Seems like there was more talk of that last year. In reality, I'm sure everyone still cheats in this sport. The average speed was like 25mph in a stage with 4 climbs today. It's more that Sky has an enormous budget with several of the best GC riders in the world acting as doms. for Froome. And last year, he had freaking Porte, who has been the second best GC ride in this race.
Haha holy balls Froome destroyed the MTT today. Porte and Aru had fantastic rides finishing virtually tied for 3rd and 4th. Froome is on another level than everyone else.
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...r-with-signing-of-peter-sagan-for-2017-267920 Big News: Sagan (and his brother), tony martin, rafal majka all have signed with new team Bora-Hansgrohe --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- also, teams are REALLY complaining about Team Sky and wanting changes to the Tour itself http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/chris-froome-team-sky-celebrate-tour-de-france/story?id=40840549 Matt White, head sports director of the Orica-BikeExchange team that saw Briton Adam Yates finishing fourth overall and winning the white jersey as the Tour's best young rider: "It is hard to compete with those guys with the budget they have got. Seven of their riders here would be our highest-paid athlete. Then you have got guys like Leopold Köenig who was sixth in the Tour last year is not even here ... Nicolas Roche too. "Every single rider on Sky [in their Tour team], except for the two work horses -- Luke Rowe and Ian Stannard -- would be a leader of any other team. That is what we are dealing with." and this from the race director Christian Prudhomme: Sky selected a Tour team stacked with 'winners' in their own right. They protected Froome in every front, especially in the Pyrenees and Alps where they rode at a tempo so strong that it stifled anyone's ability to attack. Prudhomme believes reducing team sizes to from nine to eight riders would animate the Tour. "More than ever, it's time to have teams with one less rider," said Prudhomme who, like many, felt that Sky's collective strength basically "shut down the race in the mountains." "The biggest teams would not want to even like to hear of this talk," Prudhomme said. "But perhaps they can understand that it is about the greater interest of cycling."
was the same way with Lance back in the day. He'd get the jersey early, and his team would just sit at the front of the peloton all race. It was only more exciting back then because he was an American and he was destroying all those euros. I wanted to believe so badly back then....
I'm pretty sure Tony Martin isn't done yet. I think Katusha is coming after him hard... other transfer news... * Phillipe Gilbert likely to join Quick-Step. * Boonen to stay with Quick-Step but will likely retire after Paris-Roubaix. * Jarlinson Pantano (IAM) who won a stage of the Tour and was in a lot of the mountain breakaways is joining Trek. Likely to support Contador.
That's a really nice signing. Cannondale was on the verge of having a Pro Continental level roster. Any idea if they are going to sign Lachlan Morton? Or does he still not want to ride for a World Tour team? Also, the Olympic road race is tomorrow(!). Should be interesting. It's a really tough course, but it's not necessarily a pure climbers route, so a puncheur like Valverde, Rodriguez, or Dan Martin will probably win. I don't think any Americans have much of a shot. I'll be rooting for Fabian (even though he probably has no shot) or one of the French riders (Alaphalippe is probably one of the favorites as well).
Sep is a great signing. He did really well there a few years back when he got his first big classics win. I thought he was going to go to Sky or BMC. I have a lot to say about Cannondale (formerly Garmin) because they are my favorite team. If you care to read, click the spoilers, if not, ignore. Regarding Lachlan Morton.... Spoiler they were the first team to give Lachlan a chance. He's quite a personality and had a lot of demands for the team to let him do his own thing, on his own terms. This scared most other teams. It worked for a while at Garmin, but when he stopped progressing as a rider and the team asked him to stick to a regimen. He lost all motivation and quit. Then, he agreed to join team Jelly Belly as long as they signed his brother and gave him the same freedom. Now, apparently, he is motivated to ride for a World Tour team again. We'll see if Garmin will give him another shot... they're a team known for giving second chances. Regarding Cannondale's roster quality: Spoiler Slipstream Sports, the owners of team Cannondale, have intentionally dialed back there roster over the past few years to get younger, and build more of a team from the ground up instead of buying expensive riders. It results in them signing a ton of young talent, giving them tons of experience in big races, and then they end up signing big contracts with one of the other big teams (i.e. Sky, BMC, Quick Step, etc). I think this makes them super exciting to follow. While they're not nearly getting the results that they've had in the past, they're building something for the future. While their season win total has them at a Pro Conti level, they have the backing to always be in the World Tour, and they likely always will be. After Vandevelde, Zabriske, Danielson and Hesjesdal all left, the team went from being one of the oldest in the pro peloton, to the youngest. On top of that, in the past 5 years, the team has merged with 3 other teams: 1. Cervelo Test Team dissolved and Garmin absorbed most of that squad. 2. Liquigas-Cannondale dissolved and Garmin absorbed most of that squad. 3. This year, Drapac, a pro conti team, merged into Cannondale. All of these mergers significantly affected the team. While each merger brought solid cash revenue into Slipstream, it brought a lot of headaches too. Each round of mergers meant that the current team was forced to honor the contracts of riders who were under contract with the teams who were dissolving. It might not seem like a big deal, but it is. Each time this happens the team chemistry gets destroyed. In the Cervelo Test Team merger, Garmin got a bunch of big names who racked up some major wins for them. However, the egos of the riders all clashed and all the things that made the merger look successful initially, quickly deteriorated. It was a success for the first part of year 1, but by the end of year 1, it was a shit-show. In the Liquigas-Cannondale merger, Garmin had to honor the contracts of 7 riders who were part of the dissolving Liquigas team. Most of the 7 riders were young, Italian riders. The existing Garmin team didn't have a single rider on the team who spoke italian, so there were huge issues initially. This merger was mostly successful because this brought in a huge cash flow to Slipstream sports, and the team stayed relatively solid. They didn't win a lot, but kept team chemistry high. Most of the 7 riders who came over have either signed on for more years, or have been cut loose. The Drapac merger is kinda badass imo... Drapac is an Australian team owned by a billionaire who is a fucking genius. The Drapac team isn't really going away, instead, its becoming a development team for Cannondale... think of it like a minor league squad. The Drapac team philosophy is that you build good team chemistry by investing in the futures of your riders, after they leave cycling. So, the team allows riders to take time off to go to school, or chase other professional goals. All in all, Slipstream Sports started ~10-12 years ago with $50k cash. Now, they are 50% owned by the Cannondale corporation, and they just merged with a team managed by a billionaire. I'm excited to see where they go from here. Olympics: The road race is always super crazy and difficult to predict. I agree that Valverde, Alaphillipe, and Dan Martin are favorites. Also watch out for Nibali and Froome. My sleepers are Rigoberto Uran, Rui Costa, Bauke Mollema, and Rohan Dennis.
I'll spoiler all this since the Olympic road race just now ended: Spoiler Holy shit GvA. That was an insane ride by him. He was in a break forever, and then had to make it over 3 tough climbs that were hurting proper climbers. He's an absolute beast sometimes. Having said that, have to think that race was Nibali's if he doesn't crash.
Spoiler that was absolutely Nibali's race to win. He's the one who crashed too and took down Henao. Poor Majka. Thats what happens when you're a one-trick pony though. He's great uphill, but shit on the flats. He should've easily been able to TT to that finish. Fuglsang was the strongest rider there. He should've gone earlier from a long way out. He's great in the TT and should've tried to attack earlier and bridge to Majka. Great fucking ride by GVA. Love the way he rides. He's known as a rider who always gets second. not today.... What is Sagan thinking right now? He always smokes GVA.
Spoiler Well, that was sad :( Froome wipping out Niabli in the TDF really messed with his downhill confidence, IMO... He should have slaughtered Majka on that and ends up instead wiping himself out... Was rooting for Nibali/Aru with no Americans in contention.
I wish he'd do one more classics season and retire at the end of next Spring. I have no doubt he could still win another Ronde or P-R.
agree 100%. That's what Boonen is doing. It'd be great to see those to go head-to-head one last time.
Phillipe Gilbert to Etixx-QuickStep for a one year deal. He's been pretty meh for the past few years, but he's a canny rider who is always a threat.
The course being so soaked that they had to get off the bike in a bunch of spots. Also, having a 3 mile course where you can only get mechanical issues fixed by the start line is just something else too.
Sagan getting up to the leaders after starting from the back of the pack, and then almost immediately flatting out of the race was tremendously disappointing. Buuuut, the race still provided us the gif of the olympics:
The Vuelta is lit, friends. I must admit the Giro and Vuelta > Tour de France, especially with the competitors being beat up after the tour AND teams not being able to just dominate the Vuelta. Froome was a minute down today and rode an amazing race to keep himself in the Vuelta. Put himself into a high cadence and halved the lead that quintana had built over him. He's just awesome and i don't hate him at all. He's raced everything but the Giro this year and is still giving it all he's got in the Vuelta. Kind of want to see him pull off the double, but Quintana is the clear favorite right now.
*Maybe not... 1 Quintana 2 Valverde +57 3 Froome +58 Just reading a bit- People think he needs 2 minutes to win it all with a ITT left to be contested, so there's a long way to go.
I didn't think what he did yesterday was impressive, as the commentators said, or amazing at all. Yeah, he didn't lose by a full minute like he was down at one point, but he did get dropped, lost by 30 seconds, and lost the sprint for 2nd at the end. And for all we know that 30 seconds gotten back was more a function of Quintana slowing down after going out too fast than any great effort put forth by Froome.
Anybody done a trip to watch the tour? Got the wife convinced for our next big trip to go overseas and time it to see a couple stages.
can we get an update on which riders have switched teams for 2017 and the teams that are the strongest now (besides sky of course)
hey guys. i'm back. i've been traveling a lot lately, i switched jobs, i moved and just had my first kid... phew. i'll have this list for you shortly.
First of all, its important to note a couple of things before I get into which riders moved to which teams. 1. A couple of teams left the sport at the World Tour level....IAM Cycling and Tinkoff. This left a lot of riders without contracts and made the market kick into high gear. 2. A new big-budget team popped into the World Tour and is backed by Middle Eastern oil money… the team name is Bahrain – Merida. 3. Three of cycling’s big race organizers reduced the number of riders per team at the start of races… this will affect the number or riders in the Tour, Giro, Vuelta and a bunch of classics races. This affected how aggressive teams were on the open market. As a result, there were a bunch of really good riders who retired and others who had to sign for lower level teams. Team Name Changes: Spoiler Cannondale is now Cannondale-Drapac. Drapac was a smaller team with a big budget that merged with the Cannondale World Tour team. 3 Drapac riders came over during the merger. Lampre-Merida is now TJ-Sport Orica GreenEdge is now Orica-Scott Giant-Alpecin is now Team Sunweb Katusha is now Katusha-Alpecin Etixx Quick-Step is now Quick-Step Floors Bora – Argon was a Continental Team that moved up to the World Tour level after signing Sagan and his crew. Retired Riders: (not every one, just some big names) Spoiler Jean-Christope Peraud (Ag2R) - finished on the TdF podium two yrs ago. Fabian Cancellara (Trek) Ryder Hesjedal (Trek) Frank Schleck (Trek) Big Transfers: Spoiler Vincenzo Nibali – Astana -> Bahrain-Merida Alberto Contador – Tinkoff -> Trek Peter Sagan – Tinkoff -> Bora-Hansgrohe (his brother and 7 other Tinkoff riders went with him) Joaquim Rodriguez – Katusha -> Bahrain Merida Tony Martin – Etixx QuickStep -> Katusha Taylor Phinney – BMC -> Cannondale-Drapac Sep Vanmarcke – LottoNL-Jumbo -> Cannondale-Drapac (also brought his top classics lieutenant with him). Phillipe Gilbert – BMC -> QuickStep Rafal Majka – Tinkoff -> Bora-Hansgrohe Roman Kreuziger – Tinkoff -> Orica-Scott Michael Matthews – Orica-Scott -> Giant-Alpecin Wilco Keldermann – LottoNL-Jumbo -> Giant-Alpecin John Degenkolb – Giant-Alpecin -> Trek (also brought his lieutenant Koen de Kort) Minor Transfers Spoiler Lachlan Morton – Jelly Belly -> Dimension Data Ben King – Cannondale -> Dimension Data Nicholas Roche – Team Sky -> BMC Lars Boom – Astana -> LottoNL-Jumbo My notes: I think QuickSteps classics team took a huge hit this offseason. Not only did they lose Tony Martin, but they also lost Stijn Vandenbergh (huge dude), Noko Maes, Gianni Meersman, and Guillaume Van Keirsbulck. These guys were all very important cogs in their classics team in years past. Team Sky made some really good pick-ups that I didn't mention. They signed Diego Rosa from Astana, climbing lieutenant for Nibali and Aru, and Kenny Elissonde from FDJ, a tiny climber. Phillipe Gilbert and Tom Boonen are on the same team. So crazy to think about that. For the past decade those two riders have been fighting it out as Belgium's favorite rider.
get into cyclocross. its fun as hell to watch, doesn't take up nearly as much time, and and helps fill the gap.
I do watch it a little. Have even watched some track cycling. But I actually prefer just sitting for a few hours watching cyclists go through a country. It's like an aerial tour with a competition.
...again... Tour Down Under starts in about two weeks. Sagan is riding this year for his new team.... expect early fireworks
Nice write-up goheels10 . A couple of additions: I think the UCI tabled the smaller teams thing, no? It'll happen in the future, but not this season. The idea is to make it so teams like Sky have fewer guys to keep throwing on the front or chauffeuring Froome up climbs (and theoretically less riders means the richer teams with more depth have a smaller advantage). I'm not sure how much difference it will actually make though. TJ Sport almost didn't happen. Financers in China had promised to back the team, contracts were signed, etc. and then they just ghosted. TJ Sport even had to cancel a training camp earlier this month because they had no funding. It sounds like Colnago (their bike sponsor) stepped up and put in a bunch of legwork to secure alternate sponsors. They are still barely scraping by though. The Giro is absolutely stacked this year (pretty much everyone but Froome is going). It's looking like it'll easily be the best Grand Tour once again. Tom Boonen is retiring after the Spring classics. I don't really understand why Cancellara didn't do the same thing. It'd have been great to see them go out at the same time, and Cancellara could have easily been a factor in pretty much every spring race once again. But it'll be weird going through a classics season with no Spartacus. Wouldn't mind seeing Boonen get one more Roubaix and go out on top though. When Cannondale merged with Drapac (an Australian pro continental team), they had to absorb some of Drapac's riders. Which is lame, and cost a few people some spots (and worse, the addition of Drapac's logo has made the team kit pretty horrendous IMO). One of those casualties was Phil Gaimon, who decided to retire rather than ride for a Continental team again. But the good news is that Phil Gaimon being retired has given us this: (Note: if you have the time read this article before the one spoilered below: https://cyclingtips.com/2016/03/who...sterious-case-of-a-los-angeles-strava-legend/) Spoiler http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/retired-gaimon-goes-to-work-toppling-doping-tainted-strava-koms/
I was so pissed when I first read this. Colnago needs to be in the world tour. Glad they got it figured out
nice reply nofatchildren ... maybe the UCI did table the smaller team. They did just throw it on the teams at the last minute without warning them that it was coming. That made the end of free agency hectic for a few teams. The purpose is mostly rider safety... there have been so many bad rider crashes in the past few years as race organizers try to find smaller, more dramatic roads to race on. The whole TJ Sport / Lampre thing is so sad. I've never been a big fan of their riders but there kits were always spectacular. I saw that Quintana is riding the Giro. Who else is in? I know Rigoberto Uran is out.. which is huge because he loves that race and he's finished on the podium twice. Cancellara didn't retire after the classics because he wanted to be on form to win at the Olympics... and he won the TT. I'm done with Boonen. He should've gone after last year. Let Niki Terpstra and the rest of the Quick Step boys shine... there aren't many left. They've all gone elsewhere... The Cannondale merger thing isn't new. This is the third time that Vaughters has done the whole merger thing and each time has resulted in a lot of people pissed off and a lot of drama. The first was Cervelo Test Team merging into Garmin Slipstream. That brought the likes of Thor Hushovd into the team. Year 1 was a huge success because they had a huge inflow of cash and they won a lot of races. Year two was a disaster. Then came the merger of Cannondale into Garmin. This time a ton of Garmin riders were left out of contracts because 7 Cannondale riders were already under contract and they had to be respected. A lot of riders were pissed that it happened. This time around, the merger with Drapac seemed to be a lot more organized. I'm very sad to see Gaimon go, because he's such an awesome personality, but truthfully he wasn't a difference maker on the team at that level. ^^ Edit to add another note about Cannondale.... Rigoberto Uran is out of the Giro because he's going to focus on shorter, more explosive races. Expect to see him in the hilly classics....
So far for the Giro I've seen: Quintana Nibali Aru Landa TVG Mollema Pinot Rolland Kruijswijk Chaves is still TBD, but he'd really top things off. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few.
Aru and Nibali will kill each other at the Giro. Whole field basically conceding the Tour to Froome, but that means we get a hell of a show in Italy and Spain at the superior grand tours.