Team Visma LAB

[TourOfSardinia]

I wonder what Ricco' & Piepoli think about TJV

 

[pastronef]

I wonder what Ricco' & Piepoli think about TJV

they wouldn't keep up, same as Sky

 

[hrotha]

Jumbo-Gewissma as suggested by @Devil's Elbow.

Ok that's a good one

 

[Jagartrott]

There's a remarkable absence of skepticism regarding their performance in the press. I'm guessing if Astana (with the same riders) would do this, the journos would be somewhat more critical.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Not too shabby! The winner today has an epic Tour battle in his legs while the leader (and runner up today) is riding his 3rd GT of the year! What's next for JV skeletors?

 

[pastronef]

There's a remarkable absence of skepticism regarding their performance in the press. I'm guessing if Astana (with the same riders) would do this, the journos would be somewhat more critical.

Astana, Ineos, Bahrain

 

[QueenStagiaire]

Not too shabby! The winner today has an epic Tour battle in his legs while the leader (and runner up today) is riding his 3rd GT of the year! What's next for JV skeletors?

The password

 

[unamused1]

according to Sepp, its the team work that separates Jumbo from the other teams. Secrets out now

 

[FroomeWagon]

Supernatural performance today. Do Jumbo dial it back, or do they put 10 minutes on the 4th place GC contender tomorrow.

 

[lenric]

I don't man, this seems like Volta a Portugal winning material, they proved once and for all they deserve to be there and beat the best to become the beast...

 

[Unterlenkerfahrend]

Something is very very off this year. Jumbo's dominance is ridiculous but the context makes everything even weirder for me, the varience of performances is just through the roof this year. On the one hand you have these monster performances like Pog in Flanders, Vingegaard in the Tour ITT or MVDP in Worlds where the winning margin is so big it would be unthinkable in other endurance sports.
On the other hand we now have the second time this year where the major opponent of JV bonks spectaculary on the most anticipated stage of a GT. And both Pog on Loze and Remco today just don't make any sense to me. I know people are rushing to explanations such as accumulated fatigue, lack of base, etc. But Pog was literally putting out his best numbers ever 3-4 days before Loze and proceeded to being better than everyone else bar Vingegaard on a hard mountain stage at the end of the third week in the Vosgues, how exactly does that back up the lack of base explanation? And Remco today dropped after 30 minutes of racing (if you discount the descent where they were freewheeling) and they had a couple of easy stages behind them, ain't no way that is bad base, tough stage, accumulated fatigue related.

Now, clinic wise the most obvious conclusion would be bad bloodbag (which timing wise in both cases would also make sense) yet somehow I don't believe Jumbo are still doing the traditional BBs.

I mean, why and how does Vingegaard humiliate everyone in Itzulia? Surely he doesn't do bloodbags for an seemingly irrelevant race like that.
How the heck does Kuss do the Vuelta as a third GT at this level, surely he hasn't stored 20 bloodbags just for the sake of it. And I don't see a training regime between Tour and Vuelta where he time to store a couple of new ones.

And then you have Heßmann popped at the weirdest time during training where he wasn't even preparing for anything bigger and total silence on the matter for almost a month now.

Just a weird weird picture overall.

 

[zlev11]

weak field

 

[zlev11]

Something is very very off this year. Jumbo's dominance is ridiculous but the context makes everything even weirder for me, the varience of performances is just through the roof this year. On the one hand you have these monster performances like Pog in Flanders, Vingegaard in the Tour ITT or MVDP in Worlds where the winning margin is so big it would be unthinkable in other endurance sports.
On the other hand we now have the second time this year where the major opponent of JV bonks spectaculary on the most anticipated stage of a GT. And both Pog on Loze and Remco today just don't make any sense to me. I know people are rushing to explanations such as accumulated fatigue, lack of base, etc. But Pog was literally putting out his best numbers ever 3-4 days before Loze and proceeded to being better than everyone else bar Vingegaard on a hard mountain stage at the end of the third week in the Vosgues, how exactly does that back up the lack of base explanation? And Remco today dropped after 30 minutes of racing (if you discount the descent where they were freewheeling) and they had a couple of easy stages behind them, ain't no way that is bad base, tough stage, accumulated fatigue related.

Now, clinic wise the most obvious conclusion would be bad bloodbag (which timing wise in both cases would also make sense) yet somehow I don't believe Jumbo are still doing the traditional BBs.

I mean, why and how does Vingegaard humiliate everyone in Itzulia? Surely he doesn't do bloodbags for an seemingly irrelevant race like that.
How the heck does Kuss do the Vuelta as a third GT at this level, surely he hasn't stored 20 bloodbags just for the sake of it. And I don't see a training regime between Tour and Vuelta where he time to store a couple of new ones.

And then you have Heßmann popped at the weirdest time during training where he wasn't even preparing for anything bigger and total silence on the matter for almost a month now.

Just a weird weird picture overall.

it's possible that Vingegaard, Kuss, Roglic and WVA are just generational talents that all happen to be on the same team. Vingegaard clearly has something "extra" for the Tour but his base level is good enough to win big WT races. Roglic has been Roglic for years now. as for Kuss, I don't know why they would just decide to give him rocket fuel for the Vuelta especially after doing the other two GT's already.

or there's a new EPO-esque wonder drug that Jumbo have figured out the best way to maximize.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I mean, why and how does Vingegaard humiliate everyone in Itzulia? Surely he doesn't do bloodbags for an seemingly irrelevant race like that.

My understanding is that it's not uncommon for riders to fuel up for that race, so that they won't be left for dead.

 

[nightowl]

Something is very very off this year. Jumbo's dominance is ridiculous but the context makes everything even weirder for me, the varience of performances is just through the roof this year. On the one hand you have these monster performances like Pog in Flanders, Vingegaard in the Tour ITT or MVDP in Worlds where the winning margin is so big it would be unthinkable in other endurance sports.
On the other hand we now have the second time this year where the major opponent of JV bonks spectaculary on the most anticipated stage of a GT. And both Pog on Loze and Remco today just don't make any sense to me. I know people are rushing to explanations such as accumulated fatigue, lack of base, etc. But Pog was literally putting out his best numbers ever 3-4 days before Loze and proceeded to being better than everyone else bar Vingegaard on a hard mountain stage at the end of the third week in the Vosgues, how exactly does that back up the lack of base explanation? And Remco today dropped after 30 minutes of racing (if you discount the descent where they were freewheeling) and they had a couple of easy stages behind them, ain't no way that is bad base, tough stage, accumulated fatigue related.

Now, clinic wise the most obvious conclusion would be bad bloodbag (which timing wise in both cases would also make sense) yet somehow I don't believe Jumbo are still doing the traditional BBs.

I mean, why and how does Vingegaard humiliate everyone in Itzulia? Surely he doesn't do bloodbags for an seemingly irrelevant race like that.
How the heck does Kuss do the Vuelta as a third GT at this level, surely he hasn't stored 20 bloodbags just for the sake of it. And I don't see a training regime between Tour and Vuelta where he time to store a couple of new ones.

And then you have Heßmann popped at the weirdest time during training where he wasn't even preparing for anything bigger and total silence on the matter for almost a month now.

Just a weird weird picture overall.

It could be that Jumbo have some kind of new method and/or drug they’re using, and other teams trying to keep up using “traditional” methods are getting desperate and screwing themselves by taking blood bags that turn out to be bad. Because yeah these inexplicable cracks are textbook bad blood bag cracks. Especially Remco today cracking after 20 minutes sat in the peloton at 7% grade was just downright bizarre.

As for what this new method or drug might be, who knows. It could be they’re doing it year-round - at least to a degree - so as to raise less suspicion as a high-risk high-reward strategy. This would explain Hessmann getting popped randomly. If I’m really putting my tinfoil hat on it could be that they’ve figured out how to put undetectable motors of some kind in their bikes, and can adjust the power when they see fit. Although it is weird that Wout always seems to come up short in the biggest races if that’s the case.

Or they could just be doing the same thing as everyone else but bigger and better.

 

[nightowl]

it's possible that Vingegaard, Kuss, Roglic and WVA are just generational talents that all happen to be on the same team. Vingegaard clearly has something "extra" for the Tour but his base level is good enough to win big WT races. Roglic has been Roglic for years now. as for Kuss, I don't know why they would just decide to give him rocket fuel for the Vuelta especially after doing the other two GT's already.

or there's a new EPO-esque wonder drug that Jumbo have figured out the best way to maximize.

That would be such an insane coincidence though. Wout aside, to have three generational climbing talents come along within a few years of each other despite none of them being particularly exceptional juniors is just too good to be true. Finding one such rider would be a miracle but okay, that sort of thing could happen. Finding three in the space of a few years and seemingly exactly when the team needs another mutant? No way

 

[proffate]

That would be such an insane coincidence though. Wout aside, to have three generational climbing talents come along within a few years of each other despite none of them being particularly exceptional juniors is just too good to be true. Finding one such rider would be a miracle but okay, that sort of thing could happen. Finding three in the space of a few years and seemingly exactly when the team needs another mutant? No way

Don't forget Vingomatic had a vo2 of 197 when he was 14 years old. He simply decided to use it on fish carcasses for a decade before showing off on TV.

 

[lenric]

Sky had marginal gains, jumbo has teamwork

 

[Ripper]

according to Sepp, its the team work that separates Jumbo from the other teams. Secrets out now

Teamwork makes the dreams work

No sh*t

 

[Ripper]

A reporter needs to ask WvA why he just can't manage to win the big races when all his teammates can. Like, what's the problem dude? Even Sepp is winning major races!

Just to get a rise out of him

 

[Rob5091]

So we can say that Vingegaard did not spend the entire 5 weeks on the Chesterfield? Or maybe it's a magical Chesterfield ...

 

[Savant12]

Wonder which Jumbo will crush the Angliru.

 

[Rob5091]

We still have Larra-Belagua first (I think I went to school with someone called Larra Belagua, or am I thinking of caviar, or was it the guy who played Dracula a lot?) Anyhoo, Somebody sang once that Saturday is fighting night so let's hope that the peloton can muster up at least a couple of jabs before the inevitable k.o.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

according to Sepp, its the team work that separates Jumbo from the other teams. Secrets out now

This would make a lot more sense if they weren't winning despite their tactics a lot of the time. Rabofail has long been a meme but a lot of the time they're not winning on smart tactics and teamwork, they're more like SD Worx on the women's side where there's a lot of directionless or headless chicken racing, but they're so comically overpowered that they can win regardless of tactic employed.

 

[hrotha]

Kinda funny to talk about your team work just as you have three teammates quite obviously racing against each other in a free-for-all