J Wakefield

Here is the article for those who cannot access via paywall doug-ryder-is-quietly-building-a-proteam-for-2023-as-speculation-mounts-surrounding-a-billionaires-backing.pdf

Smit and Gibbons are not doing Vuelta.

Ongelooflik!!!

I hope you didn’t put the kids college fund on this?

Top 10 at the Tour trumps any Polka jersey.

I call everyone dude, its not a friday thing. Im a dude Mon-thur when I dont say dude, its friday vibes.

No team will let Pidock get in the break and allow it to stay away again. Also the energy expended for that in week 3 is not sustainable. As reference, the peloton are on auto pilot they are totally smashed. this tour has been incredible aggressive, fast and hard. Riders were in tears coming up Granon, physically crying the last 10km. Its been that hard.

In that Louis is strong enough to go for GC overall against Tadej and Jonas and Gerraint to a degree? No dude.

2 Tours we only in the 3rd now and last year, wasn’t so so much. Same as any rider on any of the other teams - Movistar, Bora, ineos, EF etc when you have a GC team controlling the race. more when sprinters surf QS lead out train as example: if you control and show strength, you need to make it work. If UAE drop Tadej off at 5-7km to go and know he will be on, job is done and the domestiques sit up and recover longer and easy to the top, this is a benefit going forward into the next day and days ahead. sometimes there is a plan in a plan.

Where this benefits both jumbo and UAE is that with Louis now in top 10 it will make teams like Movistar, Bora etc add to the chase when required cause they will want to hold onto that 5-10th on GC should Louis be a danger up the road of moving them down further on GC. so within a GC battle there are other battles taking place which will add to dynamics

the team is not there only for Louis, they there to win a stage, go in breaks and Louis would be free to GC hunt. They will help yes, but lets me clear here, Louis has never been fully supported for a GC top 10 on any team he has, top riders know he wont win the Tour so are happy for him to surf and benefit of others. Its a great position for Louis to be in.

They ran into each other and Flukinger basically took Nino out in the forest (this is coming from someone standing right there as it happened) LENZ_C14_Infringements.pdf

8th then is a top 12-15 now.

58kg and classics experience are not a great combination for Paris Roubaix cobbles....

He has fractured his neck in this crash unfortunately

Your view then on Israel cycling Nation would be the same category then? Bahrain? Ineos? Qhubeka when they were around? All these nations seems to have a black spot.

Lets just make sure we get the teams names correct for sakes of the thread: For starters it is UAE Team Emirates.

Imagine if he was ever on the Hub

Correct me if I am wrong here, but a firearm in the hands of women who is more than happy to use it and has used it to take a life, overpowers any man regardless if she is 45kg soaking wet and 4ft tall. Note: I will say I dont think much of Strickland at all and his actions have lead to this playing out.

I suppose this is why Fabio got the call from the DS.

The variants are now more infectious but less aggressive. this is why. Its not a bubble issue the controls and protocols are better than in 2020. All teams and riders follow them. You cannot do a 6-8 week bubble. Mentally riders and people will crack and its unethical to implement there is enough stress and pressure already.

Senechal Is the replacement in terms of rider profile

New variants are now super contagious but the effects are less and shorter

For this Tour they are going GC, they not necessary a GC only team

While I don’t disagree with you at all, your point is valid. Question asked could be was he ever really on long list for the Tour? Short list etc. There was lots of talk from media and his side about going to the Tour and he “deserves it” etc but the little communication for QS seemed to the the opposite or nothing close to a actual spot. it’s hard to explain it here but the Tour is different, I have had a rider crying 24hrs before selection to me asking if I knew anything about his selection. if I can explain it it’s like this: if you asked to go to the Tour; you go. Even if you do not want to. This is for riders and staff alike. The Tour is like nothing else ever when inside the bubble. its that big