Tour de France 2018 – Extra Tough?

Interesting comments re: Sky

Interesting comments re: Sky and their face pace detering explosive attacks.  Of course whilst this tactic has proved effective, it also suits the virtually teamless-Tom Dumoulin who can clearly manage the high pace – but struggles with the explosive attacks.  Can’t wait for the Pyrennes…and the TT.  What a parcours!

CXR94Di2 wrote:

Sky have turned grand tours on their head.  A constant high pace to dissuade GC riders from making a break.  If they try a break away, the power of a determined high paced team inevitably pulls them back.

 

No other team has the depth of quality that Team Sky has, this is exposed every grand tour.

No other team are as well prepared, dedicated, focussed on one purpose as a team, have individuals to a man prepared to turn themselves inside out for the team, have riders who know precisely what their task and inportantly place is within the team.

They have quality absolutely but they are ruthless in picking a team for a sole purpose and do more than any other to attempt to reach that. THAT is what is exposed every grand tour.

Canyon48 wrote:

Canyon48 wrote:

Rich_cb wrote:

I think further lowering the number of riders per team might make things more exciting. It would make it so much harder for one team to control an entire stage, it would also decrease the number of riders overall and reduce teams wage bills. You could also bring in another wildcard team for the GTs spreading the money a bit further.

I’m not sure (I’m not disagreeing, I’m just not sure).

It seems to me that lowering the number of riders from 9 to 8 has removed some of the “wildcard” riders and instead played it safe by just trying to protect the team leader.

I wonder if there were still 9 riders if Caleb Ewan would have been included (and essentially given the freedom to do his own race in the sprints), rather than team Mitchelton Scott focus only on Yates.

Certainly, it seems that with 8 riders, Team Sky have little/no problem controlling the Tour the way they have done previously, FDJ and AG2R seemed to be able to control the race at points – though they now seem to have collapsed a bit.

Hats off to Bardet though, willing to attack on the mountains even when it’s obvious no attack will stick.

Power meters and sports science have slightly neutralised races though. Once a team is riding at their max climb power, no attack will stick because they’ll blow eventually.

nniff wrote:

PS – and another thing – they’re still doing marginal gains – on the cobbles their spare wheels people were fluo-green so that riders could spot them and their musettes are now fluo-green too, so that they’re easy to pick out (they used to be Brand Black) and their roadside bottles have a gel attached to the side.

 

I noticed that, I thought that was quite clever to be honest, you really can’t miss the Team Sky support staff!

They also drafted in 50 volunteers for the day so they could have better coverage with spare wheels on each sector.

I’m not sure that Sky isbad

I’m not sure that Sky isbad for the sport – quite the reverse.  They operate a strategy to win the GC, which sometimes brings them the mountains jersey too.  Other teams, particularly Quickstep and Bora win more stages and one day races.  They don’t chase stage wins unless the whole thing falls apart or the GC battle leads that way.  What they do do, is use their resources very efficiently to put someone right up at the front on a regular basis.  They don’t fire people off up the road, they don’t panic – they dig in and make sure that one of their number covers the ground in the least time possible.  For a lot of the race, it’s anonymous, just sitting near the front of the peloton, but having played a sensible game they can then light the blue touchpaper, like that day in the Giro and the past two days.   Lotto look like trying the same thing, but they blew it yesterday by going way too early and their man (on his own) ran out of gas.

I enjoy seeing how the Sky plan unfolds and how the others react – usually not that effectively because they’ve had people all over the countryside all day whereas Sky have been sitting in a nice tidy bunch.

As far as the Green jersey goes, Sky (and everyone except for Sagan) are nowhere; for the KOM, Thomas and Froome are 4th and 12th.  If Sagan had to retire, that would spice it up even more.  To put that competition into context, Sagan has 339 points, Thomas (having won two stages) has 63.  There are 3 riders with 129-100 points.

Rich_cb wrote:

Rich_cb wrote:

I think further lowering the number of riders per team might make things more exciting. It would make it so much harder for one team to control an entire stage, it would also decrease the number of riders overall and reduce teams wage bills. You could also bring in another wildcard team for the GTs spreading the money a bit further.

Could just mean more pro’s being unemployed…and more pro’s likely to dope to ensure they are employed?

I reckon race radios and

I reckon race radios and possibly even power meters have a detrimental effect on modern racing. 

Not knowing what others are up to at that point and not being able to pace yourself exactly could brings back the best bits of the old days…in theory. Plus with no direction riders could just attack when they feel like it rather than being directed to attack (or more likely sit still) by their director sportif

They should try it in a race or two. Just pick a couple of races a year and see what happens – the riders might even enjoy it!!