How good is André Greipel?

afx237vi

Just wondering about some of the sprinters we might see at the Vuelta, and it occurred to me that the flat stages may just be as one-sided as they were in the Tour.

Greipel started his season in the TDU, won a stage then broke his collarbone. He came back at the start of May and since then he's won 13 races, including 3 in the Ster Elektrotoer, 3 in the Bayern Rundfahrt and 3 in the Tour of Austria.

How close could he get to Cav if they were on different teams?

markwalker

hmm not sure but the thing is if another team had a lead out that was better than Columbia, Cav could still out gun anybody else around at pres so i think probably no closer than anyone else.

Cav is having his mega season

Kléber

Good question. One of the frustrating things at the moment is that we are not seeing all the sprinters going head to head. Imagine a race with Cavendish against Ciolek, Farrar, McEwen, Steegmans, Boonen, Bennati, Swift, Napolitano, Hushovd, Haussler etc and Greipel.

frenchfighter

I doubt he could beat Cav but would say that if you put them both at the same point 200m from the line riding along at 65km/h and told them to go, it would be very close.

He can beat Zabel and McEwen.

All I know is that his muscular development is scary:
Reuters:

AP Photo:

deejay

Kléber wrote:

Good question. One of the frustrating things at the moment is that we are not seeing all the sprinters going head to head. Imagine a race with Cavendish against Ciolek, Farrar, McEwen, Steegmans, Boonen, Bennati, Swift, Napolitano, Hushovd, Haussler etc and Greipel.

Ciolek
Now wasn't that the guy that Cav was the lead out man for in the 2008 TOC in Sacremento.

Did his job rather well it seems as I remember Cav tearing out of the bunch with no one on his wheel and 6 lengths clear and WTF do I do now. That possibility hadn't struck Vaughters who quickly changed things round for the next time and, how do you say, It is obvious now where the Class is.
He will be at the top of his game for a year or so and gain the experiences like McEwen and Freire or else he could become more of a "Rouler" like Jalabert, Museeuw or Boonen.

afx237vi

Ciolek is a year younger than Cavendish, though, so it's still a little early to say how good he will be. He's a different type of rider... started off a sprinter but will maybe develop as an all-rounder. He won a pretty hard stage of the Deutschland Tour last year.

jim one

I heard from someone in the know that Griepel puts out more watts than cav in the sprints normally when they compare their SRM files. However when you look at Cav and his sprint posture(side view on Sunday showed this) you can see why he is so fast compared to traditional sprinter at the speeds they are maxing out at.

SpaceJunk

He's heaps better than Cav. Do the maths:

In the 2009 TdF, Cav won 6 of the 21 stages for a winning strike rate of 28.6%

In the 2008 TdU, Andrew won 5 of the 7 stages [including the TdU Classic]. That's an amazing winning strike rate of 71.4%.

C'mon, try and shoot holes in that logic!

deejay

SpaceJunk wrote:

He's heaps better than Cav. Do the maths:

In the 2009 TdF, Cav won 6 of the 21 stages for a winning strike rate of 28.6%

In the 2008 TdU, Andrew won 5 of the 7 stages [including the TdU Classic]. That's an amazing winning strike rate of 71.4%.

C'mon, try and shoot holes in that logic!

Eerrm
I don't think I know this TDU thing, do it count for anything. ????
Is it a real race or just some training rides like Majorca. ?????
Are there any "Mountains" to climb. ????
Had any outstanding winners. ?????
nuf.

thamacdaddy

In Cav's book he talks quite a bit about the issues they had at T-Mobile when Griepel was the main sprinter and cav ordered to be his leadout.

Griepel consistantly couldn't hold cav's wheel and got quite annoyed with him saying he wasn't a team player. They still had some smaller issues last year when griepel did the occasional lead out for cav but cav returned the favour leading out for his stage win and they apparently burried the hachet,

People said ciolek would also beat cav given his own team but seems milram can't help him on that one.

There is a reason griepel and cav now do different races, maximise wins and reduce the power struggles. The two have been racing each other since their teens on the academie circuits.

frenchfighter

frenchfighter

deejay

frenchfighter wrote:

I still think he looks like a Tom Boonen Double and probably a similar route would be best for him ??

Just think of a P/Roubaix breakaway with those two and Hushovd or EBH.

frenchfighter

Not good enough to beat Borut Bozic...in Stage 1 TofPol.

nick hanson

deejay wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

I still think he looks like a Tom Boonen Double and probably a similar route would be best for him ??

.

What's that.......following the white lines?

afx237vi

frenchfighter wrote:

Not good enough to beat Borut Bozic...in Stage 1 TofPol.

Bozic is no slouch, though. He's been around for a couple of years and picks up a few good wins here and there... lots of placings. Vacansoleil are invited to the Vuelta this year, so we might be seeing quite a bit of him over the next few weeks.

BdeB

Not been impressed by him so far in the Tour of Poland. Cavendish seems to be far cleverer in where to position himself and when to go. Griepel made a hash of both of those sprints.

FJS

To be fair to Greipel, in the Tour of Poland his lead-out train has been a lot poorer than Cavendish can almost always count on. And a comparison to Cavendish isn't fair anyway; none of the other sprinters compares favorably with Cavendish either right now.

BdeB

Still not impressing

BdeB

Craig Lewis' take on the finish on his Twitter: 'Not sure how we didn't win today. Edvald did a massive lead out from 800m. Greipel just lost the wheel. Finishes are too crazy here.'

frenchfighter

EBH is amazing - remember that lead out he did for Cav in the Milan Grio stage.