Froome thinking about leaving Ineos

m.r.m.

Teams often overpay for an aging star just to make a splash and be established immediately. By signing said star they presume they can skip 10 years of slowly grinding to be respectable. The goal is to also then immediately be able to sign other top athletes/stars because those are willing to come if a superstar is already signed.

orraloon

Pross said:

The value of the deal seems poor for ISUN considering Froome's age and the unknown extent of his recovery. I can see that a big 12 month deal might be good for publicity but by year 3 with him potentially not having won a GT in nearly 5 years it wouldn't look like good value.

2018 Giro? Edit: ok misread your post referring to a year 3 scenario, my bad.

andyp

No_Ta_Doctor said:

I'm not so sure about that.
Quintana hasn't won a GT since '16, a GT podium since '17 or a major stage race since '17. But he gets loads of TV exposure and headlines.

Tough crowd. He's won four GT stages in that period.

pblakeney

andyp said:

No_Ta_Doctor said:

I'm not so sure about that.
Quintana hasn't won a GT since '16, a GT podium since '17 or a major stage race since '17. But he gets loads of TV exposure and headlines.

Tough crowd. He's won four GT stages in that period.

Sponsors would expect more from a top dog in a top team.

andyp

pblakeney said:

Sponsors would expect more from a top dog in a top team.

Nonsense. Sponsors want publicity, the wins are a bonus.

RichN95.

m.r.m. said:

Teams often overpay for an aging star just to make a splash and be established immediately. By signing said star they presume they can skip 10 years of slowly grinding to be respectable. The goal is to also then immediately be able to sign other top athletes/stars because those are willing to come if a superstar is already signed.

Exactly. It's the same as when Evans signed for BMC. It makes ISUN big players. I would also think that the unusually early announcement of this is to secure some other decent names.

pblakeney

andyp said:

pblakeney said:

Sponsors would expect more from a top dog in a top team.

Nonsense. Sponsors want publicity, the wins are a bonus.

Fair point. It takes a spectacular genius to come up with a plan to get publicity by doing nothing except not winning.

Pross

No_Ta_Doctor said:

Pross said:

The value of the deal seems poor for ISUN considering Froome's age and the unknown extent of his recovery. I can see that a big 12 month deal might be good for publicity but by year 3 with him potentially not having won a GT in nearly 5 years it wouldn't look like good value.

I'm not so sure about that.
Quintana hasn't won a GT since '16, a GT podium since '17 or a major stage race since '17. But he gets loads of TV exposure and headlines.

I doubt Quintana is getting €5 million a year though plus he's 5 years younger and not coming back from a career threatening crash.

I'm not quite sure what ISUN are publicising though and assume it is yet another rich man playing real life fantasy cycling deciding he wants the best GT rider of his generation in his team. Ultimately, €15 million is probably pocket change to him and anyone happy to spend on the sport in the current climate is welcome.

FreddieVonRost

So potentially three bosses and seven water carriers in the TDF. That will be interesting and oh so harmonious.

pblakeney

Can anyone remember a more promising build up in the past 30 years?
Probably end up as a dirge with the Ineos train and a 1,2 ,3.
We can but hope not.

RichN95.

pblakeney said:

Can anyone remember a more promising build up in the past 30 years?
Probably end up as a dirge with the Ineos train and a 1,2 ,3.
We can but hope not.

The 2015 Tour, of which I'm a fan, was billed as a showdown of the 'Big Four'. The previous year Quintana, Nibali and Contador had won the GTs and Froome had won the Tour before that. They big names were all there.

Lanterne_Rogue

pblakeney said:

Fair point. It takes a spectacular genius to come up with a plan to get publicity by doing nothing except not winning.

Works for Richie Porte.

fenix

I'm just hoping we get a tour. Three leaders in Ineos will be fun.
I'm sure Ineos want the win at all costs and not too fussed which rider gets it for them.

andyp

pblakeney said:

Fair point. It takes a spectacular genius to come up with a plan to get publicity by doing nothing except not winning.

Breaking news just in, TV coverage features more riders than just the stage winner.

gsk82

Last week I put £10 on Geraint Thomas winning the tour. No sky rider has backed up their first tour win with another. I aren't convinced Bernal will be the first. I'm assuming Froome won't be at 100%. He was second favourite with the bookies though.

gsk82

Hopefully this will be a big boost for factor bikes. I hope they learn from Rapha's experience and don't get too big for themselves

pblakeney

Lanterne_Rogue said:

pblakeney said:

Fair point. It takes a spectacular genius to come up with a plan to get publicity by doing nothing except not winning.

Works for Richie Porte.

Richie Porte gained publicity by having a wobbly down a mountain. 😉

mrb123

gsk82 said:

Last week I put £10 on Geraint Thomas winning the tour. No sky rider has backed up their first tour win with another. I aren't convinced Bernal will be the first. I'm assuming Froome won't be at 100%. He was second favourite with the bookies though.

I think that could be a good bet.

G is flying under the radar a bit but could easily have won again last year if the weather hadn't played a part.

robnewcastle

mrb123 said:

gsk82 said:

Last week I put £10 on Geraint Thomas winning the tour. No sky rider has backed up their first tour win with another. I aren't convinced Bernal will be the first. I'm assuming Froome won't be at 100%. He was second favourite with the bookies though.

I think that could be a good bet.

G is flying under the radar a bit but could easily have won again last year if the weather hadn't played a part.

Wasn’t G quoted as saying his build up to the tour was a bit well iffy after an extended off season celebrating the yellow jersey. You’d imagine he will have been hammering it and calculated in training to get back to where he was. I just don’t think he can match Bernal on the really big climbs when it explodes (or Froome for that matter if he was to be on top form)

RichN95.

robnewcastle said:

Wasn’t G quoted as saying his build up to the tour was a bit well iffy after an extended off season celebrating the yellow jersey. You’d imagine he will have been hammering it and calculated in training to get back to where he was. I just don’t think he can match Bernal on the really big climbs when it explodes (or Froome for that matter if he was to be on top form)

A counter argument might be that last year's Tour didn't have the best field. This year add in Roglic, Dumoulin, Froome, Pogacar, Lopez, maybe S.Yates

robnewcastle

RichN95. said:

robnewcastle said:

Wasn’t G quoted as saying his build up to the tour was a bit well iffy after an extended off season celebrating the yellow jersey. You’d imagine he will have been hammering it and calculated in training to get back to where he was. I just don’t think he can match Bernal on the really big climbs when it explodes (or Froome for that matter if he was to be on top form)

A counter argument might be that last year's Tour didn't have the best field. This year add in Roglic, Dumoulin, Froome, Pogacar, Lopez, maybe S.Yates

That is very true, it’s well stacked this year isn’t it. If you were to put a bet on now who would be looking at aside from maybe Bernal?

TheBigBean

I prefer competition to infighting, so would much rather he was given a mid season transfer.

RichN95.

robnewcastle said:

That is very true, it’s well stacked this year isn’t it. If you were to put a bet on now who would be looking at aside from maybe Bernal?

Many people think Roglic is the man to beat. Others think Quintana has a new lease of life away from Movistar. Some think Pogacar is the next dominant rider, not Bernal.

rick_chasey

I do think it's a bit of a mug's game predicting too much as the season is so weird who knows what shape riders will be in come September.

Also, it will have knock on effects for the first part of next season too, assuming that is run as normal.

robnewcastle

RichN95. said:

robnewcastle said:

That is very true, it’s well stacked this year isn’t it. If you were to put a bet on now who would be looking at aside from maybe Bernal?

Many people think Roglic is the man to beat. Others think Quintana has a new lease of life away from Movistar. Some think Pogacar is the next dominant rider, not Bernal.

I like Roglic, he seems ice cool. Great rider to watch too👍

orraloon

Is Roglic 'ice cool' while Froome is 'boring' and 'robotic'? 😉

robnewcastle

orraloon said:

Is Roglic 'ice cool' while Froome is 'boring' and 'robotic'? 😉

To be fair I’ve never found Froome a boring rider to watch. Attacking uphill, downhill, opportunistic on the flat (with Sagan). Because of the sky train I think he’s been labelled as robotic which is a little unfair. I get your point though 👍

ddraver

gsk82 said:

Hopefully this will be a big boost for factor bikes. I hope they learn from Rapha's experience and don't get too big for themselves

They re somewhat already in rapha's corner in terms of budget... 😧

phreak

RichN95. said:

robnewcastle said:

Wasn’t G quoted as saying his build up to the tour was a bit well iffy after an extended off season celebrating the yellow jersey. You’d imagine he will have been hammering it and calculated in training to get back to where he was. I just don’t think he can match Bernal on the really big climbs when it explodes (or Froome for that matter if he was to be on top form)

A counter argument might be that last year's Tour didn't have the best field. This year add in Roglic, Dumoulin, Froome, Pogacar, Lopez, maybe S.Yates

It will be interesting to see just how the new calendar changes the lineup for events. For instance, it's hard to imagine many of the highest climbs in the Giro surviving the weather, which may encourage a strong time triallist to try and 'Moser' a win, but then you've also got a number of monuments being run at the same time, which may rule some of those rouleurs out.

Either way, I suspect we'll have some unusual winners of races this year, especially with the Vuelta and Giro overlapping. The Vuelta lineup could be quite interesting.

nickice

andyp said:

pblakeney said:

Sponsors would expect more from a top dog in a top team.

Nonsense. Sponsors want publicity, the wins are a bonus.

You what?