Transfers and Rumours 2016 > 2017

Page 79 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Re: Re:

DFA123 said:
Roku said:
MatParker117 said:
Kenny Elissonde has apparently signed for Sky:

http://www.cyclingpro.net/velopro/road/kenny-elissonde-chez-sky

Great pick up and a good domestique for Froome.

In fact I think it is an awful signing. He has never performed outside the Vuelta (please correct me if I am wrong) and it is much more the kind of "jumping into breakaways guy" than a domestique. Hope he proves me wrong.
He's also must be the worst guy for drafting behind in the peloton. He's tiny and climbs even the steepest gradients in that ridiculously unnecessary aero position. Froome would still be taking most of the wind following him - not ideal for a domestique.

But Sky probably knows what they are doing. Maybe he won't be in the same races with Froome but instead they want him to battle for stage wins (peloton seems to be generous) and mountain points.
 
Re: Re:

DFA123 said:
Roku said:
MatParker117 said:
Kenny Elissonde has apparently signed for Sky:

http://www.cyclingpro.net/velopro/road/kenny-elissonde-chez-sky

Great pick up and a good domestique for Froome.

In fact I think it is an awful signing. He has never performed outside the Vuelta (please correct me if I am wrong) and it is much more the kind of "jumping into breakaways guy" than a domestique. Hope he proves me wrong.
He's also must be the worst guy for drafting behind in the peloton. He's tiny and climbs even the steepest gradients in that ridiculously unnecessary aero position. Froome would still be taking most of the wind following him - not ideal for a domestique.

Rod Ellingworth should be able to take care of that he's also about the same size as Porte.
 
Horrible move. Really saddened by that. Another interesting, aggressive rider being signed up to form part of a mountain train and as a nice sop to the French press. There's basically two options for him, he'll either be shunted off to do the races the team don't care about, or everything that makes him interesting will be taken away and neutered. I'm so over Sky waving the chequebook at riders who could be so much more interesting and marketable on other teams,* and given what we know about the budgets it's hard to see that changing any time soon. I'm sure Kenny will at least get to ride the Tour for the media coverage, so I hope that's what he signed for, since he never did it with FDJ.

*please note I'm not trying to say Elissonde will have broken the bank - more that Sky will probably be able to offer more money which can offset the likelihood of less freedom in the role played by the signed rider as unless you're already an established GT or Classics victory candidate at time of signing, you're unlikely to lead these races if you sign with a team as stacked as Sky.
 
Re: Re:

MatParker117 said:
DFA123 said:
Roku said:
MatParker117 said:
Kenny Elissonde has apparently signed for Sky:

http://www.cyclingpro.net/velopro/road/kenny-elissonde-chez-sky

Great pick up and a good domestique for Froome.

In fact I think it is an awful signing. He has never performed outside the Vuelta (please correct me if I am wrong) and it is much more the kind of "jumping into breakaways guy" than a domestique. Hope he proves me wrong.
He's also must be the worst guy for drafting behind in the peloton. He's tiny and climbs even the steepest gradients in that ridiculously unnecessary aero position. Froome would still be taking most of the wind following him - not ideal for a domestique.

Rod Ellingworth should be able to take care of that he's also about the same size as Porte.

Porte has 3 cm's and 10 kgs on little Kenny

What makes people think that if Sky has signed Elissonde that he'd make the Tour squad? I have my doubts
 
Sep 30, 2014
359
2
4,285
I'd be surprised if that happens (Kenny) but if it does I'd be much more surprised to see him at the Tour. He doesn't seem right for the job and they are not given to sentimental selections. Giro, Vuelta maybe.
 
Re:

Libertine Seguros said:
Horrible move. Really saddened by that. Another interesting, aggressive rider being signed up to form part of a mountain train and as a nice sop to the French press. There's basically two options for him, he'll either be shunted off to do the races the team don't care about, or everything that makes him interesting will be taken away and neutered. I'm so over Sky waving the chequebook at riders who could be so much more interesting and marketable on other teams,* and given what we know about the budgets it's hard to see that changing any time soon. I'm sure Kenny will at least get to ride the Tour for the media coverage, so I hope that's what he signed for, since he never did it with FDJ.

*please note I'm not trying to say Elissonde will have broken the bank - more that Sky will probably be able to offer more money which can offset the likelihood of less freedom in the role played by the signed rider as unless you're already an established GT or Classics victory candidate at time of signing, you're unlikely to lead these races if you sign with a team as stacked as Sky.
Libertine, you are spot on and this makes me so sad :( really hope it isn't true :(

I thought he might go to Cannondale as he's really close with Dombrowski and I really didn't like that prospect but gosh this is at least a thousand times worse
 
Re:

Libertine Seguros said:
Horrible move. Really saddened by that. Another interesting, aggressive rider being signed up to form part of a mountain train and as a nice sop to the French press. There's basically two options for him, he'll either be shunted off to do the races the team don't care about, or everything that makes him interesting will be taken away and neutered. I'm so over Sky waving the chequebook at riders who could be so much more interesting and marketable on other teams,* and given what we know about the budgets it's hard to see that changing any time soon. I'm sure Kenny will at least get to ride the Tour for the media coverage, so I hope that's what he signed for, since he never did it with FDJ.

*please note I'm not trying to say Elissonde will have broken the bank - more that Sky will probably be able to offer more money which can offset the likelihood of less freedom in the role played by the signed rider as unless you're already an established GT or Classics victory candidate at time of signing, you're unlikely to lead these races if you sign with a team as stacked as Sky.

Saying that if Bardet or Pinot are on track to take big time on Froome and Kenny's key in shutting the move down, the french press might turn on him quickly.
 
Jun 30, 2014
7,060
2
0
Re: Re:

LaFlorecita said:
Libertine Seguros said:
Horrible move. Really saddened by that. Another interesting, aggressive rider being signed up to form part of a mountain train and as a nice sop to the French press. There's basically two options for him, he'll either be shunted off to do the races the team don't care about, or everything that makes him interesting will be taken away and neutered. I'm so over Sky waving the chequebook at riders who could be so much more interesting and marketable on other teams,* and given what we know about the budgets it's hard to see that changing any time soon. I'm sure Kenny will at least get to ride the Tour for the media coverage, so I hope that's what he signed for, since he never did it with FDJ.

*please note I'm not trying to say Elissonde will have broken the bank - more that Sky will probably be able to offer more money which can offset the likelihood of less freedom in the role played by the signed rider as unless you're already an established GT or Classics victory candidate at time of signing, you're unlikely to lead these races if you sign with a team as stacked as Sky.
Libertine, you are spot on and this makes me so sad :( really hope it isn't true :(

I thought he might go to Cannondale as he's really close with Dombrowski and I really didn't like that prospect but gosh this is at least a thousand times worse
Yeah, I also thought that he might join Cannondale, he's friends with Dombrowski (he was already going toe to toe with Joe and Aru on the final mountain stages of the 2011 Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta) and his English is pretty good, in that sense him joining a team outside of France kinda makes sense.
I'd have prefered another team (he should have asked his friend Dombrowski about Sky), but let's not pretend that FDJ did a great job when it came to developing him, he had a great 2013 but the following years were a bit disappointing.
 
Ugh, Kenny, Y U DO DIS? :( :( :(
I have to agree with Libertine. Sky is a little bit like Bayern Munich in German football. Do they need more good players? No, but they buy them anyway because they have the money and the competition gets weaker. Sky is just sooooooo much too rich. I'm surprised they didn't find a way to make a 2nd WT team where they can put all their other riders who don't have place in their tdf squad so they can support their washing machine with 17 instead of laughable 8 domestiques so cycling finally gets rid of this annoying unpredictability.

They signed one of my favorite riders (Landa) so he can get the chance to win a gt. But then he gets ill and that was his only chance to ever ride a gt as a leader. From now on he has the great honor to work as one of sky's slaves who could get a top ten in the race if they wouldn't instead be the 3rd best domestique of their team. Next year it's Poels turn to f*ck up at the giro so he can abandon the race to be the 2nd strongest climber of the tdf again.
Sky has 4 riders who can win cobbles classics, Sky has probably somewhat close to 10 riders who could get a top ten in the tdf, but they still buy new riders since their old ones aren't good enough anymore. Take Leopold König for example. The guy was 7th in the tdf, and one year later he only was a domestique...AT THE FREAKIN GIRO. And this year he even only managed to be part of the vuelta team.
Sorry for the rage, but it just annoys me. The same bs over and over again and it seems as if this team only gets stronger.
 
Jul 6, 2016
599
1
0
Gigs_98 said:
Ugh, Kenny, Y U DO DIS? :( :( :(
I have to agree with Libertine. Sky is a little bit like Bayern Munich in German football. Do they need more good players? No, but they buy them anyway because they have the money and the competition gets weaker. Sky is just sooooooo much too rich. I'm surprised they didn't find a way to make a 2nd WT team where they can put all their other riders who don't have place in their tdf squad so they can support their washing machine with 17 instead of laughable 8 domestiques so cycling finally gets rid of this annoying unpredictability.

They signed one of my favorite riders (Landa) so he can get the chance to win a gt. But then he gets ill and that was his only chance to ever ride a gt as a leader. From now on he has the great honor to work as one of sky's slaves who could get a top ten in the race if they wouldn't instead be the 3rd best domestique of their team. Next year it's Poels turn to f*ck up at the giro so he can abandon the race to be the 2nd strongest climber of the tdf again.
Sky has 4 riders who can win cobbles classics, Sky has probably somewhat close to 10 riders who could get a top ten in the tdf, but they still buy new riders since their old ones aren't good enough anymore. Take Leopold König for example. The guy was 7th in the tdf, and one year later he only was a domestique...AT THE FREAKIN GIRO. And this year he even only managed to be part of the vuelta team.
Sorry for the rage, but it just annoys me. The same bs over and over again and it seems as if this team only gets stronger.

Totally right and the most annoying of all is their "oh my gosh, are we good enough, are we prepared enough"-style of communicating, acting like they're goddamn unsure of theirselves, before and during every race. I prefer a hundredthousand times the Armstrongesque arrogance over this fake British politeness.
 
Anyways, why so much hate to Sky for this signing? It is not like Kenny is somewhere close to be a Podium/Top-10 contender or anything like that. Not even a great stage hunter or a guy who could possibly be a threat to Sky in any scenario (like Landa or Koenig, could be when they both moved to Sky, especially the former)
 
The problem isn't that Kenny is a super strong rider, the problem is that there are so many cases like him at sky. Where will Sky use him? Ellisonde isn't good enough to ride the tdf for the team, but even in other races he will never have a free role. Sky is so ridiculously strong that there is basically no scenario in which such a rider, who used to fight for stages and mountain jerseys, doesn't just become random domestique number 20.
 
Gigs_98 said:
The problem isn't that Kenny is a super strong rider, the problem is that there are so many cases like him at sky. Where will Sky use him? Ellisonde isn't good enough to ride the tdf for the team, but even in other races he will never have a free role. Sky is so ridiculously strong that there is basically no scenario in which such a rider, who used to fight for stages and mountain jerseys, doesn't just become random domestique number 20.

He's similar in size to Sebastian Henao, so I imagine if he does go to the tour he'll be the tiny French guy constantly disappearing behind Kwaitkowski.
 
Apr 11, 2011
113
0
0
Gigs_98 said:
Take Leopold König for example. The guy was 7th in the tdf, and one year later he only was a domestique...AT THE FREAKIN GIRO. And this year he even only managed to be part of the vuelta team.

König missed four months at the start of this year due to a knee problem. He was only ever going to be on the Vuelta team this year. He was 5th until he and the rest of the team screwed up on Stage 15. It wasn't as if Sky damaged his GC hopes. He wasn't asked to stay with Froome all the time. Sky gave him much more freedom at the Vuelta than he would have got at the Tour. When Froome chose to go his own pace on Stage 10 König was allowed to stay with the leaders. On Stage 14 König finished 30 secs ahead of Froome.
 
He's going to be payed well and also he might drastically improve like Poels.
So stop hating on Sky, it's pointless. Movistar were more dominant in the Vuelta than Sky int he Tour. But I'm yet to see a Stop Movistar thread.
 
Oliwright said:
He's going to be payed well and also he might drastically improve like Poels.
So stop hating on Sky, it's pointless. Movistar were more dominant in the Vuelta than Sky int he Tour. But I'm yet to see a Stop Movistar thread.
Sorry but I just don't like to see attractive, exciting riders molded into boring robotic mountain train fodder.
 
LaFlorecita said:
Oliwright said:
He's going to be payed well and also he might drastically improve like Poels.
So stop hating on Sky, it's pointless. Movistar were more dominant in the Vuelta than Sky int he Tour. But I'm yet to see a Stop Movistar thread.
Sorry but I just don't like to see attractive, exciting riders molded into boring robotic mountain train fodder.

I agree with you on that. But kenny isn't very useful in a train. But ultimately it's a good move for him so u can't hate. Movistar have a "train" just as much nowadays.