2016 'PRO' cycling discussion.

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wingguy
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by wingguy

lw11 wrote:While I somewhat agree, the Sky team that supported Landa pre-abandon of the Giro and if he was fit enough to start the Vuelta, I still don't see any team (fully fit, no abandons's) beating the deissgnated leader's of Sky or Movistar.

Even though Sky have never won the Giro or Vuelta and Movistar have won the Giro once (since being called Movistar)?

The team can only do so much, eventually the GC rider has to have the legs. Froome and Quintana are both going to be focussed on the Tour for the forseeable future, so every other team has the opportunity to put their number 1 against Sky and Movi's number 2 or even 3.

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Swannie
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by Swannie

rainerhq wrote:Did Sagan use these s works tyres on the race? Sauser rides control version in cape epic. Which is wise.


What tires are those? They're not fast trak or renegade, are they??

mrlobber
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by mrlobber

tymon_tm wrote:ps. obviously the 2017 is gonna be a Cannondale year. they have so much raw talent, top notch training methods, experienced staff and a godlike DS it's just a question of time till they dominate the scene. and if not that, it's the probability that says even the longest series of defeats has to end. so mark my words and go read their bloggs, tweets and stuff, you don't wanna miss it!


:thumbup: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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xena
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by xena

tymon_tm wrote:Valverde, I don't know how much longer can he keep it up. Quintana is too passive, but he's still in the top group so to speak. obviously Froome and Nibali are first tier GC contenders as well, I can't see anyone able to challenge them, although the Bahrain team is a question mark at this stage, the transition to a completely new team doesn't have to be that smooth for Nibbles.

the second tier group looks a lot more exciting IMHO. Aru, Krujswijk, Chavez, Majka, Contador, Porte are the obvious picks and althought I wouldn;t bet my money on any of them winning any of the 3-weekers, they are definitely podium candidates.

Landa hasn't showed anything so that's a question mark. Bardet showed progress and he might be there next season fighting for GC. Pinot is a solid GC rider but he lacks something that doesn't allow him to fight in the GTs.

IMHO we're gonna see the most new talent in Giro and Vuelta next year. the Tour is "unwinable" at the moment if you aint got SKY-strong team and a Froome-like guy to finish up the work. if I were a DS, I'd put all my best riders into Giro roster and hopefuly that's what we'll see next year


I hope your right about new talent. It would be great to see a real breakthrough. I think reading what happened at the tour to make a judgement on riders performance is not the best place to start IMO.
The tour route should have been a dream for Quintana but he just was not in the ball park regarding his form.
He was much stronger at last years tour and if he had been on equal form I think we would have seen a different result. We had what you would call a lot of 2nd tier riders Porte etc all lasting and performing well in the last week. Riders such as Martin commented on the slowness of some stages/climbs. No one including Froome could attack on a uphill climb and put some definitive time into other riders. It was a strange race IMO and made some riders look a lot better than past performances have shown them to be in three week races i.e Porte for example looking much stronger.
For me besides Berties crash I was disappointed with Aru at the tour. He was not the same as the aggressive attacking force at the Vuelta where he put everyone to the sword. I still think he and Astana will be a major threat if they can repeat that kind of form at the tour.
I would certainly not call Bertie a 2nd tier rider just a rider who perhaps does not have the form to win a GT anymore although I would not count him out. In 2013 he was awful and 2014 he got back into GC winning form. Can he do it again new team fresh start etc?

Back to today. It looked like the main GC boys saved themselves for tomorrow. Nice cheeky attack from Valverde and Bertie hung "just IMO" so that was good. Froome and the rest looked pretty comfortable.
Lets hope we have some real fireworks tomorrow.
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tymon_tm
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by tymon_tm

well sooner a cactus will grow on my palm than Bertie will win a GT again. I say it with a bleeding heart as I really like him, dig his riding style, but his days as the main favourite are over IMHO. podium - maybe, if stars align. win - only if the likes of Froome crash/abandon/do some magic trick from Porte's guidebook.

Aru and Landa are the big mysteries, it appears as if they both had just one solid race, and we've been waiting for more ever since. for me they're like twins, perhaps cousins of Cunego - found somewhere amongst the cabbage by Astana scouts, raised and introduced to the top game like in no time. I'd rather bet they won't win anything at all than go get those yellow, pink or red jerseys - at least not anytime soon...

...OK, Aru had more than one but still it's like a mutilated Hitchcock movie - begins with a huge bang but then the tempo sits down and viewers begin to snooze
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xena
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by xena

tymon_tm wrote:well sooner a cactus will grow on my palm than Bertie will win a GT again. I say it with a bleeding heart as I really like him, dig his riding style, but his days as the main favourite are over IMHO. podium - maybe, if stars align. win - only if the likes of Froome crash/abandon/do some magic trick from Porte's guidebook.

Aru and Landa are the big mysteries, it appears as if they both had just one solid race, and we've been waiting for more ever since. for me they're like twins, perhaps cousins of Cunego - found somewhere amongst the cabbage by Astana scouts, raised and introduced to the top game like in no time. I'd rather bet they won't win anything at all than go get those yellow, pink or red jerseys - at least not anytime soon...

...OK, Aru had more than one but still it's like a mutilated Hitchcock movie - begins with a huge bang but then the tempo sits down and viewers begin to snooze


Great post tymon. You have style and poetic flamboyance :thumbup:
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DanW
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by DanW

What tires are those? They're not fast trak or renegade, are they??


They look like Renegades to me. Kind of a good design and fast but they have pretty floppy sidewalls so its hard to balance the tyres folding and comfort/ grip. On the more trail side of things everyone I know goes for the grid casing on other tyres in the lineup despite the weight penalty to try and get some sidewall support...

Nefarious86
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by Nefarious86

Control casing is plenty stable enough, I run a 2.1 GC and a 2.0 FT for 99.9% of my dirt adventures now because its always predictable.
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DanW
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by DanW

It isn't compared to other tyres such as even the Maxxis non TR casing, normal Schwalbe or Bonty TR. Pressure has to be significantly higher with my Spec Renegade Controls (high 20's vs low 20's) than any of these others to not have to tyre roll around and feel vague which comes at the expense of a little grip and comfort. Of course there is a balance with every tyre but it is hard to bring the best out of the Specs. 2.3 Renegade sounds like the ideal XC tyre but again is so ridiculously vague you have to run such high pressures that the extra width is negated.

Anyway.... the pic of Sagans bike was from practice and he had a new fork at least for the race, maybe more changes I'm not sure. None of it really matters though when you wheelie and slam in to rocks with the grace of a hippo :)

nathanong87
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by nathanong87

tymon_tm wrote:ps. obviously the 2017 is gonna be a Cannondale year. they have so much raw talent, top notch training methods, experienced staff and a godlike DS it's just a question of time till they dominate the scene. and if not that, it's the probability that says even the longest series of defeats has to end. so mark my words and go read their bloggs, tweets and stuff, you don't wanna miss it!


lol cuz at this point there's not other direction but up....

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LeDuke
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by LeDuke

C-D have three (Rolland, Dombrowski, Moser) in the break today.

Interested to see how they'll mess it up and take 2nd or 3rd.

Sometimes I wonder if they're just getting bad advice from the team cars, or if they just don't have enough firepower to win these races.

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romalor
Posts: 241
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 3:56 pm

by romalor

They don't know how to win ..
Hope they prove today I was wrong

lw11
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Joined: Mon May 02, 2016 6:34 am

by lw11

I hope Cannondale-Drapac do well, they have some great personalities in their team, really down to earth. Too bad their results haven't been indicative of their talent.

Rondje
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Location: Netherlands

by Rondje

LeDuke wrote:C-D have three (Rolland, Dombrowski, Moser) in the break today.

Interested to see how they'll mess it up and take 2nd or 3rd.

Sometimes I wonder if they're just getting bad advice from the team cars, or if they just don't have enough firepower to win these races.


Gonna be an interesting battle between them and LottoNL to see who will make the worse decisions in the breakaway :P

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nathanong87
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by nathanong87

lol spray and pray method for cannondale. tomorrow's stage... "this just in, the entire cannondale team has made the opening breakaway... and what's this? john vaughters has hopped on his bike to bridge the gap"

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