The Froome Dawg Thread

[Jewbacca]

To be fair, the 'numbers' and metrics we think we know are 'the best' are a fraction of the data these guys use and have at their fingertips.

Amateurs like us even trying to suggest what we know is 'the best metric' for Froomie to show his worth is laughable. We are but play school droolers in this conversation

[Christie]

Losing 3kg sounds realistic, at least. If he can do that without losing power he would be in the race.

The next question would be if his power is back to what it was, and then if that would be enough to win.

Some big stars that crashed and came back took 3 years (like Pantani and Museeuw, although they had better supplements )

Edited May 31, 2021 by Christie

[stringbean]

You think Froome will/should? Even make the tdf team.Dropping on the little climbs today doesn’t inspire confidence.

[Jewbacca]

20 minutes ago, stringbean said:

You think Froome will/should? Even make the tdf team.Dropping on the little climbs today doesn’t inspire confidence.

haha yeah

He looks a lot more than 3 weeks away from form

[J Wakefield]

8 hours ago, Eldron said:

w/kg is only a lab number.

VAM is the best real world number in my opinion.

 

 

Agree, I base alot of everything off VAM with athletes and performance. 

[Eldron]

 

 

 

11 minutes ago, J Wakefield said:

Agree, I base alot of everything off VAM with athletes and performance. 

Could you give Chris a call and help with his coaching? Given his performance at Dauphine today I'm guessing Number 5 is not on the cards in July!*

 

*unless something peculiar happened - I didn't watch the stage....

[Plentipotential]

15 minutes ago, Eldron said:

 

 

 

Could you give Chris a call and help with his coaching? Given his performance at Dauphine today I'm guessing Number 5 is not on the cards in July!*

 

*unless something peculiar happened - I didn't watch the stage....

3.25 behind the winner today so not good for Froome. Doubt he needs any advice on training. He needs a time machine. Ineos got rid of him so that tells me something. Froome was good, maybe he will come good again. 

[Wayne pudding Mol]

I’d love a comeback story and to a degree this has been one - after that crash and the ops being back on a bike riding at 3 minutes behind world tour level is a phenomenal achievement 

You cannot take away his achievements and his will to win but the Sky machine also played a role

It’s difficult to compare eras but I’m not so sure top form Froome could handle the current crop of youngsters 

I would genuinely love to be wrong but on current form he shouldn’t be at the tour

Unless of course he is sandbagging and has laid a massive bet on himself 

Some say the publicity is good for ISN and maybe it is for now but it can’t stay a positive for much longer

 

 

 

[J Wakefield]

Chris is being coached by Paolo who I know well. Great guy, great coach and forward thinker. Look what he has and is doing with Dan Martin, Rusty Woods to name 2. 

His coaching is good. 

[Jakkals.]

Fingers crossed for Chris, Floid Landis, Froome.  https://twitter.com/jumbovismaroad/status/1000105610489286662?s=21

[Bos]

14 hours ago, Jewbacca said:

haha yeah

He looks a lot more than 3 weeks away from form

So the real question is if he will come good in the second half of the tour.. Judging from Chris's last couple of GT's, he will come in undercooked to the extent that he can just hang on and start coming into his best form for the last week, which is still 5 weeks out. This really is the only way to win a GT at his age, and even P Roglic has shown that being on fire from the gun is not the way to do it. 

However, as everyone has stated, who knows if that will happen.. Not knowing the route off by heart, the first week is usually a bit of a warmup and the favourites are conservative on the first climbs anyway, Stage 5 (ITT) and Stage 9 (Mountaintop finish) looks like the first stages where big time gaps could appear, barring the usual first week crashes.. and where his experience and bunch should come good. Froom should be OK for the ITT, its stage 8-9 where he will be hanging on by the skin of his teeth.

Who doesn't like a good underdog - Froom Dog in this case

[Shebeen]

1 hour ago, Wayne pudding Mol said:

I’d love a comeback story and to a degree this has been one - after that crash and the ops being back on a bike riding at 3 minutes behind world tour level is a phenomenal achievement 

You cannot take away his achievements and his will to win but the Sky machine also played a role

It’s difficult to compare eras but I’m not so sure top form Froome could handle the current crop of youngsters 

I would genuinely love to be wrong but on current form he shouldn’t be at the tour

Unless of course he is sandbagging and has laid a massive bet on himself 

Some say the publicity is good for ISN and maybe it is for now but it can’t stay a positive for much longer

 

 

 

i hope somehow this isn't just a very long whimper to end a career.

i suppose there are three likely scenarios:

a)he never returns to his former condition

b)all the rehab and hardwork gets him back to where he was

c)all the rehab and hardwork actually gets him better due to the focussed conditioning

b, and c obviously tempered by the fact that he's no longer a springchicken, now 36 - he's so old, he's only 5 years younger than valdemort. The trend of GC riders getting better in their 30s appears to have been blow to smithereens.

 

B) would be interesting. what would his level have been sans the crash - given the current crop of GC talent at Ineos it's hard to know how the permuatations would be playing now.

As an side, let's look at his TdF runners up and see where they are now. these guys could maybe have been TdF winners if they had the skyborg machinery at their disposal, instead of chasing it.

'13 Nairo, 4:20 behind

'15 Nairo 1:12

'16 Bardet 4:05

'17 Uran 0:54

All of these guys are still riding, and seem to have peaked similiar time as Froome's 4 wins. All things being equal, this current generation has blown these guys away and I don't see why Froome would be any different. I feel for the guy, cause he's clearly putting in the effort. (But i guess the cushy retirement package he's getting for it can't hurt)

[Shebeen]

1 hour ago, Jakkals. said:

Fingers crossed for Chris, Floid Landis, Froome.  https://twitter.com/jumbovismaroad/status/1000105610489286662?s=21

this was "just" 3 years ago. He backed it up with a TdF podium a few weeks later, where GT won.

 

[Eldron]

The fanboy in me hopes this has been one big Froomedawg hustle and he'll smash Number 5 in July.

The pragmatist in me thinks that we've seen waaaay to many "Progress has been good and I'm still on track to crack Number 5" followed by another average performance (average by his own high standards of course).

Hope versus pragmatism. I hoping hope wins ????

Goooo Froome!

[kosmonooit]

13 hours ago, Plentipotential said:

.... He needs a time machine. Ineos got rid of him so that tells me something.

Wasn't the deal breaker was that his agent wanted assurances Chris would go into the races as the  team leader / protected rider? Dave quite rightly stepped away from that. I think if his requirements  for contract renewal were more modest he could have spent his twilight years there, as a road captain etc. though probably for much less. 

As much as I would like to see his return to top form and take #5, I would be pleasantly surprised if it happened.

Also as much money as Mr Israel Startup has, I doubt he can provide the level of support Chris got at Sky/ Ineos.

 

[JA-Q001]

But even though he is getting older and it will get harder, who said that this year must be number 5. 

It was mentioned previously how GT fitness builds momentum and carries over from year to year. All can be still on track for next year. They could simply be building on that momentum. I wouldn't be surprised if they send him to the Vuelta as well.