2011 Tour de France

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Wow - I mean we knew the Schleck's weren't time-trialists, but that was fucking ugly. Guess Andy threw too much into the mountains and Cadel's pulling a couple minutes back on the Galibier saved his bacon and won it for him.

Was hoping Schleck would get it, but Evans was okay by me also - as long as Contador didn't.

They finished 17th and 19th out of ~165 riders. That is not a bad performance.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

They finished 17th and 19th out of ~165 riders. That is not a bad performance.

Not good enough.

[terpkristin]

Wow, was doing work all day (ok, still at work) but finally reading the reports from the TT today. Insane. Glad to see Evans get one.

/tk

[whomario]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

They finished 17th and 19th out of ~165 riders. That is not a bad performance.

you´ve got to remember that not even 1/3 of the riders go all out on the last TT or practice for it in advance and that the help-riders of most teams are way more beaten up and exhausted than the leaders by this point so even if they go for a good time they won´t make much noise.

This course was as close to ideal for their abilities as their will ever be.

Soooo happy Evans won, truly deserves it after all the bad luck he had over the years.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

HTC has such beautiful trains. Even from like 15k out you can see the whole damn team in a train along the side of the front of the peleton. It's textbook.

Hope you got your fix DT - HTC is no more. News report on Sky that a major sponsor pulled out, and the team is being disbanded.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by Jari Rantanen's Shorts

Hope you got your fix DT - HTC is no more. News report on Sky that a major sponsor pulled out, and the team is being disbanded.

The train will be back, though. Maybe with some different faces, but Cavendish made very clear that wherever he goes, he wants Mark Renshaw there too and Bernhard Eisel might go with him as well. The only other irreplacable part of the HTC-train is Tony Martin, who is also a free agent. Although Martin could be a much wanted rider on his own, and might want to see where his GC ambitions could go without having to work hard for Cav.

Cav has been linked with Team Sky for months, which with their current set of riders would mean they'd have to get rid of some of their sprinters (Boasson Hagen, Swift, Apollonio, Henderson, Sutton), there would be too many to give them all an opportunity to win races. Now, Cav is a special one and Sky does claim to want to sign the best Brits out there, but will they sign Cav and his two sidekicks as well with what they've got right now? There's no way Sky will part ways with Swift or Boasson Hagen.

[AlexB]

Do you think Sky could take Cav and use Boasson Hagen as Renshaw?

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by Jari Rantanen's Shorts

Do you think Sky could take Cav and use Boasson Hagen as Renshaw?

The last couple of years Renshaw has been alomst everywhere where Cavendish started. They are similar riders, typical sprinters, incapable of getting over a mountain, except on a good day. Cav obviously of a level higher, but Renshaw is a quality sprinter on his own.

Boasson Hagen is a complete rider, one of few out there who can do it all, except maybe sticking around in the high mountains, albeit he actually did that in a support role for Bradley Wiggins in Criterium du Dauphiné Libéré. He'll likely develop into a world class classics rider, a bit of the Thor Hushovd and Tom Boonen type, but a better climber. I bet Boasson Hagen can lead out, but it would be a waste of talent. He's already proven that he can win races when he's the team leader.

It makes more sense that Renshaw moves along, or that a guys like Henderson and Sutton takes that role. Geraint Thomas has shown flashes of that skill too, but Thomas also has more skills than just sprinting. Juan Antonio Flecha isn't scared to be part of a train either.

A lead-out man isn't the end all be all, but in the train tactic it's crucial to have a quality sprinter in front of you, and Cav in this case needs to have blind faith in his teammate to be succesful.

[AlexB]

That's the issue: Sutton & Henderson are meh on an elite level, while Thomas has potential as a GC rider. Given that Sky aims to promote British talent, there's no way G becomes Cav's lead out man.

I agree Boasson Hagen also has the potential to be it all (I remember seeing him first in the Tour of Britain a couple of years back where he was won a few stages, easily going away from the peloton before the sprinters were set), but he is the best fit in the current Sky roster to fill the role

Cav at Sky changes the whole dynamic of the team, and it would be seismic shift, not just a slight change of emphasis. The problem is both Cav & EBH are both pretty young, so there's no continuity if the latter works for the former short-term

[MIJB#19]

If Cavendish goes to Sky, and we still have to hear the final word on this from Cav himself, then I'm sure the Sky team management can find a way to have Boasson Hagen and Cav both shine. The real problem would be to find a way to be as dominant as Cav was the past few Tour de Frances and also bring along a top10 GC contender. This Tour the results of Tony Martin and Peter Velits proved once again that doing both is near impossible.

At the same time, Sky is a sprinters team alreeady and it would be a great fit for Cav.

[MIJB#19]

Part one of the puzzle solved: Renshaw signed with Rabobank. So unless Cavendish joins Rabobank too (which is very unlikely), the Mark's are going seperate ways...

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

Part one of the puzzle solved: Renshaw signed with Rabobank. So unless Cavendish joins Rabobank too (which is very unlikely), the Mark's are going seperate ways...

wow