Young Chargers - GT hopefuls

effillo
effillo Posts: 257
edited July 2016 in Pro race
Looking forward it seems there is a lot of young guns that could potentially flourish in the next few years and become contenders for grand tours. Off the top of my head, the list below is what I can come up with, obviously some on there are older that others but all should hit prime form in the next five years or so. Who do we think has the most potential out of these and have I missed any (sure I have)?

Yates brothers
Bardet
Barguil
Pinot
Quintana
Domoulin
Chaves
Meintjes
Alaphilippe
Aru

Comments

  • jscl
    jscl Posts: 1,015
    Bardet will leave AG2R in the next few years and smash out a TdF victory within another team...

    The Yates', I'm sure will always do well. I just hope that Whitey and Orica can put a good team around them for the GT's.

    I think we'll see a lot more from Alaphilippe, but he'll never win a GT. Dumoulin I think has the capability to adapt to become a GT victor, much like Brad did for 2012.

    The others, I'm less convinced by.
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  • DeVlaeminck
    DeVlaeminck Posts: 8,744
    Difficult as making that last step up from promising to genuine contender is the hardest part.

    Qunintana is already there, I know there's a whole debate on how good he is but my take, which may be wrong, is that he is already at the level to win the Tour if he gets it right.

    Chaves I think is a genuine GC contender if not at the Tour then already for the other two. Yates bros, another step forward this year but not yet at the Chaves level, need to show they can take the initiative in a grand tour but well on track.
    Bardet, not sure, perhaps with a stronger team, second at the Tour should mark him down as a contender but something about him just doesn't look like a winner of big races, perhaps he looks too young!
    Pinot, can't see him winning a GT
    Barguil, can't see him getting close to winning one.
    Meintjes - early days probably a step behind most of the others
    Aru - I reckon he has a Giro or two in him
    Allaphilippe - A bit like a super charged Geraint Thomas has to decide between classics and stage races - focus on one or the other and then later on see if you can combine them as some have managed to do
    Tom D - Maybe if it's TT heavy
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  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,196
    After Chaves won the Giro queen stage in such style, plus his 5th place in the 2015 Vuelta I am really looking forward to seeing him ride some more GTs. The 2016 Vuelta has 10 summit finishes (!!) which should really suit him.
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,154
    Miguel Angel Lopez. He'll be the best of all of them
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  • inseine
    inseine Posts: 5,786
    Poels, Henao?
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  • joelsim
    joelsim Posts: 7,552
    RichN95 wrote:
    Miguel Angel Lopez. He'll be the best of all of them

    ^This.

    And there are some very young guns who are showing enormous potential in Latour, Costa, Bernal and Power (if his injury clears).
  • effillo
    effillo Posts: 257
    inseine wrote:
    Poels, Henao?

    At 28 I thought they may be just too old to count. I know Quintana and Aru are 26 but got to draw the line somewhere eh?

    Although at 30 is still consider myself a young gun!
  • timoid.
    timoid. Posts: 3,133
    Bardet and Lopez. Maybe Chavez.

    Would love Bardet to win the Tour.
    It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired.
  • wombly_knees
    wombly_knees Posts: 657
    Everyone's favourite, Ilnur Zakarin, will be there too.
  • timoid.
    timoid. Posts: 3,133
    wombly knees wrote:
    Everyone's favourite, Ilnur Zakarin, will be there too.

    Until he gets busted. Again.
    It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired. You quit when the gorilla is tired.
  • supermurph09
    supermurph09 Posts: 2,471
    Lots of potentials there, I really hope Domoulin makes the switch to GT rider, he certainly looks like he could. For the others it's not so much how they progress as to what teams they progress to (or how their teams progress). OGE and Yates are the interesting ones for me, they look like focusing more on GC than stage wins now.
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  • philbar72
    philbar72 Posts: 2,229
    Yates (Adam), Bardet and Lopez are the future I’d say. Think Simon Yates will be put into the one day hilly classics or the one week races kinda role.

    Dumoulin needs a flatter more steady parcours to make his mark. 2012 tour kind of thing. Also needs a better team.
  • andyrac
    andyrac Posts: 1,132
    philbar72 wrote:
    Yates (Adam), Bardet and Lopez are the future I’d say. Think Simon Yates will be put into the one day hilly classics or the one week races kinda role.

    Weren't the Yates brothers thought to be the other way round? Simon for GTs and Adam for week races, hilly classics?
    As they're identical maybe they can swap..... :wink:
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  • joelsim
    joelsim Posts: 7,552
    AndyRAC wrote:
    philbar72 wrote:
    Yates (Adam), Bardet and Lopez are the future I’d say. Think Simon Yates will be put into the one day hilly classics or the one week races kinda role.

    Weren't the Yates brothers thought to be the other way round? Simon for GTs and Adam for week races, hilly classics?
    As they're identical maybe they can swap..... :wink:

    They did swap, rotated each day, hence why they won the white jersey.
  • milton50
    milton50 Posts: 3,856
    Dumoulin is basically a carbon copy of Wiggins in terms of style. If he had a good GC team and the route included 50km of time trialling then he could easily win the Tour at some point.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,542
    Milton50 wrote:
    Dumoulin is basically a carbon copy of Wiggins in terms of style. If he had a good GC team and the route included 50km of time trialling then he could easily win the Tour at some point.

    I think he'll need to shed weight like Brad did though if he wants to be good enough in the mountains.

    We see so many of these young talents who are touted as GT contenders and in most cases they never quite make it. The promising thing with the current crop is there are a few who have already made the podium or been just outside. I don't know much about Lopez, I'll have to read up on him.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,542
    Talking of young guns, what has happened to Eddie Dunbar this season? I've got big hopes for him although he obviously doesn't come into this list quite yet.
  • joelsim
    joelsim Posts: 7,552
    Pross wrote:
    Milton50 wrote:
    Dumoulin is basically a carbon copy of Wiggins in terms of style. If he had a good GC team and the route included 50km of time trialling then he could easily win the Tour at some point.

    I think he'll need to shed weight like Brad did though if he wants to be good enough in the mountains.

    We see so many of these young talents who are touted as GT contenders and in most cases they never quite make it. The promising thing with the current crop is there are a few who have already made the podium or been just outside. I don't know much about Lopez, I'll have to read up on him.

    Lopez just won Suisse at age 22. Would also have won Langkawi if not for a very late mechanical.

    And won Avenir in 2014.
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,154
    Pross wrote:
    I don't know much about Lopez, I'll have to read up on him.
    He won the Tour of Switzerland last month. 22 year old Colombian at Astana. Can time-trial and has a proper acceleration uphill.
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  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,154
    Pross wrote:
    Talking of young guns, what has happened to Eddie Dunbar this season? I've got big hopes for him although he obviously doesn't come into this list quite yet.
    He's still only 19. He'll have two more seasons at Axeon I would think.
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  • graeme_s-2
    graeme_s-2 Posts: 3,382
    Joelsim wrote:
    AndyRAC wrote:
    philbar72 wrote:
    Yates (Adam), Bardet and Lopez are the future I’d say. Think Simon Yates will be put into the one day hilly classics or the one week races kinda role.

    Weren't the Yates brothers thought to be the other way round? Simon for GTs and Adam for week races, hilly classics?
    As they're identical maybe they can swap..... :wink:

    They did swap, rotated each day, hence why they won the white jersey.
    I'd hate to have been around when they had to make sure they had matching chin injuries :shock:
  • bobmcstuff
    bobmcstuff Posts: 11,196
    Graeme_S wrote:
    Joelsim wrote:
    AndyRAC wrote:
    philbar72 wrote:
    Yates (Adam), Bardet and Lopez are the future I’d say. Think Simon Yates will be put into the one day hilly classics or the one week races kinda role.

    Weren't the Yates brothers thought to be the other way round? Simon for GTs and Adam for week races, hilly classics?
    As they're identical maybe they can swap..... :wink:

    They did swap, rotated each day, hence why they won the white jersey.
    I'd hate to have been around when they had to make sure they had matching chin injuries :shock:

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  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 40,542
    RichN95 wrote:
    Pross wrote:
    Talking of young guns, what has happened to Eddie Dunbar this season? I've got big hopes for him although he obviously doesn't come into this list quite yet.
    He's still only 19. He'll have two more seasons at Axeon I would think.

    Yeah, I know he's still a kid. I'd just lost track of where he was riding this year. Any chance he'll end up at One Pro if they take the expected step up? As you say, probably needs another season or two in the lower ranks first though. Certainly needs to develop more of a race brain.
  • hypster
    hypster Posts: 1,229
    I think the biggest problem for any young rider is once they have come to prominance, they tend to get marked more closely and will be given less leeway. That's not to say they won't still have the ability to go even further and rise to the top, it just makes it that bit harder I think. As others have said, they also need a good team behind them, also with the will to commit to a Bardet or Yates as outright team leader with no other distractions.

    Certainly the emergence of several youngsters this year has helped make the Tour interesting and hopefully one or more of them will make the jump to the next level and win a GT.

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