Riders who have not filled expectations

[WindLessBreeze]

There is a great amount of riders who haven´t lived up to expectations lately. Many unknowns play in the equations, such as burn out, wrong roles, wrong teams, wrong races chosen, etc. Both Pozzato and or the he Belgian fellow overlooked by Vacansoleil for the TdF......I´m sure FB pundits know who I have in mind, and may have plenty of examples to share with us, laymen

 

[The Hitch]

Ciolek Gerdemann barbie wegman

what do they have in common

 

[Dazed and Confused]

They all originated from a country which borders Poland?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

From the top of my head so far

Thomas Dekker
Kai Reus
Roman Kreuziger
Heinrich Haussler
Yaroslav Popovych
Dimitry Grabovsky
Mikhail Ignatiev
Janez Brajkovic
Gert Steegmans
Linus Gerdemann
Markus Fothen
Gerald Ciolek
Martin Pedersen
Mads Christensen
Yevgeni Popov
Wesley Sulzberger
Alexander Khatuntsev
Evgeni Petrov

 

[Arnout]

Ignatiev. I rather liked him as a rider, always attacking, but I've no idea where he's gone.

 

[Walkman]

From the top of my head so far

Thomas Dekker
Kai Reus
Roman Kreuziger
Heinrich Haussler
Yaroslav Popovych
Dimitry Grabovsky
Mikhail Ignatiev
Janez Brajkovic
Gert Steegmans
Linus Gerdemann
Markus Fothen
Gerald Ciolek
Martin Pedersen
Mads Christensen
Yevgeni Popov
Wesley Sulzberger
Alexander Khatuntsev
Evgeni Petrov

Spot on! What the heck has he been doing as of lately? In peak form the guy is amazing, but he seems to have big difficulties reaching that form..

 

[Deagol]

I hate to say it, but probably need to add Danielson to that list ...

 

[Pentacycle]

If Khatuntsev is on the list, then Sergey Kolesnikov also belongs here. Both were big in the U23 and the Asia Tour, but failed hard as a pro in Europe.

 

[DominicDecoco]

Matti.





_________

 

[maltiv]

Thomas Löfkvist: Was considered to be a huge talent in his early 20's. Many thought he would be a future GT winner, and he definitely showed a lot of promise. In 2008 he was both climbing and TT'ing with the best (with results such as 3rd overall T-A and 5th in TdS). He had another good season in 2009, winning Monte Paschi, 4th in T-A and placing 6th in F-W. In 2010 he joined Sky and since then he has gotten zero results (apart from a fairly anonymous 17th overall in TDF). He now has seemingly no recovery, climbs like a bag of sand and can't even top 15 in ITT's anymore. What on earth happened? It's not common that a cyclist declines a bit every year from the age of 23 to the age of 28...

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

There is a great amount of riders who haven´t lived up to expectations lately. Many unknowns play in the equations, such as burn out, wrong roles, wrong teams, wrong races chosen, etc. Both Pozzato and or the he Belgian fellow overlooked by Vacansoleil for the TdF......I´m sure FB pundits know who I have in mind, and may have plenty of examples to share with us, laymen

Are you talking about Devolder? lol

Yeah, after QST gave him the boot, i was kind of surprised any other team took him on board. The guy "had" SOME potential. With more discipline and a sane pair of brains, he even could have been a 2nd tier GC rider. Sad character really.

 

[trevim]

From the top of my head so far

Thomas Dekker
Kai Reus
Roman Kreuziger
Heinrich Haussler
Yaroslav Popovych
Dimitry Grabovsky
Mikhail Ignatiev
Janez Brajkovic
Gert Steegmans
Linus Gerdemann
Markus Fothen
Gerald Ciolek
Martin Pedersen
Mads Christensen
Yevgeni Popov
Wesley Sulzberger
Alexander Khatuntsev
Evgeni Petrov

I'm sorry I don't follow cycling for long. What were the expectations for these three?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Pedersen and Christensen dominated a lot of U23 races. Pedersen won LBL u23 by pretty much destroying the field.
Christensen was also good in a lot of hilly races and was 3rd at the World championships of Verona behind Sioutsou and Dekker. Also very strong.

Both were expected to shine in LBL in the future. They never brought it.

As for Petrov, ex-world champion ITT u23 and world champion u23 on the road as well. Won the Tour l'Avenir the year after. So basically won all important U23 races there are. But like a lot of Russians/eastern europeans he never followed through

 

[Franklin]

From the top of my head so far

Thomas Dekker
Kai Reus
Roman Kreuziger
Heinrich Haussler
Yaroslav Popovych
Dimitry Grabovsky
Mikhail Ignatiev
Janez Brajkovic
Gert Steegmans
Linus Gerdemann
Markus Fothen
Gerald Ciolek
Martin Pedersen
Mads Christensen
Yevgeni Popov
Wesley Sulzberger
Alexander Khatuntsev
Evgeni Petrov

Ehm huh? We are writing of Roman already?

 

[WindLessBreeze]

Thanks 4 repplies so far/CN POWERHOUSE!

Let´s not forget about women as well; Maybe Libertine*Seguros could provide us with some insight....Let`s not forget, folks, that injuries may have placed a big part on those riders´ less than stellar careers, as measured by their own self inflicted expected rising paths

 

[The Chicken]

Thomas Löfkvist: Was considered to be a huge talent in his early 20's. Many thought he would be a future GT winner, and he definitely showed a lot of promise. In 2008 he was both climbing and TT'ing with the best (with results such as 3rd overall T-A and 5th in TdS). He had another good season in 2009, winning Monte Paschi, 4th in T-A and placing 6th in F-W. In 2010 he joined Sky and since then he has gotten zero results (apart from a fairly anonymous 17th overall in TDF). He now has seemingly no recovery, climbs like a bag of sand and can't even top 15 in ITT's anymore. What on earth happened? It's not common that a cyclist declines a bit every year from the age of 23 to the age of 28...

Good shout. I dunno what happened with him Maybe he is riding clean these days Have Sky re-signed him? Can't think what good he is to them, or any team really

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Ehm huh? We are writing of Roman already?

Yes, because he's been at the same level for 4 years already and this year is at a worse level than last year... I don't see him jumping to the level predicted when he won Tour de Suisse

 

[djlovesyou]

Ivan Rovny - wasn't he touted as a future superstar at one point.

 

[vcampbell]

Thomas Dekker
Yaroslav Popovych

Popovych is always my favorite rider, but I think for him it was the greatest fault to join to Bruyneels squad. From then, he was mostly a helper. In a team where he could be a leader, but it's another story... I always felt sorry for him.

About Dekker. I think now we should wait. He was suspended, so he was never able to show how good he is. If he can't reach a good overall position in a GT or in a serious stage race next year at the latest, then we can say that he have not filled the expectations. Now I think we can't.

 

[trevim]

Pedersen and Christensen dominated a lot of U23 races. Pedersen won LBL u23 by pretty much destroying the field.
Christensen was also good in a lot of hilly races and was 3rd at the World championships of Verona behind Sioutsou and Dekker. Also very strong.

Both were expected to shine in LBL in the future. They never brought it.

As for Petrov, ex-world champion ITT u23 and world champion u23 on the road as well. Won the Tour l'Avenir the year after. So basically won all important U23 races there are. But like a lot of Russians/eastern europeans he never followed through

Thanks. I didn't know those guys had won so much. I thought Pedersen and Christensen were just good riders at Continental level that had an opportunity to ride ride on a big team. Maybe Morkov can be put in this category too: he is supposed to be a time trialist but hasn't really kicked off yet. He looked strong in some of the Monuments but he's yet to have some results.

 

[theyoungest]

Thomas Löfkvist: Was considered to be a huge talent in his early 20's. Many thought he would be a future GT winner, and he definitely showed a lot of promise. In 2008 he was both climbing and TT'ing with the best (with results such as 3rd overall T-A and 5th in TdS). He had another good season in 2009, winning Monte Paschi, 4th in T-A and placing 6th in F-W. In 2010 he joined Sky and since then he has gotten zero results (apart from a fairly anonymous 17th overall in TDF). He now has seemingly no recovery, climbs like a bag of sand and can't even top 15 in ITT's anymore. What on earth happened? It's not common that a cyclist declines a bit every year from the age of 23 to the age of 28...

His recovery has always been crap. Remember the Giro 2009, where he was in pink at some point? And ended up 25th?

I actually think he had found some decent form in Suisse, he was climbing pretty well. But he got knee problems, I think?

 

[Justin Pain]

Thomas Löfkvist ... What on earth happened? It's not common that a cyclist declines a bit every year from the age of 23 to the age of 28...

Was just about to name him. Could be many factors; lack of motivation, doesnt like/fit the Sky training culture, lack of pressure for results.

 

[mb2612]

Thanks. I didn't know those guys had won so much. I thought Pedersen and Christensen were just good riders at Continental level that had an opportunity to ride ride on a big team. Maybe Morkov can be put in this category too: he is supposed to be a time trialist but hasn't really kicked off yet. He looked strong in some of the Monuments but he's yet to have some results.

Denamrk seems to have an excellent youth program, but their riders get lost once they hit the big time.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Some of them have legitimate reasons for not fulfilling the expectations, like Romain Sicard, Timofey Kritskiy or Kai Reus. I feel that it is a touch unfair to include them. Hell, even Jakob Fuglsang to an extent; he's a worse rider now than he was in August 2009 and has never been as good as that since he crashed into that tanker in the Vuelta.

There are a great many who have underperformed or not fulfilled expectations. Sometimes, it's the result of unreasonable expectations foisted upon them (eg Tom Danielson, Remmert Wielinga), or that the rider is such a success early in their career that it would be nigh on impossible to duplicate that later on (eg Damiano Cunego, José Rujano), or that the rider self-destructs for a variety of reasons (eg Dmitro Grabovskyy).

 

[WindLessBreeze]

Weekend Warriors

Guys, remember: Cycling At the top level is not humane; I mean, the human body wasn´t designed to Do THAT!...They ain´t riding against a bunch of Losers, either...Just keep that in mind, p`lease