World Championships Innsbruck 2018

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Am I silly that I'm already looking forward to this?

No. Hence the thread

I thought it was mostly for discussing the route, and who might be favourites. I want it to be now!
I want every race to be now! Is that too much to ask?

It's an interesting scheduling suggestion, but I can't see the UCI going for it.

Aww... why not?

I mean, other than such insignificant details as the laws of physics...

 

[Bardamu]

Which teams will probably be able to send a dynamite squad?

Colombia seems a given, just like France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

Then you'll have Denmark with Fuglsang, Ireland with Martin, GB with Froome, Poland with Majka and Kwiatkowski.

Guess it will be one of the few teams Belgium will not be one of the favourites and they are still gonna be able to send Wellens and Teuns (if he keeps getting better).

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Wellens - Teuns - Pauwels - De Ghendt - De Plus - Vervaeke - Vanendert - GVA - Degand and Hermans...We'll have plenty of trumpcards

 

[Bardamu]

For a Belgium squad it's quite mediocre

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Re:

For a Belgium squad it's quite mediocre

Yeah well, I always hated the expectations for us to turn out climbers. We live in a country that's more level than a pancake, were the hell should we get climbers?
I think Belgium will have to anticipate, have somebdoy in the early break and attack from far.

 

[benzwire]

Alejandro Valverde, version 3.0, will win this bike race.

 

[glassmoon]

Alejandro Valverde, version 3.0, will win this bike race.

would be hilarious. and then he should retire as the world champion.
PS: who would wear the rainbow jersey next season if that would be the case?

 

[Chrispol]

Alejandro Valverde, version 3.0, will win this bike race.

would be hilarious. and then he should retire as the world champion.
PS: who would wear the rainbow jersey next season if that would be the case?

No one I suppose.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Alejandro Valverde, version 3.0, will win this bike race.

would be hilarious. and then he should retire as the world champion.
PS: who would wear the rainbow jersey next season if that would be the case?

Retire? Valverde? Are you drunk?

 

[bob.a.feet]

Lowkey Simon Spilak will win this race

 

[Ricco']

W52 should establish a country and go for it.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

Which teams will probably be able to send a dynamite squad?

Colombia seems a given, just like France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

Then you'll have Denmark with Fuglsang, Ireland with Martin, GB with Froome, Poland with Majka and Kwiatkowski.

Guess it will be one of the few teams Belgium will not be one of the favourites and they are still gonna be able to send Wellens and Teuns (if he keeps getting better).

It's quite hard to see Ireland sending a "dynamite squad", given that it's a specialists course and Ireland doesn't have enough pros to have a lot of riders who are good at every specialty. There are basically four Irish riders who can climb in the pro ranks - Martin, Roche, Deignan and, as of next season, Dunbar. If all four are available for selection and in good form, Ireland can send a good but not precisely "dynamite" team in support of Martin. If some of them aren't available or aren't in good shape, the team will be pretty threadbare.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Re: Re:

Yeah well, I always hated the expectations for us to turn out climbers. We live in a country that's more level than a pancake, were the hell should we get climbers?
I think Belgium will have to anticipate, have somebdoy in the early break and attack from far.

You guys have the Ardennes at least. Get good climbers from the Ardennes.

We've got Dumoulin, Kelderman, Kruijswijk, Poels, TGBM, Gesink and a decent talent coming up with Oomen and our country is way flatter! Now that I think about it, that'll be a pretty decent squad for next year. There aren't any huge favourites I guess, but there are a few guys in there who could put up a good result.

 

[Bardamu]

Re: Re:

Which teams will probably be able to send a dynamite squad?

Colombia seems a given, just like France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.

Then you'll have Denmark with Fuglsang, Ireland with Martin, GB with Froome, Poland with Majka and Kwiatkowski.

Guess it will be one of the few teams Belgium will not be one of the favourites and they are still gonna be able to send Wellens and Teuns (if he keeps getting better).

It's quite hard to see Ireland sending a "dynamite squad", given that it's a specialists course and Ireland doesn't have enough pros to have a lot of riders who are good at every specialty. There are basically four Irish riders who can climb in the pro ranks - Martin, Roche, Deignan and, as of next season, Dunbar. If all four are available for selection and in good form, Ireland can send a good but not precisely "dynamite" team in support of Martin. If some of them aren't available or aren't in good shape, the team will be pretty threadbare.

with Ireland I meant that they'd have a contender with Martin and not a dynamite squad, perhaps I wasn't clear in my original post

 

[Tonton]

Re:

Wellens - Teuns - Pauwels - De Ghendt - De Plus - Vervaeke - Vanendert - GVA - Degand and Hermans...We'll have plenty of trumpcards

Benoot? He can climb, as we found out. Top-10, not win, but medal...I would put him in the squad.

 

[Durden93]

Michael Woods will win this bike race (I hope). Come on Canada!

 

[glassmoon]

Sunday ride until the last hill followed by 30 men sprint won by Sagan...
yeah, i'm actually starting to think, they're that stupid

 

[Lance Armstrong]

Re:

Sunday ride until the last hill followed by 30 men sprint won by Sagan...
yeah, i'm actually starting to think, they're that stupid

First of all, it's not sure Sagan will start in Innsbruck. He planned not to start. But this has probably changed after the last Sunday. As a reigning champion he's sort of obliged to start. Especially when Bora HQ in Austria is 5km from the start of the Elite race. The source in Slovak media says that the final decision is to be made after the spring classics.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

I'd love to see Sagan start his first Giro, then do the Tour and focus on some of the autumn classics.

 

[Echoes]

Re: Re:

You guys have the Ardennes at least. Get good climbers from the Ardennes.

We've got Dumoulin, Kelderman, Kruijswijk, Poels, TGBM, Gesink and a decent talent coming up with Oomen and our country is way flatter! Now that I think about it, that'll be a pretty decent squad for next year. There aren't any huge favourites I guess, but there are a few guys in there who could put up a good result.

I don't think you necessarily have to come from a mountainous country to be a good climber. Belgium had climbers in the past. The reason why in recent years, we did not have any decent climbers nor even Ardennes riders is that our riders have been trained from early on to race cobbles and short climbs, to race against the wind, to develop technical skills and pack skills on the kermesses (that we managed to preserve). So they are trained to be great on Flemish classics. We tried to make the most of our cobbled climbs. Edwig Van Hooydonck denounced this policy (in the book "De Flandriens", by Canvas in 2011). It seems like it's started to change by now.

 

[Samamba]

Obviously not having mountains doesn't help, but it isn't a decisive factor. It's all about the mentality and investments. The Netherlands had Rabobank who focussed on developping climbers so yeah that's obviously paying off now. Belgium never had something like that. It's changing now though with special camps where young climbing talent gets tested and recruited to train more specifically for the real climbs. Plus Lotto Soudal u23 takes on a more mountanious calender. It's not a coincidence that guys like De Plus, Lambrecht and Vanhoucke have won and are winning those hard races in the u23 category. But ofcourse they need time.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

You guys have the Ardennes at least. Get good climbers from the Ardennes.

We've got Dumoulin, Kelderman, Kruijswijk, Poels, TGBM, Gesink and a decent talent coming up with Oomen and our country is way flatter! Now that I think about it, that'll be a pretty decent squad for next year. There aren't any huge favourites I guess, but there are a few guys in there who could put up a good result.

I don't think you necessarily have to come from a mountainous country to be a good climber. Belgium had climbers in the past. The reason why in recent years, we did not have any decent climbers nor even Ardennes riders is that our riders have been trained from early on to race cobbles and short climbs, to race against the wind, to develop technical skills and pack skills on the kermesses (that we managed to preserve). So they are trained to be great on Flemish classics. We tried to make the most of our cobbled climbs. Edwig Van Hooydonck denounced this policy (in the book "De Flandriens", by Canvas in 2011). It seems like it's started to change by now.

I think also now in the era of such specialization it's as much about prioritising something as it is about training. If GVA or Benoot, for example, lost 5+ kg and sacrificed some of their muscle and explosive power they would probably become pretty close to elite climbers immediately, without any other specific training. Like Thomas has done or Dumoulin. But the most talented riders in Belgium prefer to do the classics and have more fun riding than these stick figure climbers.

 

[Durden93]

Re: Re:

You guys have the Ardennes at least. Get good climbers from the Ardennes.

We've got Dumoulin, Kelderman, Kruijswijk, Poels, TGBM, Gesink and a decent talent coming up with Oomen and our country is way flatter! Now that I think about it, that'll be a pretty decent squad for next year. There aren't any huge favourites I guess, but there are a few guys in there who could put up a good result.

I don't think you necessarily have to come from a mountainous country to be a good climber. Belgium had climbers in the past. The reason why in recent years, we did not have any decent climbers nor even Ardennes riders is that our riders have been trained from early on to race cobbles and short climbs, to race against the wind, to develop technical skills and pack skills on the kermesses (that we managed to preserve). So they are trained to be great on Flemish classics. We tried to make the most of our cobbled climbs. Edwig Van Hooydonck denounced this policy (in the book "De Flandriens", by Canvas in 2011). It seems like it's started to change by now.

I think also now in the era of such specialization it's as much about prioritising something as it is about training. If GVA or Benoot, for example, lost 5+ kg and sacrificed some of their muscle and explosive power they would probably become pretty close to elite climbers immediately, without any other specific training. Like Thomas has done or Dumoulin. But the most talented riders in Belgium prefer to do the classics and have more fun riding than these stick figure climbers.

It's about specialization. Cobbled classics (except roubaix) rely heavily on your 1 minute power and 10 second power (sprint). Ardennes climbs are typically 1-2km so you need good 5 minute power. To win the Tour you need high FTP. The reason GVA could do well in Rio was that the climbs were 20 minutes long. If he could stay in the wheels on the climb he could rest a bit on the decent and then chase on the flat. So it's not necessarily about weight. Gilbert in his prime is roughly the same weight as today. He just knows he's lost his climbing legs so he doesn't train for it.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Re: Re:

I don't think you necessarily have to come from a mountainous country to be a good climber. Belgium had climbers in the past. The reason why in recent years, we did not have any decent climbers nor even Ardennes riders is that our riders have been trained from early on to race cobbles and short climbs, to race against the wind, to develop technical skills and pack skills on the kermesses (that we managed to preserve). So they are trained to be great on Flemish classics. We tried to make the most of our cobbled climbs. Edwig Van Hooydonck denounced this policy (in the book "De Flandriens", by Canvas in 2011). It seems like it's started to change by now.

Yeah I agree with you. The Netherlands has a fair number of high level climbers despite being pan flat. Belgium has some good talent for climbing/hilly one day races coming up though with guys like De Plus, Vervaeke, Lambrecht, Teuns. Hopefully they can reclaim the Ardennes from the glorified sprinters a bit.

For Innsbruck the Belgian team with struggle a bit though I think. Only Benoot if he focuses on climbing I can see getting a good result. Maybe GVA of Gilbert if they prepares very carefully for this and with favorable circumstances can do it like in GVA in Rio. Maybe Teuns if he takes another big step forward coming season.

 

[Red Rick]

GvA and Gilbert are gonna get recked and not be close to the win. There's no gazillion km's of flat after the final climb to catch the 10 climbers that are better, and this time around not all better climbers are gonna crash out.