The Poels factor

ugo.santalucia

Looks like Bernal will win the Tour, but for a change we have seen a bit of action in the GC... and crucially I put it all down to Poels' poor form...
Ineos ran out of lead out men on every climb, which is something we have never seen before

RichN95.

Is his form that poor, though? Bernal was originally supposed to be doing his job

If he wins, it's two out of competition crashes that have made it possible. His pre-Giro and Froome's.

blazing_saddles

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Looks like Bernal will win the Tour, but for a change we have seen a bit of action in the GC... and crucially I put it all down to Poels' poor form...
Ineos ran out of lead out men on every climb, which is something we have never seen before

Nowt to do with Poels in my book. Other links are totally missing from the chain, this Tour.
He's having to come to the fore too soon.

iainf72

1) If Poels is leaving (seems he is), then maybe his head isn't completely in it
2) I'm certain not having Froome in the squad is having an impact on how the support riders ride. If they win this one without him in the team, it'll be the first GT they've won where he wasn't in the team

gsk82

iainf72 wrote:

1) If Poels is leaving (seems he is), then maybe his head isn't completely in it
2) I'm certain not having Froome in the squad is having an impact on how the support riders ride. If they win this one without him in the team, it'll be the first GT they've won where he wasn't in the team

Where's he going? Has he decided he wants to be the boss after all?

Moscon and Kwiatkowski have been the real problem for Ineos. Its a good job for them that vab Baarl showed up ready

hypster

I don't understand what has happened to Kwiatkowski, Poels and maybe even Thomas in this Tour. Sky/Ineos analyse all their riders at multiple training camps and usually bring them to the Tour at the peak of their performance to do the business. That obviously is wildly off this time and I'm wondering what the reason is?

It can't just be the Froome factor because that happened just a couple of weeks before the Tour. Thomas was always going to be supported as the defending champion so the domestiques should have been trained to a peak for that at least.

EDIT: Poels won a stage in the Dauphine as well didn't he and finished 4th on GC so he was going well enough there.

shirley_basso

Poels was good today. Kwiat been out of form. G been ok but basically was that stage where JA won a load of time and no one has been keen to take it back until the last minute.

No_Ta_Doctor

Let's not forget that in swapping Froome for van Barle that's promoted Bernal from mountain domestique to race leader. That's a massive loss in support quality.

Poels hasn't been brilliant (but was good today). Van Barle has been better than expected, but had to be put in the break to be where he was needed, and cant really force the pace like Poels and Bernal (Tao, Elissonde..) could.

Kwiatkowski clearly isn't right somehow. That's a huge loss.

ugo.santalucia

No tA Doctor wrote:

Let's not forget that in swapping Froome for van Barle that's promoted Bernal from mountain domestique to race leader.

Which is where he belongs... at 22 he has shown to be a superstar and shouldn't be a domestique to anyone, especially to GT who is (in my opinion) nowhere near as good a climber

No_Ta_Doctor

ugo.santalucia wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

Let's not forget that in swapping Froome for van Barle that's promoted Bernal from mountain domestique to race leader.

Which is where he belongs... at 22 he has shown to be a superstar and shouldn't be a domestique to anyone, especially to GT who is (in my opinion) nowhere near as good a climber

I'm certainly not arguing that!
But last year he was a seriously high class mountain dom. That's not been close to being replaced in the mountain team.

rick_chasey

iainf72 wrote:

1) If Poels is leaving (seems he is), then maybe his head isn't completely in it
2) I'm certain not having Froome in the squad is having an impact on how the support riders ride. If they win this one without him in the team, it'll be the first GT they've won where he wasn't in the team

Poels and v. Baarle have said they much prefer riding for Tomas and he gets more out of them.

Poels also mentioned that his form in terms of numbers is as good as it has always been.

No_Ta_Doctor

Rick Chasey wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

1) If Poels is leaving (seems he is), then maybe his head isn't completely in it
2) I'm certain not having Froome in the squad is having an impact on how the support riders ride. If they win this one without him in the team, it'll be the first GT they've won where he wasn't in the team

Poels and v. Baarle have said they much prefer riding for Tomas and he gets more out of them.

Any word on why that might be? Different riding style/tactics? Personality? Or maybe just unfamiliarity (Tao has usually had the mountain dom role for Bernal)?

rick_chasey

No tA Doctor wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

1) If Poels is leaving (seems he is), then maybe his head isn't completely in it
2) I'm certain not having Froome in the squad is having an impact on how the support riders ride. If they win this one without him in the team, it'll be the first GT they've won where he wasn't in the team

Poels and v. Baarle have said they much prefer riding for Tomas and he gets more out of them.

Any word on why that might be? Different riding style/tactics? Personality? Or maybe just unfamiliarity (Tao has usually had the mountain dom role for Bernal)?

1) less abuse on the road from fans

2) he makes for a better team atmosphere (eg Poels being novelty record DJ on the bus)

ugo.santalucia

Poels already popped, after 20 miles of racing

No_Ta_Doctor

Rick Chasey wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

1) If Poels is leaving (seems he is), then maybe his head isn't completely in it
2) I'm certain not having Froome in the squad is having an impact on how the support riders ride. If they win this one without him in the team, it'll be the first GT they've won where he wasn't in the team

Poels and v. Baarle have said they much prefer riding for Tomas and he gets more out of them.

Any word on why that might be? Different riding style/tactics? Personality? Or maybe just unfamiliarity (Tao has usually had the mountain dom role for Bernal)?

1) less abuse on the road from fans

2) he makes for a better team atmosphere (eg Poels being novelty record DJ on the bus)

Ah, it was Thomas over Froome. I misunderstood, thought it was Thomas over Bernal.

webboo

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Poels already popped, after 20 miles of racing

You must be watching a different race.

blazing_saddles

I said it right at the start of the race and I'll say it again: Third Week Poels.
Last domi standing again. (unless you count Thomas :P )

No_Ta_Doctor

Blazing Saddles wrote:

I said it right at the start of the race and I'll say it again: Third Week Poels.
Last domi standing again. (unless you count Thomas :P )

Danish commentators had his ride today as: "In emergency, break glass". They've basically not really needed to crack him out before.

RichN95.

No tA Doctor wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

1) If Poels is leaving (seems he is), then maybe his head isn't completely in it
2) I'm certain not having Froome in the squad is having an impact on how the support riders ride. If they win this one without him in the team, it'll be the first GT they've won where he wasn't in the team

Poels and v. Baarle have said they much prefer riding for Tomas and he gets more out of them.

Any word on why that might be? Different riding style/tactics? Personality? Or maybe just unfamiliarity (Tao has usually had the mountain dom role for Bernal)?

1) less abuse on the road from fans

2) he makes for a better team atmosphere (eg Poels being novelty record DJ on the bus)

Ah, it was Thomas over Froome. I misunderstood, thought it was Thomas over Bernal.

But van Baarle has barely ridden with Froome. This year's Dauphine was only the second race they've done together (the other was at the beginning of 2018).

above_the_cows

RichN95 wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

1) If Poels is leaving (seems he is), then maybe his head isn't completely in it
2) I'm certain not having Froome in the squad is having an impact on how the support riders ride. If they win this one without him in the team, it'll be the first GT they've won where he wasn't in the team

Poels and v. Baarle have said they much prefer riding for Tomas and he gets more out of them.

Any word on why that might be? Different riding style/tactics? Personality? Or maybe just unfamiliarity (Tao has usually had the mountain dom role for Bernal)?

1) less abuse on the road from fans

2) he makes for a better team atmosphere (eg Poels being novelty record DJ on the bus)

Ah, it was Thomas over Froome. I misunderstood, thought it was Thomas over Bernal.

But van Baarle has barely ridden with Froome. This year's Dauphine was only the second race they've done together (the other was at the beginning of 2018).

It appears the Dutch dislike of Froome even extends to team mates that may or may not have raced with him. The Froome dislike is widespread and hilariously hypocritical, maar doe normaal, typische Nederlands, given the history of Dutch cycling.

rick_chasey

RichN95 wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

1) If Poels is leaving (seems he is), then maybe his head isn't completely in it
2) I'm certain not having Froome in the squad is having an impact on how the support riders ride. If they win this one without him in the team, it'll be the first GT they've won where he wasn't in the team

Poels and v. Baarle have said they much prefer riding for Tomas and he gets more out of them.

Any word on why that might be? Different riding style/tactics? Personality? Or maybe just unfamiliarity (Tao has usually had the mountain dom role for Bernal)?

1) less abuse on the road from fans

2) he makes for a better team atmosphere (eg Poels being novelty record DJ on the bus)

Ah, it was Thomas over Froome. I misunderstood, thought it was Thomas over Bernal.

But van Baarle has barely ridden with Froome. This year's Dauphine was only the second race they've done together (the other was at the beginning of 2018).

Poels has though

mamil314

This thread is named wrong, it was Kwiato that didn't turn up and Poels had to do more. Good job the new guys stepped up

above_the_cows

mamil314 wrote:

This thread is named wrong, it was Kwiato that didn't turn up and Poels had to do more. Good job the new guys stepped up

Kwiato was down to his last pair of Oakleys.

gsk82

Above The Cows wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

1) If Poels is leaving (seems he is), then maybe his head isn't completely in it
2) I'm certain not having Froome in the squad is having an impact on how the support riders ride. If they win this one without him in the team, it'll be the first GT they've won where he wasn't in the team

Poels and v. Baarle have said they much prefer riding for Tomas and he gets more out of them.

Any word on why that might be? Different riding style/tactics? Personality? Or maybe just unfamiliarity (Tao has usually had the mountain dom role for Bernal)?

1) less abuse on the road from fans

2) he makes for a better team atmosphere (eg Poels being novelty record DJ on the bus)

Ah, it was Thomas over Froome. I misunderstood, thought it was Thomas over Bernal.

But van Baarle has barely ridden with Froome. This year's Dauphine was only the second race they've done together (the other was at the beginning of 2018).

It appears the Dutch dislike of Froome even extends to team mates that may or may not have raced with him. The Froome dislike is widespread and hilariously hypocritical, maar doe normaal, typische Nederlands, given the history of Dutch cycling.

I thought Poels and Froome were best buds

m.r.m.

There are some rumors in the Wiggins podcast and others that Kwiatkowski got sick. No idea if it's true though.

RichN95.

Double post

RichN95.

I won't be sure of Kwiatkowski or Poels making the Ineos team next year.

My Guess: Bernal, Thomas, Froome, Sivakov, van Baarle, Rowe, Castroviejo, one other - probably Kwiato

hypster

M.R.M. wrote:

There are some rumors in the Wiggins podcast and others that Kwiatkowski got sick. No idea if it's true though.

I guess that's the obvious speculation but it would be nice if we could get some actual explanation from Ineos. Even if they wanted to bluff it out during the race they could explain what happened to him after.

ugo.santalucia

RichN95 wrote:

I won't be sure of Kwiatkowski or Poels making the Ineos team next year.

My Guess: Bernal, Thomas, Froome, Sivakov, van Baarle, Rowe, Castroviejo, one other - probably Kwiato

2 former winners take some skills to manage, 3 former winners seems almost impossible... surely one of them will go... problem is go where?

Movistar with their roster of superstars didn't even manage the podium

carbonclem

Surely Geraint gets sold the Vuelta and/or Giro now. Assuming Froome mends ok, it’s him and Egan for the Tour.

hypster

It's getting a crowded at Ineos now isn't it? I did think that maybe, just maybe they might encourage Bernal to go for the Giro next year rather than defend the yellow jersey like they tried to do with Thomas this year. Then I remembered they have Carapaz as well the defending Giro champion so it's all getting a bit crowded at the top isn't it?

Also, up until recently Froome was the natural leader for almost any GT he entered and he had a core of the best domestiques in the team and obviously a close rapport with them. Now it's all getting a bit disjointed with 4 GT winners in the team and some of the domestiques are going to feel a little less than special I'm guessing.