Team Sky 2012 team - thoughts/comments
DonDaddyD
Posts: 12,689
OK so I'm not as knowledgable on this as the rest of you, but two things stood out to me:
No Geraint Thomas and no Ben Swift.
ETA: I checked Wiki and it tells me these two are focusing on track racing ahead of the olympics. So, will their absence affect Team Sky's chances/profile?
Personal thoughts are that Thomas should be looking/thinking more likely hoping to replace Wiggins as Team Sky's 'Great British hope'. That, or establishing himself as the Undisputed Super Domestique - who will be er replacing Wiggins soon enough.
Swift could have billed as Cavs lead out man or part of the train - though there are better riders in the team who can do this.
Educate me and discuss.
No Geraint Thomas and no Ben Swift.
ETA: I checked Wiki and it tells me these two are focusing on track racing ahead of the olympics. So, will their absence affect Team Sky's chances/profile?
Personal thoughts are that Thomas should be looking/thinking more likely hoping to replace Wiggins as Team Sky's 'Great British hope'. That, or establishing himself as the Undisputed Super Domestique - who will be er replacing Wiggins soon enough.
Swift could have billed as Cavs lead out man or part of the train - though there are better riders in the team who can do this.
Educate me and discuss.
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A true scalp is not only overtaking someone but leaving them stopped at a set of lights. As you, who have clearly beaten the lights, pummels nothing but the open air ahead. ~ 'DondaddyD'. Player of the Unspoken Game
A true scalp is not only overtaking someone but leaving them stopped at a set of lights. As you, who have clearly beaten the lights, pummels nothing but the open air ahead. ~ 'DondaddyD'. Player of the Unspoken Game
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Comments
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You'd get better responses posting over in pro race.
Thomas will never remotely be like Wiggins.
He's a useful man in the final 5km and he's excellent at prologues.
He could turn into an excellent flat one day racer - he was very strong in Flanders last year and he came second in Dwars Door Vlaanderen (in a 2 man break, won by ToF winner Nuyens).
Cavendish in all likelihood won't get a lot of help this Tour - Sky have bigger fish to fry.
I'd imagine Cav will get Bernie to look after him all day every day, and Sky won't chase down breaks like we've seen in the past, but they'll be near the front come the sprint finale - as much to keep Wiggins out of trouble as to give Cavendish a shot.
Expect Cavendish to ride off other trains and other sprinters, rather than having a leadout. He's good enough that he doesn't need one, and Wiggins is more important.
Similarly, Cavendish won't be quite as fast as he's been in the past. He's focussing on the olympics, and has lost a good 4kilos for it too.0 -
Thomas is concentratining entirely on the olympics and therfore at the start of the year he said he would not be going to the tour.
Sky will be going soley for GC and its unfortunate that they also have CAV in the rainbow bands, as they have to really show them off in the tour.
EBH will no doubt act as lead out for Cav, and along with Knees and Svitsou they have people that can act as lead out. Swift is young and his time to act as lead out will come (and he is also doing track at the olympics)"If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."
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Agree with the above, other than comments re Thomas. Well, I kind of agree with Rick, but I do think its possible that he could develop into a GC type rider. Wiggins was "a useful man in the final 5km and excellent at prologues" until the last few seasons, Thomas has arguably shown a lot more climbing promise at an earlier stage in his career so you never know what might happen when he retires from the track after the Olympics (I reckon he might end up as a Chavanel type rider - decent time triallist, one dayer and handy in shorter stage races but not up there in the higher climbs).0
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Thomas rides the peloton very well.
When you watch him bring Cav up towards the front in the Giro, he does it as good as Renshaw did, without the final sprint.
That's pretty unusual for a guy who's used to going round in circles.
He's a classy rider, but he won't be GC.
Wiggin's weight loss is a massive exception. It's never been done before like that, and I really think it won't happen again.0 -
Rick Chasey wrote:Thomas rides the peloton very well.
When you watch him bring Cav up towards the front in the Giro, he does it as good as Renshaw did, without the final sprint.
That's pretty unusual for a guy who's used to going round in circles.
He's a classy rider, but he won't be GC.
Wiggin's weight loss is a massive exception. It's never been done before like that, and I really think it won't happen again.
That's probably right. G "looks" like a cyclist already, probably limited scope to increase his physique for GC riding. I do think he could make significant gains though in order to go better on the road, but GC in GT's probably a step too far. When I met him and Wiggins a couple of years ago in the off season, Wiggins seemed like a proper big bloke - bit of a belly, broad shoulders, whereas G and Swifty were really slight. Wiggins obviously had the power, take away the weight and we've seen what is possible...0 -
It's got to be all about Wiggo.
G's awesome. Seems to me that he's better suited for the Classics, though.
EDIT: what little I've read and seen this year suggests that Stannard seems to be some form of train.FCN 2-4.
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