Pre Tour de France-thread

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I rate van Baarle as a better climber than Rowe. He used to be pretty decent at the hilly stuff in the U23's. But yeah, whatever Sky decide you will always leave out someone good

 

[b.broadhurst]

Sky are going to look awesome in the TTT.

G, Bernal, Castro and Van Baarle in national kits and possibly Moscon if he retains.

Only Froome, Kwia and Poels without jerseys.

 

[Robert5091]

Re:

Aye but sky will be lacking really top end climbers

I would expect Poels will be last man with Froome uphill - Bernal should go stage hunting in the Vuelta.

 

[Oliwright]

Re:

Aye but sky will be lacking really top end climbers

Poels & Thomas are atm as good as it gets!

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Martinez is a pretty good rider, so I see nothing unusual about him being selected.
I also don't see anything unusual about Breschel not being selected, it was merely a comment on how Danish media reacted when Bak (somewhat surprisingly) and Mørkøv (not at all surprisingly) were also not selected.

Exactly. People have frenzied about Martínez lately and his possible inclusion, so I found it funny that the first comment on their roster on an international and Colombian-lauding forum such as this was that Breschel was out. Which is pretty much a non-news item.

 

[DNP-Old]

La Gazzetta: Froome, Thomas, Poels, Bernal, Moscon, Kwiatkowski, Castroviejo, Rowe. Puccio as only reserve.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Van Baarle is clearly the better rider of the two, but oh well.

 

[deValtos]

I really like Rowe but I'd have chosen the dutch lad over him. He looked impressive at the Dauphine and then again at the dutch nationals. I guess Rowe has the experience I'm just a little unsure of his form this season since his injury. He's looked OK I suppose.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Both Rowe and Van Baarle are more than capable of doing the job Sky asks of them and neither will be doing anything other than that job, so it really doesn’t matter at all. Whether they take both or one plus Bernal matters because that changes the structure of the team.

 

[42x16ss]

Re: Re:

It seems to me like teams are putting significant weight on the first week in their team selection. Generally I think when in doubt taking a rouleur instead of a climbing domestique is rarely a mistake anyway.

I would like to see Bernal in the Tour, but does it really matter when he has no freedom?

exactly, that's pretty much why Astana put Rast instead of Horner on board in the 2009 Tour. Having a rolleur with 0000 ambitions never hurts. Rowe will be guaranteed to do lots of dirty work early in the stages while how effective bernal will be is unknown.

Both Sky and Bernal will benefit more from him racing the Vuelta, where he will probably share leadership (unless Froome and Sky truly do hate the sport). A classics rouleur like Rowe will balance the team far better and offers a chance to win the pavé stage if he doesn’t have to babysit Froome.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

It seems to me like teams are putting significant weight on the first week in their team selection. Generally I think when in doubt taking a rouleur instead of a climbing domestique is rarely a mistake anyway.

I would like to see Bernal in the Tour, but does it really matter when he has no freedom?

exactly, that's pretty much why Astana put Rast instead of Horner on board in the 2009 Tour. Having a rolleur with 0000 ambitions never hurts. Rowe will be guaranteed to do lots of dirty work early in the stages while how effective bernal will be is unknown.

Both Sky and Bernal will benefit more from him racing the Vuelta, where he will probably share leadership (unless Froome and Sky truly do hate the sport). A classics rouleur like Rowe will balance the team far better and offers a chance to win the pavé stage if he doesn’t have to babysit Froome.

Sky don’t give a rats anus about whether their last choice domestique has an outside chance of winning one stage. I’d also rather Bernal went to the Vuelta, but that issue will not be a factor.

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

Sky have so many options. It’s ridiculous. Honestly, even if something happens to Froome, they’d still have a decent shot at yellow with G, or even Poels.

 

[johnymax]

Re:

Sky have so many options. It’s ridiculous. Honestly, even if something happens to Froome, they’d still have a decent shot at yellow with G, or even Poels.

Lol no. Very little to no chance for G or Poels to win the Tour if something happens to Froome.

 

[rick james]

Rowe is the road captain so if true I can understand that team

 

[Anderis]

Sky are going to look awesome in the TTT.

G, Bernal, Castro and Van Baarle in national kits and possibly Moscon if he retains.

Only Froome, Kwia and Poels without jerseys.

I think riders no longer wear national champion TT kits in TTTs?

Or did they reverse that after abolishing the TTT WC?

 

[kiszol]

Re:

Both Rowe and Van Baarle are more than capable of doing the job Sky asks of them and neither will be doing anything other than that job, so it really doesn’t matter at all. Whether they take both or one plus Bernal matters because that changes the structure of the team.

This. Probably the strongest possible team would have been the one without Rowe, but they are immensely strong anyway. They have many experienced guys so I don't see it vital to include Rowe in the lineup but the difference will be small in performance (they will be a tad weaker in the TTT perhaps) but in a difficult situation on the road Rowe's experience might matter. As for Bernal I'm not sure including him in the roster is a good decision, but maybe he will learn from Froome and the others. He can surely help Chris in the mountains. I'm a bit sad for van Barlee, any other team would have included him...

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

I rate van Baarle as a better climber than Rowe. He used to be pretty decent at the hilly stuff in the U23's. But yeah, whatever Sky decide you will always leave out someone good

I rate Van Baarle as just an overall better rider than Rowe on cobbles, TT, climbs etc., but Rowe has tried it before and Froomey is probably more comfortable with him. Van Baarle must be gutted.

 

[Rollthedice]

Thomas wants challenge with Froome.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/44653639

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re:

Martinez is a pretty good rider, so I see nothing unusual about him being selected.
I also don't see anything unusual about Breschel not being selected, it was merely a comment on how Danish media reacted when Bak (somewhat surprisingly) and Mørkøv (not at all surprisingly) were also not selected.

What are you talking about?

You make it seem like it has been widely covered and debated in danish media.

It hasn't.

Neither Breschel, Bak or Moerkoev not being selected, has created much of a stir - especially in the middle of the FIFA world cup.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Thomas wants challenge with Froome.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/44653639

Nice, could easily end up in controversy on stage 9 where Thomas most likely wont wait on Froome.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re: Re:

I rate van Baarle as a better climber than Rowe. He used to be pretty decent at the hilly stuff in the U23's. But yeah, whatever Sky decide you will always leave out someone good

I rate Van Baarle as just an overall better rider than Rowe on cobbles, TT, climbs etc., but Rowe has tried it before and Froomey is probably more comfortable with him. Van Baarle must be gutted.

Rowe is British. Should have known.

Unfair decision though

 

[spalco]

Re:

Thomas wants challenge with Froome.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/44653639

If that's not just Sky trying to confuse their competition, it's probably not a very clever thing to say out loud.

 

[DNP-Old]

Re: Re:

I rate van Baarle as a better climber than Rowe. He used to be pretty decent at the hilly stuff in the U23's. But yeah, whatever Sky decide you will always leave out someone good

I rate Van Baarle as just an overall better rider than Rowe on cobbles, TT, climbs etc., but Rowe has tried it before and Froomey is probably more comfortable with him. Van Baarle must be gutted.

Rowe is British. Should have known.

Unfair decision though

How is it unfair?

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Astana made their team public:

Fuglsang
Kangert
Sanchez
Fraile
Cort
Hansen
Valgren
Gruzdev

Very strong team, outside of the token kazak (who has replaced Cataldo in my ideal line up).... but hey, someone has got to do the long hours in the wind, day in and day out

On a national note, pretty cool with 4 danes on the same TdF team, I don't think that has ever happened before <3

 

[ice&fire]

Re: Re:

Thomas wants challenge with Froome.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/44653639

Nice, could easily end up in controversy on stage 9 where Thomas most likely wont wait on Froome.

Sky will organise a special BBQ for Thomas on the rest day