2016 'PRO' cycling discussion.

[Tinea Pedis]

Over the past few years I've heard so much on this forum about how racing is really boring.

I've got to be honest, I think that a lot of the time 'boring' is shorthand for 'that guy I don't like is winning'.

Much truth to this.

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

This too.

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.

Yup.

As for blaming power meters...laughable.

[Antoine]

What I find very boring is suicide breaks the first days with 1 or 2 riders only and absolutely no chance to succeed.

They are always caught in the last 10 kms whatever the speed they go.

Hopefully they won't do that to much this year , each french team has a gc contender or a sprinter or both to protect, and is not searching for a sponsor.

[Dr.Dos]

What I find very boring is suicide breaks the first days with 1 or 2 riders only and absolutely no chance to succeed.

They are always caught in the last 10 kms whatever the speed they go.

Hopefully they won't do that to much this year , each french team has a gc contender or a sprinter or both to protect, and is not searching for a sponsor.

Not sure if serious...

[Nefarious86]

Yep... Jens going balls to the wall was totally boring....

[mattr]

I guess Antoine has never heard of Voeckler. Pretty much a suicide break that lead to 10 days in yellow.

Or Jacky Durand who pretty much made an entire career out of, um, suicide breakaways. Whether they succeeded or not.......

[xena]

Lucky? You can't bitch about Sky trying to over-control the race on the front all the time then say they were simply lucky to be on the right side of a split peloton. When you dictate the race you give yourself more chances to be lucky.

You also can't extrapolate what would have happened in the following three weeks if that time split didn't happen. There's no guarantee that every other stage would have unfolded in the same way. Quintana may have won or he may not. The only thing we know is that he didn't and Froome did.

And finally, 'chickened out' is nonsense. No-one else was out there trying to win 2 GTs back to back except Contador, and the reason no-one else was trying to do it was because it was a stupid idea in todays pro cycling. So again, why single out Sky when every team except Tinkoff fits the same 'chicken' description?

I am singling because that's who we are both talking about. When Froome saw the route of the 2015 tour he said it had a lot of climbing and not a lot of itt and that the Giro would suit him better and he and Sky would need to take time to come to a decision. Based on Froomes own words at the time he favoured the Giro.
Once tinkov and Bertie made his plans clear to attempt the double then Froomes best option for a GT win was to race a tired Bertie at the tour rather than a fresh Bertie at the Giro a route which he said would suit him better.
Also tinkov challenged all the top riders to race at the giro and the tour in a attempt to get some exciting racing going among the big contenders.
Froome , Quintana etc all turned down the million dollar challenge.

Your right about the wind split we will never know I agree , but looking how Froome was struggling and on more than one occasion he had to nod to G not to chase down attacks because he could not follow and with his deafeat by Quintana in the mountains [ Froome lost over a minute to Quintana ] I don't see how he would have stopped Quintana from winning . He said himself he was just hanging on and was not sure if he was going to win or not when Quintana attacked on the last mountain stage.


As for powermetres I would like to see riders race on instinct not by looking at a screen and having data analysis radioed in the ear telling them to react to an attack or not. That's not true racing IMO

[BdaGhisallo]

Why don't you provide some citations- I've never seen that Sky was going to drop him and have often read that they had the most faith in him.

Prior to his 2011 Vuelta performance, this scenario was on the cards. IIRC, he was in negotiations with Lampre to join them when it looked like no contract renewal was in the offing from Sky and it was only post-Vuelta that Sky changed their minds and offered him a new deal.

[MattSoutherden]

It's amazing what crawls out of the woodwork for 3 weeks in July.

[micky]

Why don't you provide some citations- I've never seen that Sky was going to drop him and have often read that they had the most faith in him.

Prior to his 2011 Vuelta performance, this scenario was on the cards. IIRC, he was in negotiations with Lampre to join them when it looked like no contract renewal was in the offing from Sky and it was only post-Vuelta that Sky changed their minds and offered him a new deal.

Saronni cited that a couple of times on italian RAI by joking what it would have been to have Froome at Lampre by seeing how much he changed during that Vuelta.

[Dr.Dos]

Saronni cited that a couple of times on italian RAI by joking what it would have been to have Froome at Lampre by seeing how much he changed during that Vuelta.

He probably wouldn't have changed at all at Lampre (or any other team fwiw). Donkey to race horse transformation. From zig-zagging to vroooome.

[wingguy]

I am singling because that's who we are both talking about.

Except we're talking about him because you singled him out.

You're on the wrong side of the chicken/egg equation there my friend.

[xena]

I am singling because that's who we are both talking about.

Except we're talking about him because you singled him out.

You're on the wrong side of the chicken/egg equation there my friend.

I don't really see a problem discussing the current tour champ. I am happy to chew the fat over other tour /contenders riders.

I am particularly interested in seeing how Astana go. They really attack at every opportunity and potentially could blow the tour apart. It depends on Aru's form and if he can deliver on aggressive Astana tactics like he did at the Vuelta last year and blew everyone away. If so he will be a real threat IMO. I doubt Nibs will be in contention for the overall but he will certainly be aggressive and take every opportunity that comes his way and you never know what can happen. The route would certainly do him favours if he never rode the Giro. Nibs did not come alive till the end of the Giro so maybe he feels he will peak at the tour.

It will also be interesting to see how BMC come out to play. Porte has never gone well over 3 weeks but he could cause some time gaps if attacks at the right time . His GT time must be good so his rivals can't afford to let him go.

I think Sky will have the work cut out if they try and cover everyone over 3 weeks. I think they need to ride conservatively and make sure Froome has the support he will need come week 3.

I also hope that we get some serious competition from Pinot and Bardet. The potential for attacks from different teams could really make for a exciting race rather than the usual last 3-4 km attacks .

Looking forward to a great tour whoever wins and hope know one crashes out or loses big time due to a race incident so we get a last week of awesomeness





On another topic
I don't really understand the need for these sort of comments "It's amazing what crawls out of the woodwork for 3 weeks in July"
Its good that people have an opinion and no one has to agree but there is certainly no need for these kind of cheap/childish remarks because you don't agree with someone.

[LeDuke]

What a moron.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bouhann ... de-france/

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[maquisard]

On the plus side the sprints in the first week are going to be a lot safer now!

[hna]

I'm guessing Katusha and Kristoff is fairly happy with this.