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Ryo Hazuki said:exactly this, ebh is a lost cause anyway for classics and thomas is dropping weight to do gt's right? stannard isn't a super talent
Ryo Hazuki said:no, because cancellara doesn't sign for money. I think that;'s been clear for a long time with riis. he only left there to join his then friends the schlecks and andersen. I'm sure next year he will sign for a swiss team. he only cares for the classics anyway so he doesn't need a wt team either
Froome19 said:Then again unfortunately kind of skews the reliability of all Smith says. I anyways wouldn't trust anyone at Eurosport when it comes to Sky.. whatever they say.
JRanton said:Someone like him can pretty much choose the team he wants to join and still get paid extremely well anyway but lets not pretend that money isn't a factor. Sky at least has Arvesen, who Cancellara obviously knows well, but I'm not sure how well he gets on with Sky's riders.
JRanton said:He's been a VIP at Paris-Roubaix for the last few years I believe (certainly 2010, 2011 and 2012 anyway). If he has no interest why is he being flown in by helicopter to the race and following the race in a VIP/Team Sky car?
JRanton said:People often forget how good Cancellara and Boonen are. Not just the best of their generation but two of the greatest of all time. And then there's Peter Sagan, a phenomenon. I mean as much as I quite like Thomas and Stannard as riders there are limits to what even Kerrison/Sky can manage!
martinvickers said:Benefit of paying the piper's tune. F1 Pit lanes are filled with rich people who don't give a toss about F1; Premiership football VIP boxes are packed with people who could give a stuff about football. It's standard sponsor practice.
Murdoch's family have revolutionised several sports in terms of TV coverage; there's limited evidence they care that much about any of them.
In addition, how many 'good news' stories does NewsCorp have? James M is frankly lucky he's not in chokie after the phone hacking debacle. Of course he's prefer to be seen with Sky's single 'good' brand...
martinvickers said:Sky like Wiggins. And Wiggins clones. and to be fair they've 'lucked' into Froome. But basically they love Big Diesels. and Stannard is a m***** f***** cold weather Diesel. If there was a classic along the route of the Transiberian express in March, he'd never be beaten in it.
Geraint is less of a crap weather specialist, and he doesn't have, to my mind anyway, Stannards courage...but he's also a very effective diesel. What Sky don't have, the hole JTL was hoped to fill I think, was that short sharp climb monster. You know, a super strong, almost time trialist, with a taste for sharp hills.
Actually, a bit like Froome, come to think of it.
Of course, none of that would help on the cobbles, that's a specialism of its own.
I can think of several towns in ireland with nice stretches of cobble they might consider for a team camp ;-)
JRanton said:]Be honest, you don't actually know if James Murdoch likes cycling do you[/B]? And I'm not claiming I do either but the fact he's turned up to Paris-Roubaix year after year suggests he does at least have some interest. It's not exactly the same as mixing with many other fellow millionaires at an F1 race..
Winterfold said:Martin I think you have picked up an appetite for unfounded speculation from too much hanging around in the Clinic
Murdoch Jnr is so much of a cycling fan that Sky's PR team have to put effort in suggesting his judgement wasn't coloured...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jul/23/james-murdoch-sky-tour-de-france?newsfeed=true
JTL and Froome alike? In the way that Gilbert and A Schleck are alike eg can both win LBL but are otherwise completely different ?
Winterfold said:Well it could have been a dumb Clninc comment or poking fun at Kerrison's latest attempt at cycling alchemy - I hope something like the latter
I hope they don't ruin JTL - he has nearly quit the sport once by all accounts
martinvickers said:It was more a dumb anti-clinic comment, but mostly poking a bit of fun at Sky.
Thing is, it took three years and the luck of already having Wiggo to 'work out' grand tour racing. Its unrealistic to ecpect them to 'work out' one day racing the first time they try. Neither succesz nor disaster, too too early to work out yet. They'll go away, analyse refine. Give it a few years, we'll see...
Ryo Hazuki said:sky will never work out classics. classics isn't about racing on your power meter and heartbeat meter. classics is something you can't explain almost. for instance sky has no clue that some riders can't handle 200+ km. it truly is the magic border. not just a myth. they keep trying with ebh, because he has great results. but results don't matter when you fade after a long race. then come sthe biggest thing. in classics you need to be very agile and technical. place yourself very well. henao is superb in this, all other sky riders are not, not wiggins, not uran, not froome, not thomas, not stannard, not even ebh. flanders for instance is 90% won on placing for every climb. agr similar. that's why you see them do best in lbl because it's leats hectic and comest closest to a mountainstage
Ryo Hazuki said:sky will never work out classics. classics isn't about racing on your power meter and heartbeat meter. classics is something you can't explain almost. for instance sky has no clue that some riders can't handle 200+ km. it truly is the magic border. not just a myth. they keep trying with ebh, because he has great results. but results don't matter when you fade after a long race. then come sthe biggest thing. in classics you need to be very agile and technical. place yourself very well. henao is superb in this, all other sky riders are not, not wiggins, not uran, not froome, not thomas, not stannard, not even ebh. flanders for instance is 90% won on placing for every climb. agr similar. that's why you see them do best in lbl because it's leats hectic and comest closest to a mountainstage
Pentacycle said:EBH is usually well placed, on the Taaienberg in both E3 this year(with Hayman) and Omloop 2012(with Flecha) for instance. He gets dropped hard on both occasions though, losing 40 length to Boonen during the ascent. He's one of the few riders who ****s up a good position like that.
But the thing I especially don't like are the lame excuses, but we've heard them every single year since 2010; and people still buy them. Can't we all agree he's just not the rider everyone thought he was going to be? Riders like Sagan and Kwiatkowski are the real talents, EBH's just a domestique.
argyllflyer said:Well, that may be the case but it wasn't as if he was kissing Sky's backside - he was giving them a good slagging.
Can the pundits win? Slag Sky and anything pro Sky cancels it out. Praise Sky and they are Murdoch's shills.
On JTL's ability, prior to 2013, I had only really seen him on tv in minor races, World Champs apart (where he more than held his own). Brian Smith has a far greater knowledge of what he can do, having worked with him. The lad is a pretty decent puncheur. Purito on form is the best, but I think it's too early to disregard JTL at this point. Maybe it was hyperbole from BS. Time will tell.
coinneach said:I like Brian Smith: he speaks as he sees it..... I thought his most revealing comment was about Skys lack of experience at DS level, having lost Jullich & Yates, and replaced them with a coach. Experience counts, especially in Classics. The only thing is, I wasn't sure there wasn't a bit of sour grapes there: why didn't Sky appoint Smith?
coinneach said:I like Brian Smith: he speaks as he sees it..... I thought his most revealing comment was about Skys lack of experience at DS level, having lost Jullich & Yates, and replaced them with a coach. Experience counts, especially in Classics. The only thing is, I wasn't sure there wasn't a bit of sour grapes there: why didn't Sky appoint Smith?
eagleofditchling said:Spring classics over - no wins for sky, the team that "dominate" cycling according to the British Press. Guess money can buy you a big bus but not a monument. Thees no problem - they don't know what they are doing, they can't sit on the front and control the more chaotic racing and they haven't got anybody talented enough (JTL or Froome to win la Doyenne you are having a laugh).