Chris Froome

blazing_saddles

There's an amazing amount of speculation on here.
Basing Bernal's potential career trajectory upon negative reviews of other Colombian rider's palmares.
This is not a belief held commonly inside the peloton.
Surmising that at 35, Froome will be as good as new and ready to go for several seasons.
Assuming that even if the former is going better than the latter, the ever pragmatic Brailsford will follow his head, not his heart and gamble all for records, over best chance for a win.

Should he make a full recovery, I reckon he'll get a year, whereby there is joint team leadership, but maybe more like 2018, than 2019. (so pretty much all in for Froome, with Bernal as backup)
He wins, they will review for 2021, he doesn't and it's Bernal tour team leader.

They wait any longer and the end of that 5 year contract comes into sight.....

Pross

DeadCalm wrote:

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Is there a reason we'd expect Bernal's career trajectory to follow that of Quintana? Maybe the advantage of growing up at altitude diminishes after years living mainly not at altitude?

I'd expect him to win another Tour - nothing is nailed on but he has to be as likely as Froome I'd have thought just because Bernal has maybe 10 years plus and Froome only a couple and arguably Froome has looked past his peak - albeit a very high peak.

Quintana is the obvious example but most (if not all) of the current crop seem to have failed to live up to their early promise. Henao, Uran and Chaves are further examples. I did wonder about the altitude factor.
I'm also not sure that he's as good now as people are suggesting. I am not saying he won't win another TDF. I can see him being competitive, particularly as he is likely to have the strongest team. But dominating a la Froome, not so much and if he didn't win another it would not be particularly surprising.

With Henao, Uran and Chaves I think it's more a case that they never actually reached the GC levels in 3 week races that they were initially expected to and Henao in particular turned out to be better suited to hilly one day races or shorter stage races. Bernal's TT is probably his weakest point at the moment but I would say it is better than Henao or Chaves at least and probably on a par with Uran.

bobmcstuff

Blazing Saddles wrote:

There's an amazing amount of speculation on here.
Basing Bernal's potential career trajectory upon negative reviews of other Colombian rider's palmares.
This is not a belief held commonly inside the peloton.
Surmising that at 35, Froome will be as good as new and ready to go for several seasons.
Assuming that even if the former is going better than the latter, the ever pragmatic Brailsford will follow his head, not his heart and gamble all for records, over best chance for a win.

Should he make a full recovery, I reckon he'll get a year, whereby there is joint team leadership, but maybe more like 2018, than 2019. (so pretty much all in for Froome, with Bernal as backup)
He wins, they will review for 2021, he doesn't and it's Bernal tour team leader.

They wait any longer and the end of that 5 year contract comes into sight.....

I agree with most of that except I said if Froome gets back in shape (I never said he would be good as new!) I think Ineos will prioritise the record 5 wins.

DeadCalm

Blazing Saddles wrote:

There's an amazing amount of speculation on here.
Basing Bernal's potential career trajectory upon negative reviews of other Colombian rider's palmares.
This is not a belief held commonly inside the peloton.
Surmising that at 35, Froome will be as good as new and ready to go for several seasons.
Assuming that even if the former is going better than the latter, the ever pragmatic Brailsford will follow his head, not his heart and gamble all for records, over best chance for a win.

Should he make a full recovery, I reckon he'll get a year, whereby there is joint team leadership, but maybe more like 2018, than 2019. (so pretty much all in for Froome, with Bernal as backup)
He wins, they will review for 2021, he doesn't and it's Bernal tour team leader.

They wait any longer and the end of that 5 year contract comes into sight.....

We're discussing what might happen in the future which is always going to involve speculation. My suggestion that it is premature to label Bernal as a serial Tour winner is indeed speculation. Equally, the suggestion that he will be a serial Tour winner is also speculation.

ugo.santalucia

At this stage it's not even clear if Froome can come back to that level... it's a long journey to recovery... Pantani managed, but he was 25 when he had his accident, Froome is ten years older.

larkim

Too much crystal ball gazing going on. What will be will be.

I'd like to see Froome bag another TdF, and I'd like to see him fully recovered from what could have been a fatal injury.

I'd like to see Bernal winning and becoming a very strong force over the next few years. He has a persona / demeanour which appeals to me, has demonstrated good resilience as a youngster and has the potential to become a global cycling superstar from a country with a large number of troubles. That is "a good thing".

I'd like to see strong competition for the top spots in GTs, with established riders coming good (Dumoulin, S Yates, Carapaz, etc) providing stiff competition for the titles over the next few years.

But no-one really knows. Something else unexpected will turn up - the only thing we can be most confident about is that no-one will predict the future accurately from this far out.

Pross

His first post crash video is out now (I saw it through Facebook but couldn't create a link or find it through Google). He looks well and sounds positive. For much of the video they seem to be taunting conspiracy theorists as you see Froome's face and no sign of injuries or pictures of injuries / scars but not his face but towards the end you do see both in the same shot (easily done with make-up though!).

iainf72

Pross wrote:

His first post crash video is out now (I saw it through Facebook but couldn't create a link or find it through Google). He looks well and sounds positive. For much of the video they seem to be taunting conspiracy theorists as you see Froome's face and no sign of injuries or pictures of injuries / scars but not his face but towards the end you do see both in the same shot (easily done with make-up though!).

The long version of the video or the teaser?

You see a fair amount in the long version.

iainf72

Full version here

https://twitter.com/TeamINEOS/status/11 ... 53345?s=20

Pross

Thought it was the long version. It was about 5-10 minutes. You certainly see the post Op scars and X Rays it was just that they never included his face we made me laugh as it was like they were doing it deliberately to wind up the conspiracy theorists.

iainf72

Pross wrote:

Thought it was the long version. It was about 5-10 minutes. You certainly see the post Op scars and X Rays it was just that they never included his face we made me laugh as it was like they were doing it deliberately to wind up the conspiracy theorists.

Oh yeah, that's true. Fair point.

You have a better conspiracy brain than me obviously.

blazing_saddles

iainf72 wrote:

Pross wrote:

Thought it was the long version. It was about 5-10 minutes. You certainly see the post Op scars and X Rays it was just that they never included his face we made me laugh as it was like they were doing it deliberately to wind up the conspiracy theorists.

Oh yeah, that's true. Fair point.

You have a better conspiracy brain than me obviously.

m.r.m.

Froome certainly almost left Ineos in a Lurch; but Bernal was able to answer the call with a "¿has llamado?"

RichN95.

He's back out on his bike

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/raci ... ash-435952

shipley

Oh good........

bobmcstuff

https://twitter.com/chrisfroome/status/ ... 25387?s=19

Apparently Froome cut a tendon in his thumb with a kitchen knife which required surgery... Probably doesn't really help his recovery.

Can't wait to hear if the Asylum can make something out of it?!?

N0bodyOfTheGoat

bobmcstuff wrote:

https://twitter.com/chrisfroome/status/1170322755780325387?s=19

Apparently Froome cut a tendon in his thumb with a kitchen knife which required surgery... Probably doesn't really help his recovery.

Can't wait to hear if the Asylum can make something out of it?!?

Just read about this on BBC before seeing this post, comedy gold!

blazing_saddles

bobmcstuff wrote:

https://twitter.com/chrisfroome/status/1170322755780325387?s=19

Apparently Froome cut a tendon in his thumb with a kitchen knife which required surgery... Probably doesn't really help his recovery.

Can't wait to hear if the Asylum can make something out of it?!?

They can. Apparently it's not his thumb in the picture!

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2HHOK6I4ki ... hf3inosvgf

orraloon

In the interests of preserving what is left of my sanity not ventured behind the walls of the Asylum in a long time. Just wonder what the nutjobs make of the Slovenian successes?

RichN95.

So I'm guessing Celebrity Masterchef is off the list for retirement options.

shirley_basso

Back 'racing' in 1 month today.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/49854247

kingstonian

Unreal that he’s back on a bike so quickly

Pross

Shirley Basso wrote:

Back 'racing' in 1 month today.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/49854247

Ah, I'm disappointed. I thought he was going to be doing the CX season or a few 6 Days!

rick_chasey

So a question to the forum folk - what do you think Chris will do once he is no longer racing?

ddraver

Hedge fund manager probably...

ddraver

He has too much of an accountant vibe to me for the wishy-washy world of nature conservation...

specialgueststar

Stem designer

bobmcstuff

ddraver said:

Hedge fund manager probably...

Hmm.

Possibly a company in that area would want his name associated with them, but they don't just let anyone be a fund manager. He never finished his degree I don't think?

rick_chasey

RichN95. said:

rick_chasey said:

So a question to the forum folk - what do you think Chris will do once he is no longer racing?

I think he'll go back to Africa and become involved in conservation projects. Like Kevin Pietersen has. He still pop up at cycling events, but I doubt he'll be involved beyond lending his name to projects.

Yes good. Glad the forum agrees. Had a debate the other day and they were adamant he'd be a great DS and that he LOVES cycling which felt very wide of the mark.

ddraver

bobmcstuff said:

ddraver said:

Hedge fund manager probably...

Hmm.

Possibly a company in that area would want his name associated with them, but they don't just let anyone be a fund manager. He never finished his degree I don't think?

I think you might have taken me a little over seriously...

I can certainly see him ending up in an uber-corporate financial setting somewhere. I certainly don't see him running a bike shop/cafe anywhere

(or being a DS...)

new formatting's cool...