Team Ineos (Formerly the Sky thread)

[thehog]

Surely the train works because you burn riders up, get them to go max effort o x amount before peeling off and soft-pedalling to the top. Of that group today Contador beat Froome, Talansky beat Froome and I think even Hesjedal came around him at the end. So it a succession of measured efforts, which culminatively prevent other riders attacking.

I think Sky look poor, they were out-thunk by Saxo today, they were able to rest their doms, and Berite just surfed the Sky train and then took off.

Agree. The Sky train appears to work without thinking.
I think they may need to save Porte rather than use him in train. Froome needs someone else as today it showed they can't control everything.

You can see come Tour time Contador will sit on Froome and attack on downhills and other odd places to force Sky to burn themselves out.

Have to say they look a lot worse than Sky 2012. Perhaps Wiggo was a better team leader?

 

[gooner]

Agree. The Sky train appears to work without thinking.
I think they may need to save Porte rather than use him in train. Froome needs someone else as today it showed they can't control everything.

You can see come Tour time Contador will sit on Froome and attack on downhills and other odd places to force Sky to burn themselves out.

Have to say they look a lot worse than Sky 2012. Perhaps Wiggo was a better team leader?

They miss Mick, he was captain on the road then.

 

[thehog]

They miss Mick, he was captain on the road then.

Yes, agreed. I don't see Froome as leader as in a good manger of the team. Perhaps not Wiggo either. Rogers by all accounts is very good at team management on the road.

 

[Ripper]

Yes, agreed. I don't see Froome as leader as in a good manger of the team. Perhaps not Wiggo either. Rogers by all accounts is very good at team management on the road.

Froome is an idiot who also, apparently, cannot write very interesting stories!

Full fucking retard for all in this year's TdF.

 

[Rollthedice]

Agree. The Sky train appears to work without thinking.
I think they may need to save Porte rather than use him in train. Froome needs someone else as today it showed they can't control everything.

You can see come Tour time Contador will sit on Froome and attack on downhills and other odd places to force Sky to burn themselves out.

Have to say they look a lot worse than Sky 2012. Perhaps Wiggo was a better team leader?

In fact today they looked the best in all of this year. They don't have to think, they have only one card to play, Froome's watts. They burn out as much as possible everybody else and then Froome attacks. Except I think today Vroom was not at his best and they rode the high tempo on the final climb to prevent other attacks. What Sky and some people don't seem to understand is that Contador has stepped up to the alien level (on the mountains, TT remains to be seen although we have seen some signs in Pays Vasco and Dauphine). Maybe that De Jongh dude is working miracles, the scientific training, the coffee is better, I don't know but Bertie is going to TdF with 2nd Algarve, 1st TA, 2nd Catalunya, 1st Pays Vasco and (probably) 1st Dauphine.

 

[JimmyFingers]

Agree. The Sky train appears to work without thinking.
I think they may need to save Porte rather than use him in train. Froome needs someone else as today it showed they can't control everything.

You can see come Tour time Contador will sit on Froome and attack on downhills and other odd places to force Sky to burn themselves out.

Have to say they look a lot worse than Sky 2012. Perhaps Wiggo was a better team leader?

Any crosswinds and Bertie will go full bore too. Froome said it in his book: he hates being attacked on the flat. Sky still haven't learnt that they can't control the race all of the time.

And Mick Rogers was the backbone of the 2012 team.

 

[Benotti69]

Sky's doms dropped nearly every other Team leader with the exception of 3 Bertie, Nibali, Talanksy.

2 of sky doms finished in top 20 today.

Hmmm, sky looked poor? Well then the other teams looked poverished.....

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Not seeing Mick Rogers in the Sky train helps in two respects though. One is of course that seeing Mick Rogers in a Sky kit immediately added a seed of doubt because of his dubious history; they may as well have hired Yaroslav Popovych. And the other thing is that his not being there means that you can still have some hope that their simple bludgeoning tactic can be out-thought, Rogers had the experience to resolve all of that.

But trying to sell a team as clean while Mick Rogers taps out a tempo for long enough to make attacks by reigning champion Evans and GT winner and probable Ferrari client Nibali meaningless, that's a tough job.

 

[nomapnocompass]

 

[Benotti69]

a picture that tells the story.

Well posted nomapnocompass

 

[More Strides than Rides]

Sky's doms dropped nearly every other Team leader with the exception of 3 Bertie, Nibali, Talanksy.

2 of sky doms finished in top 20 today.

Hmmm, sky looked poor? Well then the other teams looked poverished.....

Agreed. I'm not sure what people expect. Even Porte was a one-and-done domestique after the first week last Tour. It was Froome helping Wiggins that made people think Sky needs to finish with the the doms ahead of everyone else. The rest of the team now looks at least more human.

 

[Benotti69]

Agreed. I'm not sure what people expect. Even Porte was a one-and-done domestique after the first week last Tour. It was Froome helping Wiggins that made people think Sky needs to finish with the the doms ahead of everyone else. The rest of the team now looks at least more human.

How does a team having 4 doms at 5kms to go when other teams are on the rivet look more human?

They dont. They look positively USPS.

 

[BYOP88]

Am I correct in thinking it was *Brailsford* who said 'In clean cycling you'll no longer see trains on mountain finishes'?

*It may not have been Brailsford, but it was someone trying to sell clean cycling who said it.

 

[gooner]

Am I correct in thinking it was *Brailsford* who said 'In clean cycling you'll no longer see trains on mountain finishes'?

*It may not have been Brailsford, but it was someone trying to sell clean cycling who said it.

McQuaid.

...

 

[doperhopper]

yeah four coffee makers, but where's vroomie's coffee now?

 

[BYOP88]

McQuaid.

...

Thanks

....

 

[MBotero]

The Sky train was really good,Froome not so much,but Nieve remind me a bit of J.L.Rubiera he was very strong,same as in stage 2.

 

[Fzotrlool]

You can add Heano (and most likely Kennaugh) to the TdF lineup.

 

[hrotha]

At least Nieve was already a very good climber before they signed him. He's one of the few examples to support the "they're rich so they signed THE BEST, of course they're going to be up there" argument.

 

[Fzotrlool]

At least Nieve was already a very good climber before they signed him. He's one of the few examples to support the "they're rich so they signed THE BEST, of course they're going to be up there" argument.

Most of their non-Anglos (Nieve, Lopez, Kiry) has always been good, that's true.

I have the feeling that people, including those from English speaking countries, find their Anglo-bots more sterile than say Heano or EBH.

 

[Publicus]

That 5 KM to go was for the leaders 4'+ up the road. Still your point is well taken

 

[thehog]

At least Nieve was already a very good climber before they signed him. He's one of the few examples to support the "they're rich so they signed THE BEST, of course they're going to be up there" argument.

Yes. Tinkov, Astana and Katusha have no money.

 

[Dear Wiggo]

That 5 KM to go was for the leaders 4'+ up the road. Still your point is well taken

So the shot is taken when they have ~6km to go.

 

[More Strides than Rides]

How does a team having 4 doms at 5kms to go when other teams are on the rivet look more human?

They dont. They look positively USPS.

More human compared to Froome. That was my point. Sky only looked poor because we saw alien domestiquing from Froome in the past. Today, people saw the squad as a shade of that past and call them in poor form, when they are in fact still doing as Sky has always done: bending other teams over and reminding them who's boss (or at least who the boss's family works for).

 

[Dear Wiggo]

TO be honest I don't think it means too much, necessarily, that Contador was "isolated", given it's the MTF now, and he can quite easily sit on Froome's wheel and receive all the potential watt savings drafting provides.

Better off letting your riders cruise up the climb and be a bit fresher tomorrow than make them hang around at top speed and not really offer all that much benefit. Sure a puncture could spell disaster, but other than that, I am failing to see their benefit.

Hilly stage again tomorrow, will be interesting to see if my theory holds, and Contador has more riders around him for the mountains and the finish.