Now that Froome is gone from Ineos and launched a YouTuber career, i don't even hate Ineos anymore.
- May 8, 2014
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- May 19, 2014
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Would you like Youtube to have a cycling team with dawg as its director?
- Nov 12, 2010
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All the marginal gains and you forget the basics
Geraint Thomas admits to pacing error in Critérium du Dauphiné time trial
Geraint Thomas admits to pacing error in Critérium du Dauphiné time trial
- Mar 23, 2010
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It was an bizarre TT route but regardless this year is all about the Big Man Richie Porte Who Helped Froome Trounce Cantador
Anybody_but..
BANNED
- Sep 27, 2020
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If nothing spectacular happens in next 3 weeks, I would say:
Thomas, Carapaz, Porte, Hart, Kwiatek are obvious.
Dennis - I'm not so sure, they are talking about new contract, that's why I wouldn't be surprised by.. Ganna in TdF squad, one of two should start.
So we probably have Rowe, VB and Amador (probably smallest chances) for remaining 2 spots.
I don”t believe there is any chance that if healthy, Luke Rowe is not on the tour team. I don’t know if there is anyone in the peloton better at positioning his leader.
I think the tour team is G, Carapaz, Porte, TGH, Kwiato, Dennis, Van Baarle, Rowe with Amador as reserve. It gives the greatest balance
- Apr 16, 2009
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I would take Dennis no matter what. There is no way I would leave him behind. Contract or no contract. That's just me. For the last 2 spots will be a dogfight. But I would take VB for now. The last spot is still undecided for me. However some people here are 100% sure that they will take Luke Rowe. I really don't know that. He will be very helpful if Ineos want to take advantage of the flat stages with wind. Maybe they can kill the competition there. Mountains are kind of weak this year so probably don't need an Amador in the roster. We'll see.
Luke Rowe has ridden every tour since 2014 i think. He basically is Mr Ineos/Sky he will not be left at home. He does all of the work you dont notice to shepherd his leader around 2/3rds of France that isn't down to the mountain domestiques. He can ride on the front on the first couple of climbs on mountain days, and he makes sure the leader amkes the front group on flat windy days
- Apr 16, 2009
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That's fine. But they need another domestique for the mountains. In that case they will pick the better of VB or Amador. They will probably check that in this Dauphine.
- Nov 12, 2010
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Today was a much better performance but i think they are only going to be racing for 3rd pos but i want to see what they do in the queen stage.
How many mountain domestiques do you need if you don't have the best riders ? Rowe is the first one picked after the leaders/s.
In other news, Ineos now has as many victories this season as Deceuninck. It's been a while.
- May 19, 2011
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Spot on.
If G, Carapaz and Tao are all in the GT winning form we've seen in the past - and there's no reason to expect otherwise - and they can use Porte and Dennis to isolate the Slovenians with Sky's 3 leaders still there, this Tour will get very interesting.
- May 3, 2010
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Ineos has four or five riders who can podium in the Tour, but none who can win it.
As recently as 2014 the 2 favourites crashed out after a week so that is clearly nonsense.
Pog might be better than anything Ineos can bring but Roglic hasn't shown he is a level above G or Carapaz in a 3 week tour
- May 22, 2014
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All else being equal Ineos don't have anyone I would individually back over vs the Slovenians in a top form full health no incident scenario; but it's easy to see them leveraging their depth to find a way to win, especially when the other squads have only one rider to really ride for and they could conceivably back multiple.
People often bemoan the effect their controlling and stifling tactics can have on a race, but they are 100% willing to mix it up and attack at unexpected moments if they need to find an edge.
It should actually make for a really interesting edition to have the strongest team not having the strongest rider (Of course this all goes out the window when Jumbo all rock up absolutely thermonuclear on all terrain)
An alternative reality view: Roglic is crash prone; Pogacar only won the Tour last year with an otherworldly final TT after Roglic took a smallish lead by grabbing bonus seconds and with late attacks. Plus Bernal was hurt. These guys are strong but not unbeatable in GTs.
I don't see the same kind of dominant performances as LA or CF.
Red Rick
Moderator
- Feb 20, 2012
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Because the 2 guys capable of doing that to the rest of the field were kinda busy looking at each other. Both Roglic and Pogacar deleted the cometition the entire spring.
- Jan 4, 2020
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It will be so interesting to see Pogacar at the Tour this year. In my opinion Pogacar didn't just do this insane time trial last year. He already had a crazy performance on the Peyresourde. He won two stages before the time trial already. He didn't demolish Roglic, but, apart from whether he could have, it wouldn't have been clever to show too much strength, because the team wasn't strong enough to safely control the race. So I think he did enough for his purposes. The way I remember it he only was behind Roglic before the time trial because of the crosswinds stage where he had a mechanical at a bad time.
Then if I look at this year, I remember the stage where he hunted van der Poel in the rain. I remember Roglic having a better time trial and UAE switching to McNulty, but then Pogacar just rode and rode, first for McNulty then for himself... and didn't break.
Apart from the results which weren't too bad with the UAE win and the LBL win (probably the races he really wanted to win), he made a really, really strong impression.
Maybe he's not as unbeatable as he looked, but damn, has that guy looked strong. It's definitely not just one time trial.
so, who will beat Pogacar ? I mean the guy is 22 and I could defintely imagine him being as dominant as they guys you mentioned, absolutely no weakness in his game. He also won last year without a team, dont know the last time that has happened
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