Potentiality. Who is the best Grand Tour Contender?

[Netserk]

What has Porte ever done in a GT?

The only thing is his overrated 7th place in Giro '10.

 

[Flamin]

De Gendt is definitely missing in this poll.

 

[Afrank]

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

I'm kind of hoping this too, partly because I want to see what Quintana can do when unleashed in a GT and partly for CQ reasons. Is that bad?

 

[staubsauger]

If Pinot is able to continue his early promise from last year, there's absolutely no reason for him, Quintana or Betancur to improve their time trail that much. Because in that case the Tour would most likely become the climbers Grand Tour that the Giro was in the last decade.

Maybe there will be another organizator instead of Preudhomme then, but the French's will include as much mountains as possible (Maybe even unpaved roads for the first time) to get a native winner once again.

It's like in the 80's when they include massive amounts of time trail to favour Hinault.

 

[Afrank]

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.

Good point, but I would add that in Wiggins case at least everything went perfect. Minimal mountains, heavy on TT kms, not the most competition. Plus if one of the top climbers was there, like Contador for example, things could have been much different.

The TTers will give the climbers like Quintana, Pinot, Betancur, etc. plenty of competition, but I think Quintana will come out better than TTers for the most part.

 

[Jason_Mercier]

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

Madeleine, Croix De Fer, Mollard, Toussuire.

Better we call queen stage Coll de la Gallina or Ézaro

 

[Jason_Mercier]

You say the short one in Romandie didn't suit Pinot yet by that logic, the longer lumpy one in Pais Vasco would have suiting him more but he still finished nearly 3 minutes behind Quintana.

In PV he didnt have legs... I thought was obvious.

 

[Rajna31]

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.

Exactly my point. That's why the most potential lies in the guys that are excellent TTers and are working on their climbing, not the other way around. But if you ask me which one is most likely to win aGT it has to be of course Quintana, but I can't see him having the potential of TJVG or Porte if they can really improve their climbing.

 

[Pippo_San]

In PV he didnt have legs... I thought was obvious.

Your fanboyism is driving you nuts dude. Relax, take a deep breath.
It's not like he's gonna win the Tour soon anyway.

Mind you, he'll probably never win one

 

[Jason_Mercier]

Your fanboyism is driving you nuts dude. Relax, take a deep breath.
It's not like he's gonna win the Tour soon anyway.

Mind you, he'll probably never win one

I like his riding style. I am only putting facts in reality perspective. With Arguments not like that bold statement.

 

[Jason_Mercier]

The reality is that Quintana TT is not much better than the frenchman.
Arguments: Look at both results.

If Nairo won the Pais Vasco one was because of his climbing power and nice abilities of descender.

In a plain TT of about 40 kms Quintana would be around the 2'50/3' of loss with a top specialist. I dont see huge differences with Pinot in that case.

 

[brilleaben]

The Keldermonster.

 

[Oliver]

Why is Mollema in this poll? Same for Fuglsang.

Voted for Van Garderen.

 

[MellowJohnny]

Porte, the fact that he is with Sky who are such a well drilled team edges him ahead of TVG and Talansky

 

[gooner]

The reality is that Quintana TT is not much better than the frenchman.
Arguments: Look at both results.

If Nairo won the Pais Vasco one was because of his climbing power and nice abilities of descender.

In a plain TT of about 40 kms Quintana would be around the 2'50/3' of loss with a top specialist. I dont see huge differences with Pinot in that case.

Yes, in a flat TT Quintana would lose more time than he did at PV to the specialists.

Pinot is a good climber as well and you would think on the parcours like PV it wouldn't be your normal huge chunks of lost time like it would be in typical flat TT. Yet Pinot was still found wanting. Not even taking Tony Martin, he was owned big time by Quintana as well. This can't be dressed up.

Anyway I seem to remember Ryo saying Quintana won the National U-23 TT in Colombia when he was around 18/19.

 

[Jason_Mercier]

Why is Mollema in this poll? Same for Fuglsang.

Voted for Van Garderen.

I made the poll in 30 seconds...

Would have to be like this:


Porte (He's like a 88 sort guy, few years in cycling)
Van Garderen
Talansky
Quintana
Henao
Urán
Betancur
Rolland
Pinot
Kwiatkowski/Majka

Right now the top "prospects" for GT's. I think.

If moderators edit the poll could be fun.