Procycling thread

[Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo]

Anyhoo, the Angrilu looks absolutely shocking. Some of the helicopter shots that give you an idea of the gradient make you wonder how they do it (drugs, obviously). Special mention to the guy with the dinosaur costume. First class.

Yet again Zakarin finishes one place below where he needed to be for my bet to come in. c**t.

Edited September 9, 2017 by Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo

[btb]

Glad to see Contador finish his last active ride in first place - would have shed a tear or three if Froome & Poels had caught him.

Congrats to Froome & Sky who had 5 riders in the top 20 of today's stage finishing ahead of riders like Yates, Chaves & Roche. Wouldn't surprise me if that was Sky's plan from the day after the route was announced.

Anyway it was an interesting race right up to the final climb although you kinda felt it was ominous when Froome took the red jersey after Stage 3.

[kiddy]

Wouldn't surprise me if that was Sky's plan from the day after the route was announced.

With Froome foregoing the early season mini tours, it was pretty obvious what he was targeting.
His narrow winning margin in the Tour, also suggested he was spreading his effort over the two.
Contador's attempt at the Giro/Tour double, the season before, gave big pointers at what would be required. Bertie's mistake was spanking everyone in Italy, then leaving himself in deficit come July in France.
Would love for Froome to go for the Giro, but think he wouldn't risk it for fear of sinking his chances by Paris.

[Joey Jo Jo Junior Shabadoo]

Aforementioned guy in the dinosaur suit:

 

[Salvo Montalbano]

With Froome foregoing the early season mini tours, it was pretty obvious what he was targeting.
His narrow winning margin in the Tour, also suggested he was spreading his effort over the two.
Contador's attempt at the Giro/Tour double, the season before, gave big pointers at what would be required. Bertie's mistake was spanking everyone in Italy, then leaving himself in deficit come July in France.
Would love for Froome to go for the Giro, but think he wouldn't risk it for fear of sinking his chances by Paris.

It would be incredible if he held all three at once (don't think anyone has done that, or even came close?) and he really should try to win the Giro at least once. I think he will at some point as be seems to be a guy who knows the history of the sport, but it might be after he wins his 5th Tour to tie the legends of the sport or even a 6th to take the outright record.

[F_T_Y]

Wout poels looked super strong yesterday, dropped froome near the top of the climb and could have easily reined in contador i thought. Such is the quality sky have he is another who would be the main gc man in any other team.

It has been a great vuelta as usual.

Was also pleasing to see zakarin get a podium as opposed to kelderman who has just sat in the gc group for 3 weeks and not put in a single attack.

Edited September 10, 2017 by F_T_Y

[Salvo Montalbano]

Good finish and interesting (but quite proper) to see Sky and Froome try (and manage) to win the Green Jersey. Great send off for Contador whatever your feelings on him and it's been a really good year for the three Grand Tours I think. Each of them saw very strong competitors, interesting courses, lots of great individual stages, breakaways succeeding, good sprinting and the occasional crash. Will be interesting to see who lines up where next season. Also good to hear Cannondale have secured a sponsor for next year.

[honestly united]

Really hope Froome goes for the Giro next year, so he holds all 3 at the one time. I think it would be a struggle to do the Giro / Tour double but if anyone / team can pull it off its Sky and Froome as they have the strength in depth of domestiques to give him the right backing in both

[Salvo Montalbano]

That would be superb. The strength in cycling at the moment is so high at the moment though.

The top 10 at each grand tour this year is quite interesting:

Giro -
1 Tom Dumoulin (NED)
2 Nairo Quintana (COL)
3 Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)
4 Thibaut Pinot (FRA)
5 Ilnur Zakarin (RUS)
6 Domenico Pozzovivo (ITA) 7 Bauke Mollema (NED)
8 Bob Jungels (LUX) 
9 Adam Yates (GBR)
10 Davide Formolo (ITA)

Tour -
1 Chris Froome (GBR)
2 Rigoberto Urán (COL)
3 Romain Bardet (FRA)
4 Mikel Landa (ESP)
5 Fabio Aru (ITA)
6 Dan Martin (IRL)
7 Simon Yates (GBR)
8 Louis Meintjes (RSA)
9 Alberto Contador (ESP)
10 Warren Barguil (FRA) 

Vuelta -
1 Chris Froome (GBR)
2 Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)
3 Ilnur Zakarin (RUS)
4 Wilco Kelderman (NED)
5 Alberto Contador (ESP)
6 Wout Poels (NED)
7 Michael Woods (CAN)
8 Miguel Ángel López (COL)
9 Steven Kruijswijk (NED)
10 Tejay van Garderen (USA)

That list of course doesn't include Ritchie Porte who was probably Froome's biggest rival on the Tour until his crash. It also doesn't include Estaban Chaves who was looking good in Spain until he tired and he'll be fully fit next season. Landa will be a team leader you'd imagine at Movistar and each team now looks like they have their own super-domestiques to help out (albeit not to the same extent as Sky). It'll be interesting to see how Sky play it. I guess it will become clearer when the routes are announced.

[honestly united]

Interesting that it is only Froome, Niballi, Contador and Zakarin who have top 10 finishes in 2 of the grand tours this years.

Barguil could have been top 10 in the Vuelta, I thought Quintana would have done better on the tour but struggled after the Giro, as did Aru and Bardet on the Vuelta.

Niballi preformed well at the Vuelta but missed most of the Tour, which i think shows as how much of a feat winning 2 in a row is for Froome

[kiddy]

Froome already saying Tour is priority, whilst being asked about Giro possibility.
But says he likes Vuelta most!
[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]

[Bishop Briggs]

6 hours ago, honestly united said:

Interesting that it is only Froome, Niballi, Contador and Zakarin who have top 10 finishes in 2 of the grand tours this years.

Barguil could have been top 10 in the Vuelta, I thought Quintana would have done better on the tour but struggled after the Giro, as did Aru and Bardet on the Vuelta.

Niballi preformed well at the Vuelta but missed most of the Tour, which i think shows as how much of a feat winning 2 in a row is for Froome

Froome had the benefit of four or five domestiques to help him on the tough climbs. The others had one or two at most but, often, none. 

Barguil had announced that he is going to Fortuneo next season. He was riding for himself, rather than helping Bardet, at the Vuelta and Sunweb were right to punt him.

Quintana missed having Valverde to help him but would not have beaten Froome and his Skytrain. Froome's main challenger next year should be Landa. 

[kiddy]

Froome had the benefit of four or five domestiques to help him on the tough climbs. The others had one or two at most but, often, none. 
Barguil had announced that he is going to Fortuneo next season. He was riding for himself, rather than helping Bardet, at the Vuelta and Sunweb were right to punt him.
Quintana missed having Valverde to help him but would not have beaten Froome and his Skytrain. Froome's main challenger next year should be Landa. 

Kelderman, not Bardet, [emoji6] but I think challenges could also come from Porte & Dumoulin as well.

[Bishop Briggs]

24 minutes ago, kiddy said:

Kelderman, not Bardet, but I think challenges could also come from Porte & Dumoulin as well.

Porte and Dumoulin are not good enough to win the TDF. Landa looked stronger than Froome in the MTF in the TDF this. Movistar must make him team leader. With a strong team of domestiques, he could beat Froome next year. 

[Salvo Montalbano]

I wonder if Quintanta could be persuaded to do that job for him. Doubtful, although with the team he did have Nairo managed to win a couple of Grand Tour wins and podiums at the Tour so they have form for working well as a team. Dumoulin has a top 6 at the Vuelta and looked a lot better with the climbing in this year's Giro, and he's the only one of the top guys who can TT as well as or better than Froome. It's a shame Barguill couldn't be a domestique to him with him leaving Sunweb. Without the sort of team around him that Sky and Movistar have, it's hard to disagree that Dumoulin (and Porte, although he's closer) can't win the Tour.

[kiddy]

Dumoulin won the Giro, beating Quintana, Nibali, Landa & Zakarin, whilst having time to go for a shit!

 

 

[Salvo Montalbano]

Indeed. He performed a lot better in the mountains than expected and had the final day time trial in the bag. His team really protracted him too. Landa was unfortunate that he got involved in that crash that led to Thomas abandoning and so ended up being allowed to go for stage wins rather than being a GC contender. No such excuses for Nibali and Quintana being beaten though. I thought at the time maybe Nairo was maybe undercooked and aiming to peak for the Tour but it never happened that way.

[kiddy]

Froome riding both ITT & TTT at the World Champs.
Got the feeling Dumoulin will be fresher, having forgone the Vuelta.

[jaggyness]

Froome riding both ITT & TTT at the World Champs.
Got the feeling Dumoulin will be fresher, having forgone the Vuelta.

Normally would agree, but froome looks like he's ridden himself into terrific form, especially in the tt and the ride up angliru in the final week of the vuelta. Dumoulin could be slightly undercooked so to speak

[Bishop Briggs]

14 hours ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

Indeed. He performed a lot better in the mountains than expected and had the final day time trial in the bag. His team really protracted him too. Landa was unfortunate that he got involved in that crash that led to Thomas abandoning and so ended up being allowed to go for stage wins rather than being a GC contender. No such excuses for Nibali and Quintana being beaten though. I thought at the time maybe Nairo was maybe undercooked and aiming to peak for the Tour but it never happened that way.

This.

Quintana  and Nibali need improve on the ITT. He finished 31 seconds behind Dumoulin in the GC. He lost nearly 4 minutes to him in the two ITTs. Nibali also lost a lot of time to Dumoulin in the ITTs.

Dumoulin couldn't beat Froome in a GT as his climbing is not good enough. He was lucky that the 2017 Giro had two ITTs but no TTT.