"PRO" Cycling Discussion

[petepeterson]

I love cav putting on a few in the winter nice throwback to Jan showing up at the Giro massive. Man I miss those days, sky have gone and ruined it with the two month lunar camps on beat juice diets.

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[HillRPete]

Sky like to talk about eating more than anyone, that's for sure.

Other riders, like, say, Cancellara and Sagan, seem focus more on the power output, and are doing quite well, particularly in one day races. Coincidence?

And of course there's riders like Nibali, Rodriguez, etc, top notch stage racers, without mentioning their diet in every other interview.

[SolidSnake03]

To me it seems a bit like Sky is that ultra fit guy at the gym that loves to tell everyone about his diet etc.... while Nibali and others are arguably just a fit/strong/in shape but are all those other guys you see just minding their own business and doing their thing. They don't need to tell everyone, they just do it.

This basically means, that they probably also have a high degree of respect for food and their diet but don't feel the need to talk about it every chance they get, they just do it so to speak, it's not a big deal to them.

*edit*

Not to say that either approach is wrong, just that they are distinctly different styles/mentalities that one can observe in other sports and physical activities.

[KWalker]

From what I recall Sky are responding to questions about their methodology, which include a rigorous diet. I don't hear the same questions asked to others. I also don't see anyone else dominating stage races like they do. Nibali wins consistently, but no team overall does as much as Sky. The gym you're talking about at the gym usually isn't good at any except abusing anabolics so I don't see the fit with the analogy.

[gravity]

@KWalker

Sky only won Grand Tour with Froome. Another stage race was won by Richie Porte in Paris-Nice. Froome also won Romandie and Dauphine. Sky presence in Spring Classic or one day races were not noticeable.

I think there was no dominant team in World Tour races in 2013. Many WT teams also won races as well.

To say no team did as much as SKY is quite an uninformed statement.

[DanW]

Teams are judged globally by the wider cycling audience by Grand Tour results, particularly the TDF. SKY has a pretty fine set of results there lately (SKY is a young team remember). Apparently some chap called Wiggens had an ok run of stage race victories too. What the SKY approach does show is that to dominate the TDF requires sacrifices elsewhere across the year and across the squad. Some teams look for victories throughout the year in all types of races but SKY have a definite target and have nailed it of late.

[DartanianX]

Saw this whilst flicking through the 2014 Kask catalog.

Does anyone know who makes these gloves?



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[xnavalav8r]

Rapha.

http://www.rapha.cc/team-sky-gt-gloves

[Giant DK]

Rapha

[KWalker]

@KWalker

Sky only won Grand Tour with Froome. Another stage race was won by Richie Porte in Paris-Nice. Froome also won Romandie and Dauphine. Sky presence in Spring Classic or one day races were not noticeable.

I think there was no dominant team in World Tour races in 2013. Many WT teams also won races as well.

To say no team did as much as SKY is quite an uninformed statement.

In 2012 Wiggins won every stage race he entered. In 2013 Sky won 4 major stage races. They had 2nd and 3rd at Tour of Basque Country, second at the Giro, 1st at Tour of Oman, 2nd at Tirreno, etc. No other team had as many podium results in stage races even with less (1 less) win than the season before.

I agreed about the classics, but they only tried to target them once so far. Wouldn't say they're doing shabby results wise.

Show me 1 team that dominated as much as Sky. They finished second in the World Tour rankings. Katusha, which is full of stage hunters, 1 day riders, and dudes that can't win a Grand Tour, was a pretty far down 3rd. Nibali's Astana was way down in 5th. Saxo Bank was down in 6th. Even then Movistar wasn't dominant- they were just very consistently 2nd or 3rd with 1 major win at Tour of Basque Country. While they lack World Tour points, the only other team that can be considered as dominant would be Argos or Cannondale in the sprints with Kittel and Sagan, but Cannondale finished 9th since most of the victories were in small races and Argos isn't WT.

So please, tell me how consulting race results and UCI rankings makes me uninformed. There is no other team on record that has won as many stage races in one year since maybe CSC or Contador's early Astana team.

[gravity]

I think the word that I do not agree with is 'dominant'. While they have won good races but I don't think they are dominant. They were not there contending in Spring Classics and they don't seem to have a good race programs post-TdF. But as you pointed it out (and I also agree) no team won as many races, but there were still many important races that they didn't win.

But funny that we are mentioning this, I was just finishing Inside Team Sky by David Walsh and I can understand why Team Sky were able to take Pro Cycling world by storm: because they speak English. Their audience are much larger than any other team just because of this reason alone. Not to mention the Rapha clothing getting in their craze as well. Media seems to cover them more, because they know people will read.

I was just as curious to know the works behind OPQS, Katusha, Astana but information on them are pretty scarce.

[nathanong87]

niki needs some more training!

[TurboKoo]

Team Argos training bikes. Mostly Propels but some odd TCR also.

[KWalker]

I don't think cycling will ever see teams as dominant as Mapei or USPS again and for good reason.

What saddle is on that middle bike?

[jt2gt]

Cav still running Sram hydraulic calipers - possibly an old training bike as they were all recalled

In defense of Cav's "caloric reserves", maybe those reserves prove beneficial for temperature regulation this time of year. Check out how bundled up the spectator is.

BTW...since we are talking gloves...are these that Cav is wearing Rapha too or something else? Thanks...JT