Greipel leaves HTC Columbia

bilirubin

André Greipel claimed earlier this year that he was faster than Mark Cavendish ahead of this year’s Tour de France, and in next year’s edition of the race he’ll have a chance to prove it following the announcement that he is moving to Omega Pharma-Lotto at the end of the season.

Looks like they will both be competing in the same "small s**t races"

graeme_s-2

I don't think we'll see Greipel beat Cav in a straight sprint, especially as I think HTC are much better at running a train than OPL will be. What I really don't expect to see is Greipel make it over the mountains to Paris. Surely he's just too big and heavy to manage that.

pb21

Presumably Cavendish is staying at HTC then?

Homer J

I don't see anyone beating Cav in a straight sprint.

jim453

Graeme_S wrote:

I don't think we'll see Greipel beat Cav in a straight sprint, especially as I think HTC are much better at running a train than OPL will be. What I really don't expect to see is Greipel make it over the mountains to Paris. Surely he's just too big and heavy to manage that.

Cav showed this year that he can pretty much manage without his train. Greipel will need to think of a better excuse as to why he gets his ass kicked each time he turns out against Mr attitude.

shinyhelmut

pb21 wrote:

Presumably Cavendish is staying at HTC then?

There was never any chance of him leaving. Or of Greipel staying for that matter.

Kléber

You can't blame Greipel for going, he's been left to pick up the parts of the cycling calendar that Cavendish doesn't want to bother with. Plus the Belgians have been desperate for a winner and I'm sure they are paying a lot for Greipel. He's not stupid and must realise he won't have much of a lead out.

pb21

ShinyHelmut wrote:

pb21 wrote:

Presumably Cavendish is staying at HTC then?

There was never any chance of him leaving. Or of Greipel staying for that matter.

Presumably the internet mumblings of him joining Sky will end then.

shinyhelmut

Cav isn't going to join a team with GC pretentions. Why would he when HTC have deep pockets and are prepared to send a team to the tour built around him.

Greipel had his chance to impress at the giro this year (hardly a shit small race) and left most of us underwhelmed. Let's hope OPL are organized enough to put him where he needs to be with 250 to go so we can see if he can really beat Cav.

Monty Dog

Plenty of 'rich' pickings on the Belgian Kermesse circuit then? He'll probably do a 'Ciolek' and build-up a great palmares of UCI cat 2.2 races?

deejay

Monty Dog wrote:

Plenty of 'rich' pickings on the Belgian Kermesse circuit then? He'll probably do a 'Ciolek' and build-up a great palmares of UCI cat 2.2 races?

Isn't that the position he is in now, so it must be money. ?

iainf72

CQRanking

Griepel : 7th
Cavendish : 37th

UCI World Rankings

Griepel : 21st
Cavendish : 29'th

As I said in the Contracts thread, AG offers good value for teams wishing to boost their points.

inkyfingers

iainf72 wrote:

CQRanking

Griepel : 7th
Cavendish : 37th

UCI World Rankings

Griepel : 21st
Cavendish : 29'th

As I said in the Contracts thread, AG offers good value for teams wishing to boost their points.

Whilst I agree that Griepel is a good rider and a worthy signing for almost any team ,it's hardly fair to compare just one seasons results, if you took the last 3 years i'm sure Cav would rank higher.

rick_chasey

iainf72 wrote:

CQRanking

Griepel : 7th
Cavendish : 37th

UCI World Rankings

Griepel : 21st
Cavendish : 29'th

As I said in the Contracts thread, AG offers good value for teams wishing to boost their points.

Milram missed out then.

LangerDan

inkyfingers wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

CQRanking

Griepel : 7th
Cavendish : 37th

UCI World Rankings

Griepel : 21st
Cavendish : 29'th

As I said in the Contracts thread, AG offers good value for teams wishing to boost their points.

Whilsts I agree that Griepel is a good rider and a worthy signing for almost any team ,it's hardly fair to compare just one seasons results, if you took the last 3 years i'm sure Cav would rank higher.

Nope - out of the past 4 years (including 2010), last year was the only one when Cav outranked Greipel, IIRC

inkyfingers

LangerDan wrote:

inkyfingers wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

CQRanking

Griepel : 7th
Cavendish : 37th

UCI World Rankings

Griepel : 21st
Cavendish : 29'th

As I said in the Contracts thread, AG offers good value for teams wishing to boost their points.

Whilsts I agree that Griepel is a good rider and a worthy signing for almost any team ,it's hardly fair to compare just one seasons results, if you took the last 3 years i'm sure Cav would rank higher.

Nope - out of the past 4 years (including 2010), last year was the only one when Cav outranked Greipel, IIRC

Ha Ha, having said that I went off and checked the CQ site and found that out..should have done that before I spouted off shouldn't I!

Though to be fair in 07 Cav was a neo-pro and in 2008 most of Griepels point came from winning the Tour Down Under whereas Cav won two Giro stages and four Tour stages which whatever the rankings might say will have brough the team a lot more coverage.

I'll stop now before I start to sound like a Cavendish fan boy...woops, too late for that!

deejay

iainf72 wrote:

CQRanking Griepel : 7th - Cavendish : 37th
UCI World Rankings Griepel : 21st - Cavendish : 29'th

As I said in the Contracts thread, AG offers good value for teams wishing to boost their points.

I hesitated to say that Andre won more races in case I got shot down.
I think he will do well for the team and I look forward to some tussles with Boonen.

William H

Cav needs GC wins or one day wins to really rack up the points. Stage wins don't really cut it

For example, Greipel got 119 UCI points for the Tour Down Under, Cav got 110 for his performance at the Tour.

andyp

Alternatively, the UCI could fix the dogs dinner that is the current points system so that winners of 'shitty little races' don't get shed loads of points.

How on earth can an overall win and a couple of stages wins at the TDU be worth more than 5 Tour de France stage wins? :roll:

RichN95.

William H wrote:

Cav needs GC wins or one day wins to really rack up the points. Stage wins don't really cut it

For example, Greipel got 119 UCI points for the Tour Down Under, Cav got 110 for his performance at the Tour.

I'm not sure that HTC are all that bothered about about Cav getting ranking points. They're always going to pick up enough points with their team anyway. Cav gets them big wins very regularly.

Greipel may get ranking points and lots of smaller wins, but essentially he's cycling's equivalent to Graeme Hick (the 'original flat track bully').

LangerDan

Cav had no issue in accepting the points that came from "shitty little races" when it suited him. However bad the TDU is, it has to be better than the Tour of Missouri.

iainf72

andyp wrote:

How on earth can an overall win and a couple of stages wins at the TDU be worth more than 5 Tour de France stage wins? :roll:

I'd broadly be supportive as long as a mountain stage in the Tour was worth 5x as many points as those sprint stages.

rick_chasey

iainf72 wrote:

andyp wrote:

How on earth can an overall win and a couple of stages wins at the TDU be worth more than 5 Tour de France stage wins? :roll:

I'd broadly be supportive as long as a mountain stage in the Tour was worth 5x as many points as those sprint stages.

Why?

iainf72

Rick Chasey wrote:

I'd broadly be supportive as long as a mountain stage in the Tour was worth 5x as many points as those sprint stages.

Why?[/quote]

Coz I place zero value on sprint stages

On planet-Iain, guys who win classics get lots of points. Guys who win GC get lots of points as long as there are mountains. Winners of mountain stages get lots of points. Stages which end in a sprint in stage races get you the least points.

And no one gets points for less than 3rd place in anything.

So be it.

Kléber

Cav has done well in the Tour but also wins plenty of smaller races in recent years, just like Greipel. Greipel himself won stages in the Vuelta last year.

Head to head, I'd bet on Cavendish but that's not the point, Greipel can be his own rider.

DaveyL

iainf72 wrote:

Coz I place zero value on sprint stages

On planet-Iain, guys who win classics get lots of points. Guys who win GC get lots of points as long as there are mountains. Winners of mountain stages get lots of points. Stages which end in a sprint in stage races get you the least points.

And no one gets points for less than 3rd place in anything.

So be it.

Also you get double bubble if your name is Ivan.

iainf72

DaveyL wrote:

Also you get double bubble if your name is Ivan.

No, that would be ridiculous.

50% more. Not double. I'm not an ogre.

wicked

LangerDan wrote:

Cav had no issue in accepting the points that came from "shitty little races" when it suited him. However bad the TDU is, it has to be better than the Tour of Missouri.

Nothing to do with the fact that Missouri is an american race and Cav's team and sponsor is american then? :roll:

The rankings are bollox, the fact is Gripel has won in turkey, TDU , poland, struggled on the Giro and won in the Vuelta. Not a bad haul at all but nothing like Cav's palmares. Now Andre is perfectly right to want to be in the big races but he really has to cut the mustard.

What annoys me is all the folk on here a while ago saying he was the fastest in the peloton because he was winning in the TDU or some turkey like the Tour of Turkey, comments like this from yesterdays Pez regarding Omega " Now they have got themselves arguably the fastest sprinter of the peloton "

Based on WHAT?