Team Ineos Discussion thread

[TMP402]

Some members of the forum enjoy speculating about the potential Team Sky line-up for various future races. Instead of taking up space in other threads - especially the Froome thread - which are often only tangentially related to the potential Team Sky Vuelta team, here is a nice, dedicated space for people who want to talk about Team Sky's teams to do so.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Good idea, I know it winds a lot of people up with threads constantly talking about what riders will line up in which races, at least now it keeps it in one place.

 

[JRanton]

Re: Team Sky thread

Taken from the other thread:

With Henao not racing until his biological passport case is sorted and Konig/Intxausti getting ill/injured so far this season. Leaving Roche and Nieve to ride the Giro when it wasn't necessarily in their original race schedule. Does anyone feel Sky's tour squad is very much up in the air at the moment?

Froome, Thomas, Poels, Kwiatkowski, Stannard & Rowe are nailed on. But the other 3 spots are anyone's guess?

- Intxausti, will he show enough at Suisse?
- Konig, will he show enough at Slovenia?
- Landa/Roche/Nieve, can any of them double up and be effective?
- Kennaugh/Swift, off to California, if in contention would surely ride Dauphine/Suisse/Slovenia instead?
- Anyone else?

Kwiatkowski is not nailed on. He has to perform well at Dauphine. Stannard and Rowe are likely but with Puccio and Kiryienka both presumably in the mix I don't think you can say they're both nailed on.

Froome, Thomas and Poels are the only pretty much nailed on riders at this point.

Sky's grand tour squads have become quite a mess with all the various problems to some of their best domestiques and their team performance at Romandie was pretty terrible. The performance of the other ''Tour squad'' that went to Catalunya wasn't much better, so yes, the Tour team is very much up in the air. I could definitely see Roche doing both. He has a history of doubling up very well, albeit normally Tour-Vuelta. Nieve has done it well in the past too. Landa will want to rest and then go for the Vuelta but Sky may be forced to select him for the Tour if the team doesn't perform at the Dauphine.

There are probably as many as 16 riders who are realistically still in contention:

Froome, Thomas, Poels, Kwiatkowski, Landa, Roche, Nieve, Sergio Henao, Intxausti, Konig, Kennaugh, Stannard, Rowe, Swift, Kiryienka, Puccio.

Honestly, if Sky can't find a strong team from that group then it would be a fiasco.

You can pretty much rule out: Boswell, Sebastian Henao, Lopez, Deignan, Knees and Viviani (Giro)

And the rest: Van Poppel, Fenn, Nordhaug, Moscon, Peters, Zandio, Golas (sprinters, neo-pros, one day rider, etc)

Golas has actually been a really good domestique for Sky this year but there are too many other (stronger) options for him to make the team.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Good post, JRanton.
I go for this squad: Froome, Thomas, Poels, Stannard, Rowe, Nieve, Roche, Kwito and.. Kiri/Intxausti.

 

[DBotero]

Re:

Good post, JRanton.
I go for this squad: Froome, Thomas, Poels, Stannard, Rowe, Nieve, Roche, Kwito and.. Kiri/Intxausti.

Good pick but maybe a bit too risky to take both Roche and Nieve with the Giro in their legs despite being consistent performers usually.Henao if eligible or Kennaugh might be a better choice.Kiryienka more likely than Intxausti/Konig.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Good post, JRanton.
I go for this squad: Froome, Thomas, Poels, Stannard, Rowe, Nieve, Roche, Kwito and.. Kiri/Intxausti.

Good pick but maybe a bit too risky to take both Roche and Nieve with the Giro in their legs despite being consistent performers usually.Henao if eligible or Kennaugh might be a better choice.Kiryienka more likely than Intxausti/Konig.

Im pretty sure Nieve was told he will do the Tour so I think he will, Roche is a very consistent rider and they just need him to do well on the flat/hills, so I think those 2 are good picks

 

[HelloDolly]

Kennaugh will not ride Tour...was not a great experience last year and he didn't finish..Was touch and go he gota place last year
Imagine Kiry will ride the Tour otherwise makes no sense not to bring him to the Giro esp with all those TT miles

Nieve wil ride the Tour imo

So
Froome, Thomas, Poels, Kiryenkia, Nieve, Stannard, Rowe

2 places left ....Probably depends on Heano's BP
Intxausti is a question mark as to his form and Konig is not back racing enough

So that leaves Roche & Kwait

 

[HelloDolly]

Forgot to say ..I'd bring Landa and only race him in last week ...he will do a great job for Froome when he needs it most in last week

So

Froome, Thomas, Poles, Kireyenka, Rowe, Stannard, Nieve, Landa

 

[DBotero]

Re:

Kennaugh will not ride Tour...was not a great experience last year and he didn't finish..Was touch and go he gota place last year
Imagine Kiry will ride the Tour otherwise makes no sense not to bring him to the Giro esp with all those TT miles

Nieve wil ride the Tour imo

So
Froome, Thomas, Poels, Kiryenkia, Nieve, Stannard, Rowe

2 places left ....Probably depends on Heano's BP
Intxausti is a question mark as to his form and Konig is not back racing enough

So that leaves Roche & Kwait

Kennaugh was ill during last year TDF.He was pretty good in 2013 and he finished that one despite that crash produced by Hesjedal.He finished 3 GT's so he's not a liability.Considering they didn't sent him to Giro i say his chances to ride TDF are real.

 

[JRanton]

Re:

Kennaugh will not ride Tour...was not a great experience last year and he didn't finish..Was touch and go he gota place last year
Imagine Kiry will ride the Tour otherwise makes no sense not to bring him to the Giro esp with all those TT miles

Nieve wil ride the Tour imo

So
Froome, Thomas, Poels, Kiryenkia, Nieve, Stannard, Rowe

2 places left ....Probably depends on Heano's BP
Intxausti is a question mark as to his form and Konig is not back racing enough

So that leaves Roche & Kwait

Still no word about why Kiri isn't riding the Giro. Slightly ominous...

 

[JRanton]

Re: Re:

Kennaugh will not ride Tour...was not a great experience last year and he didn't finish..Was touch and go he gota place last year
Imagine Kiry will ride the Tour otherwise makes no sense not to bring him to the Giro esp with all those TT miles

Nieve wil ride the Tour imo

So
Froome, Thomas, Poels, Kiryenkia, Nieve, Stannard, Rowe

2 places left ....Probably depends on Heano's BP
Intxausti is a question mark as to his form and Konig is not back racing enough

So that leaves Roche & Kwait

Kennaugh was ill during last year TDF.He was pretty good in 2013 and he finished that one despite that crash produced by Hesjedal.He finished 3 GT's so he's not a liability.Considering they didn't sent him to Giro i say his chances to ride TDF are real.

But the reason he didn't ride the Giro (and missed the Ardennes) was because of illness. He's a pretty unreliable rider unfortunately.

 

[liamito]

Kiri in for Cali

 

[CTQ]

not only Kiri in California but also Moscon. Swift is out, still problem with his knee

 

[JRanton]

Re:

Kiri in for Cali

Yes, have to assume illness after Pais Vasco (which he DNF'd on the last road stage) but no official reason has been given for his absence. He is the world ITT champion after all so you'd think some more information would be given.

Moscon is only flying out today to California as a late replacement so probably can't expect much from him in this race.

 

[liamito]

Doesn't Gianni deserve a break from racing? Suprised to see him take a flight this late. Is Cali that important for Sky? You would expect they rather start with 7 than flying a promising neo pro across the world to fill a gap.

 

[TMP402]

Re:

Doesn't Gianni deserve a break from racing? Suprised to see him take a flight this late. Is Cali that important for Sky? You would expect they rather start with 7 than flying a promising neo pro across the world to fill a gap.

20th Century Fox.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re:

Kennaugh will not ride Tour...was not a great experience last year and he didn't finish..Was touch and go he gota place last year
Imagine Kiry will ride the Tour otherwise makes no sense not to bring him to the Giro esp with all those TT miles

Nieve wil ride the Tour imo

So
Froome, Thomas, Poels, Kiryenkia, Nieve, Stannard, Rowe

2 places left ....Probably depends on Heano's BP
Intxausti is a question mark as to his form and Konig is not back racing enough

So that leaves Roche & Kwait

Rob Hatch mentioned on commentary the other day that Roche's aim is to ride all 3 GT's this season.

 

[Taxus4a]

I dont see Kiatkowski working, so the team will be weaker this year in the Tour as Porte left and he was a great domestique when was needed. Anyway is better for cycling SKy is no so strong, but Froome need in this Tour for climbers the best team possible to face impresive Quintana climbing potential in the last week.

 

[Poursuivant]

I think Contador will blow Froome away in Dauphine. As regards to TDF: too early to say

 

[Jancouver]

Another SKY thread? Dont we have the main SKY thread with over 1600 posts over at the clinic section?

 

[Irondan]

Re:

Another SKY thread? Dont we have the main SKY thread with over 1600 posts over at the clinic section?

This is the only Team Sky discussion thread in the PRR.

There's plenty of other threads that are open in both subforums discussing the same subject. It should be no different with Team Sky.

 

[JRanton]

Re: Team Sky Discussion thread

Viviani is now out of the Giro. Sky are still yet to finish a grand tour with their full complement of riders.

He's been a good signing for Sky with 8 wins last season (including a Giro stage) and 2 wins so far this season but there has to be a question mark over his future role at the team. He's always going to want to ride the Giro but with very little support it's always going to be very difficult for him to win stages against the other top sprinters who do have support. I know he's been focussing a lot on the Olympics omnium this year and he seems to enjoy himself at Sky but it's difficult to see how what happened at this Giro won't always be a problem for him in the future.

 

[MatParker117]

Re: Team Sky Discussion thread

Viviani is now out of the Giro. Sky are still yet to finish a grand tour with their full complement of riders.

He's been a good signing for Sky with 8 wins last season (including a Giro stage) and 2 wins so far this season but there has to be a question mark over his future role at the team. He's always going to want to ride the Giro but with very little support it's always going to be very difficult for him to win stages against the other top sprinters who do have support. I know he's been focussing a lot on the Olympics omnium this year and he seems to enjoy himself at Sky but it's difficult to see how what happened at this Giro won't always be a problem for him in the future.

Day's like today are why the Matthews rumours make a bit of sense.

 

[CTQ]

maybe Viviani is still affected by the accident with the moto at Paris-Roubais. only 25 days between the 2 races. couple of days off after the accident


Is it possible that the absence of Puccio in this Giro means that he will be at the TDF? or is he ill, injured?

 

[TMP402]

Well, the other factor of Viviani leaving the race is that the rest of the team now have more time on bottle duty and other such stuff Sky would wish they didn't have to do.