Sky leader for 2010 Tour

iainf72

Thomas Lövkvist according to the article on feltet.dk

I know there are other threads with this kind of stuff but I figured it deserved its own mention.

DanielFriebe

He is apparently already working with British Cycling nutritionists to lose weight. The feeling is that he's never been quite lean enough in his time with Columbia-HTC and FDJ. Will be interesting to see if he undergoes a Wiggins-esque transformation.

jim one

He is a very good rider but then you only have to look at the Giro this year and the Tour last year to see how after a week or so he just falls right off the pace.

I dont see him doing so well at the tour over the 3 weeks in a similar way to Tony Martin this year; but I think Lovkvist could chalenge in week long stage races at the start of the year such as Paris-Nice. Sky will need to impress ASO so if he gets a good result then that will go a long way to confirming a tour invite.

FJS

He's still young, can improve, and has been waiting for a real break-through, so it could happen. But I can't help feeling that Lovkcist having the Sky GC leadership would really be becuase of lack of any better options on their (current) roster. I'm sure they won't build the full Tour team and season around his Tour de France....

kickerbri

I think you have to look at Lovkvist and Martins GC results in context. For a start they are both very long, but also unlike alot of other GC riders they spend alot of time riding in the wind and pulling on the front in the last few kilometers for Cav. This will eventually catch up with them over the course of 3 weeks.

Regarding Thomas Lovkvist I think he has the capability to become a very good stage race rider, I don’t think he will ever win a grand tour but certainly top 10 or maybe top 5. It does appear as though Sky have been unable to recruit another leader and as such have decided upon Lovkvist, but I can’t see them building the team around him and instead will include a number of riders capable of winning from breakaways.

teagar

Surely he's leader for the classics?

That's where sky have the firepower.

kickerbri

teagar wrote:

Surely he's leader for the classics?

That's where sky have the firepower.

I think in the classics it will be either Boassen Hagen or Flecha for the cobbles and Gerrans for Amstel etc.

iainf72

teagar wrote:

Surely he's leader for the classics?

That's where sky have the firepower.

They're no Quick.Step, Caisse, Saxo or even BMC though. I guess what it will boil down to is how the teams are built around the chosen leader for the race.

Kléber

DanielFriebe wrote:

He is apparently already working with British Cycling nutritionists to lose weight. The feeling is that he's never been quite lean enough in his time with Columbia-HTC and FDJ. Will be interesting to see if he undergoes a Wiggins-esque transformation.

He's already acknowledged the weight issue and this will make a difference. He's lost weight over the summer and his results recently are showing this has worked, not just the results but the SRM numbers. He's got a very big engine.

mididoctors3

iainf72 wrote:

teagar wrote:

Surely he's leader for the classics?

That's where sky have the firepower.

They're no Quick.Step, Caisse, Saxo or even BMC though. I guess what it will boil down to is how the teams are built around the chosen leader for the race.

mid week races rather than sundays is my guess

the fleche etc

teagar

Ah, I confused Lovkvist with EBH.


I'll get my coat...

deejay

mididoctors3 wrote:

mid week races rather than sundays is my guess

the fleche etc

Oh you mean the Classics the UCI didn't want for their world cup and so cut their distances down.