Teams & Riders The "Maximilian Schachmann deserves a thread" thread

[tobydawq]

Yes, Schachmann is really, really good on short climbs (okay, it's hard to say after last year that Fuglsang isn't) and time trials and is really fast.

Fuglsang is more of an endurance guy who is probably better on longer climbs.

Both have skillsets that provide ample opportunity for winning one-week races but they vary quite a lot from each other.

They do have one thing in common, though: They are seriously good bike riders.

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

Props to him today. That was very impressive.

 

[geisterhome]

Yes, Schachmann is really, really good on short climbs (okay, it's hard to say after last year that Fuglsang isn't) and time trials and is really fast.

Fuglsang is more of an endurance guy who is probably better on longer climbs.

Both have skillsets that provide ample opportunity for winning one-week races but they vary quite a lot from each other.

They do have one thing in common, though: They are seriously good bike riders.

He said now in several recent post P-N interviews that his absolut main goal is to become a GT GC rider. And that he has been working on it for a while. The strong showing at Algrave and the Paris Nice victroy is showing that he is on the right track he says. He already wanted to ride for the GC this years Giro.
Classics don't seem to be a priority anymore.

 

[WKA311]

His original goals of the season, Giro + Olympics, have been abandoned due to corona.

He is now riding the Tour in support of Buchmann and will be targeting the classics. Ardennes, Strade and Lombardia unsurprisingly but he is also scheduled to do both Flanders and Roubaix.

Would love to see that.

 

[Faserr]

He could be really good in Flanders. I already hoped that he will ride that race sometimes. I don't know how he handles the cobbles in Paris-Roubaix. Perhaps he is a bit to light for it.
Beside helping Buchmann, he will be probably allowed to go for stages. I think the main helpers for Buchmann in the mountains are Kämna, Mühlberger and Großschartner.

 

[BlueRoads]

I needed to bump this thread, because although Schachmann just won Paris-Nice again, nobody entered this thread. And in the 5 conclusions from Paris-Nice on the front page he's not even one of the talking points.
So, I'm doing my patriotic duty while also putting my nose high in the wind. I believe in you, Max! May the spring be bright and may your opponents be healthy but weaker!

 

[yaco]

Reckon he was lucky to win both editions of PN - In one of the later semi-mountainous stage of the 2020 edition he crashed in the last 1km and they surprisingly implemented the 3km rule.

 

[Eeslliw]

If you take Roglic (who was in his category) out he was going pretty well, especialy on climbs he surprised me. More than stage races, I am looking forward to see him on one day races. Starting with Milano-Sanremo (you never know), but I would expect more in LBL.

 

[ice&fire]

I needed to bump this thread, because although Schachmann just won Paris-Nice again, nobody entered this thread. And in the 5 conclusions from Paris-Nice on the front page he's not even one of the talking points.
So, I'm doing my patriotic duty while also putting my nose high in the wind. I believe in you, Max! May the spring be bright and may your opponents be healthy but weaker!

I know what he has done to deserve a thread, but what has he done to deserve activity in his thread?

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I needed to bump this thread, because although Schachmann just won Paris-Nice again, nobody entered this thread. And in the 5 conclusions from Paris-Nice on the front page he's not even one of the talking points.
So, I'm doing my patriotic duty while also putting my nose high in the wind. I believe in you, Max! May the spring be bright and may your opponents be healthy but weaker!

Last year he won because he crashed. This year he won because Roglic crashed.

 

[tobydawq]

I know what he has done to deserve a thread, but what has he done to deserve activity in his thread?

Quite a lot. What about winninh half the stages of Itzulia two years ago. Or maybe winning Paris-Nice two times in a row. Just a couple of things that sprang to mind...

 

[geisterhome]

I know what he has done to deserve a thread, but what has he done to deserve activity in his thread?

I think he looked actually stronger this year even. I was especially surprised by his performance on that la coumiane stage. Remembering last year were he was barely hanging on in a very reduced field this year he was just barely beaten by Roglic himself.

 

[geisterhome]

Last year he won because he crashed. This year he won because Roglic crashed.

Roglic just got too greedy and cycling karma backfired at him.

 

[WKA311]

I thought his climbing looked better than his punch this last week. Maybe they went and made a decision to focus on his climbing abilities a bit more over winter, sacrificing punchiness. Not sure how I'd feel about that but maybe I'm also reading too much into the Biot and Levens finishes as he looked like his old self in Chiroubles.

He definitely seems to still be developing, which is great to see. And with Boras performance staff usually concentrating on longterm development I'm looking forward to see which directions he chooses to go. Or if he stays rather allround instead.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Roglic just got too greedy and cycling karma backfired at him.

I'm completely fine with that. It's funny because i read a tweet from Jos van Emden, how you don't give any presents in cycling, that his entire team worked their asses off to get that win etc... and then the next day this happens. It's like everybody in the peloton read that tweet and said, "hey, yeah, good point". lol

 

[Faserr]

I just hope that he doesn't crash again this year. He had a lot of bad luck in the last years. It is good for him that he seems to be a bit underrated.
He is not in the same league as Van Aert, MVdP, Alaphilippe, Roglic and Pogacar but I believe that he can sometimes win against them on a good day.
At the first time trial of he Itzulia Basque Country 2019 he beat Kwiatowski, Martinez, Alaphilippe, Geraint Thomas und young Pog clearly.

 

[BlueRoads]

I know what he has done to deserve a thread, but what has he done to deserve activity in his thread?

I don't want to talk this up, it's not a performance like some others we have seen these days. But he did beat someone like Vlasov who's supposed to podium the Giro, someone like Martin... And it was his first race of the season. The result was lucky in the end, but not a fluke. So I'm excited about what will come next.

 

[Sciatic]

The secret for him to have a great career will be to target all races that finish in cities that are NOT the finish city in the name of the race!

 

[geisterhome]

I'm completely fine with that. It's funny because i read a tweet from Jos van Emden, how you don't give any presents in cycling, that his entire team worked their asses off to get that win etc... and then the next day this happens. It's like everybody in the peloton read that tweet and said, "hey, yeah, good point". lol

Yea I know. You cant really blame someone for trying to win if they are able to and I obviously don't think karma had anything to do with the crash for real.

Presents like giftig stage wins if u take the leaders jersey do still happen a lot in cycling don't they and hasn't Roglic done it himself in e.g. the Vuelta 2019 to Pogacar?

 

[johnymax]

Yea I know. You cant really blame someone for trying to win if they are able to and I obviously don't think karma had anything to do with the crash for real.

Presents like giftig stage wins if u take the leaders jersey do still happen a lot in cycling though don't they and hasn't Roglic done it himself in e.g. the Vuelta 2019 to Pogacar?

Yes, Roglič has "gifted" the stage to Pogačar in 2019 Vuelta and it has happened in the past, but I wouldn't say that it happens a lot. Usually it happens for some specific reason. In the Vuelta 2019 example Roglič didn't contest the sprint with Pogačar, because he worked with him and helped him increase the gap to other GC contenders who were the closest in GC to Roglič. That's an acceptable reason to gift a stage. Other acceptable reasons are when the leader lets his teammate or his ex teammate win to say thank you for the work you've done for me in the past.

But if the GC is still in play and you have less than a minute margin, you should always try to increase the gap if you have the possibility and Roglič did that. We were criticising him, when he didn't do that in the Tour. We all know how it ended. Now that he changed that and did the opposite, he was criticised again and they call it karma.

 

[johnymax]

Schachmann actually surprised me with his climbing ability. I think he looked even better than the likes of Vlasov. Although on the other hand I expected a better performance in the ITT. Still it wasn't bad at all. I'm looking forward to see him in the next races. If I'm not mistaken he'll ride Itzulia, too, so he'll have another chance to beat Roglič. This time hopefully without misfortunes by any rider.

 

[tobydawq]

He said he botched his pacing in the TT completely and rode way too easily in the first part (which was evident from the intermediate time).

 

[AlfaLum]

Schachmann actually surprised me with his climbing ability. I think he looked even better than the likes of Vlasov. Although on the other hand I expected a better performance in the ITT. Still it wasn't bad at all. I'm looking forward to see him in the next races. If I'm not mistaken he'll ride Itzulia, too, so he'll have another chance to beat Roglič. This time hopefully without misfortunes by any rider.

The big climb in P-N is one of the easier big climbs possible. Low percentages, very steady. Perfect for a Schachmann type compared to a guy like Vlasov.

 

[Faserr]

Yes, that is true. Schachmann was not really a climber in the past. Last year at Paris-Nice he had no chance against Quintana, he could not follow the attack of Benoot and was barely hanging on the chasing group.
This year he had no problem to follow the group and he could follow one of the Roglic attacks. I think he was clearly stronger then in the last year on the long climb. He also looked good on the steeper parts at stage 4.
I still don't think that he can follow the strong climbers at the steep and long climbs but he has improved. Perhaps he has worked on his steady climbing while loosing some of his punch.

 

[Remy55]

Reading his latest comments about skipping Milka and Haribo, he thinks if he loses another 2 kg he can climb with the big boys at the GT's.