Flop of the Year 2013
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cant believe people are even mentioning Schleck as a flop....that assumes you thought he might achieve something....now thats just silly!
flops, I would say Contador, Wiggins. Still thought Gesink might go for some stage wins in the mountains. Team Sky at the classics also.Scott Addict 2011
Giant TCR 20120 -
Can someone explain to me why Wiggins is considered more of a flop than Gilbert, Boonen or Bertie please?
ToB overall, silver at the worlds TT and a couple of stage wins is not a stunning haul but it's hardly a complete disaster. It's better than Cuddles, Phinney, TJ, Goss put together*
(*did nt actually check this)We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver0 -
SpecialGuestStar wrote:The Green edge bus driver.
No flop. His proudest moment...0 -
ddraver wrote:Can someone explain to me why Wiggins is considered more of a flop than Gilbert, Boonen or Bertie please?
ToB overall, silver at the worlds TT and a couple of stage wins is not a stunning haul but it's hardly a complete disaster. It's better than Cuddles, Phinney, TJ, Goss put together*
(*did nt actually check this)
Cuddles podiumed in a GT, which beats thatFckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.0 -
ddraver wrote:Can someone explain to me why Wiggins is considered more of a flop than Gilbert, Boonen or Bertie please?
ToB overall, silver at the worlds TT and a couple of stage wins is not a stunning haul but it's hardly a complete disaster. It's better than Cuddles, Phinney, TJ, Goss put together*
(*did nt actually check this)
Cuddles finished 3rd in Giro and finished the tour. That beats winning the tour of Britain comfortably.
Contador finished 4th in the tour which beats winning the tour of Britain comfortably.
TJ won a stage in Tour of Calfornia. Comparable with a stage in Tour of Britain.
Phinney won a stage in the tour of Poland. Same as Wiggins....and don't forget the young rider classification in Qatar.
Goss won a stage of Tirreno- Adriatico. Also probably comparable with the Poland / Britain.
Then remember that Wiggins had the best year since Axel Merckx* in 2012, was going to do the Tour-Giro double this year, started the Giro as odds on favourite, earns a fortune, has been knighted, national hero etc. etc Given this, his 2013 is a flop.
*or whatever0 -
Not sure what being knighted has to do with the price of kippers. Its for past achievement, not a promissory note for the future. As for salary, he's on about the same as Pip, and considerably less than Bert.
And still no one's backing me up on Ryder 'Silly Specs' Hesjedal. A GT one year, and not a single win, not even a share of a TTT, the following year.
Rationale goes out of the window, it always comes down to personal preferences.0 -
ddraver wrote:Christ I can't imagine what you make of Gilbert... :shock:
He's had a bad year. 2nd place for me in the Flop of the Year contest. His Vuelta stage win cost him first place.0 -
Pip can't be classified as a flop, he matched perfectly the expectations of a rider wearing the rainbow curse.Warning No formatter is installed for the format0
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Contador. Highest paid rider in the Pro Tour, I believe, and a GT specialist. Fourth in the Tour, and he was hanging on, is a major failure if it was the highlight of his season.
Wiggins. After 2012 there were huge expectations, his and ours, and pretty much failed to produce. TOB was nice and the WTT silver a consolation, but no where near enough for a rider of his undoubted talent.
This from a big supporter of Brad, but he had a very poor season, no excuses.0 -
No tA Doctor wrote:Pip can't be classified as a flop, he matched perfectly the expectations of a rider wearing the rainbow curse.
Procycling's latest edition has Gilbert article with headline 'The Worst World Champion Ever?' ....which is a tad harsh...0 -
Richmond Racer wrote:And still no one's backing me up on Ryder 'Silly Specs' Hesjedal. A GT one year, and not a single win, not even a share of a TTT, the following year.
A - I thought the specs were pretty funky
B - Alwasy thought his Giro win was a case of him being in sublime form mixed with a massive slice of luck. I did nt expect many repeat performances really. He did some great work for the team and definitely deserves a few "assists" for some of Dan Martin's wins. Again hardly a stunning season, but hardly a flop eitherWe're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver0 -
mike6 wrote:Contador. Highest paid rider in the Pro Tour, I believe, and a GT specialist. Fourth in the Tour, and he was hanging on, is a major failure if it was the highlight of his season.
Wiggins. After 2012 there were huge expectations, his and ours, and pretty much failed to produce. TOB was nice and the WTT silver a consolation, but no where near enough for a rider of his undoubted talent.
This from a big supporter of Brad, but he had a very poor season, no excuses.
God knows what you're going to make of next season, then, Mike...0 -
You know this is a predominantly British forum when you have more posts in the "flop of the year" thread than "best rider of the year" thread.0
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ddraver wrote:Richmond Racer wrote:And still no one's backing me up on Ryder 'Silly Specs' Hesjedal. A GT one year, and not a single win, not even a share of a TTT, the following year.
A - I thought the specs were pretty funky
B - Alwasy thought his Giro win was a case of him being in sublime form mixed with a massive slice of luck. I did nt expect many repeat performances really. He did some great work for the team and definitely deserves a few "assists" for some of Dan Martin's wins. Again hardly a stunning season, but hardly a flop either
Agree with this. Maybe you need to watch Liege again RR, I don't think Martin would have won if Hesjedal hadn't been there at the end of the race. Would like to have seen a bit more of this sort of things from Wiggins.
And the POC specs were great. Didn't like them at first, but at least it's something a bit different from all the riders wearing Oakleys (as much as I like Oakleys). Made him very easy to pick out.0 -
greasedscotsman wrote:ddraver wrote:Richmond Racer wrote:And still no one's backing me up on Ryder 'Silly Specs' Hesjedal. A GT one year, and not a single win, not even a share of a TTT, the following year.
A - I thought the specs were pretty funky
B - Alwasy thought his Giro win was a case of him being in sublime form mixed with a massive slice of luck. I did nt expect many repeat performances really. He did some great work for the team and definitely deserves a few "assists" for some of Dan Martin's wins. Again hardly a stunning season, but hardly a flop either
Agree with this. Maybe you need to watch Liege again RR, I don't think Martin would have won if Hesjedal hadn't been there at the end of the race. Would like to have seen a bit more of this sort of things from Wiggins.
And the POC specs were great. Didn't like them at first, but at least it's something a bit different from all the riders wearing Oakleys (as much as I like Oakleys). Made him very easy to pick out.
Dont get me wrong, I appreciate that Hesjedal helped Martin win L-B-L, but if we're talking domestique-super dom- assists, well tbf Wiggins did a lot of work for Froome at the Tour of Oman which even Froome acknowledged - and he hauled the team to their Giro and Trentino TTT wins this year. Plus he (embarassingly) ended up the only TeamGB medallist from the Worlds.
But its all subjective, innit - as with the specs. And whether your expectations are set at a higher setting for Wiggins than they are for Hesjedal. Whichever way you look at it neither GT winner has had a great season.0 -
Richmond Racer wrote:I'd just argue that Hesjedal's season has been worse.
Don't agree. Wiggins drop in results has been far greater than Hesjedal's. He's up there with Contador and Gilbert. But then I think this has already been pointed out.0 -
If I'm completely honest the only reason people are suggesting Wiggins was a flop was
A - They believed the hype
B - They re desperately trying to show frenchie they re not Sky Fanboi/Fangirls
Got to stop posting A and B ingly
In reality there are going to be a couple of hundred riders that actually fit in between the best and worst rider threads, but this is a cycling forum and cycling fans do not deal in shades of grey - If E.L James had been a cycling fan the book would have been very short indeed...We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver0 -
greasedscotsman wrote:Richmond Racer wrote:I'd just argue that Hesjedal's season has been worse.
Don't agree. Wiggins drop in results has been far greater than Hesjedal's. He's up there with Contador and Gilbert. But then I think this has already been pointed out.
Not even one chipper win, Greased? Not one? And the stage at Tour of Alberta where he put his hands up a lap too early, doesnt count
ps. I'll give up now0 -
Richmond Racer wrote:Not even one chipper win, Greased? Not one? And the stage at Tour of Alberta where he put his hands up a lap too early, doesnt count
ps. I'll give up now
Not been a good year for him.
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Richmond Racer wrote:And still no one's backing me up on Ryder 'Silly Specs' Hesjedal. A GT one year, and not a single win, not even a share of a TTT, the following year.
I'll back you up. Hesjedal has been hyped up by Garmin/Vaughters as a GC contender post Giro win and has been, frankly, awful. Will the podium of the 2012 Giro go down in history as one of the weakest ever?0 -
r0bh wrote:I'll back you up. Hesjedal has been hyped up by Garmin/Vaughters as a GC contender post Giro win and has been, frankly, awful. Will the podium of the 2012 Giro go down in history as one of the weakest ever?
Whereas Wiggins thought he could win the Giro and the Tour this year?
Wait, what am I doing? I quite like Wiggins as well! Nope, biggest flop this year, for me was Contador. Or maybe Gilbert...
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If you want to take the top 100 in CQ ranking and see who has the biggest drop off from last year:
Top 15 worst:
Gerrans, Wiggins, Westra, Phinney, Voeckler, EBH, Samu, Uran, Boom, Paolini, Pozzo, Degenkolb, Gilbert, Basso, Gesink
Drop off of 79 to 6 places, so the last handful are not so bad.
Biggest improvers:
Coquard, Hushovd, Weening, Impey, Ponzi, Thomas, Elminger, Ciolek, Niemiec, MajkaContador is the Greatest0 -
Good post FF, although I think some people's expectations are set in the past e.g. Gilbert and Hushovd both had relatively bad years last year.0
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For me its about how close someone performs to what I expect of them. I always thought Wiggins would struggle in Italy so I wasn't surprised enough to call it a 'flop'.
Contador on the other hand performed way below what is expected of him. 4th is a good result but there were times when Kreuziger looked stronger than him, which is not normal.
As for Andy Schleck, I feel some sort of odd paternal 'Go On Son' for him. I don't know why; I never used to like him but now I want him to stop abandoning. When he threatened an attack in the TDF I was happy for him. I'd feel cruel calling him a flop, although he does fit my definition of what a flop is perfectly...0 -
sjmclean wrote:I was disappointed in Heano and Uran as well.
Really? Uran salvaged 2nd place at the Giro when his team leader quit the race, a stage win (as well as being part of the winning TTT) and was looking like a potential medallist at the Worlds road race before a heavy fall. Heano showed well in the Ardennes classics and shorter stage races. I think people may have had too high expectations of a pro in his second year at the top level and he isn't a GC contender yet - much more suited to the short, sharp climbs of one day Classics IMHO.
I would say EBH but he seems to be gradually accepting a role as a super domestique rather than looking to be the 'new Merckx' he was originally touted as.
Contador probably edges it from the big players ahead in Wiggins who just about salvaged something at the very end.
Not a flop but someone I was hoping to see push on from a promising 2012 was Nordhaug. Was he injured for much of the season? I really thought he'd be up there challenging and would have been an outside bet at the Worlds for me at the start of the season.0 -
I think EBH falls into the middle really. His trouble is that he's very good at everything but not exceptional at anything. he can come 3rd or 4th in almost every race of the season, but he will always be beaten by someone who has the specific skillset/physiology for that day.We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
- @ddraver0 -
I think he should forget about sprinting unless all the top sprinters are elsewhere and look at being the sort of racer Cancellara has been for most of his career (but probably not as good). Contender in the spring, domestique in the summer, then do a couple of weeks of the Vuelta and have a crack at the Worlds. Do time trials hard.ddraver wrote:I think EBH falls into the middle really. His trouble is that he's very good at everything but not exceptional at anything. he can come 3rd or 4th in almost every race of the season, but he will always be beaten by someone who has the specific skillset/physiology for that day.Twitter: @RichN950 -
Pross, re Nordhaug, he might have had a bit of illness at some point, but I think it was mainly just a real struggle to find form - and then the circle of loss of form-loss of confidence. He started to perk up by Amstel and LBL, otherwise his best results came at the tail end of the season.0
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It's all about expectations vs outcome, rather than absolute performance. So for Wiggins, anything less than a Grand Tour win would be a disappointment.0
