Potentiality. Who is the best Grand Tour Contender?

[gustienordic]

Rolland is certainly talented, but I think a little too inconsistent. He's a good top 10 tour guy though. Pinot I also think should be a when, not an if. That boy can climb, maybe not as well as Quintana, but I think he will still win more than one GT.

 

[42x16ss]

Quintana is looking the most likely out of that list, closely followed by Pinot. Those two certainly fall into the "when" category. After them, I'd put my money on Uran, Betancur, TJVG and Henao.

Kelderman? Talented but still a level below the above IMO. Good TT though. Porte? I'm going to say that Sky are already playing with fire and leave it there.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Rolland is certainly talented, but I think a little too inconsistent. He's a good top 10 tour guy though. Pinot I also think should be a when, not an if. That boy can climb, maybe not as well as Quintana, but I think he will still win more than one GT.

The issue with Pinot (and Rolland) will be their focus on TdF. Can't see them winning that for the foreseeable future. Too much competition and generally the winner will need very good TT skills. Of course Pinot can get lucky with the Parcours and field, but it will be a long shot imo.

 

[staubsauger]

Betancur in his current shape could do a chuck for the Vuelta victory as he has got a good punch. Does he ride it?

Pinot could win a TdF if Preudhomme design a Zomegnan-style mountainous Tour parcours fo a pure climber like Thibaut is to get a new Frech winner. Still he has to improve his climbing and accelaration to distance the likes of Froome and Contador.

Quintana needs a leadership role and a GT without to many tt miles. It depends on where Valverdes focus will be the next years. If he choose for the Tour again, Quintane could chuck for a Victory in the Vuelta or the Giro. A TdF victory should be harder to get for Quintana. He has to improve his tt in that case. Anyway a route disgned for Pinot should also benefit Quintana.

The others are not that great prospects in my opinion. Van Garderen for a gt with many tt miles. But he got outclimbed in California by Acevedo. Without a improve in his climbing skills I can't see him winning a gt.

Fuglsang could get a suprise Top 5 or even better at the Vuelta this year. The route suits him, because he's more a hilly rider instead of a real climber. But he's doing the Tour and I doubt his climbing is good enough to play a decent role there.

 

[Pippo_San]

Just because them Frenchies see a talent doesn't mean it's such a BIG talent.

Rolland and Pinot are definitely talents, but they're way overrated imho.
Much like a certain RaboFail legacy of riders.

 

[fezzer]

***Quintana
** Henao Betancur, Porte
* TJVG, Pinot, Uran

Looking good for Colombian cycling!

How do you rate Majka's chances in the future?

 

[Jason_Mercier]

Just because them Frenchies see a talent doesn't mean it's such a BIG talent.

Rolland and Pinot are definitely talents, but they're way overrated imho.
Much like a certain RaboFail legacy of riders.

In the last 15/20 years the only riders which have won an stage of the TDF with minus than 23 years are Jan Ullrich, Filippo Pozzato, Peter Sagan and Thibaut Pinot.

Do you remember any climber in the last decades that with 22 years and in his first GT won an stage and was 2° in the queen one of the Alps?

With the TT kilometers of this 2013 TDF Pinot could have been 5° or 6° in the final GC of the past edition.



Overrated

 

[Netserk]

I would hardly call any stage in that edition worthy of the title 'queen stage'.

 

[PCutter]

Quintana is the obvious choice for mine.

Porte may sneak in a win before Quintana on the back of his age and team, but Qintana's the only one on that list that I think stands out as a possible multiple GT winner.

Surprised for all the TJ love (may be because of his recent win in a domestic race). Without a 2012 style parcours I don't see him winning anything. Interestingly in a recent interview Porte rates Talansky as the best of the new American generation by some distance. I don't think he appreciated TJ talking smack at PN

 

[Rajna31]

TJVG and Porte have better potential than Quintana because Quintana can never become an elite TTer. Porte and TJVG has improved their climbing in recent years and they might have the potential to become elite ones like Evans or Wiggins for example.

But since the Vuelta and the Giro seem to rely on mountain stages and very little flat TTing (Acquarone might change that a bit but not by much), so Quintana has the best shot winning one of those. But if we are talking about the Tour, he has to be a little below TJVG and Porte. Same for Pinot and Betancur.

 

[gustienordic]

Talansky >>>>>>>>> Tj...

 

[Afrank]

TJVG and Porte have better potential than Quintana because Quintana can never become an elite TTer. Porte and TJVG has improved their climbing in recent years and they might have the potential to become elite ones like Evans or Wiggins for example.

But since the Vuelta and the Giro seem to rely on mountain stages and very little flat TTing (Acquarone might change that a bit but not by much), so Quintana has the best shot winning one of those. But if we are talking about the Tour, he has to be a little below TJVG and Porte. Same for Pinot and Betancur.

Why is it that all it takes is one TT heavy Tour to make everyone think the young guys with the most potential are the TTers? Quintana has shown 10x the potential of any young rider whose strengths lies in the TT. Even if TJ, Porte, and other TTers improve their climbing to a much higher level, they will never be close to the climbing level of Quintana. And it's completely possible for Quintana to improve his TTing to a level where he can not lose too much time to the time trialists and still be able to kill them in the mountains (where most GT's are decided).

 

[Kokoso]

My vote goes for Quintana. He seems to be exceptional climber who can put minutes on others and his TT maybe isn't best of all, but it's rather above average and he can still improve there. So combined together...

I'd go with Talansky and Pinot for another spots. TJVG - if there's lot of flat TT kilometres.
Betancur is still enigma. His TT has been poor until now - but he also can get better there.
Kreuziger for me is as good choice as any of them except Quintana. He has at least proved that he can handle 3 weeks of racing. An he has 5th place in the bag already - and some other top ten spots. And I believe that he still can get better and if he's lucky GT win is possible.

 

[SafeBet]

In the last 15/20 years the only riders which have won an stage of the TDF with minus than 23 years are Jan Ullrich, Filippo Pozzato, Peter Sagan and Thibaut Pinot.

I'm always amazed by the amount of talent this guy has wasted

And seriously Kwiatkowski is way underrated on this forum. He's clearly among the three best GT prospect of his generation.

 

[ILovecycling]

Quintana is obviously couple of levels above all of them.He is worse in TT than VG and Porte,....Kelderman and Talansky arent GC contenders for win at all
And he is already better in climbing than VG and Porte ...only two man who can follow him imo are Pinot and Betancur from the young guys.

I really like Valverde and I wish him Top5 or podium finish at Tour,but I seriously wish he will **** it up and Quintana will be the leader for Movistar

 

[melkemugg]

Pinot is the french hero we have waited all our life for.

 

[Parrulo]

Why is it that all it takes is one TT heavy Tour to make everyone think the young guys with the most potential are the TTers? Quintana has shown 10x the potential of any young rider whose strengths lies in the TT. Even if TJ, Porte, and other TTers improve their climbing to a much higher level, they will never be close to the climbing level of Quintana. And it's completely possible for Quintana to improve his TTing to a level where he can not lose too much time to the time trialists and still be able to kill them in the mountains (where most GT's are decided).

^^This, even on a itt heavy parcour like last year a not so talented pure climber like VDB was able to beat TJVG, Quintana would have crushed him.

Call me when TJVG wins a proper stage race like Pais Vasco, TdS, PN, TA or the dauphine and not the ToC with a super weak field.

 

[Netserk]

^^This, even on a itt heavy parcour like last year a not so talented pure climber like VDB was able to beat TJVG, Quintana would have crushed him.

Call me when quintana wins a proper stage race like Pais Vasco, TdS, PN, TA or the dauphine and not the ToC with a super weak field.

I think you mean TJVG

 

[Parrulo]

I think you mean TJVG

Lol ya, i was multi tasking so give me a break

 

[The Hitch]

Why is it that all it takes is one TT heavy Tour to make everyone think the young guys with the most potential are the TTers? Quintana has shown 10x the potential of any young rider whose strengths lies in the TT. Even if TJ, Porte, and other TTers improve their climbing to a much higher level, they will never be close to the climbing level of Quintana. And it's completely possible for Quintana to improve his TTing to a level where he can not lose too much time to the time trialists and still be able to kill them in the mountains (where most GT's are decided).

Thing is we've seen loads of tters massively improve their climbing to the point that they are climbing with or even dropping gt winners. Wiggins serves as an extreme example of how far pure tters can improve climbing and end up dropping Nibali.

We haven't seen any pure climbers suddenly learn to tt as champions. They can limit their losses but not suddenly learn to compete with cancellara.

 

[Roderick]

Someone voted Fuglsang?

 

[Contadoraus Schlecks]

Thing is we've seen loads of tters massively improve their climbing to the point that they are climbing with or even dropping gt winners. Wiggins serves as an extreme example of how far pure tters can improve climbing and end up dropping Nibali.

We haven't seen any pure climbers suddenly learn to tt as champions. They can limit their losses but not suddenly learn to compete with cancellara.

Contador did it

 

[Bavarianrider]

The guy that has actually done a really good GT, of course

 

[The Hitch]

Get back to me when Anton does it

 

[Telmisartan new]

Okay, Quintana is pretty much everyone's choice and rightly so. The interest in the poll is in the other guys.

I think Porte could win a GT at some point, looks like post Wiggins it'll be Uran for Giro,Froome for Tour and Henao for Vuelta but only if both Colombians stay at Sky. Could see Porte leading Sky at the Giro in future and winning it. I seen something in P-N i liked from Porte, he had a load of pressure on his shoulders after demanding more opportunities from management during last year and he raced as cool as a cucumber even when Talansky looked the strongest in the race, Porte is very tough mentally and that's what winning GT's requires plus he has an all round game.