Team Sky Suggestions/Improvements

[karlboss]

On occasions they have got it right, but it seems to the same old riders involved, tour down under, picardie etc. Vigano, Swift, Henderson, Downing etc. The leadout hasnt worked with other riders involved. But like i say, you dont get a train overnight and they are never going to be going for sprint wins in the grand tours like columbia, i think they are happy picking up sprint wins in smaller races as they did in Picardie etc.

Still think a DS is the biggest problem facing sky. Scott Sunderland is a huge loss, without him in the spring they are ******ed.

when you say a gc rider do you mean a tour de france gc rider? Lofkvist has the ability to do well in either the giro or the vuelta.

I guess we'll see, I was hoping for more at last year's giro.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Rack up the wins at lower levels. There are a number of stage races that can be won solely by getting in a good ITT and holding on; the Vuelta a Murcia, Vuelta a Comunidad de Madrid (depending on course), Tour de Limousin, Quatre Jours du Dunkerque and Tour of California can all be won in this way; an excellent TT and there-or-thereabouts climbing can have you up at the business end of other races, like Catalunya, the Dauphiné and the Ruta del Sol.

Perhaps they could use Wiggins to target some of these races, or at least try to compete; it seemed he was willing to just roll around without really sticking his nose in anywhere until the Tour, and then when he wasn't quite where he'd hoped to be, it makes the whole season a washout. If he'd been able to grab a top 10 in País Vasco or Catalunya or something like that there would at least be something to point to.

 

[Clemson Cycling]

They either need a top notch Grand Tour rider or a top notch sprinter (they really should have thrown the money at Cavendish last year instead of Wiggins), someone that will get them on the front pages of cycling pages. They have a very good classic rider and a good team of time trialists. I also think a U23 team would do them wonders in developing talent for the future, especially if they are interested in building a future British Tour Champion.

 

[ingsve]

when you say a gc rider do you mean a tour de france gc rider? Lofkvist has the ability to do well in either the giro or the vuelta.

More than specifically a GC rider they need a really good climbing specialist. Someone who can animate races in the mountains and perhaps even win mountain top finishes.

Löfkvist is a diesel and will never be the type of rider that attacks or wins in the mountains. His GC performance will always be to hold on as best he can in the mountains in a high steady pace. Whenever there is a tempo change he will take his own tempo. That type of rider can get fairly good GC results but it is not the type of riding that people talks about.

A real climber on the other hand thrives at tempo changes and is explosive. This is the Pantani, Heras, Ricco type of rider and that is what they need. This will provide a good GC presence as well as opening up the chance of winning more uphill races.

It would also be nice with a climber who can sprint like a Samu Sanchez, Marcus Zberg or LL Sanchez type of rider but who doesn't want that...

 

[taiwan]

Maybe they could sign a climber from the Italian Pro Conti circuit. I think that's a big market for the sponsor also. Someone might move for the guaranteed Giro ride.

 

[auscyclefan94]

As much as you like to diss sky, you have hit the nail on the head- whether or nit that was your intention

On occasions they have got it right, but it seems to the same old riders involved, tour down under, picardie etc. Vigano, Swift, Henderson, Downing etc. The leadout hasnt worked with other riders involved. But like i say, you dont get a train overnight and they are never going to be going for sprint wins in the grand tours like columbia, i think they are happy picking up sprint wins in smaller races as they did in Picardie etc.

Still think a DS is the biggest problem facing sky. Scott Sunderland is a huge loss, without him in the spring they are ******ed.

when you say a gc rider do you mean a tour de france gc rider? Lofkvist has the ability to do well in either the giro or the vuelta.

But when they get on the front they look good, even in big races. But they die as the riders can take long enough turns on the front or they have gone too early.

With the gc rider, wiggins main goal was the tour but he showed nothing in any other stage race in the season (he's not a one day rider so results their mean nothing). They need wiggins to step up to the plate to get some results and/or get someone else who can get some results in some stage races.

 

[hrotha]

I don't think they need a GC guy, they just need to embrace what they're good at, and also don't waste Wiggins' talents.

edit: also they need to keep their mouth shut, and everyone else needs to stop analyzing their every move.

 

[Jan the Man]

I would probably reiterate that they need a GC leader. The problem is they probably haven't got the budget to afford one; given the salary they are rumoured to be paying Wiggins.

Positives - Stannard, Kennaugh, Downing, Thomas, Flecha, EBH, Sutton, Henderson

 

[happychappy]

More neons in the bus! Oh, and blinged up chrome spinners on all their vehicles.

 

[euanli]

carbon fibre spokey dokeys

 

[simoni]

You have to remember that the stated mission for sky is to win the tour with a british rider and at the time they were formed there is no-one close to being able to do this apart from Wiggins. He knew it, they knew it and he is paid accordingly.
Maybe in sporting terms they will eventually be shown to have backed the wrong horse (FWIW I think he deserves at least another crack at the TdF) but in commercial terms there was no option but to sign Wiggins.

 

[Anonymous]

You have to remember that the stated mission for sky is to win the tour with a british rider and at the time they were formed there is no-one close to being able to do this apart from Wiggins. He knew it, they knew it and he is paid accordingly.
Maybe in sporting terms they will eventually be shown to have backed the wrong horse (FWIW I think he deserves at least another crack at the TdF) but in commercial terms there was no option but to sign Wiggins.

I think as far as wiggins doing well in the tour it depends on 1) the course and 2) if contador decides he wants to do a vuelta giro double or something, but i dont see that happening anytime soon.
I think sky's long term british hopes are more based around G and Kennaugh, not brad.

 

[Jan the Man]

I think as far as wiggins doing well in the tour it depends on 1) the course and 2) if contador decides he wants to do a vuelta giro double or something, but i dont see that happening anytime soon.
I think sky's long term british hopes are more based around G and Kennaugh, not brad.

I cannot see Thomas competing in a GT. I think he has the potential to become a very good classics rider, but I don't think he can climb well enough to do well in a GT.

Yes one could say he has the diesel engine so he could potentially climb well, I just see his sternghts elsewhere.

 

[Clemson Cycling]

Why is everyone so high on Kennaugh. What has he ever done to prove he has the potential to win a GT? He does not even have a single victory on the year. They are a British team that does not even have the two best British riders right now.

 

[taiwan]

Maybe they could be looking to Cummings as a British GT hope. Sort of an all rounder. Looking at CQ, he had a really good 2008 and not much since. Anyone who knows care to comment?

 

[Fester]

Maybe they could be looking to Cummings as a British GT hope. Sort of an all rounder. Looking at CQ, he had a really good 2008 and not much since. Anyone who knows care to comment?

At Barloworld they all seemed to go better bar Thomas

 

[Jamsque]

Cummings has a big engine and is a hard worker but I don't think he has the profile for a GT rider.

As for why everyone is 'so high' on Kennaugh, it's mainly down to whispers and stories coming out of the GB training system. Dave Brailsford is full of praises for the kid, as is pretty much everyone else who has trained him.

He started out on the track so he doesn't have the kind of palmares you might look for in a 21-year-old who is so highly thought of, but he doesn't have none. 2008 was the first year he did any major road racing and he won a couple of U23 classics in Italy, and in 09 he won a stage of the Baby Giro and finished 3rd overall, as well as coming top 20 in the Tour de l'Avenir and top 5 in the U23 Worlds Road Race.

Sky have been pretty careful with him this year, he is very young for this level of racing, and he's inexperienced for his age due to his track background. He's starting the Vuelta but I assume he is just there to give what he can in the TTT and get the feel for Grand Tour racing before dropping out and heading to U23 Worlds, so I don't expect to see much from him.

I think he is probably the best British GT prospect right now, and an exciting one at that. If Thomas ever wins a GT (which I doubt) he'll do it by hanging on in the mountains and blitzing the time trials, but Kennaugh has the potential to be a real mountain goat. As I keep saying, though, he is very, very green on the road. I wouldn't expect much in the way of results from him until 2012.

 

[Clemson Cycling]

The fact of the matter is British Road Cycling only has one elite rider right now and he is not on the team. Are they really going to wait around to develop a guy that can compete for the Tour or are they going to take the team in a different direction. They have a great track program and the great track riders become good sprinters, so why don't they go that route. Wiggins 4th at the Tour was a fluke caused by a dominate Astana and the fact that Wiggins was on a great team that knows how to do well in developing talent.

 

[ingsve]

Why is everyone so high on Kennaugh. What has he ever done to prove he has the potential to win a GT? He does not even have a single victory on the year. They are a British team that does not even have the two best British riders right now.

Well, when you start looking at british riders and GT you start by eliminating people who will never have a shot. Then you are left with very few riders who at least have the build to possibly do well. Some are too old to realistically develope into a GT winner so you eliminate them as well.

Among the riders left I think Kennaugh is so young that he has not yet excluded himself from the possibility and the little that he has shown in for example Giro baby has also not excluded him yet. That's why he's mentioned and not because he has proven that he will be a GT rider or anything like that.

 

[sublimit]

Maybe they could be looking to Cummings as a British GT hope. Sort of an all rounder. Looking at CQ, he had a really good 2008 and not much since. Anyone who knows care to comment?

I dont think its possible, the way he was hanging on at the Tour mainly near the back of the field and miles down on GC this time. Great domestique and hard flat terrain rider and he should stay that way., but i dont think he's a 3 week tour rider.

 

[Mambo95]

The fact of the matter is British Road Cycling only has one elite rider right now and he is not on the team. Are they really going to wait around to develop a guy that can compete for the Tour or are they going to take the team in a different direction. They have a great track program and the great track riders become good sprinters, so why don't they go that route. Wiggins 4th at the Tour was a fluke caused by a dominate Astana and the fact that Wiggins was on a great team that knows how to do well in developing talent.

They are developing other riders. Ben Swift (22) has done well in sprints and won the Tour of Picardie, Ian Stannard (23) has been on the podium in a minor classic, Geraint Thomas (24) has certainly developed this year into a decent all-rounder. They've apparently signed Alex Dowsett (21), who's a TT speciallist.

People get too hung up on Brailsford's 'British winner of the Tour quote'. Sure it's an aim, but not the exclusion of everything else. It was a quote for the benefit of a British public who, by and large, haven't heard of any other race.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The fact of the matter is British Road Cycling only has one elite rider right now and he is not on the team.

Absolute nonsense. They have at least three, including one that's won the most prestigious stage race available to them, the Worlds and the Olympics, and one that's won the second most prestigious stage race available to them, the mountains jersey at the most prestigious stage race available to them, the biggest Ardennes classic and a huge number of major events during the year, and who can both TT and climb with the world's best, plus another who's won the youth jersey at the most prestigious stage race available to them.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I dont think its possible, the way he was hanging on at the Tour mainly near the back of the field and miles down on GC this time. Great domestique and hard flat terrain rider and he should stay that way., but i dont think he's a 3 week tour rider.

He was 2nd or 3rd to Monte Pora in the 2008 Giro behind Kiryienka, so he can put in a good showing over three weeks, and after Jérôme Pineau he was perhaps the most regular breakaway artist in this year's Giro, so he can still have stuff in the tank after three weeks, but as for contending for the race I don't think so. At best he'd be on the limits of his talent to hang on to the back of a group and then gain time to pull himself into the top 20 in a week 3 escape, kind of like Moreau or Armstrong this year (I would say Plaza or Horner, who both did a very good job of the same thing, but I believe that Horner and Plaza are more naturally talented riders than Cummings). In that useful domestique+escape artist role Cummings will always be useful in a Grand Tour (I believe it was him that dropped back from the escape to pace Wiggins when he attacked on Monte Grappa), but British cycling fans shouldn't kid themselves that he'll be a contender.

And Thomas, well, trying to make him a Grand Tour contender could ruin his potential in the Spring classics, which is where his hopes should lie. Remember when Stijn Devolder was supposed to compete in GCs?

 

[jaylew]

Absolute nonsense. They have at least three, including one that's won the most prestigious stage race available to them, the Worlds and the Olympics, and one that's won the second most prestigious stage race available to them, the mountains jersey at the most prestigious stage race available to them, the biggest Ardennes classic and a huge number of major events during the year, and who can both TT and climb with the world's best, plus another who's won the youth jersey at the most prestigious stage race available to them.

I must be missing something because I have no idea who you're talking about in this post. They have a L-B-L winner? And what do you mean by "available to them"?

 

[simo1733]

Plastic Paddy

Dan Martin is the British rider with the most gc potential. He is exactly the kind of rider Sky need.And yes I know he has an Irish licence, but he could have a British licence like his dad