Teams & Riders The Red Bull - Bora - Hansgrohe team thread

Page 63 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
F

Filippo_3467

May 2, 2019
685
787
7,180
Unterlenkerfahrend said:
Couple of users with a big egg on their face in here after claiming it would be ludicrious to send Meeus or focus on anything other than GC with Roglic (and Lipowitz).
Looks like they're not only taking Meeus but almost prioritise sprint train over GC as well.

I actually think their problem isn't what to prioritise but that basically the whole roster has been underperforming for 2 years except of Roglic, Lipowitz and Dani Martinez last year. If they had an embarassment of riches to chose from I would understand but they're basically caught between picking a meh supporting cast for a GC leader who is most likely to crash out in the first week or a meh sprint train for a C tier sprinter. Sort of damned if you do, damned if you don't.
I've said so a couple of pages back already, there whole transition in the last year with RB jumping in as well has been a bit of a disasterclass. They used to be a good classics team and a team that would make GTs interesting either through working for Sagan or having a couple of exciting breakaway riders (Kämna, Politt, Konrad etc.). Now they've been terrible in the Classics for ages and some okayish GC results. Roglic has been good overall but he's basically continued his Visma level so I'm not really giving him credit for that. For a team with such a budget very disappointing. No love from me for Red Bull so I don't care that much but it's slightly funny to see.
Click to expand...
I agree. I really was a fan of the team which was the first time I was fan of a team since the Team Gerolsteiner days and maybe a bit with Euskatel in their best times.

Pound for pound the teams has git worse since Red Bull joined. Plus I'm still salty about giving up in all those German and Austrian riders. Not because a national identity is necessary but because they did it for no gain. Buchmann has a better level then Vlasov or Martinez this year at Cofidis, Schachmann had good result, Kämna would still be a great addition to the team, Ackermann could have won multiple WT stages with van Poppel as leadoutm (for sure better than Bennett or Welsford). Konrad does great at Lidl and Großschartner at UAE. Ok, you can keep everyone and some of them are also on higher salary and maybe got better opportunities. But it's also about Denk who is just terrible at rider management...and that's the nice way to put it. he will also have a falling out with Lipowitz and other riders at some point. there's no continuity in the team any more and the performance staff isn't getting more out of the riders then before the big money came in. Also they just race in a way that is unexciting like you said.

It's just a bad team that has some good results because they can spend 3-4 times the money of the average WT team. I thin Ag2r and Lidl are in a way better spot to perform in the next years. UAE and Visma are far away. I don't think it's getting any better until they exchange management and most of the staff/directors.
 
  • Like
Reactions: AupaPyama, Ilmaestro99 and QueenStagiaire
Rackham

Rackham

Jul 16, 2015
4,844
12,702
21,180
Unterlenkerfahrend said:
Couple of users with a big egg on their face in here after claiming it would be ludicrious to send Meeus or focus on anything other than GC with Roglic (and Lipowitz).
Looks like they're not only taking Meeus but almost prioritise sprint train over GC as well.
Click to expand...

That would be me. I'm currently wiping all that egg off my face and swallowing it all, yolk included. Tasty.

I maintain that sending Meeus to the Tour based on hitting form 5 minutes ago is sketchy as hell. It means they don't trust the almighty 'process', whatever it was.

The good news is Lipowitz had a great level in the Dauphiné and I expect him and Rog to work well together. They get on fine and I read recently an article which pretty much detailed how Rog, Lipo and Dan Bigham were pretty much spearheading the Tour hopes for this summer.

It's just the rest of the team that's misfiring or hitting purple patches at irregular (and unpredictable) intervals.
 
  • Like
Reactions: acm and Escarabajo
Ilmaestro99

Ilmaestro99

Apr 13, 2021
6,546
17,310
17,180
If they're bringing all those rouleurs to support roglic it is an interesting approach but somewhat understandable.

If they're bringing a full sprint train for jordi meus then that's a bit funny. Wonder if denk has ever heard of Tim merlier or jesper philepsen? Then again meus did take a prestigious moral victory in the Algarve stage 1 sprint into oncoming traffic.

Roglic hasnt shown anything since 2021 to say that he's on pocagar/vingegard TDF level. But at the same time meus is not this big sprint superstar.
 
C

CyclistAbi

May 29, 2019
9,712
10,505
18,180
On paper, for saying you are an AAA Tour GC orientated team, you don't tend to take the sprinter. Taking Jordi hence indeed signals the team has multiple goals, one of them contesting sprint stages. On how fruitful that will be we will see.

One positive i see is there are multiple stages in first half of the Tour, on where Rogla could sprint. So for the first part of the Tour i guess there might be a bit of rivalry ongoing, between Rogla and Jordi, on who wins more.

As for the GC important stages, deeper into the race, there to be honest i don't expect anything from this team, there Rogla is on his own. Lipo likely at least initially with some freedom and Alex, alone, likely won't be able to do much.

So yeah, if taking 5 team members that can't do much for you in mountains, then at least lets hope to keep their promise, get Rogla to mountains.
 
L

Links2003

Jul 22, 2024
117
130
530
I am very surprised about the final line-up. Moscon and Van Dijke were not on my radar. But Tratnik was probably not fit. Martinez was almost a foregone conclusion after the Giro. I had suspected that RBH would not only rely on GC simply because this summer there is a lack of climbers who could be taken along.

But where is Van Gils? Wasn't he in good shape?
Or are they really serious: everything for Roglic in the GC? With only 3 climbers, you can't really do a double strategy in FC.
Meeus and Van Poppel are allowed to take part in the sprints and otherwise everyone protects the captain. The team doesn't seem to be made for breakaway groups.

So a bit of the Visma tactic from the Giro: sprints. The captain tries to get through inconspicuously and at the end you see what's possible.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom