Tour Match Up: Gesink v Van Den Broeck

[Midnightfright]

damn dutchies denying us the nibali vs gesink battle

btw D_T you can say all you want but right now nibbles is looking like a much better rider then gesink overall

Nibbles is the most underrated GC guy around at the moment. Like him rate him or not but hes just more proven than bobby G

 

[roundabout]

When the biggest difference is the ability to stay on the bike (yes, not all Gesink's crashes are his fault before everyone points that out) I can't really say that one is much better than the other, but YMMV.

 

[maxmartin]

of course, Nibali is already grand tour WINNER period

Nibbles is the most underrated GC guy around at the moment. Like him rate him or not but hes just more proven than bobby G

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Gesink hasn't been where he ought to be mentally all season long, which is understandable given the terrible events that transpired prior to the beginning of this season. However, if it wasn't for his improved time trialing which resulted in two podium places and a win at 3 different stage races it would be a completely failed season. He needs some time off indeed me thinks. I'm all for Kruijswijk and Kelderman next year. Let's see if they find a way to screw it up.

keldeman will be pretty light schedule for a year or two I'd say.
I expect his GT debut @13 Vuelta.

A real shame for Gesink.
I suppose good on him for trying to stay in it, he is missing a oppurtunity with the Vuelta in mind, but so be it. I kinda hope he calls it a season after the tour, takes a break, rest, gets his motivation and mental state where it needs to be for next season.

It has been a difficult season for Gesink.

 

[Spine Concept]

I don't know if you can blame the crash for everything. I mean he had like a week to recover and even if he didn't fully recover , it's a shame he dropped out so early and lost 17 minutes. I never expected Gesink to contest for a spot on the podium but I did expect him to win the white yersey, which he ought to win given his status and the other contenders for that yersey.

I also think Rabobank made the same mistake as 2 years ago when Garate saved their TdF by winning a stage when Menchov failed after his Giro win. They put all their eggs in one basket and gamble on Gesink and if it doesn't work out they have nobody else to backup. This year they won a stage thanks to LLS which releases some of the pressure but I still think it's a mistake to ride for one guy given the quality of the other riders.

The crash was definitely the catalyst for all of the ensuing issues. Thus, in a way, the crash was mainly responsible for the complete implosion. Furthermore, the question has to be posed; how much can you truly recover in a Tour? As you have probably witnessed they haven't exactly taken it easy in any of the stages up to this point, even when it appears that they have. Many riders have expressed this fact. Are you really one of the people that shares the notion that the tour started yesterday? Look around. Whatever time Gesink had to recover he still needed too much energy, both for the healing of his wounds, bruises, and whatever psychological ramifications the crash brought him, as well as the nervousness of getting into proper positions in the peloton in order to avoid more crashes. Thus, I cannot agree with you there.

Regarding the ''mistake'' by Rabo, I have said this before, they gambled and failed, simple as that. Had all gone according to plan and Gesink podiumed they would have been geniuses. In hindsight, who should they have made co-leader? Mollema? look how it turned out for him. LL Sanchez? Ditto, he hasn't exactly been impressive this season except for his semi-redeeming win a couple of days ago. Rabobank have just been very unfortunate, there will come a time when the string of bad luck will end though, and when it does they will do great things me thinks. It's not the talent and potential that's lacking, just the little bit of luck needed to properly contest a GT - especially the tour.

 

[Spine Concept]

I'm all for Kruijswijk this year. Bring on the Vuelta!

Kelderman won't ride a GT next year, obviously.

keldeman will be pretty light schedule for a year or two I'd say.
I expect his GT debut @13 Vuelta.

A real shame for Gesink.
I suppose good on him for trying to stay in it, he is missing a oppurtunity with the Vuelta in mind, but so be it. I kinda hope he calls it a season after the tour, takes a break, rest, gets his motivation and mental state where it needs to be for next season.

It has been a difficult season for Gesink.

I probably should have included that I'm all for Kelderman in any race he's in. He's an awesome talent like that . I do not expect him in a GT in his first year as a pro of course.
I am, however, excited about the prospect of Kruijswijk at the tour, no more relying solely on Gesink. That might actually work at the advantage of both of them, taking the pressure off a bit. I rate Kruijswijk higher than Mollema so I'd be more comfortable with the former being co-leader. Maybe I'm getting carried away by his latest Giro performance, but you have to admit he was nothing short of awesome vis-a-vis last year. One has to contemplate where he would have ended in the GC had he not gone on the attack in one of the stages and lost a substantial amount of time after being caught by the peloton. Not only considering the time lost but also the energy spent/wasted by staying in the thinned out lead group.

 

[Spine Concept]

By the by, this has turned out to be an epic thread, I never thought it would reach 1000+ posts. Then again.....

 

[bicing]

I think they should both focus their energies on Vuelta.

Nibali vs Anton vs Gesink vs Van den Broecke vs Menchov vs Sastre vs Contador Grand Slam

 

[Spine Concept]

I think they should both focus their energies on Vuelta.

Nibali vs Anton vs Gesink vs Van den Broecke vs Menchov vs Sastre vs Contador Grand Slam

Agreed. Screw the tour, and Schleck for that matter . Nah, it's a pipe dream at best. At least 2 of the aforementioned will be absent, namely Gesink and Contador. Moreover, VDB2 might contest it, but probably won't be in top shape. Next year it will be all guns blazing for the tour again.

 

[Midnightfright]

of course, Nibali is already grand tour WINNER period

That doesn't change the fact that he is quite often quickly discarded when talking about top GC guys.

 

[theyoungest]

I am, however, excited about the prospect of Kruijswijk at the tour, no more relying solely on Gesink. That might actually work at the advantage of both of them, taking the pressure off a bit. I rate Kruijswijk higher than Mollema so I'd be more comfortable with the former being co-leader. Maybe I'm getting carried away by his latest Giro performance, but you have to admit he was nothing short of awesome vis-a-vis last year. One has to contemplate where he would have ended in the GC had he not gone on the attack in one of the stages and lost a substantial amount of time after being caught by the peloton. Not only considering the time lost but also the energy spent/wasted by staying in the thinned out lead group.

Absolutely, I think Kruijswijk could be a good Tour rider as well, because of his apparent talent for positioning (and not crashing) and more importantly, his amazing recovery. However, I don't think he's really made for the tempo climbs you sometimes get in the Tour (not so much this year). In other words, you never know until he gets there.

Mollema gets sick rather often, I fear this has something to do with his mononucleosis of a few years back. That's often the kiss of death for any GT rider, and I think Mollema is no exception.

 

[El Pistolero]

Looking at the data from FS on Luz Ardiden, they're not climbing very fast here. So Kruijswijk will impress next year if he goes to the Tour I think. They were actually climbing faster in the Giro than the Tour so far lol.

 

[theyoungest]

Looking at the data from FS on Luz Ardiden, they're not climbing very fast here. So Kruijswijk will impress next year if he goes to the Tour I think. They were actually climbing faster in the Giro than the Tour so far lol.

Maybe, but the first half of the Tour has been utter war and chaos, so I don't know if the energy levels are quite the same. It's just a different type of rider that generally does well at the Tour as compared to the Giro.

 

[Kwibus]

Looking at the data from FS on Luz Ardiden, they're not climbing very fast here. So Kruijswijk will impress next year if he goes to the Tour I think. They were actually climbing faster in the Giro than the Tour so far lol.

When Frank Schleck is the fastest of the favourites then it's not very surprising they weren't going very fast.

 

[Spine Concept]

It's just not funny anymore... there's a Dutchie in the polka dots and he gets driven off the road, there's a Dutchie in white and he has all the bad luck you could think of, there's a Dutchie who could possibly contend for white but who is sick, there's another Dutchie who could contend for white but who is sick and went home already, there's a few Dutchies who couldn't climb a mountain if their life depended on it... from now on I support Spanish cycling.

In this sport we are cursed for now. Even with all the talent in the world they keep having bad luck

It's times like these I think. "Why didn't I become a korfbal supporter"

Add to that Lars Boom who had to leave the tour today due to an achilles injury it seems. He was also having a mediocre tour due to intestinal complaints. The other ones youngest was talking about is Westra, who has knee problems, saying he feels a stabbing pain when he stands up. He feels good but his knee isn't reflecting that, he would have wanted to go in the break today. Wout Poels had to quit due to sickness - fever?. Mollema is also sick, which explains his recent results. Hoogerland, well, you know what happened to him. Rob Ruijgh I heard yesterday on tour du jour was sent to get bottles - on a climb! - for de Gendt, which is a lack of respect and an abomination if you ask me. Gesink crashed at 70 km/h and his tour was pretty much over there and then. Did I miss anyone?

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Looking at the data from FS on Luz Ardiden, they're not climbing very fast here. So Kruijswijk will impress next year if he goes to the Tour I think. They were actually climbing faster in the Giro than the Tour so far lol.

JVDB was heartbroken after watching the race, he didn't want to comment on the stage because he was devestated. He genuinely felt he was going to podium, and after watching that stage, who can blame him.

PS: Lieven Van Gils interviewing Gesink & Boom, what an idiot.

 

[taiwan]

This thread and the Tony Martin one conveniently illustrate the danger of hyping your own guys to ridiculous levels. Much as I sympathise with the riders' bad luck. After this plummeting anti-climax, my only concern is that these guys immediately start being puffed up as 2012 Tour contenders. Who cares about the rest of the peloton/calendar?

Then again it's sort of what this forum's for, so I can't really criticise too much.

 

[Amsterhammer]

Rob Ruijgh I heard yesterday on tour du jour was sent to get bottles - on a climb! - for de Gendt, which is a lack of respect and an abomination if you ask me.

This is not what happened according to his DS on Dutch tv tonight. Ruijgh dropped back to get a drink for himself, when he should have asked one of his teammates to do it for him in view of his position. The first big acceleration took place just as he was at the back, costing him that much extra energy just to get back to where he was before he went for the drink, which resulted in him losing some extra minutes at the end. I think we can be sure that he will have his bottle brought for him tomorrow.

Not only that, but the boy is the highest ranked Dutch rider, and he intends to try and finish even closer than his current 26th place at 11 minutes down.

 

[The Hitch]

It's just not funny anymore... there's a Dutchie in the polka dots and he gets driven off the road, there's a Dutchie in white and he has all the bad luck you could think of, there's a Dutchie who could possibly contend for white but who is sick, there's another Dutchie who could contend for white but who is sick and went home already, there's a few Dutchies who couldn't climb a mountain if their life depended on it... from now on I support Spanish cycling.

You could just watch cycling through a non nationalist perspective.

Que some joke about how I have to watch cycling without the nationalism because there are no good Polish riders.

 

[theyoungest]

Que some joke about how I have to watch cycling without the nationalism because there are no good Polish riders.

There's one Polish rider currently at the Tour who's doing better than all Dutch ones, albeit in service of Ivan the Terrible.

Gesink skips the Vuelta, and instead will ride the Tour of Colorado and the Canadian WT races. Where he undoubtedly will do very well again, because no one in Holland will watch

 

[Spine Concept]

This thread and the Tony Martin one conveniently illustrate the danger of hyping your own guys to ridiculous levels. Much as I sympathise with the riders' bad luck. After this plummeting anti-climax, my only concern is that these guys immediately start being puffed up as 2012 Tour contenders. Who cares about the rest of the peloton/calendar?

Then again it's sort of what this forum's for, so I can't really criticise too much.

What danger? It's a forum, like you said right after the first part of your post. Furthermore, who was hyping? Most opinions in here were based on facts and observations. I think you're barking up the wrong tree here, this belongs in the Tony Martin thread, where the predictions are definitely more unlikely to happen than the speculations in here. I do not think anyone in here said that either Gesink or VDB2 would win the tour, they were both aiming for the last podium spot. That objective is a realistic one. Unfortunately they are both out of contention now due to force majeure, nothing we could have done about it. However, that doesn't mean we won't discuss their chances anymore in the future. That's why this is a cycling forum, where else would we discuss these things?

 

[Spine Concept]

This is not what happened according to his DS on Dutch tv tonight. Ruijgh dropped back to get a drink for himself, when he should have asked one of his teammates to do it for him in view of his position. The first big acceleration took place just as he was at the back, costing him that much extra energy just to get back to where he was before he went for the drink, which resulted in him losing some extra minutes at the end. I think we can be sure that he will have his bottle brought for him tomorrow.

Not only that, but the boy is the highest ranked Dutch rider, and he intends to try and finish even closer than his current 26th place at 11 minutes down.

I see. The tour du jour pundits were misinformed then, unsurprisingly. Thanks for clearing that up for me, rookie mistake by Ruijgh I guess. At least now he won't ever do it again, I hope.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

No Vuelta for Gesink

Telegraaf reports that he decided not to ride the Vuelta, but instead ride the awesome Tour of Colorado (a new race with a lot of climbing), and then Quebec/Montreal (like last year).

I'm slightly dissapointed

 

[Michielveedeebee]

No Vuelta for Gesink

Telegraaf reports that he decided not to ride the Vuelta, but instead ride the awesome Tour of Colorado (a new race with a lot of climbing), and then Quebec/Montreal (like last year).

I'm slightly dissapointed

shame would've loved to see a Jurgen Gesink battle there

 

[El Pistolero]

No Vuelta for Gesink

Telegraaf reports that he decided not to ride the Vuelta, but instead ride the awesome Tour of Colorado (a new race with a lot of climbing), and then Quebec/Montreal (like last year).

I'm slightly dissapointed

Lol? Just to get his *** kicked by a better rider in Canadian races? What a shame.... His talents are suited to the Vuelta.