Will Froome ride the Giro?

RichN95.

Seven mountain top finishes - but only two of them substantial multiple mountain stages. One 34km TT and a 10km prologue. I've seen harder Giro's and it's quite Vueltaesque. Froome may look at that and think he could finish it quite fresh

blazing_saddles

Stage 6

Stage 8

Stage 9

Stage 14

Stage 15

Stage 18

Stage 19

Stage 20


Also a couple of lumpy finishes, especially on Sicily.

RichN95.

Shimano's twitter said that Froome and Sky had announced that they were doing the Giro.

And then soon after deleted the tweet.

If you wanted to try the double, this is the sort of Giro route you'd want.

carbonclem

RichN95 wrote:

Shimano's twitter said that Froome and Sky had announced that they were doing the Giro.

And then soon after deleted the tweet.

If you wanted to try the double, this is the sort of Giro route you'd want.

Someone’s timing was wrong! Taxi for the Social Media person

blazing_saddles

Rai made Dumoulin very uncomfortable when asked was he be there. Looked like a solid no to me.
They have just shown a clip of Froome saying that he is "looking forward to seeing everyone at the start of the 2018 Giro....."
The new head of the UCI speaks extremely good English for a French bloke.

r0bh

Ciro Scognamiglio‏ @cirogazzetta
1m1 minute ago

In a video message @chrisfroome has Just announced his participation to @giroditalia 2018 @Gazzetta_it

blazing_saddles

r0bh wrote:

Ciro Scognamiglio‏ @cirogazzetta
1m1 minute ago

In a video message @chrisfroome has Just announced his participation to @giroditalia 2018 @Gazzetta_it

See above. His exact words are open to interpretation.

RichN95.

The completely unambiguous version: https://www.teamsky.com/article/team-sk ... o-d-italia

daniel_b

Confirmed on the Sky twitter page now.

RichN95.

In this photo Michelle Froome and Dave Brailsford are seen examining the Giro parcours before deciding on Chris's participation

rick_chasey

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Rai made Dumoulin very uncomfortable when asked was he be there. Looked like a solid no to me.
They have just shown a clip of Froome saying that he is "looking forward to seeing everyone at the start of the 2018 Giro....."
The new head of the UCI speaks extremely good English for a French bloke.

Well if Froome's riding the Giro, your best bet at beating him is to ride the Tour, right?

blazing_saddles

RichN95 wrote:

The completely unambiguous version: https://www.teamsky.com/article/team-sk ... o-d-italia

This is what we got.

https://twitter.com/giroditalia/status/ ... 4851383296

joelsim

Rick Chasey wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Rai made Dumoulin very uncomfortable when asked was he be there. Looked like a solid no to me.
They have just shown a clip of Froome saying that he is "looking forward to seeing everyone at the start of the 2018 Giro....."
The new head of the UCI speaks extremely good English for a French bloke.

Well if Froome's riding the Giro, your best bet at beating him is to ride the Tour, right?

Yep. Many big guns will swerve the Giro knowing that Froome won’t be as much of a threat in the Tour if he comes in half-cooked.

Landa, Valverde, Aru and someone from Orica, then a few middle-hitters like Brambilla, Majka, Latour.

mamil314

This might be a very interesting race if Dumoulin and Landa have team lead and no gastro issues, also if last years strongest man (imo) Porte gets a decent team support. Love armchair expertising.

blazing_saddles

Rick Chasey wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Rai made Dumoulin very uncomfortable when asked was he be there. Looked like a solid no to me.
They have just shown a clip of Froome saying that he is "looking forward to seeing everyone at the start of the 2018 Giro....."
The new head of the UCI speaks extremely good English for a French bloke.

Well if Froome's riding the Giro, your best bet at beating him is to ride the Tour, right?

True, but the question was asked well before the big reveal.
He must have realised that they would pop the question.
Surprised he didn't have some sort of a deflective answer ready.
Instead he gave the tv audience another brown shorts moment.

m.r.m.

DeVlaeminck wrote:

M.R.M. wrote:

True, but he does seem to have the best shot at beating Froome.

What's he like on the super steep stuff, there is supposed to be a Zoncolan finish and 8 summit finishes in all. I'm trying to think back to last year, he must have climbed well to win it but there is still that feeling that he will lose time to better climbers.

Think he can ride to power and limit his losses. Much like Froome currently. Keep control and ride a steady pace up.

inseine

This must be the surprise of the century given how many people were so sure there was no way he'd ride. I think he's a much more unpredictable character than some people think, both on and off the bike.

kleinstroker

Good stuff.
If all the big riders will stay away and go for the tour as has been said, it's more likely to gift the Giro to Froome, the easier it is, the better chance he will still stuff them in the tour. So better for the other teams to push him as much as possible in the Giro and make life as difficult as possible, so he's too knackered come July.
Teams will have to rethink all their plans for next year. Hilarious curveball from Sky

salsiccia1

I know the rumours have been gathering momentum but I'm still surprised he's doing it. Pleasantly surprised, mind.

joelsim

inseine wrote:

This must be the surprise of the century given how many people were so sure there was no way he'd ride. I think he's a much more unpredictable character than some people think, both on and off the bike.

To be fair though, no one knew there was a binliner of cash being offered.

inseine

Joelsim wrote:

inseine wrote:

This must be the surprise of the century given how many people were so sure there was no way he'd ride. I think he's a much more unpredictable character than some people think, both on and off the bike.

To be fair though, no one knew there was a binliner of cash being offered.

Give over! Is the bin liner of cash a thing? If so, he just has to ride or ride and win?

bobmcstuff

Salsiccia1 wrote:

I know the rumours have been gathering momentum but I'm still surprised he's doing it. Pleasantly surprised, mind.

Same, it will make next year's GTs more interesting on the whole (although some will argue the Giro will suffer with Sky and Froome there).

bobmcstuff

inseine wrote:

Joelsim wrote:

inseine wrote:

This must be the surprise of the century given how many people were so sure there was no way he'd ride. I think he's a much more unpredictable character than some people think, both on and off the bike.

To be fair though, no one knew there was a binliner of cash being offered.

Give over! Is the bin liner of cash a thing? If so, he just has to ride or ride and win?

Apparently the rumour is Sky are getting a €2m appearance fee. How much of that goes direct to Froome I've no idea, but one would assume he is a) already quite well off and b) winning the Tour probably nets you a similar load of cash.

blazing_saddles

Joelsim wrote:

inseine wrote:

This must be the surprise of the century given how many people were so sure there was no way he'd ride. I think he's a much more unpredictable character than some people think, both on and off the bike.

To be fair though, no one knew there was a binliner of cash being offered.

To be fair, you would also have to acknowledge the fact that winning it would make him a member of an extremely exclusive club.

timothyw

Mmm. Not as exclusive as the 5 TDF club IMHO...

Still, good on him/them, will be interesting to see if they crash out in a similar fashion to the usual Sky giro challenge, or otherwise burn themselves out for the Tour.

Lanterne_Rogue

I'm surprised he's doing it, but rather pleased.

I'm not sure it's necessarily about the cash either. Has the parcours been adjusted to encourage him, or are there a few bonkers finishes still?

inseine

TimothyW wrote:

Mmm. Not as exclusive as the 5 TDF club IMHO...

Still, good on him/them, will be interesting to see if they crash out in a similar fashion to the usual Sky giro challenge, or otherwise burn themselves out for the Tour.

But the plan includes a 5th Tour, making it 4 in row à the the same time.

bobmcstuff

inseine wrote:

TimothyW wrote:

Mmm. Not as exclusive as the 5 TDF club IMHO...

Still, good on him/them, will be interesting to see if they crash out in a similar fashion to the usual Sky giro challenge, or otherwise burn themselves out for the Tour.

But the plan includes a 5th Tour, making it 4 in row à the the same time.

If he does 4 in a row, holds all 3 GTs at once and has 5 Tours he will surely be the best GT rider of all time. Certainly of the modern era - although I'm sure some Contador fans would try to argue the toss

RichN95.

bobmcstuff wrote:

If he does 4 in a row, holds all 3 GTs at once and has 5 Tours he will surely be the best GT rider of all time. Certainly of the modern era - although I'm sure some Contador fans would try to argue the toss

Hinault's the best ever. 14 starts, 11 wins, two 2nds and one DNF when he crashed while leading the race

salsiccia1

underlayunderlay wrote:

I'm surprised he's doing it, but rather pleased.

I'm not sure it's necessarily about the cash either. Has the parcours been adjusted to encourage him, or are there a few bonkers finishes still?

Not sure about being adjusted for him as the course looks like what's been rumoured for a while. The Zoncolan is mental, and the penultimate stages look brutal, though I don't know much about the Cervinia climb.