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Sam Oomen Discussion

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Re:

Dekker_Tifosi said:
I guess he will have more chances for himself since he doesn't ride a lot races with Dumoulin. I think only LBL and TDF, and in LBL Oomen has already been confirmed as leader.

I will have fingers crossed for a good showing the in TDF as the media I've seen of him is bloody endearing.

For some reasons I get the impression he will really excel in the hilly one day races
 
Re:

Dekker_Tifosi said:
They do not have any other option really...

It's the problem with sunweb. Nice squad overall but way too few really good mountain helpers for a leader like Dumoulin.
Seriously Dumoulin and Matthews are the only 2 riders good enough of having their respective place in the hierarchy of a WT team.
 
Sunweb riders are nearly all too young (and not MvdP or Podgcar) or too old

With the exception of a few riders everyone is 23 and younger or (a handful) 33 and over
So many young riders ...are they hoping that they will have a top team in 2024

With Astana and Quickstep most riders are 25 + and less than 33 with some notable exceptions
Has to be a worry for Sunweb just in fielding 3 GT teams that can last the 3 weeks especially if there are injuries to riders like Kelderman
 
Re:

HelloDolly said:
Sunweb riders are nearly all too young (and not MvdP or Podgcar) or too old

With the exception of a few riders everyone is 23 and younger or (a handful) 33 and over
So many young riders ...are they hoping that they will have a top team in 2024

With Astana and Quickstep most riders are 25 + and less than 33 with some notable exceptions
Has to be a worry for Sunweb just in fielding 3 GT teams that can last the 3 weeks especially if there are injuries to riders like Kelderman

Not only do they have many young talents, a bigger problem is that all these talents once considdered huge talents, are clearly underperforming. Im sure Sunweb when they signed riders like Hindley, Storer, Power or Vervaeke before the 2018 season, they would have expected that they would all be really solid Grand Tour riders by now, but now them all underporforming is what is giving Sunweb the very poor depth for the Grand Tours. And then signing a clearly over the hill Roche now before this year is not helping either.
 
Re:

Eyeballs Out said:
Maybe the smart move would be for Sunweb to abandon the Giro GC attempt, base the Giro team around Matthews, and then throw everything towards the Tour GC with Dumoulin, Kelderman and Oomen
I think this would be logical if Dumoulin liked both options about the same. He doesn't. Dumoulin 100% wants to ride the Giro. The Tour afterwards is the compromise with the sponsors. He literally said he doesn't want to do Giro/Tour every year before the routes came out, and now he's doing it again.

And as much hype as he got for 2nd in the Tour after the Giro last year, I'm still convinced he's wasting prime opportunities by riding the Tour instead of the Vuelta.
 
Re: Re:

Red Rick said:
Eyeballs Out said:
Maybe the smart move would be for Sunweb to abandon the Giro GC attempt, base the Giro team around Matthews, and then throw everything towards the Tour GC with Dumoulin, Kelderman and Oomen
I think this would be logical if Dumoulin liked both options about the same. He doesn't. Dumoulin 100% wants to ride the Giro. The Tour afterwards is the compromise with the sponsors. He literally said he doesn't want to do Giro/Tour every year before the routes came out, and now he's doing it again.

And as much hype as he got for 2nd in the Tour after the Giro last year, I'm still convinced he's wasting prime opportunities by riding the Tour instead of the Vuelta.
Also the Giro is geared for TD with 3 tts. Other than Roglic he only has to defend against the climbers in the mountains. In the Giro he needs the team to prevent/catch long range attacks. In the TDF he doesnt as it will be controlled by Sky
Sunweb doesn't seem to learn from their experiences. The lost 2015 Vuelta, 2018 Giro and almost lost 2017 Giro due to a weak team.
 
One problem Sunweb have is that the way they are operating as a team doesn't work for everyone. Theuns is a good example of a rider who just didn't fit in and left the team after underperforming. In talks for possible transfers I'd imagine that Sunweb give potential riders a heads up about how things will go once the rider is on the team, that probably drives some potential riders they want to sign away.
Then there also is Rudi Kemna. He's supposed to be a character who has had problems with quite some people over the years. Not easy to work with.

They definitely need their young climbers to start delivering. Hamilton seems to be the only one with good steps in the right direction at the moment though.
 
Re:

IndianCyclist said:
Red Rick said:
Eyeballs Out said:
Maybe the smart move would be for Sunweb to abandon the Giro GC attempt, base the Giro team around Matthews, and then throw everything towards the Tour GC with Dumoulin, Kelderman and Oomen
I think this would be logical if Dumoulin liked both options about the same. He doesn't. Dumoulin 100% wants to ride the Giro. The Tour afterwards is the compromise with the sponsors. He literally said he doesn't want to do Giro/Tour every year before the routes came out, and now he's doing it again.

And as much hype as he got for 2nd in the Tour after the Giro last year, I'm still convinced he's wasting prime opportunities by riding the Tour instead of the Vuelta.
Also the Giro is geared for TD with 3 tts. Other than Roglic he only has to defend against the climbers in the mountains. In the Giro he needs the team to prevent/catch long range attacks. In the TDF he doesnt as it will be controlled by Sky
Sunweb doesn't seem to learn from their experiences. The lost 2015 Vuelta, 2018 Giro and almost lost 2017 Giro due to a weak team.
I don't actually think the Giro route is that much better for Dumoulin. The TTT in the Tour should increase his chances, not decrease them, and with his weak team he can literally lose the Giro in a single mountain stage if the wrong group gets away.



WKA311 said:
One problem Sunweb have is that the way they are operating as a team doesn't work for everyone. Theuns is a good example of a rider who just didn't fit in and left the team after underperforming. In talks for possible transfers I'd imagine that Sunweb give potential riders a heads up about how things will go once the rider is on the team, that probably drives some potential riders they want to sign away.
Then there also is Rudi Kemna. He's supposed to be a character who has had problems with quite some people over the years. Not easy to work with.

They definitely need their young climbers to start delivering. Hamilton seems to be the only one with good steps in the right direction at the moment though.
That, and they won't sign anyone with sketchy associations in their eyes, further limiting the talent pool to choose from.

Dumoulin might find himself in a nasty situation with his team underdelivering and a contract until 2022.
 
And they dont pay very well. Money counts (unless you are very young or very old) ...You have to pay alot for top climbing domestiques ...Imagine if they could sign Poels and Mollema ??

I would say the team are under performing ..alot of the youngsters are MIA ...maybe they will come good later...but with so much under performance one has to wonder about the methods

However they are still leaps ahead of Trek , Dim Data and Katusha
 
Re:

Leinster said:
Moving this discussion here from the Dumoulin thread, but Oomen is now placed higher than any other gc riders. Even if he didn’t prepare fully for the Giro, surely a top 10 is on the cards for him?
I think he should try, and maybe his form will be there in time for the last week. If he gets hit by the hammer before then, so be it, in that case he can still go for stagewins.
 
Top is possible but not much more with his preparation. He kinda continued from preparing for the classics to suddenly preparing for the Giro. And he didn't have the usual rest period he would have had normally for the altitude camp. So it might be he kinda hits the limit in the 3rd week. Last year he only got better in the 3rd week
 

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