World Championships Innsbruck 2018

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Lol Thomas.

You have one great route to try and become WC, aaaaaand you throw it away.

I’d rather they went with the Yates twins anyway.

Ofcourse, me too. But I think it's telling about Thomas' mentality

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

Lol Thomas.

You have one great route to try and become WC, aaaaaand you throw it away.

I’d rather they went with the Yates twins anyway.

Ofcourse, me too. But I think it's telling about Thomas' mentality

Okay, while it's true that there is the mountainous worlds this year and the circumstances are thus different, history shows that a first time Tour winner does nothing in the remainder of the season. Except for Sastre's third place in the Vuelta and Wiggins' gold medal on the Olympic ITT, no one has accomplished anything of note later in the season after winning his firsr Tour, at least going back to 1999.

He just accomplished the biggest thing possible in the sport, it's no wonder he has given himself a break.

 

[frisenfruitig]

Re: Re:

Lol Thomas.

You have one great route to try and become WC, aaaaaand you throw it away.

I’d rather they went with the Yates twins anyway.

Ofcourse, me too. But I think it's telling about Thomas' mentality

Okay, while it's true that there is the mountainous worlds this year and the circumstances are thus different, history shows that a first time Tour winner does nothing in the remainder of the season. Except for Sastre's third place in the Vuelta and Wiggins' gold medal on the Olympic ITT, no one has accomplished anything of note later in the season after winning his firsr Tour, at least going back to 1999.

He just accomplished the biggest thing possible in the sport, it's no wonder he has given himself a break.

Plenty of time to take a break after the Tour AND go for the WC though. He might never get a better shot at the title than this year.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Lol Thomas.

You have one great route to try and become WC, aaaaaand you throw it away.

He thinks he has already won the World Championship.........can't say I blame him.

 

[Inquitus]

A lot of riders who might be in with a good shout at this are either not riding or not in shape, favourites list taken from here:

***** Julian Alaphilippe, Michal Kwiatkowski (hard to see after Tour/Vuelta), Vincenzo Nibali (injured), Primoz Roglic
**** Adam Yates (out of form), Gianni Moscon, Rigoberto Uran, Alejandro Valverde
*** Daniel Martin (having twins), Geraint Thomas (on the piss), Romain Bardet, Michael Woods
** Peter Sagan (has to be too hilly), Tom Dumoulin (Says he's exhausted after Giro/Tour), Simon Yates, Søren Kragh Andersen
* Matej Mohoric, Tim Wellens, Michael Matthews, Greg Van Avermaet

 

[DanielSong39]

Hopefully the break takes it.

 

[Derry]

Dutch team

* Dumoulin
* Poels
* Mollema
* Kruijswijk
* Oomen
* Tolhoek
* Kelderman
* Weening

 

[Alexandre B.]

Dutch national team
RR: Tom Dumoulin, Bauke Mollema, Wout Poels, Wilco Kelderman, Sam Oomen, Steven Kruijswijk, Antwan Tolhoek, Pieter Weening

TT: Tom Dumoulin (as defending champion), Wilco Kelderman, Dylan van Baarle

Strong squad, indeed.

 

[Rollthedice]

Dutch team

* Dumoulin
* Poels
* Mollema
* Kruijswijk
* Oomen
* Tolhoek
* Kelderman
* Weening

Weening for the ween!

 

[Tim Booth]

Re:

Dutch national team
RR: Tom Dumoulin, Bauke Mollema, Wout Poels, Wilco Kelderman, Sam Oomen, Steven Kruijswijk, Antwan Tolhoek, Pieter Weening

TT: Tom Dumoulin (as defending champion), Wilco Kelderman, Dylan van Baarle

Strong squad, indeed.

Womens teams

RR
Ellen van Dijk
Annemiek van Vleuten
Anna van der Breggen
Lucinda Brand
Amy Pieters
Chantal Blaak
Sabrina Stultjens
Janneke Ensing

TT
Ellen van Dijk
Annemiek van Vleuten
Anna van der Breggen
Lucinda Brand

 

[Red Rick]

Dutch team

* Dumoulin
* Poels
* Mollema
* Kruijswijk
* Oomen
* Tolhoek
* Kelderman
* Weening

Weening for the ween!

Can't wait for Weening to crush those 25% inclines on the 53x12

 

[Vesica]

Re:

A lot of riders who might be in with a good shout at this are either not riding or not in shape, favourites list taken from here:

***** Julian Alaphilippe, Michal Kwiatkowski (hard to see after Tour/Vuelta), Vincenzo Nibali (injured), Primoz Roglic
**** Adam Yates (out of form), Gianni Moscon, Rigoberto Uran, Alejandro Valverde
*** Daniel Martin (having twins), Geraint Thomas (on the piss), Romain Bardet, Michael Woods
** Peter Sagan (has to be too hilly), Tom Dumoulin (Says he's exhausted after Giro/Tour), Simon Yates, Søren Kragh Andersen
* Matej Mohoric, Tim Wellens, Michael Matthews, Greg Van Avermaet

Alaphillipe and Roglic to jump away on the last mountain and extend their lead in the downhill towards the finish line. Alaf to win the sprint-a-deux.

Strong Dutch squad, they don't have very explosive/punchy riders. So if they want to win or podium they need to set a hard pace. They got the numbers to do it.

 

[rick james]

Dutch team

* Dumoulin
* Poels
* Mollema
* Kruijswijk
* Oomen
* Tolhoek
* Kelderman
* Weening

man, that's a strong team

 

[tobydawq]

Dutch team

* Dumoulin
* Poels
* Mollema
* Kruijswijk
* Oomen
* Tolhoek
* Kelderman
* Weening

Weening for the ween!

Can't wait for Weening to crush those 25% inclines on the 53x12

I was thinking exactly the same

 

[Koronin]

Movistar said today they do not think Landa will be healthy enough to go to the Worlds.

 

[jaylew]

Dutch team

* Dumoulin
* Poels
* Mollema
* Kruijswijk
* Oomen
* Tolhoek
* Kelderman
* Weening

man, that's a strong team

Strong in general but I don't see any of them on the podium.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Strongest Dutch team in like forever. Yet I can't see any of them winning. They'd have to solo.
That to say Dumoulin and Mollema (yes, Mollema) aren't even that slow, but not against Valv/Kwiato/Ala etc. Poels is pretty fast but so inconsistent I don't know if he is going to be hot or cold.

 

[SafeBet]

Poels on his good day is probably their best bet to win this race.

 

[Blanco]

Re:

Strongest Dutch team in like forever. Yet I can't see any of them winning. They'd have to solo.
That to say Dumoulin and Mollema (yes, Mollema) aren't even that slow, but not against Valv/Kwiato/Ala etc. Poels is pretty fast but so inconsistent I don't know if he is going to be hot or cold.

They need to put riders in every move in order to have a chance to win. If they wait for the last climb, there will be no medals for them.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

Poels on his good day is probably their best bet to win this race.

There is no probably about it. Good Poels is an LBL winner who is also one of the best climbers in the world. If that Poels shows up, he is legitimately among the favourites. The problem is that nobody can know in advance what Poels will be there, including Poels himself.

 

[42x16ss]

Dutch team

* Dumoulin
* Poels
* Mollema
* Kruijswijk
* Oomen
* Tolhoek
* Kelderman
* Weening

man, that's a strong team

Strong in general but I don't see any of them on the podium.

It’s like the Colombian or French squads but without that killer instinct isn’t it. I can see them (or Kruijswijk at least) animating the race though.

 

[42x16ss]

Re: Re:

Dutch national team
RR: Tom Dumoulin, Bauke Mollema, Wout Poels, Wilco Kelderman, Sam Oomen, Steven Kruijswijk, Antwan Tolhoek, Pieter Weening

TT: Tom Dumoulin (as defending champion), Wilco Kelderman, Dylan van Baarle

Strong squad, indeed.

Womens teams

RR
Ellen van Dijk
Annemiek van Vleuten
Anna van der Breggen
Lucinda Brand
Amy Pieters
Chantal Blaak
Sabrina Stultjens
Janneke Ensing

TT
Ellen van Dijk
Annemiek van Vleuten
Anna van der Breggen
Lucinda Brand

Wow!

That squad is so strong that it’s almost unbackable. Van Dijk, Van Vleuten and Van der Breggen can all win this.

 

[Finn84]

Re: Re:

Strongest Dutch team in like forever. Yet I can't see any of them winning. They'd have to solo.
That to say Dumoulin and Mollema (yes, Mollema) aren't even that slow, but not against Valv/Kwiato/Ala etc. Poels is pretty fast but so inconsistent I don't know if he is going to be hot or cold.

They need to put riders in every move in order to have a chance to win. If they wait for the last climb, there will be no medals for them.

I can see a situation which Italy had in 2008 would be their best bet - having multiple riders in a front group and then one having a solo escape to the finish like Ballan did.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Weening WC confirmed

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Strongest Dutch team in like forever. Yet I can't see any of them winning. They'd have to solo.
That to say Dumoulin and Mollema (yes, Mollema) aren't even that slow, but not against Valv/Kwiato/Ala etc. Poels is pretty fast but so inconsistent I don't know if he is going to be hot or cold.

You should have heard Mads Pedersen talking about the sprinting capabilities of Mollema (he is a guest commentator today and of course a teammate of Mollema's).

He was willing to bet 10,000 euros that one of the other commentators (Brian Nygaard who has never been a bike rider) would be able to outsprint him and he was also certain that he himself would be able to outsprint him on the small chainring