They have by far the biggest budget and the biggest focus on the Tour. This gives them the opportunity to field several riders as domestiques that would be leaders in any other team.silvergrenade said:With all the stress of a 3 week Tour, coming in as favourites, then the Landa situation...
Everything was handled very professionally..Top job by the staff as well as the team.
Amazing is a small word for such a team. Chapeau!
Robert5091 said:Team Sky rule the Tour de France again but will remain unloved
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2017/jul/21/team-sky-tour-de-france-dave-brailsford
The UK's The Guardian's Richard Williams on why Sky is despised.
Katusha has a similar budget..Jagartrott said:They have by far the biggest budget and the biggest focus on the Tour. This gives them the opportunity to field several riders as domestiques that would be leaders in any other team.silvergrenade said:With all the stress of a 3 week Tour, coming in as favourites, then the Landa situation...
Everything was handled very professionally..Top job by the staff as well as the team.
Amazing is a small word for such a team. Chapeau!
Why then do you think it's amazing they managed to be dominant as a team in this Tour?
Katusha doesn't target the Tour (and wastes a lot of money), BMC had Porte crashing out. Both also have a budget that is 10-15% lower than Sky's, that's 2-3 very strong domestiques. Sky has always had the power of (pretty dirty, IMO) money behind them AND lives for the Tour and little else. QuickStep has half the budget yet is top of the UCI ranking (and won 5 stages during this Tour).silvergrenade said:Katusha has a similar budget..
BMC is close too.
AG2R is 1/3rd of what Skys budget is and was arguagly the second strongest team.
Budget alone doesnt explain everything. They have the talent as well as motivation(Both internal and external) which makes them as dominant as they are.
Would be interesting to see the team budgets in 2012, 2013. They dominated then too. Were they number 1 on the list then?
1. What does Katusha target?Jagartrott said:Katusha doesn't target the Tour (and wastes a lot of money), BMC had Porte crashing out. Both also have a budget that is 10-15% lower than Sky's, that's 2-3 very strong domestiques. Sky has always had the power of (pretty dirty, IMO) money behind them AND lives for the Tour and little else. QuickStep has half the budget yet is top of the UCI ranking (and won 5 stages during this Tour).silvergrenade said:Katusha has a similar budget..
BMC is close too.
AG2R is 1/3rd of what Skys budget is and was arguagly the second strongest team.
Budget alone doesnt explain everything. They have the talent as well as motivation(Both internal and external) which makes them as dominant as they are.
Would be interesting to see the team budgets in 2012, 2013. They dominated then too. Were they number 1 on the list then?
This I can agree on.Jagartrott said:All I'm saying is that I wouldn't call the dominance of the richest team in the race they target a mile above every other race 'amazing'. Their permonance is along the lines of expectations. And speaking as a fan that has no special preference for any particular rider, their dominance does not make the Tour very exciting.
They didn't have to ride on the front in the first week at all, because they were all sprint stages and then to La Planche des Belles Filles BMC rode all day. Indeed Henao sucked, but not because they wasted him on the flat.Billie said:They made a mistake having Henao and Nieve ride in the front all day on the flat stages in the first week. Henao was of no use at all this race.
Vasilis said:They didn't have to ride on the front in the first week at all, because they were all sprint stages and then to La Planche des Belles Filles BMC rode all day. Indeed Henao sucked, but not because they wasted him on the flat.Billie said:They made a mistake having Henao and Nieve ride in the front all day on the flat stages in the first week. Henao was of no use at all this race.
bigcog said:Brailsford appears to think Froome has 1 or 2 seasons left at the top, hence the 2 year extension I guess, and thinks he can get 5 or maybe even more. Wonder what Sky's plans are after that.
The talk of Jonathan Castroviejo moving to Team SKY makesoldcrank said:It's still 50 weeks away, but I'd bet Tim and Sir Dave and other
members of the Team SKY brain trust have already had some
discussions about the 35km TTT next July 9th in Cholet.
oldcrank said:The talk of Jonathan Castroviejo moving to Team SKY makesoldcrank said:It's still 50 weeks away, but I'd bet Tim and Sir Dave and other
members of the Team SKY brain trust have already had some
discussions about the 35km TTT next July 9th in Cholet.
sense with a TTT in the 2018 Tour and Team SKY's apparent
focus on the TTT at the 2019 Yorkshire World Champs.
Have you heard anything about Castroviejo's plans for the future?Taxus4a said:GB needs another team, that team just with british riderw has a high potential: Froome,Thomas, Kennaugh,..
But I hope with Landa out that potential could be lower.
Team SKy was good for cycling in some ways, but now is a problem.
If Alex wants to defend his Commonwealth Games ITT title next Aprilhazaran said:oldcrank said:The talk of Jonathan Castroviejo moving to Team SKY makesoldcrank said:It's still 50 weeks away, but I'd bet Tim and Sir Dave and other
members of the Team SKY brain trust have already had some
discussions about the 35km TTT next July 9th in Cholet.
sense with a TTT in the 2018 Tour and Team SKY's apparent
focus on the TTT at the 2019 Yorkshire World Champs.
Wonder if they could use Dowsett.. seems like low budget British Watts