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Build your ultimate sprint team

No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 11,954
edited July 2019 in Pro race
Rules:
8 riders. Past or present. Your goal: to win every sprint stage in the TdF, including in Paris.
Inspired by
RichN95 wrote:
If you type in Best Cycling Lead Out into Google, eight of the top ten are about Renshaw. His Wikipedia page is fourth pick.

Fabio Sabatini rightfully gets a nod. Gianni Lombardi defined the role in its modern sense. Marco Velo and Danilo Hondo developed it. Tom Veelers with Koen de Kort changed the game (the second last man - Eisel for Cavendish - is the most underrated role in cycling)

But if you're picking your all time dream squad Renshaw is in.

My picks:
Sprinter: Cav
Lead out: Renshaw, Eisel, Koen de Kort
The meat: Tony Martin, Michael Rogers, Ji Cheng, Kiriyenka

They're also going to kill the TTT.
“Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

@DrHeadgear

The Vikings are coming!

Posts

  • rick_chaseyrick_chasey Posts: 66,179 Lives Here
    Cav
    Renshaw
    Cancellara
    Hincape
    Sean Yates
    Riis
    Keisse

    Keisse counts double since he’s so good at it so there’s my eight.

    Or add dries devenyns.
    _
  • Lanterne_RogueLanterne_Rogue Posts: 3,706
    It's already been done: HTC 2009.

    Maybe swap Kirchen or Monfort out for Peter Sagan to pick up all all the lumpy ones too.
    Twitter: @canocola @thedreadships
  • RichN95.RichN95. Posts: 26,527
    Cavendish - sprinter
    Renshaw - lead out
    Kelly - late positioning/hilly sprints
    McGee - for high speed 1-3km bursts
    Cancellara, Martin, Hansen, Rogers - engine room with Rogers as road captain. Hansen in for reliability
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • gsk82gsk82 Posts: 3,247
    underlayunderlay wrote:
    It's already been done: HTC 2009.

    This

    Ride on the front all day. Then ride so fast in the last 15km that no one could pass them
    "Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 11,954
    You guys have some big names with their own ambitions in your teams. You see Kelly, Riis and Cancellara breaking themselves every day to get Cav over the line?
    underlayunderlay wrote:
    It's already been done: HTC 2009.

    Maybe swap Kirchen or Monfort out for Peter Sagan to pick up all all the lumpy ones too.

    Yeah, was trying to do an all-time. Looking at it, I seem to have chosen 5 of the HTC 2009 TdF team anyway:


    Cavendish Mark
    Martin Tony
    Hincapie George
    Monfort Maxime
    Rogers Michael
    Renshaw Mark
    Eisel Bernhard
    Grabsch Bert
    Kirchen Kim
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • above_the_cowsabove_the_cows Posts: 11,406
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    Cavendish Mark
    Martin Tony
    Hincapie George
    Monfort Maxime
    Rogers Michael
    Renshaw Mark
    Eisel Bernhard
    Grabsch Bert
    Kirchen Kim

    That really was a great team!
    Correlation is not causation.
  • Lanterne_RogueLanterne_Rogue Posts: 3,706
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    Yeah, was trying to do an all-time.

    TBF I basically nicked Douglas Adams' line about the Beatles (I think).

    It's hard to see how they could have been improved though - you've got the diesel power, you've got the wise heads, you've got some very fast people for the last few km, a lead-out man who raised the bar and a sprinter who could pull wins from nowhere. And you've got a proven team synergy, which as you say is where an all-star proposal is likely to fall apart.

    Alternative proposal: Cipollini's team, as long as it includes the bloke from the Giro who designed an unholy number of sprint stages for him to win.
    Twitter: @canocola @thedreadships
  • rick_chaseyrick_chasey Posts: 66,179 Lives Here
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    You guys have some big names with their own ambitions in your teams. You see Kelly, Riis and Cancellara breaking themselves every day to get Cav over the line?
    underlayunderlay wrote:
    It's already been done: HTC 2009.

    Maybe swap Kirchen or Monfort out for Peter Sagan to pick up all all the lumpy ones too.

    Yeah, was trying to do an all-time. Looking at it, I seem to have chosen 5 of the HTC 2009 TdF team anyway:


    Cavendish Mark
    Martin Tony
    Hincapie George
    Monfort Maxime
    Rogers Michael
    Renshaw Mark
    Eisel Bernhard
    Grabsch Bert
    Kirchen Kim

    Pre doping Riis and Cancellara did decent turns in the final at Saxo
    _
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 11,954
    I was half hoping somebody would find an argument for putting the Tashkent Terror in, but I guess nobody was that daft.
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • RichN95.RichN95. Posts: 26,527
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    I was half hoping somebody would find an argument for putting the Tashkent Terror in, but I guess nobody was that daft.
    He'd be DQd most stages these days
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • ProssPross Posts: 35,385
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    I was half hoping somebody would find an argument for putting the Tashkent Terror in, but I guess nobody was that daft.

    I haven't done one yet was going to go down a different route of a team of top class sprinters on the basis one of them would win so Abdu would be in that.
  • ContrelaMontreContrelaMontre Posts: 3,027
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    Rules:
    8 riders. Past or present. Your goal: to win every sprint stage in the TdF, including in Paris.
    Inspired by
    RichN95 wrote:
    If you type in Best Cycling Lead Out into Google, eight of the top ten are about Renshaw. His Wikipedia page is fourth pick.

    Fabio Sabatini rightfully gets a nod. Gianni Lombardi defined the role in its modern sense. Marco Velo and Danilo Hondo developed it. Tom Veelers with Koen de Kort changed the game (the second last man - Eisel for Cavendish - is the most underrated role in cycling)

    But if you're picking your all time dream squad Renshaw is in.

    My picks:
    Sprinter: Cav
    Lead out: Renshaw, Eisel, Koen de Kort
    The meat: Tony Martin, Michael Rogers, Ji Cheng, Kiriyenka

    They're also going to kill the TTT.

    Ji Cheng out, Ekimov in for me
    Rule No.10 // It never gets easier, you just go faster
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 11,954
    Pross wrote:
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    I was half hoping somebody would find an argument for putting the Tashkent Terror in, but I guess nobody was that daft.

    I haven't done one yet was going to go down a different route of a team of top class sprinters on the basis one of them would win so Abdu would be in that.

    So you've got the 8 best sprinters, wheel-surfing without leadout... and which teams are going to bring the break back and pull on the front for the finish for you? :D
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • kingstongrahamkingstongraham Posts: 23,346
    Merckx surely. Because otherwise someone else would have him.
  • timothywtimothyw Posts: 2,482
    Surely if you want to win every sprint stage you need to have two sprinters?

    Otherwise a rider on another team who had kept powder dry would get lucky sooner or later.

    I mean, even with 2009 Cav/HTC, you wouldn't bet against 2013 Kittel pinching a stage... or Greipel for that matter, who had a long running habit of getting one at least.
  • ProssPross Posts: 35,385
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    Pross wrote:
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    I was half hoping somebody would find an argument for putting the Tashkent Terror in, but I guess nobody was that daft.

    I haven't done one yet was going to go down a different route of a team of top class sprinters on the basis one of them would win so Abdu would be in that.

    So you've got the 8 best sprinters, wheel-surfing without leadout... and which teams are going to bring the break back and pull on the front for the finish for you? :D

    I was thinking the 6 best sprinters plus Cheng and Tony Martin then a free for all sprint :lol:
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 11,954
    Pross wrote:
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    Pross wrote:
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    I was half hoping somebody would find an argument for putting the Tashkent Terror in, but I guess nobody was that daft.

    I haven't done one yet was going to go down a different route of a team of top class sprinters on the basis one of them would win so Abdu would be in that.

    So you've got the 8 best sprinters, wheel-surfing without leadout... and which teams are going to bring the break back and pull on the front for the finish for you? :D

    I was thinking the 6 best sprinters plus Cheng and Tony Martin then a free for all sprint :lol:

    :lol::lol::lol:

    Post it up.

    Oh and Abdoujaparov will manage to take out your entire team, leaving it open for... errr... Boasson Hagen.
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 11,954
    TimothyW wrote:
    Surely if you want to win every sprint stage you need to have two sprinters?

    Otherwise a rider on another team who had kept powder dry would get lucky sooner or later.

    I mean, even with 2009 Cav/HTC, you wouldn't bet against 2013 Kittel pinching a stage... or Greipel for that matter, who had a long running habit of getting one at least.

    Well in 2009 there were ten flat stages and Cav won 6 of them. 3 were won from the break, and the last was Hushovd - in an uphill drag after a pretty rolling day for being classified as flat.
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • rick_chaseyrick_chasey Posts: 66,179 Lives Here
    Who would be in the car?
    _
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 11,954
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Who would be in the car?

    Well Cav is at the pointy end, so I reckon Rolf Aldag and Brian Holm.
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • rick_chaseyrick_chasey Posts: 66,179 Lives Here
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Who would be in the car?

    Well Cav is at the pointy end, so I reckon Rolf Aldag and Brian Holm.

    So I can’t pick that too?
    _
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 11,954
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    No tA Doctor wrote:
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    Who would be in the car?

    Well Cav is at the pointy end, so I reckon Rolf Aldag and Brian Holm.

    So I can’t pick that too?

    Well it's not a sweepstake. Otherwise I'd not let you have Cav.

    Of course, if you're worried about reputational damage from picking the same as me I can't help you, but consider it a real risk.
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • rick_chaseyrick_chasey Posts: 66,179 Lives Here
    No I want to pick who is in my car!
    _
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 11,954
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    No I want to pick who is in my car!

    Go for it.

    You're low on sleep, aren't you? :lol:
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • rick_chaseyrick_chasey Posts: 66,179 Lives Here
    What gave that away?

    Bruyneel....
    _
  • smithy21smithy21 Posts: 2,204
    Renshaw was dogsh1t. Anyone could have looked good piloting Cavendish in his prime. This was clearly shown by Cavendish’s ability to surf wheels later in his career and the fact that Renshaw was utterly hopeless in any role after moving on.

    And I never buy any of that “team did a great job” Cav used to spout. 99% was his talent and speed.
  • Harry182Harry182 Posts: 1,168
    Arnaud Demare?

    No, wait - I thought you said holding the car.
  • timothywtimothyw Posts: 2,482
    Van Aert is looking like a great addition/substitution for any sprint team - huge pulls and enough speed to take the win himself if it comes to it.
  • timothywtimothyw Posts: 2,482
    Duplicate, deleted...
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