Tour de Suisse ***Spoiler***

dish_dash

Good to see Talansky doing a bit better...

RichN95.

EnacheV wrote:

and as a matter of fact i think Thomas selection for TdF must be also questioned. If it is for him to go than should go to replace Puccio and make room for an in form climber.

Ah, the knee-jerk reaction of the armchair DS. Thomas is doing just fine. He's one of the best all round riders about. He's get into every Tour team, regardless of their targets.

deejay

EnacheV wrote:

Tier 1 : Froome, Quintana
Tier 2 : Contador, Nibali
Tier 3 : Aru, Pinot, Porte, Keldermann, Chaves, Valverde, TJ, etc
Tier 4 : Thomas and others like Costa, Spilak, etc

Yes but a real Tier 1 GC winner will have won Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico in their Day.

EnacheV

RichN95 wrote:

EnacheV wrote:

and as a matter of fact i think Thomas selection for TdF must be also questioned. If it is for him to go than should go to replace Puccio and make room for an in form climber.

Ah, the knee-jerk reaction of the armchair DS. Thomas is doing just fine. He's one of the best all round riders about. He's get into every Tour team, regardless of their targets.

yes he will get in the TdF team but as a flat engine / one of the first guys to drive the train uphill

in this form he has no business being there as a protected / GC rider.

remember this is the likes Talansky, Dombrovski and Barguil dropping him for 1 minute on the 2nd mountain stage.

as i said, i think he should replace Puccio, and the team to be Dauphine team - Puccio + Thomas + Nieve

EnacheV

deejay wrote:

EnacheV wrote:

Tier 1 : Froome, Quintana
Tier 2 : Contador, Nibali
Tier 3 : Aru, Pinot, Porte, Keldermann, Chaves, Valverde, TJ, etc
Tier 4 : Thomas and others like Costa, Spilak, etc

Yes but a real Tier 1 GC winner will have won Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico in their Day.

GVA won TA so give me a break about this February races

RichN95.

deejay wrote:

EnacheV wrote:

Tier 1 : Froome, Quintana
Tier 2 : Contador, Nibali
Tier 3 : Aru, Pinot, Porte, Keldermann, Chaves, Valverde, TJ, etc
Tier 4 : Thomas and others like Costa, Spilak, etc

Yes but a real Tier 1 GC winner will have won Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico in their Day.

Yeah, but their season basically finished with Worlds in August. The modern lot now have a Vuelta to go on to.


(Of course Quintana still won T-A in 2015 and Froome was second in 2013 after being mugged by Nibali.And Contador had won both)

EnacheV

Just to be clear i like Geraint Thomas but his idea of becoming top tier GC rider is wrong. He is not good enough for that. If i remember correctly even at Paris-Nice this year he was dropped like a stone in the last stage.

He has a problem with continuous day by day hard climbing so he can't be a grand tour GC rider.

He should stay a classics man and a good domestique at grand tours.

deejay

RichN95 wrote:

Yes but a real Tier 1 GC winner will have won Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico in their Day.

(Of course Quintana still won T-A in 2015 and Froome was second in 2013 after being mugged by Nibali.And Contador had won both)

Oh, he was mugged, was he and didn't fall off.
So I repeat that a Real Tier 1 GC winner will have won P/N or T/A. and those examples continue before and after they moved the Vuelta and WC's.

Can't say much about seven times or any others without the right palmares but I can agree that might be a bit old fashioned and as such is a worthy measure of a Tier 1 rider in this age.

blazing_saddles

EnacheV wrote:

Sky wasting 2 millions per yer for Geraint Thomas who should have stayed a classic rider instead becoming a tier 4 GC rider.

At least is all clear, there will be all for Froome at TdF , no protected role for Thomas who sucks. The only thing that is good at (Thomas) is to be a domestique and flat engine for tier 1 GC riders.

edit : not to speak about the fact that Thomas must be the MOST boring GC rider in the peloton right now.

The Clinic sages agree with you at least.
Has tier ranking become the latest craze?
GC 3rd tier and very exciting TJVG finished well over a minute behind Thomas and even behind his out of favour team mate, Phil Gilbert.
I think you need to re-calibrate................much.

adr82

deejay wrote:

When Quintana wins a GC he will qualify as a proper Tier 1

Is the Giro not proper GC or something...?

emadden

Some pics from today's stage when they went over the Klausenpass:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dotcyclin ... 9846020445

Richmond Racer 2

EnacheV wrote:

Sky wasting 2 millions per yer for Geraint Thomas who should have stayed a classic rider instead becoming a tier 4 GC rider.

At least is all clear, there will be all for Froome at TdF , no protected role for Thomas who sucks. The only thing that is good at (Thomas) is to be a domestique and flat engine for tier 1 GC riders.

edit : not to speak about the fact that Thomas must be the MOST boring GC rider in the peloton right now.

'2 millions' per year, eh?

Shame, he speaks very highly of you

Richmond Racer 2

Blazing Saddles wrote:

EnacheV wrote:

Sky wasting 2 millions per yer for Geraint Thomas who should have stayed a classic rider instead becoming a tier 4 GC rider.

At least is all clear, there will be all for Froome at TdF , no protected role for Thomas who sucks. The only thing that is good at (Thomas) is to be a domestique and flat engine for tier 1 GC riders.

edit : not to speak about the fact that Thomas must be the MOST boring GC rider in the peloton right now.

The Clinic sages agree with you at least.
Has tier ranking become the latest craze?
GC 3rd tier and very exciting TJVG finished well over a minute behind Thomas and even behind his out of favour team mate, Phil Gilbert.
I think you need to re-calibrate................much.

Anyway, back on Planet Earth, what happened to Vanladygarden?

mcstumpy

dish_dash wrote:

Good to see Talansky doing a bit better...

Yes, a pleasant surprise, I'd given up on him as a stage race contender

dish_dash

Richmond Racer 2 wrote:

Anyway, back on Planet Earth, what happened to Vanladygarden?

apparently it was cold and wet...

norvernrob

EnacheV wrote:

Just to be clear i like Geraint Thomas but his idea of becoming top tier GC rider is wrong. He is not good enough for that. If i remember correctly even at Paris-Nice this year he was dropped like a stone in the last stage.

He has a problem with continuous day by day hard climbing so he can't be a grand tour GC rider.

He should stay a classics man and a good domestique at grand tours.

Sky have already said he's going to be a protected rider along with Froome at this years Tour.

Personally I agree with you to some extent, he isn't ever going to win a Tour and would need to get very lucky to win a Vuelta or Giro. He just isn't a good enough climber, he has no acceleration to attack and has too many bad days in the mountains.

deejay

adr82 wrote:

deejay wrote:

wins a GC he will qualify as a proper Tier 1

Is the Giro not proper GC or something...?

Velly, velly sorry with my lapse of memory.
Sorry. :oops:

imatfaal

McStumpy wrote:

dish_dash wrote:

Good to see Talansky doing a bit better...

Yes, a pleasant surprise, I'd given up on him as a stage race contender

Talanksy with Dombrowski look a good pairing. It was the Cdale who broke up the favourites group yesterday with solid pressure from Dombrowski hiving off TJVG, Geraint Thomas, and other Lower Tier :twisted: contenders; Spilak and others kept trying to jump off front but green machine kept on going hard


TODAY

The margin of Matthias Brändle (AUT/IAM) and Iljo Keisse (BEL/EQS) has increased to 7 min 54 after 40km

blazing_saddles

About 60kms covered and the margin of the breakaway is now 11 minutes 20 seconds.

imatfaal

Blazing Saddles wrote:

About 60kms covered and the margin of the breakaway is now 11 minutes 20 seconds.

I will see your 11m 20s and raise to 12m 25s with the breakaway about to hit Hochtannbergpass clmb

deejay

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Has tier ranking become the latest craze?

Not really as there was a big discussion I read in my early years about the Roger Walkowiak TDF win and since that time under various titles a form of Tier 1 has been talked about.
The signifigance these days is when they call a TDF winner as the greatest champion of the year that is grasped by the Media of the World, or as you used to say to some of us "A three Week Wonder".
The Media might have been happy with a seven time winner but to most of us he was not a Tier 1 winner.

imatfaal

Hochtannbergpass (85 km, 1650 m, King of the Mountain, hors category): 1. Antwan Tolhoek (NED/ROP) 20 points. 2. Matthias Brändle (AUT/IAM) 15. 3. Iljo Keisse (BEL/EQS) 10. - The peloton followed with a gap of 10 minutes 24 seconds.

joelsim

Latour & Gatto have abandoned.

imatfaal

"The 3 riders in front have passed Landeck (144 kms), their margin is a little bit more as 9 minutes. There is good news from the finish at the glacier of Rettenbach ('Ferner' in austrian/tyrolean language means glacier). The clouds are less, but the more is sunshine and the su-hit snow is hitting the eyes. But for sure, it is pretty cold up hire. "

blazing_saddles

Live now with 43kms to go for the break, which has 11 and a half minutes lead.

EnacheV

i would be very happy if thomas will prove me wrong in the next hour

imatfaal

11.5km to the end - 7 mins 15 sec

imatfaal

Cold rain for Brandle now with 7.5km to go and only 3 and bit minutes left of gap - seriously heavy snow at finish line

imatfaal

Kelderman distanced by the group of favourites - only a few tens of metres at present.

Brandle only has 1 min 51 secs now over group

ugo.santalucia

Years ago at the Eroica I rode a bit with the winner of a Tour de Suisse, Poggiali... he was more proud of it than his win at the Fleche Wallone... that's when the former was a race to be proud to win... these days it's really the bottom of the barrel