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Teams & Riders The Great Big Cycling Transfers and Rumours Thread

Page 115 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
I find the speculation that Thomas could leave Ineos for ... Qhubeka ... to be interesting. He's still got a lot of firepower, and if he doesn't insist on GT leadership he can race and win for a few more years. I guess the only issue is whether a pay cut at Ineos and potentially a reduced role is better than maybe more money and tour leadership (but much less certainty) at another team. If he did go to, say, Qhubeka, he'd be able to top 5-10 so long as he stays upright, even without any real team support. But he'd need Ineos-level domestiques to aim for a podium.

I'd personally like him to stay at Ineos but have another crack at some of the northern classics as well as some week-long races, then go to the TdF as a super-domestique and third option but without pressure. But I suspect in his mind he has unfinished grand tour business and still should be a protected leader. Unfortunately it's just largely been bad luck for him in recent ones...
 
I find the speculation that Thomas could leave Ineos for ... Qhubeka ... to be interesting. He's still got a lot of firepower, and if he doesn't insist on GT leadership he can race and win for a few more years. I guess the only issue is whether a pay cut at Ineos and potentially a reduced role is better than maybe more money and tour leadership (but much less certainty) at another team. If he did go to, say, Qhubeka, he'd be able to top 5-10 so long as he stays upright, even without any real team support. But he'd need Ineos-level domestiques to aim for a podium.

I'd personally like him to stay at Ineos but have another crack at some of the northern classics as well as some week-long races, then go to the TdF as a super-domestique and third option but without pressure. But I suspect in his mind he has unfinished grand tour business and still should be a protected leader. Unfortunately it's just largely been bad luck for him in recent ones...

To be honest, I just don't think he is good enough to be a GT leader at this stage of his career. There's just too much inconsistency in him in the last two/three years for him to be able to contend in three weeks races.

If I was him I would definitely stay at INEOS with less money and a road captain, classics and one-week races role. If he goes to a team with less support and protected leadership role he risks being close to the new new-Froome - I know, I know, nothing close to the new Froome of course, but I certainly wouldn't be able to see Geraint as more than a top-20 GT contender at best (but I've been wrong many times in the past).
 
To be honest, I just don't think he is good enough to be a GT leader at this stage of his career. There's just too much inconsistency in him in the last two/three years for him to be able to contend in three weeks races.

If I was him I would definitely stay at INEOS with less money and a road captain, classics and one-week races role. If he goes to a team with less support and protected leadership role he risks being close to the new new-Froome - I know, I know, nothing close to the new Froome of course, but I certainly wouldn't be able to see Geraint as more than a top-20 GT contender at best (but I've been wrong many times in the past).

IMHO, main issue with Geraint it's not consistency, it's the ability to stay on the bike for 21 days as well as keeping motivation. A "non-crashing" Geraint would have surely made the Top5 and possibly Podiumed this TdF.

2019 he was second in TdF behind his teammate. 2020 he crashed out the Giro after being second at Tirreno. 2021 he crashed out of TdF contention after making the podium in three week-long relevant races.
 
To be honest, I just don't think he is good enough to be a GT leader at this stage of his career. There's just too much inconsistency in him in the last two/three years for him to be able to contend in three weeks races.

If I was him I would definitely stay at INEOS with less money and a road captain, classics and one-week races role. If he goes to a team with less support and protected leadership role he risks being close to the new new-Froome - I know, I know, nothing close to the new Froome of course, but I certainly wouldn't be able to see Geraint as more than a top-20 GT contender at best (but I've been wrong many times in the past).

If he took up a similar deal to Kwiato, that still pays 2.5m euros a year according to the L'Equipe table of best earners and held still probably be in the top ten best paid riders in the peloton.
 
Having Thomas as a captain in multi-captain squad like Ineos has is just fine. If he performs to the best of his capabilities he is among the best couple of riders they have on their roster. If he falls, well you just lose one of your captains and you have to hope the others perform.

Ineos have neither Pogacar nor Roglic in their roster. So if one of them starts a GT, Ineos will never bring the top favorite to the race. So having multiple horses in the race seems to be a great way to move forward for Ineos for now. Thomas is especially important in this, because on a good day he is the only Ineos rider capable of limiting time losses in the TT against Pogacar and Roglic.
 
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Hugo Houle leaves Astana, Premier Tech will be making a big announcement soon. Houle said that he will ride for another WT, so Houle will follow Premier Tech.
"Je vois ça d’un très bon œil. C’est une grosse opération. Il y a donc certaines étapes à respecter. Ça ne devrait pas tarder pour que vous connaissiez le futur de Premier Tech et le mien, probablement dans les prochains jours. "


View: https://twitter.com/LaPresse_Sports/status/1436283951581073410?s=20
 
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Hugo Houle leaves Astana, Premier Tech will be making a big announcement soon. Houle said that he will ride for another WT, so Houle will follow Premier Tech.
"Je vois ça d’un très bon œil. C’est une grosse opération. Il y a donc certaines étapes à respecter. Ça ne devrait pas tarder pour que vous connaissiez le futur de Premier Tech et le mien, probablement dans les prochains jours. "


View: https://twitter.com/LaPresse_Sports/status/1436283951581073410?s=20

Daniel Benson earlier printed an article stating it will be Bike Exchange.
 
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IMHO, main issue with Geraint it's not consistency, it's the ability to stay on the bike for 21 days as well as keeping motivation. A "non-crashing" Geraint would have surely made the Top5 and possibly Podiumed this TdF.

2019 he was second in TdF behind his teammate. 2020 he crashed out the Giro after being second at Tirreno. 2021 he crashed out of TdF contention after making the podium in three week-long relevant races.
From a team's perspective that's more or less the same. Whether he's inconsistent in performances or he crashes all the time doesn't really matter much, because it leads to inconsistency in results.
 
I cannot make this a link, but didn't you guys say Lopez was going to Astana? (This podcast earlier also suggested Mas was going to UAE, and that was obviously not correct) So weird photoshopping Lopez into UAE when the podcast doesn't even believe it.
View: https://youtu.be/yFixlL2tEu8
It just takes watching a couple of race highlights videos for youtube to fill your stream with questionable podcasts. Last I've seen is a Colombian dude with a screen caption saying there's a rumour in Italy that Bernal is moving out of Ineos. Time to clean watch history to get rid of all that clikbait garbage.
 
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