Teams & Riders Tom Dumoulin discussion thread

[Lequack]

Re:

Hopefully he can keep this form going into next week...

Maybe Thomas will be hit with the hammer like Yates was in the 3rd week?

Anyway... the race doesnt look completely over at least.

Or the hammer of team radio. If Thomas cracks we will never really know why.

 

[Salvarani]

Re: Re:

Hopefully he can keep this form going into next week...

Maybe Thomas will be hit with the hammer like Yates was in the 3rd week?

Anyway... the race doesnt look completely over at least.

Or the hammer of team radio. If Thomas cracks we will never really know why.

I guess... but if he do we just gonna have to hope Dumo can follow Froome

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Shame dumo isn't a top level GT rider, like Quintana otherwise he would be a chance at the tour.

Right DFA?

Well he obviously is now, at least imo, he's stepped up a level this year. Opinions can change as facts and evidence change, you know? I mean last year he lost 4+ minutes to Quintana in the mountains, this time he's taking minutes off him.

In fact, if he wasn't so tactically useless, he'd probably have won the Giro and be the one gunning for the double right now. Which is an extremely meteoric rise in the last three years.

 

[skippo12]

With Nibali most likely abandoning today he is the last hope.
He always seems to suffer but is able to hang on and in the end he gained time on Froome on both mountain stages.
Thomas seems untouchable right now but I still think he will have a bad day and lose a lot time in the 3rd week.
Dumoulin is racing perfectly...following Froome and gaining a few seconds on the last meters.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Dumoulin was suffering, he was certainly feeling the effects of his solo attack yesterday.

But he also said he always feels stronger closer to the finish. I also think he sometimes underestimates his own strength. Just because you're hurting doesn't mean the others hurt too.

3rd week will be a mystery though. Could as well lose GC completely. I think that's why he is also disappointed he didn't win a stage. Twice second...

 

[Red Rick]

Nibali out also means Sky only has to look at Dumoulin. Don't see how he can do much more than hang on to Froome, wait for the ITT and hope Thomas implodes.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

The thing is, if he has any sort of chance of doing something (like today), he will. I like that. Even if he thinks he doesn't has the legs he tried something. Very positive development

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

He said he felt bad and hung on for dear life btw. But he said when they got closer to the finish he smelled the win and that gave him extra strength.

In the Giro he said nearly every day his legs weren't good. I think he is confusing pain with bad legs. Everybody is in pain

Needs that talk with Alberto "it was gonna hurt anyway so I attacked" Contador

 

[Kwibus]

He just said that so far he's better than he was at the Giro, but is well aware of what happened to Yates and pinot at the Giro.

 

[johnymax]

He's been really impressive the last couple of days. Today it really looked like he was suffering because he was riding for long stretches at the back of the small group of favourites but in the last 2km he looked like the best climber in the race.

 

[movingtarget]

The only one that could upset Sky's plans by the looks of things so far.

 

[Bolder]

GO TOM.

Yesterday was impressive as hell. I thought he'd be off the back, but he's a real fighter and knows exactly how much energy he can expend. Without looking down at his power meter all the time...

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

He doesn't like riding on values, he rides by feeling. Only sometimes in time trials he looks at power meter, but not too much as he thinks it's distracting.

 

[kiszol]

Tom rode impressively yesterday, especially considering the effort he made the previous day. Once again he used up his energy very smartly.
Here'sg he won't collapse in the third week. Excluding that a podium spot is likely and even the win isn't impossible to think of with the TT still to come. Come on Tommy Dumoulin, you can do this!

 

[Jagartrott]

He may not win this Tour, but he can decide who wins (him pegging back Froome with Thomas in his wheel yesterday, for instance).

 

[Arked]

I'm impressed with Dumoulin. He proves again he's the real deal in grand tours contention in years to come.

He is also almost same type of the rider as Froome or Thomas when it comes to height, weight and power curve which shows clearly what are the most desired parameters of GT contender (very big engine at lower-medium weight). Quintana, Bardet, Landa etc. has nothing on those guys.

He doesn't like riding on values, he rides by feeling. Only sometimes in time trials he looks at power meter, but not too much as he thinks it's distracting.

No one is really racing like this. Even Froome. Also believe me. If you train daily with power meter you can go by feel with +/-5W precision when doing steady state efforts. That's why calls to ban power meters make me laugh.

 

[Pennino]

Re:

I'm impressed with Dumoulin. He proves again he's the real deal in grand tours contention in years to come.

He is also almost same type of the rider as Froome or Thomas when it comes to height, weight and power curve which shows clearly what are the most desired parameters of GT contender (very big engine at lower-medium weight). Quintana, Bardet, Landa etc. has nothing on those guys.

He doesn't like riding on values, he rides by feeling. Only sometimes in time trials he looks at power meter, but not too much as he thinks it's distracting.

No one is really racing like this. Even Froome. Also believe me. If you train daily with power meter you can go by feel with +/-5W precision when doing steady state efforts. That's why calls to ban power meters make me laugh.

Yeah, agreed. In the meantime this training has become that sophisticated that in a race you'll hardly need them. But ffs how has it buried the real competition. Put them on hometrainers in a giant stadium...

 

[Arked]

Trainer racing is coming, don't worry Well, honestly it's already here with some good prize money included (Zwift racing events).

 

[IndianCyclist]

Now that he is confirmed as a contender, he better get a good team in place with a couple of mountain goats otherwise he will podium but not win like the Giro 2018. Had he one person to pull from his team after Froome attacked he would have won.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Oomen and Kelderman are both top 10 GT riders. It's a shame Kelderman fell a week before the Tour.
He does have support, but they are not in this particular race.

It would be great if Sunweb could add 1 more decent climber. But not too much, they still need their current TTT power/flat power.

 

[SafeBet]

Oomen, Kelderman and another pure climber would be great help in the mountains. Add two good all arounders like Matthews and Kragh Andersen + a couple TT engines and that's a very solid team if you ask me.

Oomen and Kelderman can then split the remaining GTs.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Could btw also still come from their own youth. If Storer/Hindley become stronger for instance
Or Vervaeke finally breaks through

 

[classicomano]

I would not be comfortable with Kelderman riding in front of me anymore, hes an absolute hazard on the bike. They better just get rid of him and drop some big money on a secondary GC rider to help out. Heras at US Postal style.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Quintana would be nice

 

[Leinster]

Oomen wasn’t strong enough to hold the Sky train on the Finestre. If he was, TD would have won the Giro. Sky have domestiques who would have genuine GC aspirations riding for other teams, and that’s the kind of domestique Sunweb need to find to support TD in the next couple of years.

How long does Mollema have left on his Trek contract? They’ve already signed Porte, so...