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Teams & Riders The official Egan Bernal is the new Egan Bernal thread

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Re:

DNP-Old said:
What's wrong with Team Sky?

Sky's business plan pretty much depends on them having a Brit as leader for the Tour. Everyone else they hire, if good enough, is destined to be a domestique at the Tour. Since they don't care too much about the other races, they keep their superstar domestiques happy by letting them lead other races from time to time. But they have so many stars in their team, even that would be too much to aspire to if you're a young rider.

Also, despite all the money they're known to throw around, Sky isn't really good at developing young riders. E.g., the younger Henao looked very promising a few years ago, where is he now? If anything he's regressed. Even the Yates brothers, who by virtue of being British would have had much better chances at Sky than Egan, decided to go somewhere else when confronted with a similar decision.
 
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AlexNYC said:
DNP-Old said:
What's wrong with Team Sky?

Sky's business plan pretty much depends on them having a Brit as leader for the Tour. Everyone else they hire, if good enough, is destined to be a domestique at the Tour. Since they don't care too much about the other races, they keep their superstar domestiques happy by letting them lead other races from time to time. But they have so many stars in their team, even that would be too much to aspire to if you're a young rider.

Also, despite all the money they're known to throw around, Sky isn't really good at developing young riders. E.g., the younger Henao looked very promising a few years ago, where is he now? If anything he's regressed. Even the Yates brothers, who by virtue of being British would have had much better chances at Sky than Egan, decided to go somewhere else when confronted with a similar decision.
I don't believe they are that desperate about wanting to win with a Brit in the Tour. Preferably? Sure. But they are not going to let Kennaugh or Geoghegan Hart e.g. be their leader if a foreign alternative is much better once Froome retires. I don't believe in the Sky only cares about the Tour hype either. Look at their current Giro squad. They are loaded, stacked.

As many examples there are of young riders not improving with Sky, there are also examples of riders who go to new heights with Sky. Seba Henao also isn't the best of examples when talking about promising riders, he has limited potential and was never this big talent. In fact, in Colombia he got his ass handed to him by someone named Kevin Rios and Cesar Villegas, whom many have never heard of. He was never going to be the next big thing, despite the Giro he once had.

Most of Sky's designated leaders are old or close to being so. Froome is about to turn 32 and is showing some minor signs of a decline. Thomas is about to turn 31, Poels is 29, Henao is 29. Their best days are probably behind them. In Landa's case: he is out of contract next year. Bernal could very well take his role, leading Italian races like Tirreno, Trentino, Coppi e Bertali, 2nd fiddle (perhaps even 1st) in the Giro and others, before getting passed the torch. Don't forget: he just turned 20.
 
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DNP-Old said:
Most of Sky's designated leaders are old or close to being so. Froome is about to turn 32 and is showing some minor signs of a decline. Thomas is about to turn 31, Poels is 29, Henao is 29. Their best days are probably behind them.
Debatable for all of them. Henao in particular is having his best season as a pro.
 
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SafeBet said:
DNP-Old said:
Most of Sky's designated leaders are old or close to being so. Froome is about to turn 32 and is showing some minor signs of a decline. Thomas is about to turn 31, Poels is 29, Henao is 29. Their best days are probably behind them.
Debatable for all of them. Henao in particular is having his best season as a pro.
Of course, I was just going with the general peaks of athletes, which is around the age of 28. Exceptions to the rules will always be there. But there's a context. In Henao's case: his career has been riddled by injuries or problems with this blood passport, it was hard for him not to have his best year basically.
 
I might be the only one but I think that Henao level last year was a level or too better than this year.

Much stronger on Pais Vasco than this year, equally strong on Paris - Nice (who knows what could've happened if he didn't had to take care of Thomas and if Mont Brouilly wasn't cancelled) and much better on Down Under. And I think that he was poised to do great results on the Ardennes if not taken out by blood passport.
 
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DNP-Old said:
I don't believe they are that desperate about wanting to win with a Brit in the Tour. Preferably? Sure. But they are not going to let Kennaugh or Geoghegan Hart e.g. be their leader if a foreign alternative is much better once Froome retires.
If they don't have a viable British contender, sure, they'll try with someone else. But they have Froome right now, and they might also have Thomas. And if Froome retires and Thomas doesn't work out, they can throw money at one or both of the Yates brothers.

DNP-Old said:
I don't believe in the Sky only cares about the Tour hype either. Look at their current Giro squad. They are loaded, stacked.
If not for Froome's fall in 2014, they probably would have won the last 5 Tours. And yet, they haven't managed to win any other GT. That tells me all I need to know.

DNP-Old said:
As many examples there are of young riders not improving with Sky, there are also examples of riders who go to new heights with Sky. Seba Henao also isn't the best of examples when talking about promising riders, he has limited potential and was never this big talent. In fact, in Colombia he got his *** handed to him by someone named Kevin Rios and Cesar Villegas, whom many have never heard of. He was never going to be the next big thing, despite the Giro he once had.
Which young riders can Sky take credit for developing into bonafide contenders? One or two at most. And Seba Henao was very impressive in the 2014 Giro when he almost finished in the top-20 when he was still 20. Are you seriously going to bring up his results in Colombia to discount his talent? Let's face it, due to factors that cannot be discussed in this forum, Colombia is the wild-west of cycling and I would take anything that happens there with a huge grain of salt.

DNP-Old said:
Most of Sky's designated leaders are old or close to being so. Froome is about to turn 32 and is showing some minor signs of a decline. Thomas is about to turn 31, Poels is 29, Henao is 29. Their best days are probably behind them. In Landa's case: he is out of contract next year. Bernal could very well take his role, leading Italian races like Tirreno, Trentino, Coppi e Bertali, 2nd fiddle (perhaps even 1st) in the Giro and others, before getting passed the torch. Don't forget: he just turned 20.
Even if you could count on all these things turning out as you expect them, Egan still has to develop properly and Sky will continue hiring the best riders money can buy.

To be clear, it's not that I think Egan is now doomed. He might still prosper at Sky, but I think he had much better options if money wasn't the deciding factor.
 
Interesting.

Had hoped for Movistar and if not Astana, but I guess Sky isn't too bad either. They are getting a bad rep for only caring about brits and TdF, I mean, look at their roster.... they don't, really. Anyways, Bernal isn't expected to lead the Tour anyway soon (earliest in 2020) and by that point, Froome is 35. Hardly a problem. You'd want him to ride the Giro, the Vuelta, all the mountainous one week races first. I don't think Sky is bad in that aspect, they let their other riders get a chance in many races. if you are good enough that is and Bernal certainly is.

Ask yourself this: Why do you think they have bought him out of his contract?
 
Re:

Valv.Piti said:
Interesting.

Had hoped for Movistar and if not Astana, but I guess Sky isn't too bad either. They are getting a bad rep for only caring about brits and TdF, I mean, look at their roster.... they don't, really. Anyways, Bernal isn't expected to lead the Tour anyway soon (earliest in 2020) and by that point, Froome is 35. Hardly a problem. You'd want him to ride the Giro, the Vuelta, all the mountainous one week races first. I don't think Sky is bad in that aspect, they let their other riders get a chance in many races. if you are good enough that is and Bernal certainly is.

Ask yourself this: Why do you think they have bought him out of his contract?
To eliminate a future enemy of the brits!!!!
:D :lol: :lol: :D




Just kidding!!!
 
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The problem is that bernal will be "cyborged" at sky and sky will kill his attacking style. OMG, another kid for the sky train.
Movistar wouldn't be a good choice too because unzue is as negative as sky... it's just see what he did to quintana, a tremendous pure climber with everything to be a new contador or pantani and unzue almost transformed him in a indurain...
 
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Escarabajo said:
The results of Sebastian Henao in Colombia are very difficult to be evaluated. Who knows what is going on in Colombian races behind the scenes. Hec they can even kick Quintana's **s for all I know.
Quintana was winning and podiuming pro races before winning l'Avenir in Europe. Same goes for Miguel Lopez and Esteban Chaves. Sergio Henao even managed to win the Vuelta, the single biggest stage race in all of South America at a comparable age.
 
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portugal11 said:
The problem is that bernal will be "cyborged" at sky and sky will kill his attacking style. OMG, another kid for the sky train.
Movistar wouldn't be a good choice too because unzue is as negative as sky... it's just see what he did to quintana, a tremendous pure climber with everything to be a new contador or pantani and unzue almost transformed him in a indurain...
While Landa certainly hasn't performed that well at Sky, they certainly haven't killed his attacking instincts...
 
I kind of worry that Bernal have a hard time getting a few chances to ride for himself. It's not bad if he needs to help, but I think it's bad if he wouldn't get a shot at riding for himself in the appropriate races. I don't think he needs to lead WT stage races just yet, but Sky's depth is such that they have a designated team leader for just about every climbing race on the calendar. It's not like they have anything of a hole in their team after Froome.
 
He is only 20, in 8 years who will lead sky at Tdf??

I dont see sky as a bad choise, personally i would prefer Orica but maybe the technology of sky was something that made Bernal sign by them, i dont know, im guessing.
 
Re:

diegocamilo410 said:
He is only 20, in 8 years who will lead sky at Tdf??

I dont see sky as a bad choise, personally i would prefer Orica but maybe the technology of sky was something that made Bernal sign by them, i dont know, im guessing.
Because development is a guarantee regardless of circumstances. I think very few teams would be in the market to buy off his 4 year contract, and I think it must've been quite. Also the manager thingie. And I doubt Orica would be in the market as they have Yates, Chavez and Yates who are all on the right side of 28.
 
Re: Re:

DNP-Old said:
Escarabajo said:
The results of Sebastian Henao in Colombia are very difficult to be evaluated. Who knows what is going on in Colombian races behind the scenes. Hec they can even kick Quintana's **s for all I know.
Quintana was winning and podiuming pro races before winning l'Avenir in Europe. Same goes for Miguel Lopez and Esteban Chaves. Sergio Henao even managed to win the Vuelta, the single biggest stage race in all of South America at a comparable age.
Sergio Henao is the only comparable rider.

That still doesn't disapproved the problems in the Colombian scenes.
 
Re:

diegocamilo410 said:
He is only 20, in 8 years who will lead sky at Tdf??

I dont see sky as a bad choise, personally i would prefer Orica but maybe the technology of sky was something that made Bernal sign by them, i dont know, im guessing.
It's not like this completely destroys his career but I still think there are options which would have been better. Quintana got 2nd in the Tour with 23 years, I think Andy Scheck was 21 when he got 2nd in the Giro and only one year ago Miguel Angel Lopez won the Tour de Suisse with 22 years. Bernal could be the next guy who has the talent to achieve results like that, but in Sky this will hardly happen. I'm not saying he has to go to WT races as a leader immediately but still I'm sure that in other teams he would have a decent chance to already get some good results in the next one or two years, whereas now he will only be part of the Skytrain.
 
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Well if you want your own chances don't sign for Sky or even Movistar as it is run very similarly.

Then again I don't think one or two years as a dom is bad idea at all, especially for someone who's 20 years old. I'd argue it's actually a good idea. Then you start performing in your own time without pressure. I think a lot of the loyal sky doms do get their own chances even in a big team, for instance Boswell is going to lead in California. Tao got leadership at Yorkshire. Even Moscon has had decent freedom in the cobbled races.

But yea, for the most part you know what you are getting, $$$. If you got the legs though you will get the support.
 
Re:

Red Rick said:
I kind of worry that Bernal have a hard time getting a few chances to ride for himself. It's not bad if he needs to help, but I think it's bad if he wouldn't get a shot at riding for himself in the appropriate races. I don't think he needs to lead WT stage races just yet, but Sky's depth is such that they have a designated team leader for just about every climbing race on the calendar. It's not like they have anything of a hole in their team after Froome.

Looking at Sky's race programme he could lead at Abu Dhabi, Bartali, Route du Sud and Guangxi.
 
Re:

yaco said:
Sky is a shocking team for a neo-pro with GC aspirations - You development is stifled by riding as a domestique for three or four years - A neo-pro is OK at Sky if they are a classics type rider.

I recall Brailsford saying something like "What's the point of developing young talent just for them to jump to another team?" I'm just sick with him signing with Sky if it's true. They are more likely to throw an island of cash at the Yates and leave Bernal picking up scrapes until his contract expires with his development stagnated. Movistar was the best place for him. I like Unzue's patience in allowing his young riders to grow and learn from the veterans on the team.
 

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