Tim Wellens thread

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

They are very similar IMO, really hard to distinguish really.

I see Wellens is doing the Giro, thats good news. He can win a few stages if he's on really good shape, I think.

Yep, the last two years the Giro was definitely missing a world class classics specialist/puncheur who adds a bit of fire to hilly/medium mountain stages. Too often the GC riders just tried to "stay safe", in that case a couple of strong riders who don't care for the overall make those stages more relevant (also for GC)

Wellens was present in 2016, as was Valverde and the-only-ever-good-in-Italy Ulissi

Now that I think about it, you are right of course. There were actually some decent finishes with Ulissi, Jungels, Amador... Last year was pretty bad though.

Yeah, last year had few redeeming traits.

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

They are very similar IMO, really hard to distinguish really.

I see Wellens is doing the Giro, thats good news. He can win a few stages if he's on really good shape, I think.

Yep, the last two years the Giro was definitely missing a world class classics specialist/puncheur who adds a bit of fire to hilly/medium mountain stages. Too often the GC riders just tried to "stay safe", in that case a couple of strong riders who don't care for the overall make those stages more relevant (also for GC)

Wellens was present in 2016, as was Valverde and the-only-ever-good-in-Italy Ulissi

Last year Ulissi somehow managed to get most of his wins outside of italy, talk about something unexpected.
Back to Wellens, I hope that he'll ride a great Giro.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

They are very similar IMO, really hard to distinguish really.

I see Wellens is doing the Giro, thats good news. He can win a few stages if he's on really good shape, I think.

Yep, the last two years the Giro was definitely missing a world class classics specialist/puncheur who adds a bit of fire to hilly/medium mountain stages. Too often the GC riders just tried to "stay safe", in that case a couple of strong riders who don't care for the overall make those stages more relevant (also for GC)

Wellens was present in 2016, as was Valverde and the-only-ever-good-in-Italy Ulissi

Last year Ulissi somehow managed to get most of his wins outside of italy, talk about something unexpected.
Back to Wellens, I hope that he'll ride a great Giro.

Ulissi is the only rider to have won WT races on four different continents.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

They are very similar IMO, really hard to distinguish really.

I see Wellens is doing the Giro, thats good news. He can win a few stages if he's on really good shape, I think.

Yep, the last two years the Giro was definitely missing a world class classics specialist/puncheur who adds a bit of fire to hilly/medium mountain stages. Too often the GC riders just tried to "stay safe", in that case a couple of strong riders who don't care for the overall make those stages more relevant (also for GC)

Wellens was present in 2016, as was Valverde and the-only-ever-good-in-Italy Ulissi

Now that I think about it, you are right of course. There were actually some decent finishes with Ulissi, Jungels, Amador... Last year was pretty bad though.

I wonder whether Wellens could have won the Bergamo stage. It should have suited him really well, even though almost only gc contenders made the final selection.

Anyway, with quite a lot of punchy finishes this year the route should be very good for him. Unfortunately for him there is the Etna mtf, otherwise I had argued getting pink in the first week would be in reach.
The one huge problem of Wellens skill set is really his weakness in the heat, not only because that means his performance always heavily depends on weather, but also because it means he has very limited options with his racing schedule. He has the skill set to perform quite well in basically all big races in spring (except Paris Roubaix) but because the giro is the only gt where he has a shot at good results due to the heat in the other two gt's, he must not race too much in spring to still be in good shape in May. Then in summer he can only go to races like Pologne and Eneco, where he is usually really good, but just imagine prestigious races like Pais Vasco and Paris Nice would take place at that time in the season. I know Pologne and Eneco are WT too, but if it comes down to what is more important on your palmares, these two still aren't very important.
There used to be the crazy statistic that Wellens' first 10 wins, all were in WT races. But what I was always thinking when I heard that was, in twenty years many of those races might be gone, have a lower status or just have a different name and people will look at Wellens career thinking the Paris Nice stage was probably a bigger win than those noname races like "Tour de Pologne, Eneco Tour or Grand Prix Montreal, although those wins were actually against great competition.

 

[Sestriere]

Re: Re:

They are very similar IMO, really hard to distinguish really.

I see Wellens is doing the Giro, thats good news. He can win a few stages if he's on really good shape, I think.

Yep, the last two years the Giro was definitely missing a world class classics specialist/puncheur who adds a bit of fire to hilly/medium mountain stages. Too often the GC riders just tried to "stay safe", in that case a couple of strong riders who don't care for the overall make those stages more relevant (also for GC)

Wellens was present in 2016, as was Valverde and the-only-ever-good-in-Italy Ulissi

Now that I think about it, you are right of course. There were actually some decent finishes with Ulissi, Jungels, Amador... Last year was pretty bad though.

I wonder whether Wellens could have won the Bergamo stage. It should have suited him really well, even though almost only gc contenders made the final selection.

Anyway, with quite a lot of punchy finishes this year the route should be very good for him. Unfortunately for him there is the Etna mtf, otherwise I had argued getting pink in the first week would be in reach.

I've also been thinking about Rosa for him. The Prologue should suit him with the rolling terrain as well as the stages 4 and 5. If they climb Etna like last year (slow, with headwind) I could see him hanging in there the way he was climbing in Paris-Nice. However, Froomey of course likes to put the cards on the table early...

 

[jaylew]

I read Wellens made some comments about Vanendert not racing to team plan after Flèche. Anyone know exactly what he said?

 

[Flamin]

He was very disappointed and didn't want to react immediately after the race. He supposedly said something about it indeed (don't know what exactly) but probably in the heat of the moment. Afterwards, he kind of ignored the question when Sporza asked about those comments and just said Vanendert was much better.

 

[El Pistolero]

Re: Re:

They are very similar IMO, really hard to distinguish really.

I see Wellens is doing the Giro, thats good news. He can win a few stages if he's on really good shape, I think.

Yep, the last two years the Giro was definitely missing a world class classics specialist/puncheur who adds a bit of fire to hilly/medium mountain stages. Too often the GC riders just tried to "stay safe", in that case a couple of strong riders who don't care for the overall make those stages more relevant (also for GC)

Wellens was present in 2016, as was Valverde and the-only-ever-good-in-Italy Ulissi

Last year Ulissi somehow managed to get most of his wins outside of italy, talk about something unexpected.
Back to Wellens, I hope that he'll ride a great Giro.

Ulissi is the only rider to have won WT races on four different continents.

A *** race is a *** race, regardless of WT status.

 

[tobydawq]

What has that got to do with anything?

 

[Blanco]

Re:

I read Wellens made some comments about Vanendert not racing to team plan after Flèche. Anyone know exactly what he said?

Apparently it was some kind of argument after the race in Lotto camp, according to Gilbert. Wellens was angry at Vanendert. But I fail to understand why, I guess Wellens still has a lot to learn as a team leader.

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

I read Wellens made some comments about Vanendert not racing to team plan after Flèche. Anyone know exactly what he said?

Apparently it was some kind of argument after the race in Lotto camp, according to Gilbert. Wellens was angry at Vanendert. But I fail to understand why, I guess Wellens still has a lot to learn as a team leader.

According to Gilbert?

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

I read Wellens made some comments about Vanendert not racing to team plan after Flèche. Anyone know exactly what he said?

Apparently it was some kind of argument after the race in Lotto camp, according to Gilbert. Wellens was angry at Vanendert. But I fail to understand why, I guess Wellens still has a lot to learn as a team leader.

Vanendert did the team a favour. What was Wellens gonna do? Do better on the final Mur?

I'm starting to dislike Wellens, with his big talking game during every classics campaign.

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

I read Wellens made some comments about Vanendert not racing to team plan after Flèche. Anyone know exactly what he said?

Apparently it was some kind of argument after the race in Lotto camp, according to Gilbert. Wellens was angry at Vanendert. But I fail to understand why, I guess Wellens still has a lot to learn as a team leader.

Vanendert did the team a favour. What was Wellens gonna do? Do better on the final Mur?

I'm starting to dislike Wellens, with his big talking game during every classics campaign.

You're starting to dislike him though you have no clue what was said and in what situation or context. Okay.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

I read Wellens made some comments about Vanendert not racing to team plan after Flèche. Anyone know exactly what he said?

Apparently it was some kind of argument after the race in Lotto camp, according to Gilbert. Wellens was angry at Vanendert. But I fail to understand why, I guess Wellens still has a lot to learn as a team leader.

Vanendert did the team a favour. What was Wellens gonna do? Do better on the final Mur?

I'm starting to dislike Wellens, with his big talking game during every classics campaign.

You're starting to dislike him though you have no clue what was said and in what situation or context. Okay.

Enlighten me

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

I read Wellens made some comments about Vanendert not racing to team plan after Flèche. Anyone know exactly what he said?

Apparently it was some kind of argument after the race in Lotto camp, according to Gilbert. Wellens was angry at Vanendert. But I fail to understand why, I guess Wellens still has a lot to learn as a team leader.

Vanendert did the team a favour. What was Wellens gonna do? Do better on the final Mur?

I'm starting to dislike Wellens, with his big talking game during every classics campaign.

You're starting to dislike him though you have no clue what was said and in what situation or context. Okay.

Enlighten me

About what? You seem to know more than us, since you're starting to dislike him, so I'd better ask you.

 

[Blanco]

Re: Re:

I read Wellens made some comments about Vanendert not racing to team plan after Flèche. Anyone know exactly what he said?

Apparently it was some kind of argument after the race in Lotto camp, according to Gilbert. Wellens was angry at Vanendert. But I fail to understand why, I guess Wellens still has a lot to learn as a team leader.

According to Gilbert?

Yeah, you got it here, in CyclingNews article...

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

I read Wellens made some comments about Vanendert not racing to team plan after Flèche. Anyone know exactly what he said?

Apparently it was some kind of argument after the race in Lotto camp, according to Gilbert. Wellens was angry at Vanendert. But I fail to understand why, I guess Wellens still has a lot to learn as a team leader.

According to Gilbert?

Yeah, you got it here, in CyclingNews article...

Still don't know what was said. Not that it matters much. Sports is emotion, some things get said in the heat of the moment.

 

[Gigs_98]

While we can't know what exactly he said, one can't deny that how he raced this week was rather disappointing. The guy used to be the main aggressor in most races he entered and now all of a sudden waits for sprints against Valverde. If he had followed the big group last Wednesday he probably would've won, instead he got something like a 7th place

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Well it did surprise / disappoint me to see Wellens suffering and leaving a few wheel lengths in the attacks in Amstel Gold Race already (where Sagan was still following easily). And then in FW he was perfectly placed and dropped to 7th in the final 100 meters.

Either I overrated him because of wins in other races, or he is simply in less than 100% form right now

 

[ColonelKidneyBeans]

Re:

Well it did surprise / disappoint me to see Wellens suffering and leaving a few wheel lengths in the attacks in Amstel Gold Race already (where Sagan was still following easily). And then in FW he was perfectly placed and dropped to 7th in the final 100 meters.

Either I overrated him because of wins in other races, or he is simply in less than 100% form right now

He might be suffering a bit from his allergies/the heat, pollen season his awful this year in Belgium and the temperatures this week were close to what we get in summer.

 

[Nirvana]

If he suffers already at 25°C he should hope for a radical weather change in time for the Giro because in Italy there are already temperature closer or locally even higher than 30°C. Only in 2012 I remember higher temperatures in April but that time were only a couple of days not weeks.

 

[Flamin]

While we can't know what exactly he said, one can't deny that how he raced this week was rather disappointing. The guy used to be the main aggressor in most races he entered and now all of a sudden waits for sprints against Valverde. If he had followed the big group last Wednesday he probably would've won, instead he got something like a 7th place

Maybe, but it's easy to say in hindsight.

In Amstel he tried a few times on the flat, but was quickly closed down. On the hills he was simply a level below Valverde, Ala etc. so there wasn't much that he could do more.

 

[ingemann1996]

Peaked too soon in terms of performing at the Giro?

 

[Bardamu]

Only in Amstel he really was one of the strongest in the race. Wonder if some races are just too hard for him or the weather affected him or that he just wasn't 100%.

I'm sure he'll grab a stage in the Giro though.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Congratulations on a well deserved stage win. Simply the strongest today