Tour de France 2012

[Zac.A]

Froome should leave Sky and ride somewhere else, he can out-climb Wiggins and is only a tiny bit behind in the TT's.

He can win with the right team, if the Schlecks leave the Shack and Froome joins...?

With the support of Zubeldia, Horner, Monfort, Kloden and Gallopin and Froome the team captain!

['Dale]

I wonder how long Froome's contract is with Sky? I hope he builds his year around the Giro next year, and have good support from Sky there, or that he goes to another team to be team leader for the TDF.

 

Good question, Christie...

The agents will be roaming the riders' hotels in the rest day tomorrow and next week looking for their athletes for next year.

[The Ghost]

 

 

It's a long way to Paris...

 

 

It is indeed, but Evans is now nearly 2mins behind with another TT to come. I don't see him pulling 3 mins on Wiggins in them thar hills.

Frank is about a week behind

[petatodd]

Get over it guys. Froome is not going anywhere in a hurry. Particularly not anywhere near that scum JB.

 

Edit: RSN scum manager added.

Edited July 9, 2012 by petatodd

['Dale]

It is indeed, but Evans is now nearly 2mins behind with another TT to come. I don't see him pulling 3 mins on Wiggins in them thar hills.

Frank is about a week behind

 

Yeah, and there's a lot of tarmac to cover.

Anything can happen.

Lead legs 2/3 up an Alpine climb.

Crashes.

Technicals.

Even some of the Campagnola EPS gruppos have been chain dropping.

 

Edited July 9, 2012 by ' Dale

[Wyatt Earp]

Sheesh, what a day, just got back from class and saw Froomie's performance.

 

This is what I rambled in my usual arrogant fashion last week.

 

 

 

A booby prize to anyone who can guess as to who these legs belong to.

 

 

 

 

 

I have been wishing the same.

Back to the legs, I reckon those legs stand a good chance of giving a surprise win.

Edited July 9, 2012 by Dangle

['Dale]

Yeah, not sure who Wiggo was nervously riding away from today - Evans or Froome?

 

 

[Mackie]

Froome at Sky with the current setup, money, sponsors, riders and equipment is just what he needs I reckon, like it or not Wiggens outclassed the entire field today, this is his tour to lose. Froome's time will come, he is still very young and the experience he gains in the next season or two will do him no harm. He seems to hav the head for this and has a wonderful career ahead of him.

How nice will it be in the near future when a talented all out good guy wins the tour?

[Mackie]

Spartacus was saying he may have a winning time at the same instant a lightie spanked his time at the first time split.

['Dale]

Spartacus was saying he may have a winning time at the same instant a lightie spanked his time at the first time split.

 

Yeah, I think the course was a bit too hilly for powerhouse Spartacus to conquer.

He's always right up there though.

[T-Bob]

Froome at Sky with the current setup, money, sponsors, riders and equipment is just what he needs I reckon, like it or not Wiggens outclassed the entire field today, this is his tour to lose. Froome's time will come, he is still very young and the experience he gains in the next season or two will do him no harm. He seems to hav the head for this and has a wonderful career ahead of him.

How nice will it be in the near future when a talented all out good guy wins the tour?

 

100%. Sky will have known that agents will be circling and would be world class stupid not to have promised to back Froome in one of the other majors for a job well done. DB is clever enough to have learnt from the Spain debacle. He's young, in a very strong team that can dominate for a while and will be managed well enough and given wings.

 

If he carries on as he is then he has a very bright future, much like Sagan in the classics. I know there is a lot of Wiggo hate about and I wasn't 100% about him in the past but I love the very 'team' ethic that Sky has and the measured approach to this tour.

 

Read a decent article about Wiggo and his perceived 'arrogance'. It basically said that he's fairly reclusive and if you dubbed him into french the 'attutude', the shrugging and the rest would have been written off as typically Gaulish.

[Christie]

Froome at Sky with the current setup, money, sponsors, riders and equipment is just what he needs I reckon, like it or not Wiggens outclassed the entire field today, this is his tour to lose. Froome's time will come, he is still very young and the experience he gains in the next season or two will do him no harm. He seems to hav the head for this and has a wonderful career ahead of him.

How nice will it be in the near future when a talented all out good guy wins the tour?

Sky cost him one possible grand tour win already.

Grand tour wins are not so easy to come by, crashes and bad luck happens, as we have seen. Contador (and his steaks) will be back next year, he already ripped the legs off Wiggins, Lance etc. once before, and beat Cancellara in a TT on the way, he is not easily beaten.

I can't see Wiggins being a domestique for Froome at the TDF next year.

Also, the equipment does not make a big difference imo, stuff at the top are all good. Cancellara is quick on his Trek, Sagan won 3 stages on a Cannondale, Greipel won 2 on his Canyon.

 

Team choise makes a difference - Basso could have won the Tdf if he had moved to Bruneels team a year earlier. Now he never will......

[Capcha]

Just got back from Quingey which is about 15km into the stage. One thing I can say and I am not trying to take anything away from Cadel but he looked absolutely stuffed compared to Wiggy. When I came for the tour last year, Cadel looked composed and focused. Now he looks tired and all over his bike where as Wiggy looked much more relaxed and focused and concentrating on the job at hand. Cadel may have had a bad day which I dought as the mountains have not really arrived but he has been trying mighty hard to make the gaps and it could have caught up with him. My prediction remains...Wiggy will take it in Paris with relatively little "effort"(barring no mechanicals or a fall).

[Wyatt Earp]

 

Team choise makes a difference - Basso could have won the Tdf if he had moved to Bruneels team a year earlier. Now he never will......

 

That's exactly what I said earlier in the thread, we all think all out winner but the politics is just insane, the pecking order even worse.

 

I will say this of Froome.

 

I dished a wheel for this 16 year old kid who wanted to go and "win a race in Kenya", it was late in the evening, he and his dad came across as two of the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting (not often I will do last minute wheel dishing after 18:00, but when the folks are nice, one can't help)

 

From there Froomie just started working hard at his cycling, riding insane hours a day, he spent time with Super-C with one of the ugliest bikes I ever built, then there was Hi-Q and from there it became really hard when he joined Konica, they paid him a pittance, barely enough to cover his food and lodging.

 

He won the white jersey at the Giro Del Capo and also took a medal at the worlds B-champs time trial, I recall spending nearly an entire afternoon with him in the parking lot to tweak his position on a borrowed bike.

 

Thank the Lord for Robbie Hunter, he spotted Froome and from there with a slightly better income, his cycling improved and he went better places, however he needed more help, more guidance and more moolah.

 

Sky stepped up to the plate, the richest team in the Peloton today, thanks to them he had access to top class advice, dietitians and coaches, these guys did a lot for Froomie and really offered him the springboard he needed.

 

I need to include, that of all cyclists on this entire planet, pro, amateur or fun rider, he works the hardest, insane hours on the bike, sensible logic and discipline all that paired with the humility of a monk, and we have greatness.

 

Froomies biggest attribute is loyalty, unless something really bad happens within the Sky camp, he is there to stay.

 

Now if I was the owner of that team, I would find a very subtle way to get rid of Wiggins in time to come (but that is just me)

[Wyatt Earp]

One thing I can say and I am not trying to take anything away from Cadel but he looked absolutely stuffed compared to Wiggy.

 

And people though I was joking when I said this :

 

 

 

Evans on the rollers looking broken already

 

 

 

You must see what he looks like, they will have to drag him to the start.

[Cav']

And people though I was joking when I said this :

Dangle the guru....should've asked you for advice on my fantasy team pick ey