Tom Danielson ???

[tockit]

Anyone think Danielson is a future Tour contendor?

I haven't read a whole lot about him on here but I don't get a chance to read the forums as often as I'd like.

I thought his 9th place finish was pretty good for his first Tour.

Just curious if you guys thought he was the 'real deal' or if he picked up bad habits like most of the other riders during his stint with Discovery/LA ???

 

[danjo007]

Oh PLEASE!!! stop posting such *** accusations!

he's a very good rider, he excels at MUCH higher altitudes than the p!ssy TDF ever gets to - so you'd expect he'd be up there due to high mountain top placings!

now get back in your box you troll.

 

[Escarabajo]

Jonathan Vaughters has this characteristic of getting the maximum out of riders with high potential that never really performed at high level in the past on GT’s. Vande Velde, Wiggins and now Danielson.

After a while you become suspicious, but some people are giving him the benefit of the doubt.

There is no direct proof of being dirty, just some clues by association. Like for example the He has worked with Lim in the past.

Garmin reminds me of old Kelme where there was an eternal source of talent. I always asked how they do it. Later on I was deflated.

 

[Mr. O'Clock]

Td seems to ride within his limits, which points towards cleanliness, and he has bad days before. Heis performance in this years tour seems like good form with a very talented rider. He has always been more promising than Christian van de veld, and this years tour was much harder than the tour eight where Christian got fourth. Daughters is a mighty fine ds.

 

[Oldman]

Jonathan Vaughters has this characteristic of getting the maximum out of riders with high potential that never really performed at high level in the past on GT’s. Vande Velde, Wiggins and now Danielson.

After a while you become suspicious, but some people are giving him the benefit of the doubt.

There is no direct proof of being dirty, just some clues by association. Like for example the He has worked with Lim in the past.

Garmin reminds me of old Kelme where there was an eternal source of talent. I always asked how they do it. Later on I was deflated.

Danielson was hailed as the next big thing and the suspicion is he got ruined at Camp Lance. The suggestion/rumor was he did not respond well to "manipulation" and refused it. He was also more "injury prone" which could also suggest he avoided the roid replenishments that allowed massive training. All of this is conjecture but the base talent was always there.
Could we be seeing the real thing? Very likely and I wouldn't put too much stock in the wit of JV as Danielson knows full well how to train himself. Whether he has the mental toughness is a bigger question for him and any other GT contender as this Tour demonstrated.

 

[Damiano Machiavelli]

Put Voeckler's head on Danielson's body and you would have a Tour winner.

 

[Oldman]

Put Voeckler's head on Danielson's body and you would have a Tour winner.

............+1

 

[Cooper]

If he was 29 or 30 and not 33 I would say maybe.

Like CVV in '08, Wiggins in '09 and Rider in '10 I think this was his TDF peak. I think JV needs to cultivate someone younger. Perhaps get Talansky in the fold ASAP.

 

[jsem94]

Danielson has basically done in the Tour this year what he's done in the Vuelta a couple of times already. He may be the only clean rider in the top 10.

And yeah, if he had Voeckler's head he mighta podiumed... seriously.

 

[greenedge]

He did ok but i cannot envisage him becoming a real podium threat at his age in this stage of his career. I think he could finish top 5 in the Vuelta if everything goes right.

 

[Willy_Voet]

Tommy D. is probably clean now. His past results seem to indicate that he was doping for a few years. I'd say 2003, 2005 and 2006 he was juicing.

Could also ask Matt DeCanio what he thinks.

Oh, yeah. He cannot win the tour for the simple fact you cannot pack seal blubber in a musette. Doesn't hold up in jersey pockets either.

 

[Swabian Lass]

I think that there's a good chance that he's riding clean now. I wouldn't say 100% because I wouldn't say that about any rider (well, maybe Moncoutie), but maybe better than 50%. Age is against him though. We've probably seen his best form at the TdF this year.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

The odds are stacked against TD as a tour winner at this point in his career (age 33). At the same age Cadel had been on the podium several times, just for a comparison. But TD has had some bad luck too. So I would not count him out, but hes going to have to improve his TT and climbing.

 

[Ferminal]

If Tommy D has always been clean then he should be a real contender right about now, if we are experiencing a "cleaner peloton".

Possibly he was doped 2005-2006, but I do doubt that he has been charging at Slipstream. A fairly consistent level in the 2009, 2010 Vuelta and that in the Tour. Maybe he is the limits of what can be achieved without juice.

 

[movingtarget]

I thought he did very well but he has always promised to do better. Similar to Cunego after he won the Giro although I thought Cunego's rides this year in the TDF and also in the Tour De Suisse were full of merit. As usual, can't back it up with a good TT ride.

 

[movingtarget]

Danielson has basically done in the Tour this year what he's done in the Vuelta a couple of times already. He may be the only clean rider in the top 10.

And yeah, if he had Voeckler's head he mighta podiumed... seriously.

He finished where he did because the riders in front of him are better riders. After so many years you have to have some results to back up the hype. As for being the only non doper in the top 10 : obviously that's a joke. Still I thought he did well, all things considered.

 

[woodburn]

If he was 29 or 30 and not 33 I would say maybe.

Like CVV in '08, Wiggins in '09 and Rider in '10 I think this was his TDF peak. I think JV needs to cultivate someone younger. Perhaps get Talansky in the fold ASAP.

Seeing how Stetina did well at the Giro, he'd be another option.

 

[HACKLERA68]

Put Voeckler's head on Danielson's body and you would have a Tour winner.

AGREED, TD is a follower. Like Leipheimer.

 

[Cobblestones]

AGREED, TD is a follower. Like Leipheimer.

That's a bit harsh. But maybe he should focus to win one of the one-week stage races.

 

[DomesticDomestique]

Seeing how Stetina did well at the Giro, he'd be another option.

It's just a hunch but I would say that Stetina is a better bet to be riding clean than Talansky. Stetina has come up through Vaughters program from the start where as Talansky had a year with Amore & Vita. Stetina also showed more of a steady progression over time where as Talansky exploded all of a sudden. Because of this and Vaughters "apparent" views on doping, I would bet on Stetina to be the next Garmin star.

 

[Roninho]

Td seems to ride within his limits, which points towards cleanliness, and he has bad days before.

Ehm... Yes.... And how do you see he is riding 'within his limits'? And even if you can see this, how does this point towards cleanliness? Also having bad days doesn't mean your not doping (see ullrich...).
/
I'm not saying TD is doping, i'm just saying i don't understand your arguments for TD not doping ...

 

[Merckx index]

I like TD and was hoping he did well this year, BUT…

Wiggins
Kloden
Horner
Vino
VDB

All crashed out. All of them would have been contenders for top 10 at the least. Also maybe Leipheimer, van de Velde and Gesink if they had not suffered injuries. So with a more complete field, Tommy probably would have been out of the top 10, maybe around 15th. Still not bad, but not a major advance from his top 10s in the Vuelta. He has become very consistent, never had a bad stage after stage 1, but other than that I don't see a lot of improvement from those Vueltas. While he did lose time in a crash in stage 1, he also got a lot of it back with the TTT. If you exclude those time differences—IOW, if you consider times after stage 2—it turns out TD’s time was identical to Basso’s. But this was not the Basso of old, and probably not very close to the Basso who dominated the Giro last year.

OTOH, in this year’s Tour, the top 10 were more bunched up. Going back at least to the late 1990s, there has been only one Tour in which the 5th place time and the 10th place time were closer to first than was the case this year. That was 2008 (3:05 vs. 3:57 and 9:05 vs. 10:11), the year Bert and Astana were excluded. So you could argue that a top 10 means a little more now than it did in the past, i.e., that 10th is closer in performance to first. This reduction of the time gaps might be taken as more evidence, I suppose, of a cleaner peloton, if we assume that in the past a few riders were getting a big advantage, either from better programs, or because a substantial number of contenders and/or their domestiques weren’t doping.

In fact, in the LA years, there were usually of course huge gaps from LA to second, and also often from second (Ullrich) to riders further down. If you just remove those two riders from those Tours, the top 10s then look a lot like the top 10 more recently, in terms of time differential. You could say the peloton in the years following 2005 is a lot like the peloton then sans Armstrong/Ullrich,with 2011 continuing that trend a little further.

 

[tockit]

If he was 29 or 30 and not 33 I would say maybe.

Like CVV in '08, Wiggins in '09 and Rider in '10 I think this was his TDF peak. I think JV needs to cultivate someone younger.

Thanks! I didn't realize Danielson was that old. That does hurt him.

What about Tejay van Garderen? He rode a strong first Tour.

Got into some breakaways, won KOM and most aggressive rider in stage 8, and he can time trial.

Not sure if he can hold his own with the pure climbers though....

What's the consensus on his Grand Tour potential ???

 

[danjo007]

hold on, this random nobody doesnt know much about him. he MUST be up to no good!

 

[usedtobefast]

That's a bit harsh. But maybe he should focus to win one of the one-week stage races.

the harsh light of day... says it's is likely. the one week stuff he will be good though.
this year he had no pressure. next year? he could fold up like an old beach chair.