Could SKY win the big three GTs?

inseine

With Froomes Tour win and the good chance of more, plus already putting riders onto the second step of the other two, what would it take to bag them all?
With Porte apparently targeting the Giro, could Uran take the Vuelta next year?
I think they have the top GC riders but it would leave them thin on the lieutentants front.
I'm pretty sure it's never been done before either.

RichN95.

Uran's at Omega Pharma next year.

As to your question. They could do it, but I don't think they will.

inseine

Forgot about Uran (didn't know it was a done deal, though I see that Petacchi has signed with OPQS too :roll: ).
Point is, they have 3 if not 4 potential GT winners. Which other team could say that?

RichN95.

inseine wrote:

Forgot about Uran (didn't know it was a done deal, though I see that Petacchi has signed with OPQS too :roll: ).
Point is, they have 3 if not 4 potential GT winners. Which other team could say that?

Sure, but it's still incredibly difficult to do. Only one team has ever been on the podium of all three (Banesto in 92 & 94)

tailwindhome

All 3 in he same year - huge ask, not impossible but unlikely.

All 3 over the course of their sponsorship is do-able.

frenchfighter

I don't think they are going to win many more GTs to be honest.

rubertoe

frenchfighter wrote:

I don't think they are going to win many more GTs to be honest.

Really?

Why is that?

blazing_saddles

How would you feel if Contador won all 3 GTs in the same year?
Porte, Froome, Henao? Possible, with sufficient support and luck, but please God no.
There is so much Team Sky hate out there already.

Crankbrother

The Giro and Vuelta are far harder races to win than most think ... Occasionally there are no home riders capable of sustaining a 3 week challenge (eg. Menchov's wins) but even then there are enough home riders willing to stop you winning 'their' race more years than not ...

The TdF is the easiest GT to win if you are the strongest (rider and/or team) ... Too many different goals/egos for tactics to come into play ... The strongest rider/team often doesn't win the Giro/Vuelta ...

Excuses aside, Sir Brad found out the hard way ... The Tour would have ambled round in fear of losing greater glory ... The Giro asked winners to ride for glory, Brad was found sorely lacking ...

inseine

Crankbrother wrote:

The Giro and Vuelta are far harder races to win than most think ... Occasionally there are no home riders capable of sustaining a 3 week challenge (eg. Menchov's wins) but even then there are enough home riders willing to stop you winning 'their' race more years than not ...

The TdF is the easiest GT to win if you are the strongest (rider and/or team) ... Too many different goals/egos for tactics to come into play ... The strongest rider/team often doesn't win the Giro/Vuelta ...

Excuses aside, Sir Brad found out the hard way ... The Tour would have ambled round in fear of losing greater glory ... The Giro asked winners to ride for glory, Brad was found sorely lacking ...

Well, this wasn't really about Wiggins, though his 1st and 2nd in GTs is part of the picture that shows how strong SKY are. Two firsts, three seconds and a third in the last couple of years is already a strong showing.

Crankbrother

So you only wanted people to say yes ... Our all conquering heroes will do good old Blighty proud?

My opinion is as posted above, for the reason posted above and backed up by the example given as well as all those placings you mention ... A placing is just that, not the winner ...

bompington

Crankbrother, not saying you're wrong or anything, just idly wondering... have you ever actually agreed with anyone about anything?

Crankbrother

bompington wrote:

Crankbrother, not saying you're wrong or anything, just idly wondering... have you ever actually agreed with anyone about anything?

It's kind of redundant to do the '+1' type posts ...

Unless you have something significant to enhance the original the point/theory the only other option is to offer a counter point and encourage debate/discussion ...

Plus the thread title is a question I was invited to answer ... Obviously I answered succinctly enough to illicit the responses I have ... No argument with my answer, merely with me as that is perceived as the weak point ...

Paul 8v

Have they said who will be riding the Vuelta?

I think people are definitely right when they say they are harder to win than the TDF. I think if Froome had gone in to the Vuelta with the same form as he did for the tour this year he would have had a pretty good chance.

Paul 8v

I think if sky wanted to put all their effort in they could win one of the other grand tours, they've shown they have the right training and team to pull it off. Wiggins looked in very good form for the Giro but I would have said it was more of an "Inner chimp" issue in that instance (Plus the illness). In last years Vuelta Froome was knackered which didn't help

liquor box

Paul 8v wrote:

I think if sky wanted to put all their effort in they could win one of the other grand tours, they've shown they have the right training and team to pull it off. Wiggins looked in very good form for the Giro but I would have said it was more of an "Inner chimp" issue in that instance (Plus the illness). In last years Vuelta Froome was knackered which didn't help

Wiggins looked great until he had to go downhill.

sherer

RichN95 wrote:

inseine wrote:

Forgot about Uran (didn't know it was a done deal, though I see that Petacchi has signed with OPQS too :roll: ).
Point is, they have 3 if not 4 potential GT winners. Which other team could say that?

Sure, but it's still incredibly difficult to do. Only one team has ever been on the podium of all three (Banesto in 92 & 94)

USPS did the Tour and Vuelta double and Disco did the Giro and Tour double, although they did have a little bit of help.

It's doable to podium all three but not sure if you could win all three in a single season, you'd need to change the team to just target GTs and no other races

Wiggo Warrior

sherer wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

inseine wrote:

Forgot about Uran (didn't know it was a done deal, though I see that Petacchi has signed with OPQS too :roll: ).
Point is, they have 3 if not 4 potential GT winners. Which other team could say that?

Sure, but it's still incredibly difficult to do. Only one team has ever been on the podium of all three (Banesto in 92 & 94)

USPS did the Tour and Vuelta double and Disco did the Giro and Tour double, although they did have a little bit of help.

It's doable to podium all three but not sure if you could win all three in a single season, you'd need to change the team to just target GTs and no other races

I don't think they can do it unless Froome targets the Giro and Wiggo the Tour which seems highly unlikely now from both camps. Henao/Porte would definitely have a chance at the Vuelta on top form. The Tour style slopes suit Wiggins so much better than the steeper Giro ones and especially the current style '13 x stages of uphill sprinting' Vuelta courses.

inseine

I think if things had gone to plan they could have done it this year. They've already finished 1st and 2nd in the Tour and Giro, but had obviously planned for Wiggins to challenge for the Giro so Urans 2nd was a bonus. Their two Columbians could still challenge for the Vuelta especially since I'm not convinced by the other hopefuls.

blazing_saddles

inseine wrote:

I think if things had gone to plan they could have done it this year. They've already finished 1st and 2nd in the Tour and Giro, but had obviously planned for Wiggins to challenge for the Giro so Urans 2nd was a bonus. Their two Columbians could still challenge for the Vuelta especially since I'm not convinced by the other hopefuls.

But isn't that a huge obstacle to overcome in order to win 3 GTs in a year?
Having things go according to plan, plus the luck to avoid mishap, over 9 weeks
racing is, at best, very unlikely.

Things didn't go according to plan at the Giro, so they fell at the first hurdle.
No what ifs, game over.

3 podium spots is still up for grabs, though.

Setarkos

Wiggo is not going to win another Tour. The only way I could see this happening is if Porte target Giro and Vuelta but skips the Tour which Froome will take but Porte will most likely do the Giro and help Froome at the Tour again.
Sky has other potential GC podium riders but no winners imo. Apart from Dombrowski but his time will come in a few years and there is no way of telling what the competition will be like then and if they will all be still with Sky.

sherer

Setarkos wrote:

Wiggo is not going to win another Tour. The only way I could see this happening is if Porte target Giro and Vuelta but skips the Tour which Froome will take but Porte will most likely do the Giro and help Froome at the Tour again.
Sky has other potential GC podium riders but no winners imo. Apart from Dombrowski but his time will come in a few years and there is no way of telling what the competition will be like then and if they will all be still with Sky.

I do wonder about Wiggo and if he will be able to mount a proper GC challenge again. I can see him getting top 10s still but thing he needs the right parcours in order to win another GT.

Based on TdF can anyone challenge Froome for a GT win

menchovʹsstabilisers

Sky may have the individual riders who could potentially win GTs but I'm struggling to see how they'd be able to put together strong enough teams to support those riders in three grand tours in the same year. Even as strong as Sky are they'd need a lot of riders to double up and it's a big ask for them to do so, especially if they had to defend the GC jersey for the majority of each GT.

Is Porte going to have the same sort of chance of winning the Vuelta if he's been riding hard in the Tour for Froome? We saw what happened to Froome in the Vuelta last year. Could Froome have won without Porte? Maybe, but I can't see Sky taking that risk at the Tour.

The best chance would probably need a surprise winner in the Giro, benefiting from a break like the 2010 one which put (appropriately enough) Porte in pink, to compensate for a weak team.

Winning the tour and the Vuelta in the same year and the Giro the following year with three different riders would be that much more achievable (although still bloody difficult).

Walter White

frenchfighter wrote:

I don't think they are going to win many more GTs to be honest.

This ladies and gentleman is a classic example of trolling.

Drop in a sentance in the topic that goes against all logic...

...then don't explain yourself.

Walter White

If Froome done the Giro/Vuelta double then Sky would have a great chance of winning those.

Thats the most realistic scenario Sky could hope for, winning all 3 in a season, cant see that ever happening.

PeteinSQ

I think that you could win the Giro and the Vuelta with roughly the same team if not the same prospective winner. The two races have a good deal of time between them in which to recover and retrain and provided you didn't expect those riders to do the Tour then why wouldn't they be ready.

Obviously you'd need a separate team for the Tour as it follows on from the Giro too closely for people to do both with a realistic chance of success against people specifically targeting the Tour.

The question would be is Porte or Wiggins (or Thomas or Kennaugh) good enough to win either the Giro or the Vuelta? Froome has obviously demonstrated that he is good enough to win the Tour.

trek_dan

If one of Henao/Iran makes it onto the podium 3 in a year would still be some achievement.
On another pattern of 3 if one of the Columbians wins the young rider classification that would be 3 Columbians winning all 3 young rider classifications in a year.

Pross

Menchov'sStabilisers wrote:

Sky may have the individual riders who could potentially win GTs but I'm struggling to see how they'd be able to put together strong enough teams to support those riders in three grand tours in the same year. Even as strong as Sky are they'd need a lot of riders to double up and it's a big ask for them to do so, especially if they had to defend the GC jersey for the majority of each GT.

This. At least one of the riders you allocate as team leader in one of the 'lesser' GTs will either have to ride as a (the?) key support rider at the Tour so would either be riding the Tour tired from a Giro at full effort or will be left trying to win the Vuelta whilst having ridden themselves into the ground at the Tour (as with Froome last season). Add to that, Sky haven't looked that strong as a team in the Giro or Tour compared to last year. I do think 3 podiums is a realistic aim though and they could potentially achieve it this year.

As for Wiggins, from reading his autobiography I really don't think he has the motivation to dedicate another year of his life to winning another GT and certainly not a Tour. Then again maybe getting one up on Froome will mean he regains the motivation and has a crack at the Giro again or possibly moves team to directly compete against Froome?

Richmond Racer

Think a clean sweep in the same season is a GT too far.

2 GTs - yes. 3 - no.

cal_stewart

As said above, 2 teams one for the Giro and Vuelta, one for the tour. Hard to see as Froome would be the better rider to ride the giro and vuelta

inseine

I posed the question originally because despite their lack of sucess in the classics and one day races generally, they really have dominated in stage races over the last couple of years. They've got 2 GT winners and Uran who's had a second and 7th in the Giro. If Porte could take the Giro (far, far for certain) then they'd need someone for the Vuelta and that looks like a big step up for Henao.
Either Wiggins bounces back, Froome does a double or they sign another GT rider which seems a stretch. Otherwise Dombrowski or Kennaugh in a couple of years?