult to be really good at the right time of the race.

Just Anton do what he did for the first half of the Muur in 2010, set a real high pace for Contador, and Samu comes up from behind like Cuddles.

 

[Angliru]

No,. Just like cancellara he will marked out of races. We saw it in Lombardia at the end of the season.

he was also the leader at Omega Pharma, that wont be the case at BMC, very different circumstances.

That said, he proved with the amount of work he did helping Taylor Phinney in the mid season races that hes not above domestique duties.

Gilbert was running on fumes by Lombardia time. It had little to do with him being marked out of the race.

 

[The Hitch]

.........................meaning: a rider who lucked out with Paris-Tours. His only competition was Marcato, a born loser. The race circumstances were all in his favor.

Van Avermaet is a strong rider, but not a winner. That hasn't changed.

Marcato is an awesome rider who could go on to do great things. One of the most loyal riders too, frequently utalising his talents to help anyone from the likes of pure climbers like Ricco to sprinters like Bozic.

Your labelling him as a loser is unfortunate.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Marcato is an awesome rider who could go on to do great things. One of the most loyal riders too, frequently utalising his talents to help anyone from the likes of pure climbers like Ricco to sprinters like Bozic.

Your labelling him as a loser is unfortunate.

Very good post.

 

[Angliru]

they should have, but its the schlecks. did we expect any different?

For some odd reason I really did. They just rolled over on their backs and begged him to tickle their bellies. They decided they were going to ride for the 2 other podium spots rather than risk fighting for the win and hve one of them being overtaken by the pursuants.

 

[Kvinto]

yeah, labelling Marcato a loser after seeing the way he lost Paris - Tours is quite unethical

 

[roundabout]

Maybe it's unethical but the man can write a book on how not to win races by now.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Marcato is an awesome rider who could go on to do great things. One of the most loyal riders too, frequently utalising his talents to help anyone from the likes of pure climbers like Ricco to sprinters like Bozic.

Your labelling him as a loser is unfortunate.

Just telling it like I see it. I know you always root for the underdogs, but it is what it is. Him being loyal, nice and a good domestique has nothing to do with it.

 

[greenedge]

I think he shall win at least one Monument and probably AGR/FW. ( I wonder if Evans will support him at those races??? or whether GVA/ Ballan can do enough of a good job ) The WC awaits him as well which suits him to a T. If he wins the WC and can do some good jobs in his team whilst winning some classics i think that would be rated as successful for him.

Can we have a " i have no idea" option in this poll??? Because it could swing so many ways.

His main opponents in my view are Sagan, Cancellara at M-SR/Flanders, Cav/ All of the Sky train at M-SR 9 though i expect a lot of attacking there next year ), EBH if he decides to do the Ardennes, Chavanel, JROD who should win at least one classic sometime soon and Valverde ( who has a handy domestique deluxe in Visconti ). Mollema and Henao could also threaten sometime. Vanendert as well could emerge as his biggest challenger. We saw at the TDF he had what it took and he has done a lot of work for Phil over the year. Now he has his own aspirations.

 

[El Pistolero]

I think he shall win at least one Monument and probably AGR/FW. ( I wonder if Evans will support him at those races??? or whether GVA/ Ballan can do enough of a good job ) The WC awaits him as well which suits him to a T. If he wins the WC and can do some good jobs in his team whilst winning some classics i think that would be rated as successful for him.

Can we have a " i have no idea" option in this poll??? Because it could swing so many ways.

His main opponents in my view are Sagan, Cancellara at M-SR/Flanders, Cav/ All of the Sky train at M-SR 9 though i expect a lot of attacking there next year ), EBH if he decides to do the Ardennes, Chavanel, JROD who should win at least one classic sometime soon and Valverde ( who has a handy domestique deluxe in Visconti ). Mollema and Henao could also threaten sometime. Vanendert as well could emerge as his biggest challenger. We saw at the TDF he had what it took and he has done a lot of work for Phil over the year. Now he has his own aspirations.

Lol at the bolded names. They won't be rivals next year and some will never become rivals. As for Visconti being a good domestique? Sure, he is. Not as good as GVA and Cadel Evans as domestiques though.

 

[Angliru]

I just don't see Valverde reaching the same level of performance by April. He doesn't have the advantage that Vino had of having the end of the previous season to get reacclimated into the peloton and actual racing. I'm sure that helped in his stellar return with his LBL win and Tour performance. I don't think he's going to show the same form until late in the season or even more likely 2013.

 

[catmiles]

I think he shall win at least one Monument and probably AGR/FW. ( I wonder if Evans will support him at those races??? or whether GVA/ Ballan can do enough of a good job ) The WC awaits him as well which suits him to a T. If he wins the WC and can do some good jobs in his team whilst winning some classics i think that would be rated as successful for him.

Can we have a " i have no idea" option in this poll??? Because it could swing so many ways.

His main opponents in my view are Sagan, Cancellara at M-SR/Flanders, Cav/ All of the Sky train at M-SR 9 though i expect a lot of attacking there next year ), EBH if he decides to do the Ardennes, Chavanel, JROD who should win at least one classic sometime soon and Valverde ( who has a handy domestique deluxe in Visconti ). Mollema and Henao could also threaten sometime. Vanendert as well could emerge as his biggest challenger. We saw at the TDF he had what it took and he has done a lot of work for Phil over the year. Now he has his own aspirations.

How do you do this?

 

[greenedge]

No idea Catmiles. I have never made a poll.

I think Mollema and Henao could threaten him in the future. JROD consistently finished 2nd to Gilbert in a few races this year. He did better at GDL than him. Sagan can challenge hm at M-SR next year which is one of his goals next year ( this thread is not just about the Ardenees classics but Tour of Flanders, M-SR and WC along with whether he can achieve these goals.) Chavanel this year at RvV showed that he could challenge there.

EBH might never do the Ardennes i agree with that. I do agree that Viscontis' help will be negligible. He could however do okay.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Visconti's looking like turning into more of a threat in the hilly races. Obviously not as much of one as Evans, but certainly as much as van Avermaet.

He has picked up some surprisingly good results on hilly and mountain stages recently:
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=19873
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=20054
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=20320
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=21334
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=21121
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=21131

Having been in an Italian ProConti team for the last three years, the focus of his season has been a bit different to that that I would expect it to be at Movistar. He was mediocre in the Ardennes when he gave them a go with Quick Step, but he could easily be better now he's older and stronger uphill. And of course if he attacks, he'll have the benefit of having nobody wanting to drag Valverde on behind him.

Though realistically, both Visconti and Valverde will probably sit in the favourites group and try to win a sprint of the elites. It's just whether they cover the right moves.

 

[El Pistolero]

Visconti's looking like turning into more of a threat in the hilly races. Obviously not as much of one as Evans, but certainly as much as van Avermaet.

He has picked up some surprisingly good results on hilly and mountain stages recently:
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=19873
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=20054
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=20320
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=21334
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=21121
http://cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=21131

Having been in an Italian ProConti team for the last three years, the focus of his season has been a bit different to that that I would expect it to be at Movistar. He was mediocre in the Ardennes when he gave them a go with Quick Step, but he could easily be better now he's older and stronger uphill. And of course if he attacks, he'll have the benefit of having nobody wanting to drag Valverde on behind him.

Though realistically, both Visconti and Valverde will probably sit in the favourites group and try to win a sprint of the elites. It's just whether they cover the right moves.

Visconti gets constantly beaten by Rebellin. I doubt that happens to Phil. They haven't raced against each other yet, but they're training partners, so I'm sure they know how they stand against each other. I don't really see him as a threat for the Ardennes. Just don't think Visconti has a big enough engine for the real hard races. Valverde, if in decent shape, will be isolated pretty quickly if you look at the manpower BMC and BB team has.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Visconti gets constantly beaten by Rebellin. I doubt that happens to Phil. They haven't raced against each other yet, but they're training partners, so I'm sure they know how they stand against each other. I don't really see him as a threat for the Ardennes. Just don't think Visconti has a big enough engine for the real hard races. Valverde, if in decent shape, will be isolated pretty quickly if you look at the manpower BMC and BB team has.

But I wasn't comparing him to Phil. Of course he's not going to beat Phil and I don't think I could ever say that he was unless something really weird happened. I was comparing him to Phil's backup team. And I was saying that he couldn't compare to Evans either. But in hilly classics, he might be able to compare to van Avermaet.

In that respect, he's not really a threat to win unless he's in the right break. I don't see van Avermaet as a winner of a race like La Flèche Wallonne or Liège-Bastogne-Liège anytime soon.