Team Ineos Discussion thread

[dacooley]

expectedly solid team. it's all down to froome finding or not finding his near-top conditions.

 

[Kwibus]

Re:

Understandable they chose to play it safe and omit Stannard and Poels, it's still a seriously strong team for both the flat and the mountains.

Poels and Stannard will be very good doms for Froome to have in the Vuelta.

Indeed and without them they still have a team with a couple of riders thatcould ride a GC as leader.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Team Sky Discussion thread

Still a very, very strong team...yikes.

Is Team Sky physically capable of sending a weak team?

 

[King Boonen]

Re: Team Sky Discussion thread

Still a very, very strong team...yikes.

Is Team Sky physically capable of sending a weak team?

Based on the "Sky" riders I see out on the roads every now and then around here, yes

 

[deValtos]

That would be a fun exercise. Create the weakest possible team Sky could send to the TDF to protect Froome (still have to include the dawg ofc though.)

 

[Valv.Piti]

No Wout and Stannard was pretty expected after poor performances for whatever reasons. Great team.

 

[DBotero]

Re: Team Sky Discussion thread

I didn't expected Poels to be left out as he was very confident he'll be in He won't be too happy with it.
I'm very disappointed that Stannard and Kennaugh didn't make it.Very strange to take 3 guys from the Giro team vs other fresh riders.Let's see how this will work out but I expect the team to be weaker in the mountains than the usual TDF Sky train.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re:

That would be a fun exercise. Create the weakest possible team Sky could send to the TDF to protect Froome (still have to include the dawg ofc though.)

Ian Boswell
Benat Intxausti
Owain Doull
Tao Hart
Jonathan Dibben
Lukasz Wisniowski
Kenny Elissonde
Michal Golas

 

[Ruby United]

Re: Team Sky Discussion thread

SKY's squad is incredibly strong - as others have pointed out, with the 13 or so riders in the mix, the squad couldn't have been weak.
Having said that, I would have taken all of Kennaugh, Poels and Stannard and left out Knees, Nieve and Rowe.
Kennaugh matches with Nieve (though I feel PK would have been more prepared for the Tour) and Stannard matches with Rowe, so not much difference there. But Poels should definitely be in place of Knees.

 

[yaco]

Re:

Not surprised about Poels' absence. He didn't race between 19/02 and 15/06.

You nailed it with Poels. Some are delusional when considering the fitness of riders. They seem to think mssing 3 or 4 months allows you to be cherry ripe for the TDF.

 

[MatParker117]

Re: Re:

That would be a fun exercise. Create the weakest possible team Sky could send to the TDF to protect Froome (still have to include the dawg ofc though.)

Ian Boswell
Benat Intxausti
Owain Doull
Tao Hart
Jonathan Dibben
Lukasz Wisniowski
Kenny Elissonde
Michal Golas

Three GT stage winners, an Olympic champion, a world champion seems weak.

 

[Frankschleck]

Re: Re:

That would be a fun exercise. Create the weakest possible team Sky could send to the TDF to protect Froome (still have to include the dawg ofc though.)

Ian Boswell
Benat Intxausti
Owain Doull
Tao Hart
Jonathan Dibben
Lukasz Wisniowski
Kenny Elissonde
Michal Golas

Three GT stage winners, an Olympic champion, a world champion seems weak.

I would personally go with:
puccio
Wisniowski
david lopez ( past his prime)
sebastian henao
owan doull
tao georghran hart
dibben
and boswell

but they are still some pretty good riders

 

[deValtos]

Re: Team Sky Discussion thread

SKY's squad is incredibly strong - as others have pointed out, with the 13 or so riders in the mix, the squad couldn't have been weak.
Having said that, I would have taken all of Kennaugh, Poels and Stannard and left out Knees, Nieve and Rowe.
Kennaugh matches with Nieve (though I feel PK would have been more prepared for the Tour) and Stannard matches with Rowe, so not much difference there. But Poels should definitely be in place of Knees.

Rowe is in over Stannard because this season his legs are considerably stronger. That's all there is too it. Stannard is in no condition to ride the Tour honestly.

 

[Singer01]

If there is another stage like formigal he would be over the moon to have a fully fit Stannard chasing down the break in this years Vuelta.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

That would be a fun exercise. Create the weakest possible team Sky could send to the TDF to protect Froome (still have to include the dawg ofc though.)

Ian Boswell
Benat Intxausti
Owain Doull
Tao Hart
Jonathan Dibben
Lukasz Wisniowski
Kenny Elissonde
Michal Golas

Three GT stage winners, an Olympic champion, a world champion seems weak.

That would be a strong squad for a lower budget WT team going stagehunting. It would be an extremely weak team to support the Tour favourite.

 

[DFA123]

Re:

If there is another stage like formigal he would be over the moon to have a fully fit Stannard chasing down the break in this years Vuelta.

They just don't need him now though. They're in the ridiculously strong position of having two domestiques this year (Thomas and Kwiatkowski) who are just insane. They are such strong rouleurs that they can pretty much do nearly as good a the job of Stannard on the flat in an emergency (i.e. when Rowe, Knees and Kiryienka isn't enough!!) and can also be seriously strong climbing domestique when needed as well.

 

[deValtos]

It almost feels like cheating have a domestique that can climb with the best and also crush it on the flat. It's like two teammates in one.

 

[carton]

Re: Team Sky Discussion thread

Let's see how this will work out but I expect the team to be weaker in the mountains than the usual TDF Sky train.

I think Kiri, Kwiato, Nieve, Henao, Thomas and Landa will manage to do a more than adequate hash of it. That'll be over 6W/Kg just to hold on when the going gets tough.

Rowe is in over Stannard because this season his legs are considerably stronger. That's all there is too it.

Stannard's been sub-par while Rowe had a pretty decent early spring, and was absolute class during that chaotic start at Paris-Nice. He's also 10kg lighter so he should be able to rotate in for Kiri and Kwiato early in the climbs. That's not the part that surprises me.

That would be a fun exercise. Create the weakest possible team Sky could send to the TDF to protect Froome (still have to include the dawg ofc though.)

Taking away neo-pros and KB's chums, on current form:

Wiśniowski
van Poppel
Gołaś
Elissonde
Intxausti
Seb Henao
Kennaugh
Knees

Christian Knees is a decent rider and he seems like a good guy, but if you're taking him then Yogi must have been ruled out (or it's a very unlikely Team Sky bow towards the home crowd).

 

[King Boonen]

Re: Team Sky Discussion thread

Let's see how this will work out but I expect the team to be weaker in the mountains than the usual TDF Sky train.

I think Kiri, Kwiato, Nieve, Henao, Thomas and Landa will manage to do a decent job at it. That'll be over 6W/Kg just to hold on when the going gets tough.

Rowe is in over Stannard because this season his legs are considerably stronger. That's all there is too it.

Stannard's been sub-par while Rowe had a pretty decent early spring, and was absolute class during that chaotic start at Paris-Nice. He's also 10kg lighter so he should be able to rotate in for Kiri and Kwiato early in the climbs. That's not the part that surprises me.

That would be a fun exercise. Create the weakest possible team Sky could send to the TDF to protect Froome (still have to include the dawg ofc though.)

Taking away neo-pros and KB's chums, on current form:

Wiśniowski
van Poppel
Gołaś
Elissonde
Intxausti
Seb Henao
Kennaugh
Knees

Christian Knees is a decent rider and he seems like a good guy, but if you're taking him then Yogi must have been ruled out (or it's a very unlikely Team Sky bow towards the home crowd).

Oi! None of my mates would wear Sky kit!!

 

[deValtos]

It's such a shame Intxausti has been sidelined so long with illness. From what I recall he seemed pretty similar to Izagirre in terms of form and could have made Sky's GT line-ups even more absurd than they already are.

Do we know if he is switching teams at the end of this season or what he is doing?

 

[carton]

Re: Team Sky Discussion thread

Oi! None of my mates would wear Sky kit!!

:lol:

Chummed up a few roads with them, have ye not?

BTW, cracking joke, but to be slightly more equitable to the almond-mocha-latte Marginal Gains brigade, a fair few of them aren't complete "chum" either.

 

[rick james]

if the keep Landa in cold storage for the 3rd week and hopefully he can play the Poels role

 

[DFA123]

Re:

It almost feels like cheating have a domestique that can climb with the best and also crush it on the flat. It's like two teammates in one.

It does feel like that! Basically like having an 11 man team. As far as GCs are concerned the only real weakness of Thomas and Kwiatkowski is the odd really bad day that they have, but that doesn't really matter in such a strong team, as someone else can step up and cover them when that happens.

The big shame I guess is that neither of those two (or Landa) will be able to stage hunt and show all their talent. They'll be used to suffocate the race rather than to animate it.

 

[sir fly]

Re:

if the keep Landa in cold storage for the 3rd week and hopefully he can play the Poels role

I think the perfect role for him is to police the breakaways when/if the race comes to such tactics.
He could take a stage while doing work for the team.

 

[Leinster]

Re: Re:

That would be a fun exercise. Create the weakest possible team Sky could send to the TDF to protect Froome (still have to include the dawg ofc though.)

Ian Boswell
Benat Intxausti
Owain Doull
Tao Hart
Jonathan Dibben
Lukasz Wisniowski
Kenny Elissonde
Michal Golas

Poor Phil Deignan can't even get picked on Sky's WORST team for the Tour.

You have to feel for the guy. 12 years a pro, a grand tour stage winner, works his arse off for every team he's rode for, week in week out, but always surplus to requirements come July.