Transfers and Rumours 2014 > 2015

[MatParker117]

These squads are so unrealistic. Tour squad is just there 9 best climbers. Where are the workhorses/engines?

I'm pretty sure the Tour squad will look very similar to this:

Froome, Porte, Nieve, Roche, Kennaugh, Kiryienka, Thomas, Eisel, Stannard

You wouldn't take Konig?

 

[b.broadhurst]

You wouldn't take Konig?

No because I think he will lead at Giro and don't think he will do back to back GT's in his first year. Will probably go on to Vuelta.

Love that you edited your post about TT as you realised it was ridiculous. Only Froome, Porte and Thomas are good thats why you need Stannard, Kiryienka and Eisel for the rumoured longish TTT.

 

[MatParker117]

No because I think he will lead at Giro and don't think he will do back to back GT's in his first year. Will probably go on to Vuelta.

Love that you edited your post about TT as you realised it was ridiculous. Only Froome, Porte and Thomas are good thats why you need Stannard, Kiryienka and Eisel for the rumoured longish TTT.

I will admit it was dumb, I also forgot about that TTT.

 

[theyoungest]

These squads are so unrealistic. Tour squad is just there 9 best climbers. Where are the workhorses/engines?

I'm pretty sure the Tour squad will look very similar to this:

Froome, Porte, Nieve, Roche, Kennaugh, Kiryienka, Thomas, Eisel, Stannard

Surely Poels will have had some sort of Tour guarantee. It starts in his home country, and otherwise his team switch makes no sense (except for $$$).

 

[pink_jersey]

I don't understand how everyone forget Sergio Henao in tour roster.
Froome,Henao,Porte,Poels(tour starts in Holland),Kennaugh,Thomas,Stannard,Kiryienka,Knees/Siutsou/Eisel is the best team for me.Henao,Porte,Poels,Kennaugh,Thomas for mountain train and Thomas,Stannard,Kiry and Siutsou/Knees/Eisel for flat.

 

[Gloin22]

I don't understand how everyone forget Sergio Henao in tour roster.
Froome,Henao,Porte,Poels(tour starts in Holland),Kennaugh,Thomas,Stannard,Kiryienka,Knees/Siutsou/Eisel is the best team for me.Henao,Porte,Poels,Kennaugh,Thomas for mountain train and Thomas,Stannard,Kiry and Siutsou/Knees/Eisel for flat.

How can you add him to Tour roster if we don't know if he'll ever make full recovery from his injury?

 

[pink_jersey]

How can you add him to Tour roster if we don't know if he'll ever make full recovery from his injury?

In all interviews he sounds optimistic so I think he will start slowly in the first months but after Ardenees he will in the mix again.

 

[b.broadhurst]

How can you add him to Tour roster if we don't know if he'll ever make full recovery from his injury?

This is exactly why I didn't put him in the Tour squad.

He is on a long recovery path and probably won't be totally over it until later in the season.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

They can't possibly provide leadership opportunities for all of Porte, Roche, Konig, Nieve, Henao, Kennaugh and Poels. The money must be very big indeed to have most of them as worker bees. Even the chosen two or three of them will have quite limited opportunities, given that Froome comes first.

My money is on Nieve and Kennaugh getting the shaft completely, and I can only guess that Sky think Henao will take a long time to recover. Even assuming that, there are still too many cooks.

I really hate this kind of "hoarding" in super teams. It reduces the sport to a financial arms race and makes racing dull.

 

[Jonhard]

Poels and Kennaugh are a bit young to be a GT team leader I’d have thought, and not sure Henao is quite there either given his 2014. On the other hand, you could add Thomas and Deignan to the list of riders who might expect leadership in decent races (if not the GTs). The ratio of chiefs to indians could be a problem, and the cobbles squad looks thin as others have said. I wonder if Nordhaug could ride in Flanders? Not much pedigree in long races but he seems like that kind of rider.

But Sky have sent weaker GT teams out than Movistar and Tinkoff this year, and they needed to do something to compete (with Tinkoff especially).

 

[Pricey_sky]

They can't possibly provide leadership opportunities for all of Porte, Roche, Konig, Nieve, Henao, Kennaugh and Poels. The money must be very big indeed to have most of them as worker bees. Even the chosen two or three of them will have quite limited opportunities, given that Froome comes first.

My money is on Nieve and Kennaugh getting the shaft completely, and I can only guess that Sky think Henao will take a long time to recover. Even assuming that, there are still too many cooks.

I really hate this kind of "hoarding" in super teams. It reduces the sport to a financial arms race and makes racing dull.

I don't think they have a a big problem next season, Konig can do the Giro, Froome will lead the Tour and Roche/Nieve given freedom during the Vuelta.

Poels and Kennaugh can pick up a few of the smaller stage races too. I think for Porte and Henao next season is just about getting back to some kind of great form again. There is always the chance that one of the GT leaders gets injured so they could step up.

 

[theyoungest]

They can't possibly provide leadership opportunities for all of Porte, Roche, Konig, Nieve, Henao, Kennaugh and Poels. The money must be very big indeed to have most of them as worker bees. Even the chosen two or three of them will have quite limited opportunities, given that Froome comes first.

My money is on Nieve and Kennaugh getting the shaft completely, and I can only guess that Sky think Henao will take a long time to recover. Even assuming that, there are still too many cooks.

I really hate this kind of "hoarding" in super teams. It reduces the sport to a financial arms race and makes racing dull.

Most teams have two or three credible GT contenders though. It's not so unevenly balanced as you suggest.

Oddly, BMC as one of the richest teams has just one real GT contender in Van Garderen.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Most teams have two or three credible GT contenders though. It's not so unevenly balanced as you suggest.

Most teams have two or three GT leaders, in the sense that they have that number of riders who would reasonably think that they should be given leadership in a GT each year. Sky now have seven to nine such riders, depending on how you treat some of the fringe ones. Nobody except Movistar has two real GT contenders.

This line up of fringe GC men as doms really isn't comparable to anywhere else, unless Tinkoff is doing something similarly obscene (they might be, I haven't seen their full squad). Not even Movistar, not Astana and definitely none of the other thirteen surviving WT teams.

The closest comparison is with OPQS on the cobbles.

 

[Netserk]

So Valverde makes the cut as a contender, but neither Majka nor Aru does? For next year?

 

[theyoungest]

Most teams have two or three GT leaders, in the sense that they have that number of riders who would reasonably think that they should be given leadership in a GT each year. Sky now have seven to nine such riders, depending on how you treat some of the fringe ones. Nobody except Movistar has two real GT contenders.

This line up of fringe GC men as doms really isn't comparable to anywhere else, unless Tinkoff is doing something similarly obscene (they might be, I haven't seen their full squad). Not even Movistar, not Astana and definitely none of the other thirteen surviving WT teams.

The closest comparison is with OPQS on the cobbles.

Well, to start with A for AG2R, they have Bardet and Péraud. Now which member of Team Sky's roster is equal or better than those guys? Froome is. That's it.

Then Astana. Nibali and Aru. Same story.

Etc.

No one denies that Sky have ridiculously strong domestiques, but would they really light up the GC race elsewhere? I don't think so.

 

[kenk09]

Only Froome and Porte are GT contenders.

Henao potentially, but he's just had virtually an entire year off, has one top 10 in a GT, and has never won a European stage race.

Konig is a viable GT leader for a decent team, but few will be picking him to top 5 in any of them in 2015.

Nieve, Poels and Roche are what they are. Valuable team guys but not leaders. All the top teams have them. They should be nowhere near leading a good team in a GT in 2015.

Kennaugh and Thomas should be getting leadership in smaller stage races. Neither should be anywhere near the final 2 or 3 in a Team Sky GT team at this point.

 

[Netserk]

According to ZL (if I'm reading him right) Only Froome is a contender, Porte not so much (Wiggo too). Other than Froome his post also indicates that Quintana and Valverde are contenders as well. I'd guess Contador and Nibali are too. After this it gets a little blurry. Aru and Majka are not contenders, maybe Uran and/or Purito are. Maybe Pinot and/or Peraud are. The only thing certain is that Movistar is the only team with two such contenders.

 

[grizzlee]

Only Froome and Porte are GT contenders.

Henao potentially, but he's just had virtually an entire year off, has one top 10 in a GT, and has never won a European stage race.

Konig is a viable GT leader for a decent team, but few will be picking him to top 5 in any of them in 2015.

Nieve, Poels and Roche are what they are. Valuable team guys but not leaders. All the top teams have them. They should be nowhere near leading a good team in a GT in 2015.

Kennaugh and Thomas should be getting leadership in smaller stage races. Neither should be anywhere near the final 2 or 3 in a Team Sky GT team at this point.

Roche finished 5th in his last outing as a gt leader in the 2013 vuelta thats a pretty good ride if you ask me. Top 5 is a contender in my book, granted he will not win one but to be honest at this moment in time there are only 4 guys out there that can win one.

 

[Piti4Podiums]

Apropos Romain Bardet, he extends with AG2R until 2018!

http://www.100pour100-velo.com/dern...-bardet-prolonge-avec-ag2r-jusqu-en-2018.html

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

This depends on what you mean by "contender".

This is a world where Hesjedal, Cobo, Wiggins and Horner have GTs on their palmares. If we are using the word to mean that they could in theory win a GT at some point, if all of the stars align, there is a huge number of such guys, too many to say anything interesting about. I was using the term to mean "will certainly podium a GT this year barring crashes or injury and has a reasonable chance to actually win". That reduces us rapidly to the big four, with maybe four or five others on the borderline between the category above and the much larger fringe GC man category.

Sky do not have a freakishly brilliant top two or three leaders. They have one big four guy and a.n.other. But GT cycling isn't about your best two. It's about your best one and your best nine. And what Sky have done is bought up a huge collection of fringe GC men to support Froome. These kind of fringe GC men are rarely very well regarded here, but if they were signing elsewhere they would be GC leaders. There are 17/18 WT teams, plus wild cards and 3 GTs. We are talking about the Lampres and Europcars not just the Astanas and Tinkoffs.

It's this sort of wealth disparity and hoarding that produces mountain trains of boredom.

 

[MellowJohnny]

Murdoch got his chequebook out then,

The sky signings look like shrewd business in the cold light of day.

Nordhaug and Fenn for the classics,

Roche and Konig, for GT support and potential GC

and Poels as Super Dom in the mountains,

Could be a few leaving Sky soon though.

 

[kenk09]

Roche finished 5th in his last outing as a gt leader in the 2013 vuelta thats a pretty good ride if you ask me. Top 5 is a contender in my book, granted he will not win one but to be honest at this moment in time there are only 4 guys out there that can win one.

He's a terrific guy to have. Able to be among the 20 best in almost any stage race on the calendar. His 2013 Vuelta a was a great ride, but then the Vuelta top 10s are often a mishmash of talents, forms, and opportunities.

I think looking at the top stage race teams (Sky, Movistar, Tinkoff, Ag2r, Astana), Roche would be 3rd, 4th 5th best GT guy on all those teams. Even at Katusha, FDJ, Garmin, Orica, OPQS, he'd be some way down the pecking order.

At Sky I imagine he'll be quite highly valued in hilly classics, will get to lead in some smaller stage races, and will be at the pointy end in the Tour. That's not a bad place to be.

That whole post could be about Poels too really, but with Poels career still trending upwards.

 

[inthepink]

Tinkoff slagging Roche off on Twitter ...sayign he is 'only PR' (rider)
So doesn't rate him
Glad Roche leaving that

 

[GuyIncognito]

Good and logical move for Zakarin. He has progressed nicely this season and might be the best Russian GC hope in stage races next year. A bit surprised by Lagutin. Would think that he would be better as a mentor for the younger guys and a guarantee for results in smaller races for Rusvelo.

Lagutin is good and has had quite good results this year as well.
Zakarin is one of those guys who is 99.9% sure to do nothing at WT level for reasons

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Tinkoff slagging Roche off on Twitter ...sayign he is 'only PR' (rider)
So doesn't rate him
Glad Roche leaving that

Wasn't that long ago that Tinkoff was tweeting positive things about Roche as a way of undermining Contador. The guy is a loose cannon and he can't be properly secured because he owns the whole ship.