Pro Cycling Discussion 2018

Soldato
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Thoroughly well deserved win, rode flawlessly throughout and just did exactly what he needed to do to survive.

His speech was incredible :D :D :D :D Especially forgetting Kwiatos name.
 
Soldato
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It's been a great Tour and Thomas was a worthy winner really only Tom Dumoulin looked liked a true threat, Froome for all his excellence looked liked one Grand Tour too far compared tot he rider we know and love.

It will be interesting to see how the organisers go with the next tour, this one has been quite different to recent years, less big mountain stages, some shorter mountain stages, breaks in the run of mountain stages, fewer sprint stages and a not quite mountain time trial.

Still a really entertaining tour a fantastic outcome, this has been one of my must watch sporting events for 30 odd years now, brilliant.
 
Soldato
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Well I have to eat my words. Never ever expected GT to win, not even in the top 10 of the starting riders I’d have picked.

Avoided all bad luck for three weeks which nobody else managed to do and looked strong all the time.
 
Soldato
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Ive properly enjoyed this years tour and watched as much of it as I could; I normally dip in and out. Amazing to see G win it!

I hear the Express have called him "Le Dragon". Is that what we're using?
 
Soldato
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Chuffed to bits to see G win, I too loved his speech and mic drop :cool:

I expected more from Quintana in the mountains, seemed to be in very poor form. Cyclingnews reports Movistar are sending the Three Amigos to the Vuelta so chance of some redemption.

Great tweet from Daniel Friebe last night

Soon the combined palmarès of half a dozen teenaged tenants of a Mancunian terraced house circa 2005, all of them mentored by Rod Ellingworth, will include:

1 Tour de France
1 Road World Champ
12 Track World Champs
51 Grand Tour stages
1 Dauphiné
1 Paris-Nice
1 Sanremo
5 Olympic golds

https://twitter.com/friebos/status/1023258134683504642
 
Soldato
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You could argue the stage to Mur de Bretagne was even more important as Dumoulin lost 1:10 that day including the penalty.

It would be a classic race is Thomas only had 45s coming in to the TT

Dumoulin has since said that he didn't think it would have made any difference. He said that even if he hadn't incurred those losses, Thomas would have just attacked him more in the mountains anyway. He said that Thomas simply had the beating of him on the climbs.
 
Soldato
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Dumoulin has since said that he didn't think it would have made any difference. He said that even if he hadn't incurred those losses, Thomas would have just attacked him more in the mountains anyway. He said that Thomas simply had the beating of him on the climbs.
I take it back - G was a monster in the TT and by far the best in the mountains
 
Soldato
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I expected more from Quintana in the mountains, seemed to be in very poor form. Cyclingnews reports Movistar are sending the Three Amigos to the Vuelta so chance of some redemption.

Their tactics are always and will ever be odd. Lotto played their two cards far better. Who will Sky send as their leader?
 
Soldato
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Their tactics are always and will ever be odd. Lotto played their two cards far better. Who will Sky send as their leader?

That's what I've been wondering, can't see Froome attempting it, especially after his interview yesterday regarding his wife about to give birth, etc. Thomas? I doubt it somehow. Maybe Bernal? He must be pretty tired after this tour so won't want to burn him out.
 
Soldato
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Chuffed to bits to see G win, I too loved his speech and mic drop :cool:

I expected more from Quintana in the mountains, seemed to be in very poor form. Cyclingnews reports Movistar are sending the Three Amigos to the Vuelta so chance of some redemption.

His performance to win stage 17 involved him climbing the Col de Portet at 5.9w/kg (for reference, very similar numbers to what Froome did on Ventoux in his famous 2013 win). Hardly very poor form (that is pretty much at the limit of human physiology), just not let off the leash by Sky in the other stages and seems pointless making a GC bid when he will get destroyed in the TT anyway.

I've always thought Thomas was one of the most talented riders at Sky but never expected him to win the Tour, he rode a good race but also a huge shame for the event that Porte and Nibali crashed out. Nibali looked in excellent form on AdH and Porte remains an unknown in a 3 week event.
 
Soldato
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Yeah, Porte's crash was one of the most disappointing things of this tour. I'd really been looking forward to see how Porte goes up against the big boys on the long climbs. Will he have recovered enough for the Vuelta?
 
Soldato
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Porte needs to come out and finish a GT inside the top 5 in the next 12 months or retire.

Remember Andy Schleck?

He’s younger than Richie Porte!
 
Soldato
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That's what I've been wondering, can't see Froome attempting it, especially after his interview yesterday regarding his wife about to give birth, etc. Thomas? I doubt it somehow. Maybe Bernal? He must be pretty tired after this tour so won't want to burn him out.

Maybe Wout Poels? Finished 6th last year whilst helping Froome win. Broke his collar bone in a April but should be recovered now?
 
Soldato
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That's it now Sky, BACK YOUR MAN! Geraint has to be proven to be the strongest rider now.

Part of me thinks that this was Sky's plan all along, for a Thomas win. I don't know why many journo's aren't even mooting that as a strategy, but if it actually was (and we may never know!) it was a genius move by Team Sky. Perhaps they knew Froome was still tired from the Giro and that really their best bet was the man who just won the Dauphine....? All part of a big plan? I think so...
Have to agree, yet Sky where very clever if that was their plan all along - equally they knew that both Froome and Thomas are great TT'ers so quite happy for them to decide things on the road rather than having a specific hierarchy from Day 1. I guess that's the benefit of having an early TT to decide things on a GC viewpoint for the viewers, but also why it almost dictates the tactics of teams like Sky which might otherwise have been more tested to make hard decisions themselves on the road (like Landa/Thomas in the Giro). I do like time gaps nice and early in a GT as keeps things interesting even through the early sprint stages, but it can lead to riders 'defending' their time gaps quite early in a Tour when it should be more about attacking!

It's been a good tour this year. As was said when the tour route was announced it has been designed to not play to Froome's strengths. It's funny but the most decisive point in the tour was day 1 when Froome, Porte, Yates and Quintana lost time. It may have been a different tour had we gone into the Alps with those lot in the race on the same time as Thomas.

Thomas has really improved his climbing since dropping track racing and really looks good and plainly the stages of this years tour suit him.
Yup he really grew into the yellow jersey as the race drew on. He really did seem to be in fantastic form from the outset, brilliant to see, but equally quite shocked to see Froome missing peak form. I'm not convinced he even found it in that 3rd week. Either over trained or over raced?!

Quintana should be docked time for that spell behind their car yesterday. Dumoulin got done for exactly same thing when it was a lot more impact to the GC involved in the penalty. I know the car drafting happens but if they are going to lead by example on a race favourite in one situation but not in the other, what is the point?
Yup. No consistency between the application of rules across various cyclists. Such is the UCI constantly though! :rolleyes:

Well I have to eat my words. Never ever expected GT to win, not even in the top 10 of the starting riders I’d have picked.

Avoided all bad luck for three weeks which nobody else managed to do and looked strong all the time.
Got to agree, surprised win but absolutely justified. Really genuine performance and his post-race interviews have been good. Maybe a little too 'Sky media PC'. Admittedly he's not been asked many difficult questions like Froome would generally get asked (and then his responses picked to pieces afterwards). :D

We/I knew G could perform like that but wasn't sure if he could mark out a Quintana/Porte/Landa/Valverde late GC single stage breakaway style massive attack (not to mention having 'good luck' he's usually lacked!). Thankfully he didn't need to! Roglic was supreme to watch, almost feel sorry for him missing out on the podium. I'm a Froome fan, but think of all the top 3 he was the lest deserving to be there based on performance. :)

Amazing ride by Dumoulin, so consistent and he's turned into an incredible climber now - but he wasn't overly attacked like we've seen before to test him.
 
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Soldato
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Sky where very clever if that was their plan all along

I doubt that would have been their plan. It would have been a needless risk. Geraint was effectively into unknown territory in the 3rd week and Froome is obviously proven in grand tours. Every time Sky have won the race they ride as if they are the yellow jersey team - even when they're not. It's never been a disadvantage to them before that everyone else can see what their tactics are so there is no need to try and play tricks this time.
Obviously it's a good idea to have both riders as high up GC as possible so the plan would have been to keep Geraint up there as long as possible and only use him up if no other team mates could help. They were lucky that the situation never came up where they had to make a decision between the riders. I think that, up until the final few days, if they were forced to make a choice they would have gone with Froome.
 
Soldato
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They were lucky that the situation never came up where they had to make a decision between the riders. I think that, up until the final few days, if they were forced to make a choice they would have gone with Froome.

And I think that the French public really didn't want to see that situation play out either. If Froome was the "chosen man" then nobody would have wanted to see the yellow jersey change hands as part of a "business transaction", which is what would have happened had the situation presented itself. Everybody wanted to see a straight up fight for it!
 
Soldato
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Bernal & Kwaito to win everything in huge Sky reshake where they enter two teams into each GT. One of British riders and one of the others. :p ;)
 
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