The official Great Bauke Mollema thread

[l.Harm]

Re: Re:

What a horrible performance by Mollema this Tour.

Mollema's performance is not horrible, but you could argue that the end result is not inspiring at all. If he'd raced like one of the Frenchies in current the top 16, he might have had a stage ánd a good GC.

These Frenchies didn't do that because they wanted to. It's because they lost time in the beginning and had no other choice. Goal of his team was top 10, so that's what he wants to achieve.

He was asked on Dutch and Flemmish tv if he'd consider to go stage hunting instead of fighting for GC. He said he would consider it.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re: Re:

You might have followed the stages, you clearly didn't watch properly. There were several attempts from Mollema to go into the early break, not one lasted long because it sparked an immediate reaction from other GC contender and even Sky itself.

please tell me where and when.

go watch the start of the La toussiere stage again

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re: Re:

What a horrible performance by Mollema this Tour.

Mollema's performance is not horrible, but you could argue that the end result is not inspiring at all. If he'd raced like one of the Frenchies in current the top 16, he might have had a stage ánd a good GC.

These Frenchies didn't do that because they wanted to. It's because they lost time in the beginning and had no other choice. Goal of his team was top 10, so that's what he wants to achieve.

He was asked on Dutch and Flemmish tv if he'd consider to go stage hunting instead of fighting for GC. He said he would consider it.

This. It's getting tiresome everyone applauding Bardet, Pinot and Rolland because they attacked so much. Forgetting that the whole reason they could/HAD to attack, was to salvage their Tour after dropping loads of time on Pierre St Martin and the whole 1st week. They were nowhere in the GC anymore.

 

[Jagartrott]

Or perhaps they really wanted to win a stage?
I'm 100% sure his stage win means loads more to Bardet than his 9th place. The latter will be forgotten immediately, the former not. Pinot also wanted to win a stage, and succeeded with a lot of panache. Rolland did his utmost to win as well, but failed. They all provided us with excitement and something to admire: the will to win.

 

[roundabout]

I think Frank, uh, Barguil and Gesink attacked on the Glandon and managed to stay away for a bit while they were all top-10 on GC.

Mollema's excuse? "I was getting bottles from the car when they attacked".

 

[Arredondo]

Mollema doesn't need to act like Contador/Froome/Quintana/Nibali because he's not at those people level.He's doing his best with the talent his got,boring i suppose for some people.But nothing surprise me anymore around here.Valverde was lambasted here every day and even after he's got his podium.TVG was criticized too for not attacking,nobody considering that maybe he was already riding at his max just to hold on.A lot of cyclists are boring these days,people should stop watching,no need to punish themselves with this bore fest.

TJVG and Valverde's riding is understandable. After all, they're riding for a podium. Mollema is riding for a 7th place. Why not drop the GC and go for stage wins? He's obviously among the strongest riders when he's 7th in the GC, so he could potentially win a few.

I think top 10 especially in TDF is still more important than a stage,even 2 stage wins which might come or not.He was supposed to be the GC guy here and he acted like this.J.Rod switched to stage/KOM after he was out of contention,same with Pinot.The team wouldn't have allowed Mollema to go stage hunting anyway.

So you rather finish 8th in GC then winning two stages?

Don't get me wrong, but it's disappointing to see Purito not even win the KOM when he was clearly targetting it, and there were more than enough successful breakaways on summit finishes to prevent the GC contenders from taking it. Then again, if his poor form is a result of saving himself for a Vuelta where he has a real chance, I'd be happy with that

He was not saving himself for the Vuelta. But hey, failures are part of the sport. But winning two stages is great anyway.

And he climbed well in the stage to Alpe d'Huez. He should be fine. Vuelta is a whole different race then the Tour.

 

[Billie]

Re: Re:

You might have followed the stages, you clearly didn't watch properly. There were several attempts from Mollema to go into the early break, not one lasted long because it sparked an immediate reaction from other GC contender and even Sky itself.

please tell me where and when.

go watch the start of the La toussiere stage again

on the Chaussy he stayed with the peloton. Riders that attacked around him in gc: Valverde, Nibali, Contador, Barguil, Frank, Rolland, Bardet

 

[l.Harm]

Re:

I think Frank, uh, Barguil and Gesink attacked on the Glandon and managed to stay away for a bit while they were all top-10 on GC.

Mollema's excuse? "I was getting bottles from the car when they attacked".

Which was true. It was visible that Barguil attacked when Mollema was getting to the back of the groupe maillot jaune. I even thought Barguil did this on purpose in order to make up time to Mollema.

 

[Christian]

Re:

I think Frank, uh, Barguil and Gesink attacked on the Glandon and managed to stay away for a bit while they were all top-10 on GC.

Mollema's excuse? "I was getting bottles from the car when they attacked".

To be fair, this could be true since Mollema was usually on his own in the mountains

Arredondo for example - a ghost.

Utter disappointment, despite some promising results in Tour de Suisse. I wonder if he was sick or if he just sucked

 

[roundabout]

Re: Re:

I think Frank, uh, Barguil and Gesink attacked on the Glandon and managed to stay away for a bit while they were all top-10 on GC.

Mollema's excuse? "I was getting bottles from the car when they attacked".

Which was true. It was visible that Barguil attacked when Mollema was getting to the back of the groupe maillot jaune. I even thought Barguil did this on purpose in order to make up time to Mollema.

My point is that they took the initiative while Mollema was happy to chug along in the main group waiting to inevitably get dropped once the main contenders accelerated.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re:

Or perhaps they really wanted to win a stage?
I'm 100% sure his stage win means loads more to Bardet than his 9th place. The latter will be forgotten immediately, the former not. Pinot also wanted to win a stage, and succeeded with a lot of panache. Rolland did his utmost to win as well, but failed. They all provided us with excitement and something to admire: the will to win.

Bardet, Pinot and Rolland all wanted a good GC and where fighting for exactly that, even when they already lost time op Huy and other 1st week stages. It was only after they ultimately completely failed on Pierre St Martin and lost all chances of a good gc (for pinot and barde top 5, for rolland top 10) that they went into attack mode.

 

[roundabout]

Re: Re:

I think Frank, uh, Barguil and Gesink attacked on the Glandon and managed to stay away for a bit while they were all top-10 on GC.

Mollema's excuse? "I was getting bottles from the car when they attacked".

To be fair, this could be true since Mollema was usually on his own in the mountains

Arredondo for example - a ghost.

Utter disappointment, despite some promising results in Tour de Suisse. I wonder if he was sick or if he just sucked

No reason to be disappointed with Arredondo as he is simply not a rider to be there day after day in the high mountains.

"Great" job by the team though with the contract extension after the 2014 Giro so that he can ride around and do nothing until 2016.

Zubeldia on the other hand has no excuse especially after being given a free pass from the team to be *** in the buildup races just because he was focusing on the Tour.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

As he turns 30 this year, can we say Mollema's been a disappointment?

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

As he turns 30 this year, can we say Mollema's been a disappointment?

Given that he's not in the top 20 of best climbers and not a great tt'er, yet he succesfully wheelsucks his way to 8th-10th in the Tour. It's about par for the course.

I'm disappointed that he's never done anything different. Never gone for Vuelta or Giro, never gone stagehunting, never gone in a speculative move in the classics.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re: Re:

I'm disappointed that he's never done anything different. Never gone for Vuelta or Giro, never gone stagehunting, never gone in a speculative move in the classics.

That's exactly it. Year in, year out, his season revolves around finishing 7th in the Tour after being invisible throughout the race.

 

[May0maniac]

I don't mind Bauke, but yeah, the obsession with the Tour can be a little bit annoying. For me the 2nd places in the 2013 TdS and in last years Tirreno-Adriatico are more impressive and probably the highlights of his career, I wish he'd focus more on shorter stage races and hilly one day races, he's pretty explosive and an underrated sprinter after a really hard hilly race.

 

[Squirbos_19]

Don't forget he won that flat stage in the Vuelta a couple years back. As well as a 4th at the Vuelta and the points Jersey.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re:

Don't forget he won that flat stage in the Vuelta a couple years back. As well as a 4th at the Vuelta and the points Jersey.

It was precisely that performance which raised expectations he has never been able to meet.

 

[staubsauger]

He ain't no disappointment for me actually, as he always has been mediocre.

His 4th place at the 2011 Vuelta and his performance at the 2013 Tour were actually better than expected.

He always was weaker than Gesink overall and to be honest Kruijswijk looked more promising as a climber as well until fall 2011.

 

[Valv.Piti]

There is always this guy that never even thinks about attacking and in the Tour, this is Mochama. Consistently the most uninspiring rider in the peloton come July coupled with his atrocious riding style makes him a rider everyone could live without (apart from the dutchies obviously). He has once again secured him a top 7-10 barring any crashes or sickness. What a rider!

 

[Taxus4a]

He is a great rider, and he showed last year in Tirreno how strong he can be, The problem is that there are a lot of good riders at his age, and most of them are working as domestiques, as Kreuziger, Intxausti, Poels, Thomas, Henao, or people very good as Uran, Gesink, Rui Costa, Rolland, Dan Martin....apart top riders of his same age as Froome or Porte.

There is not place for everybody on the top, but Mollema is a good rider and of course is not a dissapointment.

People here said he never atack, but he was the only one who attacked and who climbed better colma di sormano in the second Lombardia of Gilbert. I remember as well he won the stage of my town, Burgos, attacking in calle Vitoria, a false flat.

He has been top ten in la Tour the last 3 years, that is very important for sponsors, to have someone up there in the last group.. to attack when you have teams working as SKY or Movistar is just impossible.

You can say the mand who was seocnd an won this stage to that people is mediocre, http://www.cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/race.asp?raceid=24521

I think there are lot of great riders, but just a few can be great champions.

 

[Red Rick]

He's important for sponsors but at the you don't notice him because you see him, you notice him when you look at the stage results. He's a waste of space in the peloton if you ask me

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Re:

He's important for sponsors but at the you don't notice him because you see him, you notice him when you look at the stage results. He's a waste of space in the peloton if you ask me

Howso? He won Alberta last year, which is important for a bike brand like Trek that is from that continent, he brings in points and is possibly one of the most followed (by dutch media) Dutchies in the peloton. This basically means a lot of publicity for Trek in The Netherlands. Something they wouldn't be able to do if they had someone like a Slagter or Weening in their team. These are great cyclists but don't get nearly as much screan time on ducth TV.

 

[Christian]

Last season he passed unnoticed for much of the year, and he has an ugly riding style. But when you look at his results he was competitive at the beginning of the season, culminating with a very respectable 2nd place at Tirreno. Then IIRC he was injured, causing him to be sub-par in the Ardennes. Invisible in the Tour, but also isolated and with a weak team, his 7th place is uninspiring but again more than respectable. Then finished the season strong again with wins in Alberta and Japan and top-10's in San Sebastián and Québec.

This year he's had a quieter start to the season, but also with good results already in Andalucía. Rarely the best but consistent throughout the season, I respect that

 

[Cance > TheRest]

It was a good change of environment to go to Trek. TGBM has become a more complete rider on Trek, i.e. improving his time trial a lot. In short stage races he's always among my top 5 favourites. As a GT-rider, he cannot reach the exceptional levels of the best climbers in the world, and thus always relies on his consistency through 3 weeks. I agree with others, that this a thing to respect, when a rider knows his limitations and rides according to them. The only thing to dislike about Mollema is his terrible style on the bike.