2021 PRO thread

[elSid]

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]

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]

We believe in miracles.

[Herb5998]

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]

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]

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]

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/

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[TwiggyTN]

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?

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[Wookski]

Woods' descending is almost at Zakarin's level of bad. Combined with his TT I think a top 10 GC is almost out of the question.

[spud]

^ 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]

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.

[robbosmans]

Lampaert new Belgian TT Champion, Remco 2nd, in 35C weather

[Dan Gerous]

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?

[OnTheRivet]

Anybody know what's going on with Hirschi? No explanation why he was pulled from so many early season races and seems to still be far from his best form?

[ave]

>Froome guarantees PR for ISN during le 2021 tour.

Like in "A bad advertisement is an advertisement too".