Van den Broeck wants shared leadership with Evans

[Izoard]

I agree with many of the posts here. He might be someone for the future, but he has not done anything to suggest joint leadership while, at the same time, the team makes comments about Cadel's "year sans". As I recall, Evans is one of the few people on the team this year to collect any bigger wins. IMO SL is just one big clusterf**k.

 

[Cobber]

I agree with many of the posts here. He might be someone for the future, but he has not dnoe anything to suggest joint leadership while, at the same time, the team makes comments about Cadel's "year sans". As I recall, Evans is one of the few people on the team this year to collect any bigger wins. IMO SL is just one big clusterfuck.

Doesn't Cadel have more than half SL's wins for this season? He had 2 wins in the Dauphine and one in Coppi-Bartali, right? How many other wins to SL have this year?

 

[Izoard]

Doesn't Cadel have more than half SL's wins for this season? He had 2 wins in the Dauphine and one in Coppi-Bartali, right? How many other wins to SL have this year?

Basically SL is the Phillipe and Cadel show, nearly everyone else has not shown anything. It is interesting that JVdB is getting this much positive spin, given he fell off his bike and was not in the top 10 (anyone else not in the top 10 would not have been claimed to have been a 'bright light' by the team). Tactically and PR wise, I don't have any idea what SL is doing, they just seem scattered and not really thinking too clearly. But, I obviously am not privvy to their thinking ...

 

[afpm90]

So can anyone else think of a team lead at the TdF by a rider without a single professional victory? Silence Lotto is more like a comedy troupe than a cycling team.

Not having victories, doesn't mean bad quality of the rider. JVD is a talented rider and i think he proved that he has a word to say in the leadership of Silence, but of course the Tour is too soon for him.

 

[wpsracing78]

The aussie fans will remember Mike Tomalaris saying Evans shld go to Liquigas or something.
I was like....seriously? and compete with national guys like Basso, Nibali again.

He has to go to a non-country biased team to avoid this trouble again. Because seriously, imagine if there was an Australian team and it was him vs VDB, we would blatantly support Cadel more, so its natural!
But arguably, unless he does go to a lesser team like AG2R, etc - after his tour performance, he will be joint leader with someone anyway. But that 2-3 mins in the TTT hurt a lot mentally I think, so he needs a strong team obviously.

His next few races are going to be pretty influencial me thinks, because if he doesn't perform again this yr, not many tour winning teams would want to take on a 32yr old in an obvious slump as leader!

 

[auscyclefan94]

Not having victories, doesn't mean bad quality of the rider. JVD is a talented rider and i think he proved that he has a word to say in the leadership of Silence, but of course the Tour is too soon for him.

JVD got his 15th in the tour de france by being given a free leash in breakaways. Yes he has talent, but he has never been a great time trialist. Contador was always a solid time trailist and improved majorly to become 1 of the best in the world. AC had potential. JVDB is going to need to focus a lot more in the time trail to consider himself a gc contender. He won't get anywhere with Silence lotto especially looking at the support given to cadel.

 

[Frosty]

JVD got his 15th in the tour de france by being given a free leash in breakaways. Yes he has talent, but he has never been a great time trialist. Contador was always a solid time trailist and improved majorly to become 1 of the best in the world. AC had potential. JVDB is going to need to focus a lot more in the time trail to consider himself a gc contender. He won't get anywhere with Silence lotto especially looking at the support given to cadel.

But it wasnt like he was 15th because he was in a breakaway that gained lots of time. If a breakaway doesnt gain a lot of time then it will IMO adversely affect your GC position because you are riding on the front far more than if you were in the peloton. For instance, the two days when he didnt attack were the stage to Grand Bornand, where he finished pretty much equal with ninth place despite having been in the attack on the day before, and on the Ventoux stage, where he finished nineth excluding the two breakaways.

The main times where he lost time were in the TTT where he crashed early on and the stage to Verbier where he was in the breakaway. IMO he can be up there in places 6-10 next year with team support. From what ive seen he cant hope to beat Contador or Schleck unless they have serious problems.

IMO Evans got pretty narked off after the TTT. Any real chance of podiuming he had went then. Not sure what Silence's budget is so im not sure whether they fully deserve the criticism that comes their way. Im sure they did do TTT practice at some point in May or June. A lot of teams lost time in the TTT - the only ones that werent were the ones who already had top competitors. Would he be able to ride for Astana, Saxobank or Liquigas and be the sole team leader? Definitely no, definitely no and i doubt it. He might have had some more chance at Garmin but again VDV and Wiggo would have also been there. Team Columbia he might have found himself or his domestiques working for Cav. Team Katusha may have had more chance for him but i think that given recent events its a good thing he didnt decide to hop across there.

 

[mr.biggles]

I see Lotto as a team where good talent goes to underperform. Some directors (Bruyneel, Riis) seem to be consistently able to get the best out of their riders, and some seem to pretty consistently fail. I think it's easy to underestimate the "team atmosphere" factor, especially for a guy who is already somewhat moody like Evans (he's been that way since his MTB racing days, always strong and consistent but never able to win worlds).

When it comes down to it, Silence-Lotto is clearly not a place where Evans is going to succeed. He's not happy there, and the team is not willing to support him the way they need to. Assuming the numbers I saw were correct, they have a budget well below Astana or Quick Step, yet they're trying to be both a classics and a grand tour team. The result is something like what happened with Chris Horner. Horner would be Cadel's 1st or 2nd lieutenant in the mountains (and Cadel begged management to keep him) but they were too cheap and Horner ended up going to Astana, where he wasn't even Contador's (ok fine, Lance's) 8th-best guy. Astana is willing to pay to have 12 awesome guys riding well from whom to pick a tour team, while Silence-Lotto is too cheap to keep a guy that will clearly be one of their best 3 for the tour.

That said, I just don't see how Evans will be able to win the Tour. I'm not going to dismiss him because of one bad year, he's clearly able to ride much better than he did this year. But I just don't see him being able to 1) find a spot as the leader on a strong tour team, and 2) being able to hold off guys like Schleck and Contador. To me it seems like his best bet would be on a team like Ag2r, where he might have a better environment and would be a good bet to provide a high GC finish. Given the lack of quality overall contenders on French teams recently, I'm sure this would provide enough attention to be worth the sponsors' time and money.

 

[Frosty]

EDIT to what i said above. Actually VDB was in the attack on the stage to Le Grand Bornand. However, they were out for quite a long time and only had 1.55 at the bottom of the Col De Romme.

 

[Izoard]

I think the main thing here is not that JVdB does not have talent (he obviously does to be working at the level he is). It is that it is way too soon to be saying Cadel and he should share leadership. JVdB got 15th in his Tour, Cadel has been 2nd twice and has some of the team's only wins this year. I think Mr. Biggles nailed it in that SL seems to be a place where riders underperform.

 

[Frosty]

So how many riders have underperformed then? I dont really know much about a lot of their riders.

Evans came second twice in the tour which previous form suggests he would struggle to do. Of other transfers in, Lang's TTing has gone down a touch in recent years but then he isnt the only Gerolsteiner to do so. Gilbert has come in and ridden well. Not sure what's happened to Leif Hoste recently The brief results i can see for Chris Horner are inconclusive. Matthew Lloyd suffered a bad fall earlier this year (broken pelvis) but had a promising season last season. Van Avermaet and Roelandts look to be promising riders for the future.

Also, they have been a touch unlucky (although some would say its their own fault) with some of the riders they have brought in. Kohl and Dekker both got busted for drugs. Dekker in particular was bad timing, he would have been a very helpful ally for Evans.

The way i see it, their is quite a lot of inequality out there with regards to strength of teams. The biggest teams attract the best riders leaving the lesser teams to get the less good riders. The more the gap grows the more it is important to be on the best team. Maybe this can thwart your individual ambitions though.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

IMO Evans got pretty narked off after the TTT. Any real chance of podiuming he had went then. Not sure what Silence's budget is so im not sure whether they fully deserve the criticism that comes their way. Im sure they did do TTT practice at some point in May or June. A lot of teams lost time in the TTT - the only ones that werent were the ones who already had top competitors. Would he be able to ride for Astana, Saxobank or Liquigas and be the sole team leader? Definitely no, definitely no and i doubt it. He might have had some more chance at Garmin but again VDV and Wiggo would have also been there. Team Columbia he might have found himself or his domestiques working for Cav. Team Katusha may have had more chance for him but i think that given recent events its a good thing he didnt decide to hop across there.

I think it is one the smallest actually, so i some what agree.

rmaet and Roelandts look to be promising riders for the future.

Also, they have been a touch unlucky (although some would say its their own fault) with some of the riders they have brought in. Kohl and Dekker both got busted for drugs. Dekker in particular was bad timing, he would have been a very helpful ally for Evans.

I think ignorant (optimistic ignorance maybe?) is a better term from those two signings.
Dekker was a ticking time bomb.

 

[Cobber]

From Cadel's web site.

10 Questions to Cadel
Saturday, 1 August 2009
1. What were you doing 5 minutes ago?
- Having an aperitivo with Chiara
2. What was the nicest thing someone did for you this week?
- Chiara carried my bike and equipment to the hotel while I was sleeping in, so I could train when I woke up...
3. What was the nicest thing you did for someone this week?
- I held my angry tongue!
4. What are you reading now?
- Today I read my latest National Geographic
5. What are you looking forward to?
- Better opportunities?)
6. What makes you feel good now?
- Having quality time with my wife
7. What do you think about the Tour now that it's over?
- It was very disappointing...
8. What is annoying you?
- Journalists who don't report the truth
9. What song best describes your mood right now?
- The Bee Gees' "cause we're living in a world of fools, breaking us down, when they all should let us be..."
10. What's your favourite food now?
- Bruschetta al pomodoro e rucola!

 

[Sporran]

Yes Cadel is nothing but a bridesmaid, always was always will be.

 

[dsut4392]

For what its worth, van den broeck came 7th in the giro last year. Given that retests for CERA are being done (how long?) and both Sella and Ricco tested positive shortly afterwards, he might be lifted up to 5th place.

Yeah, that or DQ'd

 

[Sheltowee]

I did make a thread about this a week ago but somebody just has to copy. Van den broeck will be leader but i am surprised that they will fully support a guy who has only top 15'd at the tour. If cadel was going to another team it would either be Garmin or AG2R.

Damn, I hope it ain't Garmin. Can you fathom the whining with Danielson, Millar and Evans?

 

[auscyclefan94]

I think it is one the smallest actually, so i some what agree

Team Budgets:

AG2R 7.3mil euros
Astana 12mil
Bouyges 6.5mil
Caisse D epargne 7mil
Cervelo 8mil
Cofidis 8mil
Columbia 15mil
Euskatel 6mil
FDJ 6mil
Garmin 7mil
Katusha 18mil
Lampre 6mil
Liquigas 6mil
Milram 7mil
Quickstep 9mil
Rabobank 10mil
Saxobank 7mil
Silence Lotto 6mil

Lotto have the smallest budget with Liquigas, Lampre, FDJ and Euskatel.

 

[anubisza]

Lotto's budget a third of the size of Katusha's.. that's suprising.

 

[yourwelcome]

Lotto's budget a third of the size of Katusha's.. that's suprising.

I'm more surprised at Katusha's, I hope they get a return on investment or it's not going to look good.