Questions about bike hire abroad and everything light bike related. No off-topic chat please
Moderators: robbosmans, Moderator Team
-
elSid
- Posts: 254
- Joined: Sun Aug 02, 2009 6:59 pm
by elSid on Tue Jun 15, 2021 9:31 pm
renoracing wrote: ↑Tue Jun 15, 2021 7:56 pm
My complaint is that they're going after the GC with Woods.... I understand the financial incentives of teams and their sponsor relationships, and their future goals of winning a grand tour. But surely it would be better publicity, and much more rewarding to fans to see Froome, Dan Martin, and Woods in the break on mountain days(and heck, Greipel on the flatter days), where they each have a great chance of being one of the strongest riders in the group. Instead we'll watch Woods go from a promising looking top 5 in the first week, to more than 8 minutes off the podium by the end of it all, and as a result, he'll drag down his team from any of their own stage win ambitions.
According to Woods, GC is a secondary priority to stage wins.
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/michae ... de-france/
"My main goals and priorities are clear: stage wins first and try to go high on the general classification. We want to do well on the GC, no doubt, but the most important thing for me is the stage wins. That’s the main focus."
-
Maddie
- Posts: 1544
- Joined: Tue Oct 17, 2017 5:44 am
by Maddie on Tue Jun 15, 2021 9:34 pm
Froome guarantees PR for ISN during le 2021 tour. That alone is a good reason to have him onboard.
But I agree it's painful to watch how he struggles. During the Dauphiné, he was dropped as if he was a pure sprinter. I'm afraid ISN won't stick to the 5 year contract (there are always exit clauses in long-term contracts). I just hope that Froome doesn't end like Beloki et al and rather have him pull the plug before he signs with any second division team...
-
micky
- Posts: 5765
- Joined: Thu Sep 21, 2006 8:57 pm
- Location: Vicenza
-
Contact:
-
Herb5998
- Posts: 327
- Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 12:24 am
by Herb5998 on Tue Jun 15, 2021 10:27 pm
Would be good to see Woods get a stage win, maybe even Martin as well, but Froome will likely just keep using races to work on his rehab, but would make the time cut during the last week?
-
Karvalo
- Posts: 3466
- Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 6:40 pm
by Karvalo on Tue Jun 15, 2021 10:47 pm
elSid wrote: ↑Tue Jun 15, 2021 9:31 pm
According to Woods, GC is a secondary priority to stage wins.
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/michae ... de-france/
"My main goals and priorities are clear: stage wins first and try to go high on the general classification. We want to do well on the GC, no doubt, but the most important thing for me is the stage wins. That’s the main focus."
That's a very tricky balance though, 'cos the best way to go for stage wins is to lose a bunch of time and win the freedom to get in the break. To win while being high in GC you've got to be the strongest finisher in the group of favourites, and that's hard.
Tho I guess it depends how they're defining high on GC. Top 15 is very different from top 5 for instance.
-
Dan Gerous
- Posts: 2413
- Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 6:28 pm
by Dan Gerous on Tue Jun 15, 2021 11:26 pm
With a total of 58km of flat ITT, it would take a miracle for Woods to reach the top 5... he will likely lose a total of 5 minutes or more compared to Pogacar, Roglic, Geraint, Porte, Alaphilippe, Rigo on the two TT stages alone...
At the point he is in his career, is slugging around for three weeks to finish 9th on GC really a good thing? That's great for young guys to build on but he's already 34. A stage win is much more memorable IMO, so I do hope he does go for stages and only start thinking about GC if he ends up there after the mid point of the Tour. He's a fast finisher and a punchy guy as well so in theory can still win on the line on uphill finishes but his problem is Roglic, Pogacar and Alaphilippe are all punchy fast finishers as well, maybe even more than him...
I think his best chance to combine both goals is from late attacks on a mountain top finish after getting enough slack to his leash once he loses time on the first TT stage, and getting back into the top 5 top 10 from that... but if I was him, I would go all in for stages which I think was his initial intention but the team not having another option for GC, it might be the team management/sponsors that really want him to go for the overall.
-
sychen
- Posts: 1473
- Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2014 1:06 pm
by sychen on Wed Jun 16, 2021 12:05 am
Tejay van Garderen to retire after nationals. I know I've partook in having a go at him and dismissing him but he did come in post Lance as the great American hope when he was never going to be that.. Probably wasted too many years being a GT leader at tdf. He really is a solid rider and still had a good career better than most in the peloton. You don't finish 5th at tdf twice being a mug.
Surprised that he is still only 32yr old.. Can spend a few good years on the gravel circuit if he wants to.
Kinda sucks for the team having a rider quit mid year without any replacement.. Never liked that. If you quit.. Do it at the end of the year.
https://www.efprocycling.com/tejay-van- ... nationals/
Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
-
TwiggyTN
- Posts: 439
- Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2010 2:16 am
by TwiggyTN on Wed Jun 16, 2021 4:02 am
Karvalo wrote:elSid wrote: ↑Tue Jun 15, 2021 9:31 pm
According to Woods, GC is a secondary priority to stage wins.
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/michae ... de-france/
"My main goals and priorities are clear: stage wins first and try to go high on the general classification. We want to do well on the GC, no doubt, but the most important thing for me is the stage wins. That’s the main focus."
That's a very tricky balance though, 'cos the best way to go for stage wins is to lose a bunch of time and win the freedom to get in the break. To win while being high in GC you've got to be the strongest finisher in the group of favourites, and that's hard.
Tho I guess it depends how they're defining high on GC. Top 15 is very different from top 5 for instance.
Yeah, this is a dumb statement by Woods. He's not going to sniff a potential stage win unless he's 10 minutes down by the second week. Surely he gets that and just doesn't want to commit to the GC goal pressure?
Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk
-
spud
- Posts: 1271
- Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 5:52 am
by spud on Wed Jun 16, 2021 3:05 pm
^ likely true. I think the only way their plan works out is if Ineos, LJ and UAE get into a pissing match over who is going to do the work to haul back a break in the intermediate mtn stages during the 2nd or 3rd week. Ineos, strong as they are, do not have a class A contender - they are more likely to be around 3rd place. LJ won't want to do UAE's work for them, and UAE may not have the depth to do the work that Ineos typically would.
-
Dan Gerous
- Posts: 2413
- Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 6:28 pm
by Dan Gerous on Wed Jun 16, 2021 3:09 pm
Actually Woods has improved a lot downhill. He was terrible mostly from the lack of experience and has worked with a MTB DH coach in the off-season (not this past one, the one before I think). He's still not great, he wont drop anyone on a descent anytime soon, and if he's away he's likely to get caught on descents, but he's not Zakarin bad, he can follow most GC contenders now as long as a gap doesn't open.
But yeah, his TT rule him out as a GC contender anyway, and while Pogacar could win the Tour with next to zero team support last year, it's Pogacar. Woods will likely have no team support in the mountains which also hurts his chances on GC.
But he knows he will have to fight by himself and will have a huge deficit from the TT stages, he's not dumb, that's why I think he wants to go for stages and if it was up to him it would be his sole focus but his team wants him to try to go for GC as they don't have anyone else who can.
-
Dan Gerous
- Posts: 2413
- Joined: Sun Aug 12, 2007 6:28 pm
by Dan Gerous on Wed Jun 16, 2021 6:20 pm
Tom Dumoulin Dutch TT Champ!
Stephen Küng again in Switzerland, 5th straight title, putting a whopping 2m29s on Hirschi in second despite having a puncture. Stephen Bissegger wasn't there I guess?
-
ave
- Posts: 2139
- Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2008 10:15 pm
- Location: Hungary
by ave on Wed Jun 16, 2021 9:22 pm
>Froome guarantees PR for ISN during le 2021 tour.
Like in "A bad advertisement is an advertisement too".