Pre Tour de France-thread

[brownbobby]

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.

Its an interesting one....there's every chance, indeed i would even say its probable, that Thomas will be ahead of Froome by the end of Stage 9 and the first rest day. Will be interesting to see how the team dynamics play out after that, i suppose a lot depends really on where they both are relative to the other teams competitors, rather than where they are against each other.

One thing i am fairly certain of is that unless the Giro has overly fatigued Froome then he is simply far superior to Thomas when it comes the rapid succession of testing mountain GC stages that follow.

So, interesting to see how Sky play their cards if they're both still in the game.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

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.

I don't think it will be a controversy, I think it will be a team order.

Sky knows Froome may lose the win eventually (due to the case), so they will enter this TdF, trying to make it a 1-2 result, so the team retains the title either way.

Also, nobody (incl. Sky) knows how Froome may be week 3, after having done the Giro on full.... he may pull a Yates

Further, on stage 9, I think lieutenants riding for GC candidates that suck on the cobbles, may be instructed to not wait, because time gaps can be so large, that it makes sense to keep the lieutenant in contention.

If the captain CAN ride cobbles, it's a different dynamic, then a lieutenant will wait.

We will see the usual yoyoing between pavees, with groups fighting to make it back, until they run out of gas (9th race day in a row) late in the stage, and gaps start to grow significantly.

 

[dacooley]

I think Froome is far too big and strong to yoyo and bleed any time on cobbles. Mountains are where montrous yoyoing sessions seem to be unavoidable. -)

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re:

I think Froome is far too big and strong to yoyo and bleed any time on cobbles. Mountains are where montrous yoyoing sessions seem to be unavoidable. -)

You may be right

He probably spent more time than anyone practising cobbles in the spring...... it seems to be his MO.

Remember when we all believed he sucked as a decender, and then suddenly turned up and attacks everyone down hill?

Though, the Roubaix cobbles is a different kettle of fish, especially if it rains.... some riders will never get the hang of it, no matter how much they practice.

 

[Parker]

Re: Re:

I think Froome is far too big and strong to yoyo and bleed any time on cobbles. Mountains are where montrous yoyoing sessions seem to be unavoidable. -)

You may be right

He probably spent more time than anyone practising cobbles in the spring...... it seems to be his MO.

Remember when we all believed he sucked as a decender, and then suddenly turned up and attacks everyone down hill?

Though, the Roubaix cobbles is a different kettle of fish, especially if it rains.... some riders will never get the hang of it, no matter how much they practice.

He looked pretty comfortable on the cobbles when they went over them in 2015. On the final sector a group of eight went off the front: van Avermaet, Stybar, Degenkolb, Thomas, Nibali, van Garderen, Valverde and Froome. They got caught of course, but it showed who was dealing the best with them.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re: Re:

I think Froome is far too big and strong to yoyo and bleed any time on cobbles. Mountains are where montrous yoyoing sessions seem to be unavoidable. -)

You may be right

He probably spent more time than anyone practising cobbles in the spring...... it seems to be his MO.

Remember when we all believed he sucked as a decender, and then suddenly turned up and attacks everyone down hill?

Though, the Roubaix cobbles is a different kettle of fish, especially if it rains.... some riders will never get the hang of it, no matter how much they practice.

He looked pretty comfortable on the cobbles when they went over them in 2015. On the final sector a group of eight went off the front: van Avermaet, Stybar, Degenkolb, Thomas, Nibali, van Garderen, Valverde and Froome. They got caught of course, but it showed who was dealing the best with them.

2015 was baby cobbles.

As said, the Roubaix cobbles is an entirely different thing

 

[brownbobby]

Re: Re:

I think Froome is far too big and strong to yoyo and bleed any time on cobbles. Mountains are where montrous yoyoing sessions seem to be unavoidable. -)

You may be right

He probably spent more time than anyone practising cobbles in the spring...... it seems to be his MO.

Remember when we all believed he sucked as a decender, and then suddenly turned up and attacks everyone down hill?

Though, the Roubaix cobbles is a different kettle of fish, especially if it rains.... some riders will never get the hang of it, no matter how much they practice.

He looked pretty comfortable on the cobbles when they went over them in 2015. On the final sector a group of eight went off the front: van Avermaet, Stybar, Degenkolb, Thomas, Nibali, van Garderen, Valverde and Froome. They got caught of course, but it showed who was dealing the best with them.

2015 was baby cobbles.

As said, the Roubaix cobbles is an entirely different thing

Cobbles? Meh! Try riding on the roads in Africa

 

[Parker]

Re: Re:

2015 was baby cobbles.

As said, the Roubaix cobbles is an entirely different thing

They are different. But it's likely that those that were good on the smaller ones will be good on the bigger ones.

 

[vladimir]

UAE-Team Emirates:
ATAPUMA John Darwin
DURASEK Kristijan
FERRARI Roberto
KRISTOFF Alexander
MARCATO Marco
MARTIN Daniel
SUTHERLAND Rory
TROIA Oliviero
Very weak team without Costa and Swift. Would also have expected Ravasi and Ganna ahead of Atapuma and Troia.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

Astana made their team public:

...

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

2012.
With the main difference being that that was an actually Danish team.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re: Re:

Astana made their team public:

...

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

2012.
With the main difference being that that was an actually Danish team.

Though way worse riders than now

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

UAE-Team Emirates:
ATAPUMA John Darwin
DURASEK Kristijan
FERRARI Roberto
KRISTOFF Alexander
MARCATO Marco
MARTIN Daniel
SUTHERLAND Rory
TROIA Oliviero
Very weak team without Costa and Swift. Would also have expected Ravasi and Ganna ahead of Atapuma and Troia.

Martin is going to lose about three hours in the TTT

 

[DNP-Old]

UAE-Team Emirates:
ATAPUMA John Darwin
DURASEK Kristijan
FERRARI Roberto
KRISTOFF Alexander
MARCATO Marco
MARTIN Daniel
SUTHERLAND Rory
TROIA Oliviero
Very weak team without Costa and Swift. Would also have expected Ravasi and Ganna ahead of Atapuma and Troia.

Martin is going to lose about three hours in the TTT

And in the ITT. And in the Roubaix stage.

 

[DNP-Old]

Also, who in the hell is Oliviero Troia?

 

[Escarabajo]

UAE-Team Emirates:
ATAPUMA John Darwin
DURASEK Kristijan
FERRARI Roberto
KRISTOFF Alexander
MARCATO Marco
MARTIN Daniel
SUTHERLAND Rory
TROIA Oliviero
Very weak team without Costa and Swift. Would also have expected Ravasi and Ganna ahead of Atapuma and Troia.

Martin is going to lose about three hours in the TTT

Lol.
They just won a TTT in Italy!
Maybe they find a way to draft better!!!

This team looks weak anyway you look at it. Selecting one over another doesn't make any difference. They only have Martin for GC and we are talking top 10 with that team. They will probably be thinking about stages more than anything else.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

UAE-Team Emirates:
ATAPUMA John Darwin
DURASEK Kristijan
FERRARI Roberto
KRISTOFF Alexander
MARCATO Marco
MARTIN Daniel
SUTHERLAND Rory
TROIA Oliviero
Very weak team without Costa and Swift. Would also have expected Ravasi and Ganna ahead of Atapuma and Troia.

Martin is going to lose about three hours in the TTT

And in the ITT. And in the Roubaix stage.

Yeah, but if he loses big time on those stages he deserves to. A TTT is just the organisers further skewing the race in favour of riders with strong teams as if having a strong team wasn’t already advantage enough. I absolutely hate them. Any bureaucrat in any race organisation who suggests including one should be sentenced to at least ten years hard labour.

 

[ciranda]

Re:

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

Best team would have been with Grivko and Cataldo instead of Cort and Hansen. Grivko is as good or better as Magnus on the pavé and is better support overall. Likewise Cataldo is the same level as Hansen in the mountains and better all round. Oh and Gruzdev is not a ‘token’ choice by any means, he spent more kilometers leading the field in the 2014 tdf than anyone.

 

[spalco]

Yeah, but if he loses big time on those stages he deserves to. A TTT is just the organisers further skewing the race in favour of riders with strong teams as if having a strong team wasn’t already advantage enough. I absolutely hate them. Any bureaucrat in any race organisation who suggests including one should be sentenced to at least ten years hard labour.

I mostly agree, apparently TTTs make good tv (I think chronos are boring in any case, but whatever), and I suppose they are easier to organise than a regualr road stage.
But it's not like Dan Martin would have a much better chance with an ITT instead of the TTT.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Yeah, but if he loses big time on those stages he deserves to. A TTT is just the organisers further skewing the race in favour of riders with strong teams as if having a strong team wasn’t already advantage enough. I absolutely hate them. Any bureaucrat in any race organisation who suggests including one should be sentenced to at least ten years hard labour.

I mostly agree, apparently TTTs make good tv (I think chronos are boring in any case, but whatever), and I suppose they are easier to organise than a regualr road stage.
But it's not like Dan Martin would have a much better chance with an ITT instead of the TTT.

Yes but as I said above, that’s up to him. Get smashed in an ITT and it’s perfectly fair that you will be punished on GC. If you get thrashed in a TTT that’s just the organisers rigging the game.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Also, who in the hell is Oliviero Troia?

Dude

 

[DNP-Old]

Re: Re:

Also, who in the hell is Oliviero Troia?

Dude

I'm serious. I watch and follow a *** ton of cycling. European, South-American, North-American, Asian, professional, U23, juniors, NE, amateur. You name it, I watch it. Never, not once, did I hear about Oliviero Troia. Never heard his name mentioned on tv, never read any story or article about him.

Who is he, why is he here?

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

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

Its a mediocre team, nothing more. Many of the GC teams are definitely stronger. Sure, there are lots of Danes, but Hansen and Cort need to show something.

 

[vladimir]

Re: Re:

Also, who in the hell is Oliviero Troia?

Dude

I'm serious. I watch and follow a **** ton of cycling. European, South-American, North-American, Asian, professional, U23, juniors, NE, amateur. You name it, I watch it. Never, not once, did I hear about Oliviero Troia. Never heard his name mentioned on tv, never read any story or article about him.

Who is he, why is he here?

LOL, I have picked him for the CQmanager game this year so I should know a little. Best effort is probably 4th in Paris-Roubaix espoirs in 2016. but if you are eager to see him race I recommend RVV from last year. There are some full race videos on Youtube, and our man Oliviero was in the early break of the day.

 

[Nirvana]

Re: Re:

Also, who in the hell is Oliviero Troia?

Dude

I'm serious. I watch and follow a **** ton of cycling. European, South-American, North-American, Asian, professional, U23, juniors, NE, amateur. You name it, I watch it. Never, not once, did I hear about Oliviero Troia. Never heard his name mentioned on tv, never read any story or article about him.

Who is he, why is he here?

Time trialist and cobbles rider with also a decent sprint.
He was instrumental in the Under-23 Roubaix win of Ganna two years ago.

 

[cantpedal]

Re: Re:

Also, who in the hell is Oliviero Troia?

Dude

I'm serious. I watch and follow a **** ton of cycling. European, South-American, North-American, Asian, professional, U23, juniors, NE, amateur. You name it, I watch it. Never, not once, did I hear about Oliviero Troia. Never heard his name mentioned on tv, never read any story or article about him.

Who is he, why is he here?

That will soon be rectified. I pretty sure Mr Kirby will be mentioning him as a future multiple GT winner every 15 minutes. :lol: