Team Ineos (Formerly the Sky thread)

[Forever The Best]

And I think it's very, very notable this Tour and Giro how drastical the turnarounds from one day to the next. Between Pogacar basically gaining 10% his ITT, Sunweb guys going from decent to amazing between week 1 and 2, and Geoghan Hart going from getting murdered on Etna to one of the 3 legendary climbers in this race, it's all from one day to the next.

Don't forget Rohan Dennis getting dropped from a breakaway in stage 17 to turning into one of the 3 best climbers and breaking the record of Stelvio.

 

[Breezy1985]

Don't forget Rohan Dennis getting dropped from a breakaway in stage 17 to turning into one of the 3 best climbers and breaking the record of Stelvio.

That would make him the new Froome

Edit: sorry Froome was dropped by the groupetto on the Vuelta all them years ago not the Giro

 

[Parker]

Don't forget Rohan Dennis getting dropped from a breakaway in stage 17 to turning into one of the 3 best climbers and breaking the record of Stelvio.

So Dennis gets into the break to give himself a bit of a workout and then sits up ahead of the two stages that he's saved himself for the entire race. He wasn't going to go deep knowing the job he had to do in the next few days.

 

[DFA123]

So Dennis gets into the break to give himself a bit of a workout and then sits up ahead of the two stages that he's saved himself for the entire race. He wasn't going to go deep knowing the job he had to do in the next few days.

Is this the ridiculous narrative now? I suppose it had to change from the 'Dennis went all out on the Stelvio while everyone else was holding back for the last climb' line, now that he has finished just 25 seconds down, on a high mountain stage.

 

[topcat]

Rohan Indurain (overnight)
Tao Gee Thomas WTF?
Jai Froome
The 3 amigos

 

[zlev11]

Jai Pantani and Pavel Geoghegan Hart

 

[Red Rick]

So Dennis gets into the break to give himself a bit of a workout and then sits up ahead of the two stages that he's saved himself for the entire race. He wasn't going to go deep knowing the job he had to do in the next few days.

Who needs to train before a race anyway can just use the 5500m total climbing stage the day before as climbing if only people had thought of that earlier who needs recovery anyway.

 

[PhiLiz]

Dennis was just a couple of seconds slower than a Garzelli ascent of Sestriere back in 2000. That ascent was made in an ITT, btw. He was also around the same ballpark as Armstrong in 99 regarding w/kg.

Sadly he said he was feeling average. Just imagine if he was feeling good.

 

[Parker]

Who needs to train before a race anyway can just use the 5500m total climbing stage the day before as climbing if only people had thought of that earlier who needs recovery anyway.

Of course he trains, but then he rides around Italy doing sod all outside time trials for 16 two and a half weeks. He knows that his whole race is two stages. The day before he gets in the break to test his legs, but doesn't overdo it. And then fresh as a daisy, a double World TT champion drops knackered GC riders.

Again your suspicion is down to your limited understanding of the sport

 

[Breezy1985]

Of course he trains, but then he rides around Italy doing sod all outside time trials for 16 two and a half weeks. He knows that his whole race is two stages. The day before he gets in the break to test his legs, but doesn't overdo it. And then fresh as a daisy, a double World TT champion drops knackered GC riders.

Again your suspicion is down to your limited understanding of the sport

Ya we are the ones know nothing about the sport. We are just cynics and skeptics who cant dream big or believe in miracles

 

[PhiLiz]

Of course he trains, but then he rides around Italy doing sod all outside time trials for 16 two and a half weeks. He knows that his whole race is two stages. The day before he gets in the break to test his legs, but doesn't overdo it. And then fresh as a daisy, a double World TT champion drops knackered GC riders.

Again your suspicion is down to your limited understanding of the sport

Nice bait in the end.

Yeah, that's it really.

 

[DanielSong39]

Well let's call Dennis' performance what it is, it was truly sensational

 

[fbjim]

boy oh boy is the 2021 Tour going to be boring

 

[fbjim]

Ya we are the ones know nothing about the sport. We are just cynics and skeptics who cant dream big or believe in miracles

Idiots think it's normal that the same team repeatedly turns TT riders into mountain goats. Brain geniuses know it's about magic pillows or something.

 

[Savant12]

Apart from the time trials, he just sat in the bunch for 2 weeks. Got himself in a break to put some effort into the legs and then knocked it off. Knew where his level was at for the Stelvio stage and what power he could sustain, Recovered on the shortened stage again doing nothing. Repeated the same hard effort yesterday on a shorter and less steep climb.

 

[DanielSong39]

You can downplay Dennis' efforts all you want but 100 domestiques try to do the exact same thing on almost every mountain stage, very few succeed

 

[meat puppet]

Nothing like a smoothly working re-up supply chain.

 

[Red Rick]

I pity Ineos. Their star talent is underperforming and now they have to scrape by with what they've got.

 

[macbindle]

I pity Ineos. Their star talent is underperforming and now they have to scrape by with what they've got.

They have a budget of €50.7.

At €50.7 million for it’s more than Ag2r La Mondiale (€16.6m), Groupama-FDJ (€19.1m) and Cofidis (€11.8 million) combined.

Or 2.5 times Jumbo.

So "what they've got" is equivalent to other teams' star riders.

 

[Breezy1985]

Apart from the time trials, he just sat in the bunch for 2 weeks. Got himself in a break to put some effort into the legs and then knocked it off. Knew where his level was at for the Stelvio stage and what power he could sustain, Recovered on the shortened stage again doing nothing. Repeated the same hard effort yesterday on a shorter and less steep climb.

Thats so simple now that you lay it all out. How did no other team ever thing of trying that. Wow Dave is just so smart

 

[DanielSong39]

Thats so simple now that you lay it all out. How did no other team ever thing of trying that. Wow Dave is just so smart

I think like 6 Quick-Step riders tried doing something similar, they did succeed in limiting Almeida's losses so it wasn't a total loss

 

[Savant12]

Thats so simple now that you lay it all out. How did no other team ever thing of trying that. Wow Dave is just so smart

You would need to ask the other teams.

 

[ppanther92]

You have to admit that Ineos is quick to draw conclusions and adapt. Froome is past it, Thomas might also never replicate his GT win, Bernal is not the dominator it initially seemed. TdF and preperation this year was where those things were revealed.

But the reaction of Ineos to this defeat was superb (viewing it from their position at least). Using the Giro to the good old Vuelta 2011 transformation again. This time Tao is Froome and I guess Thomas would have been Wiggins. The team is also super strong as a whole (see stage wins).

 

[ppanther92]

Apart from the time trials, he just sat in the bunch for 2 weeks. Got himself in a break to put some effort into the legs and then knocked it off. Knew where his level was at for the Stelvio stage and what power he could sustain, Recovered on the shortened stage again doing nothing. Repeated the same hard effort yesterday on a shorter and less steep climb.

Well, this strategy does only work, however, if you know that you are the strongest with your "calculated" efforts when you bring them. I have the impression that Fuglsang, for example, also rode a really controlled and conservative race with paced efforts. He simply was not good enough. So, the real magic happened in bringing Tao (and Dennis) to this ridiculous good level.

 

[Savant12]

Well, this strategy does only work, however, if you know that you are the strongest with your "calculated" efforts when you bring them. I have the impression that Fuglsang, for example, also rode a really controlled and conservative race with paced efforts. He simply was not good enough. So, the real magic happened in bringing Tao (and Dennis) to this ridiculous good level.

I think a two-time World ITT champion knows very well how to manage his efforts. Tao could be leading the GC but he didn't play it well on Etna as he probably was a little too aggressive about covering attacks after Thomas was done and then paid for it later on up the mountain. I thought the forum consensus was that Fuglsang is more suited to one-day/one week races than a 3 week Tour?