2016 'PRO' cycling discussion.

[wingguy]

Is current cycling "boring"? Well, Sky lacks verve and personality,

Sky have a very strong personlaity, and they race with a huge amount of aggression. As KW said above (and as I've pointed out before) Sky are willing to use up and burn out their domestiques every stage. It gives them the opportunity to attack and gain a lot of time in the first 2 weeks but it comes with the risk of allowing the leader to be isolated in the third week because the team is *f##k* and all but one of the domestiques are hanging off the back.

[glepore]

I don't disagree with winguy re their racing style, I just meant that the individuals are not media stars/darlings in the way that Hamilton/Hincapie/Armstrong were, or even that Quintana is now. They are reserved quiet types, without the strong personas that many other past winners have had. Yes, they have a race style, and its not dissimilar to "exciting" teams from the past, but for whatever reason they don't light the same fire. At least not since Wiggo departed.

[wingguy]

Froome is, sure. But what about Geraint Thomas? He's a great bloke, funny in interviews, rode the Tour with a cracked pelvis and loves a party in the off-season.

How could anyone not like him?

[maquisard]

Geraint seems a decent guy, but he isn't engaging or charismatic in the same way as Sagan, or to a lesser extent Cavendish.

Cycling needs more personalities, it is completely lacking at the moment

[wingguy]

That's not the comparison though, is it? If a team that doesn't have someone as charismatic as Sagan is boring then every team except Tinkoff is boring because Sagan is unique.

[xena]

Sky ride to a pre race plan. Once they have to improvise they are in trouble. Froome has no natural racing instinct.
Get rid of race radios and power data and Sky would be in real trouble. Froome could not get near a GT win without a strong team.
He just cannot improvise or attack like Bertie or Nibs can.

Sky are so bland and boring just like their riders.

[MattSoutherden]

Bland and boring = strongest. Because, $$$. They can buy a stable full of the best riders. All the guys that are 'super exciting' have to do something different to make up for the fact that they don't have 3/4 riders capable of getting a GT podium setting tempo for them and chasing down attacks.

It might not suit your expectations of panache, but attacking at every opportunity - if you're the strongest rider on the strongest team - is simply not the smart thing to do.

And much as I love the way Bertie rides, he can only get away with riding like that because of his historic palmares. Other riders can't get away with a win or bust attitude. And you can blame the World Tour points setup for that.

Romain Bardet may win Kudos for his riding style, but (as yet) he doesn't have the palmares of 'boring boring' Geraint Thomas.

[mattr]

Get rid of race radios and power data and Sky would be in real trouble.

This is probably where all racing got slightly less fun. Specifically the radios, but a little bit the power data.

[xena]

Bland and boring = strongest. Because, $$$. They can buy a stable full of the best riders. All the guys that are 'super exciting' have to do something different to make up for the fact that they don't have 3/4 riders capable of getting a GT podium setting tempo for them and chasing down attacks.

It might not suit your expectations of panache, but attacking at every opportunity - if you're the strongest rider on the strongest team - is simply not the smart thing to do.

And much as I love the way Bertie rides, he can only get away with riding like that because of his historic palmares. Other riders can't get away with a win or bust attitude. And you can blame the World Tour points setup for that.

Romain Bardet may win Kudos for his riding style, but (as yet) he doesn't have the palmares of 'boring boring' Geraint Thomas.

Don't really understand how you can say "get away with riding like that" Bertie is the greatest GT rider of his generation. He wins by attacking and being brave. He won the tour single handed at discovery and last year took on the whole of the Astana team by himself [ he had no team support] to win the Giro. Froome is not capable of those kind of victory's.
Bertie used to be unbeatable but time and age has caught up with him but 2014 form will be good enough to win the tour ,well beat Froome.

G is a good rider a great engine as last years tour showed when he dragged Froome around and kept him in yellow but he does not and cannot win a GT he does not have the strength over 3 weeks. Bardet on the other hand has proved himself an elite climber. He has a natural talent and flair can match and drop the best, G is good but has no potential to win a 3 week stage race just like Porte. G is happy to stay a work horse rider but as soon as he shows real GT interest in the tour Sky will get rid of him because like Porte they know he's not strong enough.

palmares is not everything and doesn't always tell the real story. It depends on your targets. If your aiming for the Tour then that's the only thing that counts.

Valverde has some awesome wins but no Tour victory and I bet he would swap all those early season titles for a tour Win.

[wingguy]

Don't really understand how you can say "get away with riding like that" Bertie is the greatest GT rider of his generation. He wins by attacking and being brave. He won the tour single handed at discovery and last year took on the whole of the Astana team by himself [ he had no team support] to win the Giro. Froome is not capable of those kind of victory's.

For sure, Contador is incredible, and he has built his Palmares from the beginning by riding with elan. But in the history of cycling you can probably count with two hands the riders with the ability to attack time and again and still sustain the pace needed for three weeks. So again, if everyone who doesn't win like Contador is boring then Tinkoff are the only exciting team in the peloton.

I'm also not sure how you can say Froome isn't capable of winning in a weaker team - he's never been in a weaker team and he's never needed to ride differently to how he does now. And at the end of the day he's won two tours and come second in another by riding people, including Contador, off his wheel when the road goes uphill. You might not like the way he looks while doing it, but that is what he has done.

Oh, and "dragged Froome around"? Seriously?

[KWalker]

Sky ride to a pre race plan. Once they have to improvise they are in trouble. Froome has no natural racing instinct.
Get rid of race radios and power data and Sky would be in real trouble. Froome could not get near a GT win without a strong team.
He just cannot improvise or attack like Bertie or Nibs can.

Sky are so bland and boring just like their riders.

Do you watch bicycle racing? Did you miss Froome attacking over and over at the Vuelta? Or in races this Spring? In many cases he seems to go purely off of his gut feeling and doesn't actually succeed. If he was riding to a formula then it's a pretty shitty formula.

[TwiggyTN]

Sorry guys, a 200 rider pel barreling through the French countryside is never boring. Mix in a little rain and that first week is very interesting. This year with no prologue there will be lots of riders desperate for bonus seconds to grab yellow in those first few stages. #cantwait

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[xena]

Sky ride to a pre race plan. Once they have to improvise they are in trouble. Froome has no natural racing instinct.
Get rid of race radios and power data and Sky would be in real trouble. Froome could not get near a GT win without a strong team.
He just cannot improvise or attack like Bertie or Nibs can.

Sky are so bland and boring just like their riders.

Do you watch bicycle racing? Did you miss Froome attacking over and over at the Vuelta? Or in races this Spring? In many cases he seems to go purely off of his gut feeling and doesn't actually succeed. If he was riding to a formula then it's a pretty shitty formula.

No your right. I have been watching table tennis

Come on attacking over and over at the Vuelta Not over and over . Did you watch the vuelta in 2014 ? Most of the time he rode at his own tempo he TT up the climbs. Tried a late attack on Bertie and got dropped. That's why Bertie won you know , he was stronger and would have destroyed Froome at the tour if they had both not crashed out "shame"

Like I said Bertie has no excuses as far as I am aware this year and if he has 2014 form then froome will get the same beating he got all through 2014.
I fear though that 2014 was Bertie's last year of greatness. Even last year when he won the Giro it was a bit of a up and down race for him form wise. He was obviously trying to save energy for the tour but I was not convinced by his form in 2015.
He has shown the same inconsistency this year. So not sure we will get that mano v mano shootout like we had at the 2014 Dauphine.
It really was a great highlight of that year.
Both great riders but Bertie has beaten the best at their best Froome has only beaten Quintana and that was due to a wind split.
He only came up against a in form Bertie at the 2014 Vuelta and lost and got a beating at the dauphine as well that year and IMO that was due to his crazy attack , he did not recover from it and got dropped up FE easily by Bertie and Talansky. You can't say he was injured that stage as Froome and the Sky train dropped everyone on that climb except Bertie and Talansky.

This year With the amount of climbing and better climbers than Froome racing over 3 weeks I doubt he will make the podium.
He will capitulate big time in the last week or even earlier his won't get away with a bad day .

[prendrefeu]

"Do you watch bicycle racing?"
"Do you even race?"

These sort of questions are on the same douche-level of "do you even lift?"

It's the Pro Cycling Thread. If a person is in here they clearly watch bicycle racing (in fact, many of us watch more than just road races! shocking, I know!)

Just because a person has a different opinion on racing than you doesn't disqualify their statement.

[petepeterson]

Well tone aside Karsten is at least making decently supported arguments that contribute to the thread.