De Gendt

specialgueststar

I don't get it....?

RichN95.

What don't you get?

(Or are you making a joke which I don't get?)

above_the_cows

I assume we're talking about his 1 year OPQS deal?

jimmythecuckoo

Good rider. I think he still has it in him.

Maybe not a grand tour contender. But classics for sure.

Remarkable

Classy rider. When the form isn't there, he's not afraid of getting stuck into the breakaways. Perhaps a contender for shorter stage races like Paris Nice as well? Really baffled as to why he had so much trouble getting a contract..

mroli

Well, there is a GT rider without a contract and an ex-Olympic champion without a contract so I'm not totally surprised... Glad he has got a contract though - He's a "panache" rider....

RichN95.

mroli wrote:

He's a "panache" rider....

By panache do you mean he's a rider who can do great things when he puts his mind to it, but rarely does.

There's probably few with such an imbalance between talent and application. But that's who he is. Good luck to him.

Anonymous

Amazing news, one of my favorite riders for sure.

That win on the Stelvio is probably my favorite ever.

takethehighroad

OPQS need someone to get over the first two mountains for 'Rigo', instead of just going into the laughing group at the first sign of a speed bump

philbar72

A super domestique for a vastly overrated/ inconsistent climber.... I just don't see it. He's fairly young and gave Hejsedal and rodriguez a scare at the 2012 Giro. I'd see him target stage wins, and yes, he is a rider with a fair bit of panache. i just don't think he can string it out for more than a week, despite the relative success of 2012.

Richmond Racer

philbar72 wrote:

A super domestique for a vastly overrated/ inconsistent climber.... I just don't see it. He's fairly young and gave Hejsedal and rodriguez a scare at the 2012 Giro. I'd see him target stage wins, and yes, he is a rider with a fair bit of panache. i just don't think he can string it out for more than a week, despite the relative success of 2012.

That would be the vastly overrated/inconsistent climber who finished 7th in the 2012 Giro and improved to 2nd place in last year's, then

mroli

RichN95 wrote:

By panache do you mean he's a rider who can do great things when he puts his mind to it, but rarely does.

There's probably few with such an imbalance between talent and application. But that's who he is. Good luck to him.

Nah - I think it is VERY hard for anyone to do "great things", especially if your team expects you to put a good GT performance in. But I always feel that he's got attacking rides in him - probably still got golden memories of that ToB (2009?) where he attacked every day. I hope that being at OPQS means that he'll do some Rigo domestique duty on the mountains, but get to ride free on a couple of moderately lumpy stages.