Tour Rider Selection and Roles

[MizzouJack]

With the Tour a month away and the Tour prep races currently going on I thought it might be good to have a thread to discuss which riders each teams will bring and what roles (GC leader, MT. dom, flat puller, sprint train, Sprinter, Breakaway rider) these said riders will play for their team.

Perhaps we can list tour long lists and other things when we see them in articles. With the introduction of these super teams with big budgets, many DS's have tough decisions to make on who to bring with them. With the openness in the GC and many unknown factors in the route compared to other years, I think many teams will bring more GC support riders. Some teams like Sky, Movistar, RSNT, BMC, Garmin, Quickstep and others will have many difficult choices to make. some having to split teams over different ambitions and others with a wealth of depth having to pick and chose different deserving riders.

Who do you think will be a surprise this year after being an afterthought or even ridiculed for their selection (ex. Navardauscus for Garmin last year) doing major important work for their team?

Who will have free roles to animate the race even though their team has greater GC ambitions? (EBH, Kiryienka, Garmin boys, TGBM, Kruijswijk?)

And who will win the JENS VOIGT Award for the most gusty domestic performance?

 

[dlwssonic]

For BMC I think its some thing like

Cadel Evans - GC leader
George Hincapie - Flat domestique (road captain)
Gilbert - attacking, free role. Occasional domestique
Quinziato - flat domestique
Burghardt - flat domestique
Morabito - mountain domestique
TJVG - mountain domestique
Moinard - mountain domestique
Schar - flat domestique

A very well rounded team IMO. the flat domestiques are very strong but the mountain domestiques are not as strong. Anyway evans is used to not having very strong mountain domestiques. He just needs to be brought to the bottom of a climb in a good position.

 

[robert_c]

Team Sky will be interesting. Build it around Cav or Wiggins?

 

[JRanton]

For BMC I think its some thing like

Cadel Evans - GC leader
George Hincapie - Flat domestique (road captain)
Gilbert - attacking, free role. Occasional domestique
Quinziato - flat domestique
Burghardt - flat domestique
Morabito - mountain domestique
TJVG - mountain domestique
Moinard - mountain domestique
Schar - flat domestique

A very well rounded team IMO. the flat domestiques are very strong but the mountain domestiques are not as strong. Anyway evans is used to not having very strong mountain domestiques. He just needs to be brought to the bottom of a climb in a good position.

Yes, I'd say that's the most likely BMC line-up. Is Cummings now definitely ruled out of the Tour through injury?

 

[dlwssonic]

Yes, I'd say that's the most likely BMC line-up. Is Cummings now definitely ruled out of the Tour through injury?

Should be. He has been badly injured due to crashes like 4 times this year already. He has been incredibly unlucky.
Btw I don't really know cummings well but is he a flat or mountain domestique.

 

[JRanton]

Should be. He has been badly injured due to crashes like 4 times this year already. He has been incredibly unlucky.
Btw I don't really know cummings well but is he a flat or mountain domestique.

He's a good all-rounder. Certainly not an elite mountain domestique (although he did beat Contador on Malhao!) but a better option than Morabito and Moinard.

 

[dlwssonic]

He's a good all-rounder. Certainly not an elite mountain domestique (although he did beat Contador on Malhao!) but a better option than Morabito and Moinard.

thats such a waste, could have been good help for cadel.
Moinard looked good pacing up cadel on the mountain in the criterium international.
Morabito is ok too.
but they are both pretty inconsistent.
have to see how they will do on the dauphine climbs.

 

[Eric8-A]

Sky's Tour lineup might look like:

-Bradley Wiggins: GC leader
-Michael Rogers: domestique on the flats and the climbs
-Richie Porte: same as Rogers
-Bernhard Eisel: leadout for Cavendish
-Mark Cavendish: sprinter
-Thomas Lofkvist: probably a domestique for both Wiggo and Cavendish
-EBH: leadout for Cavendish, domestique on the flats, free role to try and nab a stage win.
-Juan Antonio Flecha: domestique on the flats, free role
- Danny Pate: bit of an all-round domesqitue, but probably will be used more to reel in breaks.
-Kanstantsin Siutsou: another worker for Wiggo.

 

[JRanton]

Movistar's long list for the Tour:

Alejandro Valverde (ESP)
Juanjo Cobo (ESP)
Jose Joaquin Rojas (ESP)
Rui Costa (POR)
David Arroyo (ESP)
Ruben Plaza (ESP)
Imanol Erviti (ESP)
Ivan Gutierrez (ESP)
Vladimir Karpets (RUS)
Vasil Kiryienka (BLR)

Reserves: Ignatas Konovalovas (LTU), David Lopez (ESP)

So one of the ten listed will obviously miss out. Very strong team as usual.

 

[Ferminal]

Sky's Tour lineup might look like:

-Bradley Wiggins: GC leader
-Michael Rogers: domestique on the flats and the climbs
-Richie Porte: same as Rogers
-Bernhard Eisel: leadout for Cavendish
-Mark Cavendish: sprinter
-Thomas Lofkvist: probably a domestique for both Wiggo and Cavendish
-EBH: leadout for Cavendish, domestique on the flats, free role to try and nab a stage win.
-Juan Antonio Flecha: domestique on the flats, free role
- Danny Pate: bit of an all-round domesqitue, but probably will be used more to reel in breaks.
-Kanstantsin Siutsou: another worker for Wiggo.

Froome too much of a threat?

 

[Frosty]

Sky's Tour lineup might look like:

-Bradley Wiggins: GC leader
-Michael Rogers: domestique on the flats and the climbs
-Richie Porte: same as Rogers
-Bernhard Eisel: leadout for Cavendish
-Mark Cavendish: sprinter
-Thomas Lofkvist: probably a domestique for both Wiggo and Cavendish
-EBH: leadout for Cavendish, domestique on the flats, free role to try and nab a stage win.
-Juan Antonio Flecha: domestique on the flats, free role
- Danny Pate: bit of an all-round domesqitue, but probably will be used more to reel in breaks.
-Kanstantsin Siutsou: another worker for Wiggo.

10 riders? Sneaky, i like it ( although you were probably just outlining options).

I think there has been speculation that the Dauphine line-up is largely the tour line-up(minus Cav), so i think that Flecha and Lovkvist might be dropped with Froome in there instead. Bit of a shame for Lovkvist as he beat Wiggins in 2010 but maybe he will head for the Vuelta as team leader along with Nordhaug + whoever out of Wiggins/Froome/Porte/Rogers is still fit, or retires from the tour early and tries to build form again for the Vuelta.

 

[Eric8-A]

Froome too much of a threat?

Totally forgot about him. But he can most likely replace Kanstantsin

10 riders? Sneaky, i like it ( although you were probably just outlining options).

I think there has been speculation that the Dauphine line-up is largely the tour line-up(minus Cav), so i think that Flecha and Lovkvist might be dropped with Froome in there instead. Bit of a shame for Lovkvist as he beat Wiggins in 2010 but maybe he will head for the Vuelta as team leader along with Nordhaug + whoever out of Wiggins/Froome/Porte/Rogers is still fit, or retires from the tour early and tries to build form again for the Vuelta.

The fact that Lofkvist was left out of the Giro made me think that they were going to use him for the Tour.

 

[Frosty]

Totally forgot about him. But he can most likely replace Kanstantsin



The fact that Lofkvist was left out of the Giro made me think that they were going to use him for the Tour.

Yeah, that would make sense actually. However, maybe they thought they had the GC covered with Uran and Henao and wanted to give some of the others in the squad a GT. Lofkvist is doing the tour of switzerland, maybe the Sky riders there form a lot of the Vuelta squad?

 

[airstream]

Siutsou is the strongest climber after Froome and Wiggo. His spot is undisputed. Sky obviously sent Flecha to the Giro cos he is not planned for the Tour. More likely Movistar will leave Erviti at home.

 

[Froome19]

Sky's Tour lineup might look like:

-Bradley Wiggins: GC leader
-Michael Rogers: domestique on the flats and the climbs
-Richie Porte: same as Rogers
-Bernhard Eisel: leadout for Cavendish
-Mark Cavendish: sprinter
-Thomas Lofkvist: probably a domestique for both Wiggo and Cavendish
-EBH: leadout for Cavendish, domestique on the flats, free role to try and nab a stage win.
-Juan Antonio Flecha: domestique on the flats, free role
- Danny Pate: bit of an all-round domesqitue, but probably will be used more to reel in breaks.
-Kanstantsin Siutsou: another worker for Wiggo.

It will be:
Wiggins
Rogers
Porte
Eisel
Cav
EBH
Froome
Siuotsou
Flecha/Knees

Effecitvely the Dauphine team + Cav and Eisel and - Pate

There is a possibility it will be Knees and not Flecha as he is in the Dauphine team and
http://velonews.competitor.com/2012...-support-wiggins-at-the-tour-de-france_222651

Porte, Michael Rogers, Kanstantsin Siutsou, Chris Froome and Christian Knees have all grown closer to Wiggins in the last months via races and training camps. The select group was part of high-altitude camps in Tenerife in the last month and will likely form the core of Sky’s GC team in the Tour de France.

Seemingly suggesting it will be Knees and not Flecha which makes sense as Wiggins is very enamoured with having Knees as his protector as he is big and prevents a lot of wind.

 

[Ruby United]

Siutsou is the strongest climber after Froome and Wiggo. His spot is undisputed. Sky obviously sent Flecha to the Giro cos he is not planned for the Tour. More likely Movistar will leave Erviti at home.

Porte has proven, in Algrave and Paris-Nice and Tour of Romandy, that he is the best domestique for Sky.

And the best mountain climber except for froome and wiggins.

 

[dlwssonic]

Porte has proven, in Algrave and Paris-Nice and Tour of Romandy, that he is the best domestique for Sky.

And the best mountain climber except for froome and wiggins.

He is pretty good on the hills.
But he has shown nothing much on the real mountains.

 

[Ruby United]

He is pretty good on the hills.
But he has shown nothing much on the real mountains.

True. But he hasn't had a proper chance to prove it. And when he has had the chance so far this year he has proven himself.

Also, though only mild mountains, he has already shown himself in the paris nice stage where westra won, being by far the most effective rider to wiggins on that stage, and of course also in Algrave.

Even though these aren't the most 'fearsome' of mountains, it's the only chance he has had so far this year, and he has risen up to the 'challenge' in these cases.

And, i feel, he will show in the tour that he is best domestique. It is his first chance to propely show how good he is in the mountains.

Just wait and see.

 

[Ruby United]

He is pretty good on the hills.
But he has shown nothing much on the real mountains.

True. But he hasn't had a proper chance to prove it. And when he has had the chance so far this year he has proven himself.

Also, though only mild mountains, he has already shown himself in the paris nice stage where westra won, being by far the most effective rider to wiggins on that stage, and of course also in Algrave.

Even though these aren't the most 'fearsome' of mountains, it's the only chance he has had so far this year, and he has risen up to the 'challenge' in these cases.

And, i feel, he will show in the tour that he is best domestique. It is his first chance to propely show how good he is in the mountains.

Just wait and see.

 

[Ferminal]

Porte has proven, in Algrave and Paris-Nice and Tour of Romandy, that he is the best domestique for Sky.

And the best mountain climber except for froome and wiggins.

Siutsou on Giro 2011 form is better. It's hard to tell this year's form, they have used Siutsou up ahead of Porte because he's not as good a TT'er (Porte could have covered GC for Wiggins in the case of something going wrong).

 

[Froome19]

Siutsou on Giro 2011 form is better. It's hard to tell this year's form, they have used Siutsou up ahead of Porte because he's not as good a TT'er (Porte could have covered GC for Wiggins in the case of something going wrong).

Siutsout lost a lot of time in the high mountains where he was poor and only made top10 due to the break he got into and the fact that he had a superior start to the favorites

 

[Ruby United]

Siutsou on Giro 2011 form is better. It's hard to tell this year's form, they have used Siutsou up ahead of Porte because he's not as good a TT'er (Porte could have covered GC for Wiggins in the case of something going wrong).

In actual fact porte has worked as much as siutsou but has always been used last b/c the best domestique is usually used last.

 

[airstream]

A climber for Algarve and for the Tour are different climbers. Siutsou almost always was stronger than his captains on the climbs (Kirchen in the 2008 Tour, Rogers in the 2009 Giro) but lacks personal ambitions so he's a gregario. I'm absolutely certain regarding his climber capacities and comparing him to Porte is just ridiculous.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Porte has proven, in Algrave and Paris-Nice and Tour of Romandy, that he is the best domestique for Sky.

And the best mountain climber except for froome and wiggins.

Clearly the best climbers in Sky except Froome and Wiggins are Uran and Henao, certainly not Porte. Okay, so they're not riding the TDF I guess because they did the Giro, but they are probably better climbers than even Wiggins and Froome.

 

[Gloin22]

- Wiggins ( Leader )
- Froome ( 2nd in Command - No work in flats )
- Porte ( Wiggo's personal domestique - no work in flats )

- Rogers ( Mountain/Flat Doemstique )
- Siutsou ( Mountain/Flat Doemstique )

- Pate ( Domestique )

- Cav ( Sprinter )
- EBH ( Leadout + Sprinter on tougher stages and around stage 14 onwards + Breaks )
- Eisel ( Leadout + Cav's Man )

This I am quite sure will the squad for Tour if no injuries happen.