TJV *spoilers*
Their 58kg climber is the strongest in ITT (it looks he gifted WvA the win in the end and he destroyed Ganna and Pogacar)
Their 78kg sprinter climbs faster than 60kg climbers.
Anyone find these performances quite strange? Pogacar has been accused of things, but this is even more crazy.
TJV runs a good program.
Their 78kg sprinter climbs faster than 60kg climbers.
Anyone find these performances quite strange? Pogacar has been accused of things, but this is even more crazy.
TJV runs a good program.
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Kuss has been well known as a pure climber and a good one for a while.
The others who crashed out were also known entities.
I don’t think anyone massively surpassed expectation individually except for Laporte.
WvA was remarkable but this is a follow on from the previous Tours.
I would say this was a different kind of remarkable. He was on it every single day. Either in the break, TTing, sprinting, attacking or leading of HC mountains. And there hasn't been a hint of fatigue. He could ride around in front of the TdF Femmes giving the cameraman a backy and he would still be fresh.
I guess I mean if any rider was going to do that it was gonna be him.
He should seriously consider doing a Thomas and having a tilt at the tour.
He clearly has the engine and the recovery for a GT.
Wout though, I get the impression that when he makes it look easy it's because for him, it is. Stuff that would cost others a full effort is 90% for him, or full on but for half the time. He's doing loads, but he's putting others on their limit while staying within his.
@DrHeadgear
The Vikings are coming!
Why limit is to just one? With his recovery he could do all three and all the classics. I haven't seen anyone like him since Jalabert.
By contrast his shadow MVDP frequently pays for over exertion and has to pick and choose his targets
Gee never thought he had a chance of winning from the moment he absentmindedly pulled on a gilet in Copenhagen.
The best sprinters were at the Giro and are too scared of Wout to even try. The Laporte win was a perfect example of everyone being too scared to take the race by the scruff of the neck. (Cav would have - which is a joke, but also kinda true)
TVJ were the only team to bring the GC fight to Pog who needs to have a stern word this winter about the strength of his team. Also, all the sprint teams are afraid of WvA and were too hesitant to take the fight to him for fear of giving another sprint team am easy ride.
They've maximised the opportunities for sure, but they've not had a full on scrap for many of them.
- @ddraver
Part of the chaos of this year's Tour overall has been a lack of a big voices telling everyone to knock it off - Ineos can't do it because Thomas is third, UAE can't do it because Pogacar is doing everything on his own, and Jumbo can't do it because the person kicking the hornet nest is almost always Wout. Someone like Cavendish would probably have been able to unite the sprinter's teams at least.
Albeit I'm not sure he'd have had the legs to be up there to be bothered. But in theory at least...
The top neo pros are signed up to fairly long contracts nowadays. Pogacar is at UAE until 2027, Evenepoel at QS til 2026. Supposedly the next big thing Ayuso is at UAE until 2025,
Ineos have bought up a lot of young talent - Bernal, Rodriguez, Plapp, Pidcock, Sivakov, Tulitt and Hayter will follow Hayter. One needs to pay off.
Phillipson certainly isn't.
Gronewegen showed promise in Denmark but hasn't mentally recovered from what he did to Phillipson.
Ewan doesn't have the confidence to pick which GT he wants to ride.
None of the above have the confidence to command the team chosen to support them and to boss the peloton into shape on their specific days.
The Giro was a much better race in terms of sprints and sprint team control (which may not actually be a good thing for us).
Yesterday was a flipping shambles from a sprint team POV. Let the wrong break go, then caught it far too early, then let an even stronger break go. I mean, come on WTF guys? Wherefore art thou, Cheng?
- @ddraver
I suppose my point was that harking back to Sky days, the entire raison d'etre of the team was to win the Tour every year. That currently feels some way off for this team.
He should have learnt from what he did to Jacobsen. Doing something to Phillipsen as well is just callous.
I think they have moved on a little. They realise that other teams have caught up and they no longer have the best GC rider, so they've diversified. This mirrors their sponsors in some respect. Ineos have their fingers in many pies, while Sky TV stick more to their core business.
There weren't many chances for the sprinters and you had WVA determined to win everything yet three of those names still took a stage. The only officially flat stages not won by one of those sprinters were the one where the break held on and Pedersen (a sprinter) won plus yesterday when they'd all been killed off by the Pyrenees.
Both disgusted and bemused by the fact that all the sprint teams hesitated at the point when Laporte made his move.
He doesn't mince his words and places the blame firmly upon then for the fact it wasn't a bunch sprint.
All about "Sprinting in the red" as he called it: It's what has separated him from the rest, as his numbers aren't the best. (although he's just posted his second best ever)
None of them were prepared to "sprint in the red" and so it never ended as a bunch sprint.
Can't help but feel QS farked up the team selection.
I have to say that Armstrong has been extremely complimentary about G's Tour performance. (not sure if that's a good or bad thing....)
- @ddraver