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Teams & Riders Tom Dumoulin discussion thread

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Gigs_98 said:
I mean I should be happy if some of the strongest riders ride my favorite gt but ugh this really feels like another year of resignation and everyone agreeing to Froome winning his fifth tour. I mean who are gonna be froome's main rivals? A guy coming from the giro, his own teammate and some underachieving Movistar climber? Even Yates might go to the giro which leaves us with Roglic as probably the most dangerous man and although I like Roglic, there still are higher caliber gc riders than him
Roglic also hasn't decided yet. He might go to the Giro as well :eek:
https://www.wielerflits.nl/nieuws/primoz-roglic-nog-geen-keuze-gemaakt-tussen-giro-en-tour/
 
Red Rick said:
Gigs_98 said:
I mean I should be happy if some of the strongest riders ride my favorite gt but ugh this really feels like another year of resignation and everyone agreeing to Froome winning his fifth tour. I mean who are gonna be froome's main rivals? A guy coming from the giro, his own teammate and some underachieving Movistar climber? Even Yates might go to the giro which leaves us with Roglic as probably the most dangerous man and although I like Roglic, there still are higher caliber gc riders than him
Roglic also hasn't decided yet. He might go to the Giro as well :eek:
https://www.wielerflits.nl/nieuws/primoz-roglic-nog-geen-keuze-gemaakt-tussen-giro-en-tour/

Giro is also a nice route for Roglic - And of course he will get more support in the GT if there is no Gronewegen.
 
Gigs_98 said:
I mean I should be happy if some of the strongest riders ride my favorite gt but ugh this really feels like another year of resignation and everyone agreeing to Froome winning his fifth tour. I mean who are gonna be froome's main rivals? A guy coming from the giro, his own teammate and some underachieving Movistar climber? Even Yates might go to the giro which leaves us with Roglic as probably the most dangerous man and although I like Roglic, there still are higher caliber gc riders than him

Edit: I forgot about Porte but then again, well, he's Porte


That leaves Porte, Quintana, Pinot and Bardet as the only ones I'm aware of that are targeting the Tour to go after Froome. The other two Movistar riders are talking about the Giro. Valverde wants the Giro/Vuelta double and Landa the Giro/Tour double.
 
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Respect to Dumoulin and the Team for sending him to the Giro. Of course having a sprinter who can win stages at the Tour also makes things a bit easier for them.
Dumoulin, Nibali, Bernal, Zakarin, MAL, Roglic and/or Kru, Landa or Valverde (probably with Carapaz) and maybe Simon Yates (?), that's a strong field of contenders fighting for the podium spots. If the new coaches, ds and doctores will do their work well we might even get the Astana version of Aru.
 
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Valv.Piti said:
Red Rick said:
Valv.Piti said:
Well its ASO's own fault. Nice decision by Tom
They'll have Bardet 3rd in a Tour with Louis Meintjes in the top 6 or some **** like that and therefor they will conclude that the Tour was a resounding success.
Well at least its better than 2017.

If Valverde hadn't crashed on the opening stage, you wouldn't have complained about that route ;)
 
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Valv.Piti said:
A nice evening at your parents house just relaxing and surfing through CNs forum just turned into my worst nightmare again. Please dont remind me of that ****** day again (Im actually serious, I would really prefer not to talk about that ever again).


After that I didn't bother with the rest of that Tour. That day was a nightmare.
 
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Valv.Piti said:
Hahaha, nah, **** that. I had actually forgotten everything about it, but I just remembered he won in Innsbruck, so its not that bad. :D

That's some pretty worrying signs of dementia :surprised:

The same thing happened 11 years previously, though. And that time he was actually considered the favourite when the Tour began by other people than his fans.
 
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Red Rick said:
It's a pretty great idea, seeing as the gap between 'fairly well' and 'Tom Dumoulin' in hilly ITTs is minutes.
Yeah, but in actuality it's a climbers' course. The key mountain stages are insanely hard ... definitely the hardest mountain stage block since I got into cycling. The rest of the course is almost an afterthought.

You have a couple up and coming climbers who will likely have improved over last year. Bernal, Mas. Wheel sucker Lopez probably won't bring it, but if Yates can hold it together for a whole GT... who TF knows. One of those three guys could be a real problem.

Dumoulin should have focused on the Tour, as he could have done the last time around. The season after that it's the Olympics. Another excuse not to focus on the race sponsors think is by far the most important.

It seems to me that Dumoulin doesn't yet have what it takes to focus his season on the Tour, and deal with the insane (media) pressure that goes along with it. We all know that's his main weakness.
 
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18-Valve. (pithy) said:
Red Rick said:
It's a pretty great idea, seeing as the gap between 'fairly well' and 'Tom Dumoulin' in hilly ITTs is minutes.
Yeah, but in actuality it's a climbers' course. The key mountain stages are insanely hard ... definitely the hardest mountain stage block since I got into cycling. The rest of the course is almost an afterthought.

You have a couple up and coming climbers who will likely have improved over last year. Bernal, Mas. Wheel sucker Lopez probably won't bring it, but if Yates can hold it together for a whole GT... who TF knows. One of those three guys could be a real problem.

Dumoulin should have focused on the Tour, as he could have done the last time around. The season after that it's the Olympics. Another excuse not to focus on the race sponsors think is by far the most important.

It seems to me that Dumoulin doesn't yet have what it takes to focus his season on the Tour, and deal with the insane (media) pressure that goes along with it. We all know that's his main weakness.
He seemed to handle the pressure fine during the Tour.

This is a rational decision. He knows this route is much, much better for him. If neither Thomas nor Froome races takes 2 min + out of everyone in the ITTs. It's gonna take a monstrous effort to take it back.
 
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Red Rick said:
He seemed to handle the pressure fine during the Tour.
I'm talking media pressure mostly. He already had another Giro podium in the bag. It's not the same thing.

This is a rational decision. He knows this route is much, much better for him. If neither Thomas nor Froome races takes 2 min + out of everyone in the ITTs. It's gonna take a monstrous effort to take it back.
Maybe not. The Gavia / Mortirolo stage alone should be good enough to make up most of that gap, IMO. That stage is the hardest in recent and not so recent GT history.

The most consistent climber will win this race.
 

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