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Teams & Riders Tom Dumoulin discussion thread

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Re:

Red Rick said:
Now Matthews is really really pissed lol.

Sunweb is such a garbage team

Frankly those were garbage comments from Matthews. Seriously? Why not just say, "I'd focused on supporting Tom, but now I'll be able to target some stages that fit my profile. I haven't done a lot of sprint training but I'll give it my best."

I mean, I'm glad he's saying what he feels but really, it's not how you support a teammate. I'm sure Dumoulin would much rather be at the Tour than picking stones out of his knee...
 
Re: Re:

Bolder said:
Red Rick said:
Now Matthews is really really pissed lol.

Sunweb is such a garbage team

Frankly those were garbage comments from Matthews. Seriously? Why not just say, "I'd focused on supporting Tom, but now I'll be able to target some stages that fit my profile. I haven't done a lot of sprint training but I'll give it my best."

I mean, I'm glad he's saying what he feels but really, it's not how you support a teammate. I'm sure Dumoulin would much rather be at the Tour than picking stones out of his knee...

On the other hand, I appreciate his honest comments.
And whilst I'm sure there's two sides to the story, it sounds like he's been given a bad wrap by the team - he's sacrificed his entire season (including a ride at the Giro) to support TD's bid for yellow. I would guess from his comments that he hasn't had much update from the team about TD's knee, and so hasn't been able to prepare himself for other goals, and TD's withdrawal is a bit of a surprise to him, hence his "confusion".

Sunweb are well known as a team that operate in a very rigid fashion, but it's still a surprise to hear that Spekenbrink told the riders they "shouldn’t have any ambitions [themselves]".
Given they're paying €€€s for riders like Matthews, it seems a bit of a waste of that money to allow them no personal ambition...
 
Re: Re:

Davesta said:
Bolder said:
Red Rick said:
Now Matthews is really really pissed lol.

Sunweb is such a garbage team

Frankly those were garbage comments from Matthews. Seriously? Why not just say, "I'd focused on supporting Tom, but now I'll be able to target some stages that fit my profile. I haven't done a lot of sprint training but I'll give it my best."

I mean, I'm glad he's saying what he feels but really, it's not how you support a teammate. I'm sure Dumoulin would much rather be at the Tour than picking stones out of his knee...

On the other hand, I appreciate his honest comments.
And whilst I'm sure there's two sides to the story, it sounds like he's been given a bad wrap by the team - he's sacrificed his entire season (including a ride at the Giro) to support TD's bid for yellow. I would guess from his comments that he hasn't had much update from the team about TD's knee, and so hasn't been able to prepare himself for other goals, and TD's withdrawal is a bit of a surprise to him, hence his "confusion".

Sunweb are well known as a team that operate in a very rigid fashion, but it's still a surprise to hear that Spekenbrink told the riders they "shouldn’t have any ambitions [themselves]".
Given they're paying €€€s for riders like Matthews, it seems a bit of a waste of that money to allow them no personal ambition...

I agree, but I'd say that for any team, winning the TDF is worth sacrificing the ambitions of every rider on their team. If they thought Tam was going to win and Matthews was a key part of that, I think most teams would make the same decision, no matter what they're paying him. It's pretty much how Sky operated and how Ineos have continued.
 
Re:

Red Rick said:
If they thought he was gonna win they shouldn't have **** sent him to the Giro in the first place.
For a team with a reputation for being run in a rigid fashion, they seem to have been making TD’s program up as they go along. If Bling thought at the start of the year that he was doing the Giro, then it’s really not clear what they were thinking sending Dumoulin instead.

In fairness to that, I doubt they imagined Tom would crash and be carrying a chunk of asphalt around in his knee for the next 2 months, so you kinda have to salute the ambition of the guy who thought he could give the double a go. But the slapdash nature of it all must be frustrating for Matthews.

“Sunweb are well known as a team that operate in a very rigid fashion, but it's still a surprise to hear that Spekenbrink told the riders they "shouldn’t have any ambitions [themselves]".
Given they're paying €€€s for riders like Matthews, it seems a bit of a waste of that money to allow them no personal ambition...
Sunweb are paying riders like Matthews a lot of money to win races like San Remo, the Ardennes, the Canadian classics, and pick up stage wins. It’s clear that what Spekenbrink meant was that nobody should go to the Tour with any personal ambitions. I doubt anybody at the Tour de Suisse has been told “don’t go winning any stages, we’re all about yellow for Tom here.”
 

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