Libertine Seguros said:
Stannard already is that guy. Sure, he didn't take it home but he was up there fairly late on (losing time to Boonen) at last year's race, and if he weren't being toasted as a domestique and was able to preserve some energy he might have been able to get a good result. Certainly little different to Sinkeldam today. And he was very good in San Remo.
I don't know that he has that 'it' factor, he seems to be lacking in weapons to attack, but he certainly has promise in the Classics. I just think his biggest weapon is ability to suffer and just keep going; most of his best results have come in the races in the worst conditions, and today probably just wasn't grim enough for him.
I think one simply has to factor in the complete domination of the classics so far by Cancellara (3 mounuments - 3rd, 1st, 1st, 3 wins of 4 cobbeled classics), and to a slightly less extent Sagan - many of them by the tactical masterstroke of simply powering away.
Look at the current World tour rankings - Cancellara 1, Sagan 2 and almost all the other top places taken by a collection of stage race GC riders, a whole collection of whom - Nibali, Froome, Port, Quintana, Purito have had a series of excellent results.
Nobody else in the classics, the two top guys aside, is really putting together a consistent set of results. Indeed, Thomas's modest early season successes and indifferent classics form/crashing mentality have still kept him in the top 10 so far.
The sky boys have, in comparison been not bad, but that's about the height of it. Stannard was excellent in the San Remo, for example, showed a bit in another race. Thomas has, admittedly, brought the comedy by crashing almost every race. Eisel has been there or there abouts. Boassen Hagan clearly has issues that are going to have to be addressed.
But Sky's failure in the classics is really a reflection of the more general peleton failure, the inability of Anybody to consistently challenge Big Dog 1 and Big Dog 2 so far.
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