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Tour De France 2014 Pre-race thread
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| Martial1 |
Posted on 06-06-2014 12:01
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 1. Chris Froome
 2. Alberto Contador
 3. Vincenzo Nibali
4. Alejandro Valverde
 5. Tejay Van Gareren
 6. Bauke Mollema
 7. Michal Kwiatkowski
 8. Roman Kreuziger
9. Andrew Talansky
 10. Andy Schleck
Honorable mention to Betancur, who will crash out on the cobbled stage.
And Porte, who will lose giant time on one mountain stage.
Edited by Martial1 on 06-06-2014 12:09
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| ryant |
Posted on 06-06-2014 12:14
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its nice they show some faith in a former tour winner (not) and rather the suspicious, and damn right ignorant so called domestique who had called it upon himself to attack his leader because he didnt think he could do it hinself...
Well played Sky, well played...
I think its very sad that Wiggins isn't going, he has proved that he is in very good form and would be better than most other riders that Sky have in the mountains (unless they give riders like Kennaugh the magic berries again) but lets hope he gets to move to Orica and burn the shit out of Froome next year 
 John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25Red Bull Driver in RFactor
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| simieon |
Posted on 06-06-2014 15:15
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guess i might as well give the prediction a go.
1. froome (will distance conta and valverde on the tt)
2/3. conta and valverde (down to plain luck, they have shown equal strength this season)
4. nibali (id like to think that he looses a lot of time in the mountains, but refuses to stop attacking, and gains some time in the tactical game)
5-10. completely open between second tier captains, and first tier domestiques. if i had to put numbers on it, it would be porte 5, horner 6, kreuziger 7, fuglsang 8, tejay 9, mollema 10.
porte has been out of competition for ages to prep, horner/quintana style.
horner has been out of competition for ages, horner style.
kreuziger is still training riis style, while conta has adopted a former sky trainer, but showed as the best of the rest last year.
fuglsang has shown equal to if not better strength than nibali this season so far, but i think he will be weighed down working to keep his captain in the game.
finally i just sorta have a hunch that tejay and mollema will show roughly equal strength in the mountains, but tejay will win marginally on the tt. |
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| Jesleyh |
Posted on 06-06-2014 15:16
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Contador and Valverde on equal strength this season? Hmm, not so sure about that, not in the mountains at least.
Feyenoord(football) and Kelderman fanboy
PCMdaily Awards: 12x nomination, 9x runner-up, 0x win.
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| javibozada |
Posted on 06-06-2014 15:20
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dienblad wrote:
What I hope:
1. Contador
2. Mollema
3. I don't care any further...
I would love that. It would be great.
[ICL] Sevilla Cycling Team |
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| Shonak |
Posted on 06-06-2014 15:38
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What's up with Valverde? He hasn't done a race since L-B-L and he won't be at Dauphiné nor in Switzerland according to steephill. Surely he must ride a race ahead of le Tour, anybody knows more?
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
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| Selwink |
Posted on 06-06-2014 15:40
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I believe he'll ride the Route du Sud.
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| Riis123 |
Posted on 06-06-2014 15:40
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Shonak wrote:
What's up with Valverde? He hasn't done a race since L-B-L and he won't be at Dauphiné nor in Switzerland according to steephill. Surely he must ride a race ahead of le Tour, anybody knows more?
Yeah, he will ride Tour du Sud instead of those 2. I dno why he chose not to ride Dauphiné or Suisse |
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| Martial1 |
Posted on 06-06-2014 15:43
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Riis123 wrote:
Shonak wrote:
What's up with Valverde? He hasn't done a race since L-B-L and he won't be at Dauphiné nor in Switzerland according to steephill. Surely he must ride a race ahead of le Tour, anybody knows more?
Yeah, he will ride Tour du Sud instead of those 2. I dno why he chose not to ride Dauphiné or Suisse
It's because the doping controls at Sud aren't as strict  |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 21-11-2024 23:36
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| Riis123 |
Posted on 06-06-2014 15:45
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Martial1 wrote:
Riis123 wrote:
Shonak wrote:
What's up with Valverde? He hasn't done a race since L-B-L and he won't be at Dauphiné nor in Switzerland according to steephill. Surely he must ride a race ahead of le Tour, anybody knows more?
Yeah, he will ride Tour du Sud instead of those 2. I dno why he chose not to ride Dauphiné or Suisse
It's because the doping controls at Sud aren't as strict
I could imagine he preferred altitude training (read something on twitter about Sierre Nevada) instead of using a week+ at Dauphiné and just testing himself for 3 days instead. But seems a little odd.
Yeah, that explains why Sky sends Porte and Froome for Dauphine instead of Sud, right? |
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| simieon |
Posted on 06-06-2014 16:36
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Jesleyh wrote:
Contador and Valverde on equal strength this season? Hmm, not so sure about that, not in the mountains at least.
the only time i know off where they have been face to face this season, valverde opened the first duel with an all out attack and was countered by conta, win by conta on a mistake by valverde.
from there on, none of them were able to shake the other uphill. conta did take the crown on the final tt, beating even kwiatek, finishing only behind martin. so actually you're right.
and yes, im basing my prediction way more on my own perception of who is following which "training" program, than who has shown which results in seasons before this one. |
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| jph27 |
Posted on 06-06-2014 16:40
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simieon wrote:
Jesleyh wrote:
Contador and Valverde on equal strength this season? Hmm, not so sure about that, not in the mountains at least.
the only time i know off where they have been face to face this season, valverde opened the first duel with an all out attack and was countered by conta, win by conta on a mistake by valverde.
from there on, none of them were able to shake the other uphill. conta did take the crown on the final tt, beating even kwiatek, finishing only behind martin. so actually you're right.
and yes, im basing my prediction way more on my own perception of who is following which "training" program, than who has shown which results in seasons before this one.
In Pais Vasco. Which isn't Mountainous, just hilly. In the Mountains, Contador is far superior. |
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| Shonak |
Posted on 06-06-2014 16:42
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A'right, thanks guys, Route du Sud it is then. Would have been strange if Valv didn't take part in at least one prep race.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 06-06-2014 17:00
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jph27 wrote:
simieon wrote:
Jesleyh wrote:
Contador and Valverde on equal strength this season? Hmm, not so sure about that, not in the mountains at least.
the only time i know off where they have been face to face this season, valverde opened the first duel with an all out attack and was countered by conta, win by conta on a mistake by valverde.
from there on, none of them were able to shake the other uphill. conta did take the crown on the final tt, beating even kwiatek, finishing only behind martin. so actually you're right.
and yes, im basing my prediction way more on my own perception of who is following which "training" program, than who has shown which results in seasons before this one.
In Pais Vasco. Which isn't Mountainous, just hilly. In the Mountains, Contador is far superior.
Have we actually seen them against each other on a real mountain stage this year, when both were going for it though, because the last two years says otherwise. There were times when they looked pretty even to me, and other times when Valverde looked better.
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| simieon |
Posted on 06-06-2014 17:00
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jph27 wrote:
snip...
In Pais Vasco. Which isn't Mountainous, just hilly. In the Mountains, Contador is far superior.
id call the fourth stage fairly mountainous, on top of that, valverde beat contador there. |
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| FonsDeSpons |
Posted on 06-06-2014 17:10
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my top 10
1Van den Broeck
2 Contador
... nah just kidding (but it would be nice)
1 Contador
2 Froome
3 Nibali
4 Van garderen
5 Valverde
6 Betancur
7 Mollema
8 Frank Schleck
9 Pinot
10 Van den Broeck
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| Jacdk |
Posted on 06-06-2014 17:15
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Kirchen_75 wrote:
My dislike for Team Sky is only growing. Theyre being very nasty torwards sir Bradley. Treating a TDF winner like a rubbish, I find it really disgraceful really. I felt that he could do something with that cobbled stage and distance Froome.exe
Well, to be honest Bradley only won because Sky held Froome back, if Froome had been on any other team, Wiggins would have been destroyed.
but i do agree that how they are treating Wiggins is disgusting and they should have told him already last year that he wasn't in their plans to ride TdF unless Froome got sick or couldn't ride, so that he could have looked for another team. |
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| Jacdk |
Posted on 06-06-2014 17:25
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Jesleyh wrote:
Contador and Valverde on equal strength this season? Hmm, not so sure about that, not in the mountains at least.
If Contador comes to the Tour in top performance, Valverde is not even close to ever being able to match him.
My top 5 prediction
1: Froome
2: Contador
3: Nibali
4: Kreuziger
5: Rodriguez.
If the dream will happen and Contador wins the Tour De France, he is going to do it on a medium/flat stage and not in the mountains where we will see him staying close to Froome and letting froome attack. |
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| SSJ2Luigi |
Posted on 06-06-2014 18:10
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because I'm a know idiot (example I put scarponi as third during the giro )
1. Froome
2. Huge gap
3. Porte
4. another huge gap
5. Nibali
6. Contador
7. Van Garderen
8. Rolland
9. Mollema
10. Kreuziger
11. Monfort
12. F.Schleck
edit: damn SSJ2, stop making half post 
Edited by SSJ2Luigi on 06-06-2014 18:18
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| Shonak |
Posted on 06-06-2014 18:44
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Posts: 15615
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So on CN, there are some excerpts of Froome's book (link). Big lolz, therefor perfect to get into Tour mood. He's kinda obsessed with Contador, but then again, who isn't? <3
"They looked like they were the center of the world, masters of the universe" 
Jacdk wrote:
Well, to be honest Bradley only won because Sky held Froome back, if Froome had been on any other team, Wiggins would have been destroyed.
To me, Froome's attack was more show-factor than anything else. Wiggins had won this Tour by then - even if Froome would have ridden away from him, at least due to the remaining Time Trial.
valverde321 wrote:
Have we actually seen them against each other on a real mountain stage this year, when both were going for it though, because the last two years says otherwise. There were times when they looked pretty even to me, and other times when Valverde looked better.
True, they looked quite even so far, but Contador hasn't been on his top in late 2012 and 2013. It's hard to imagine that Valv can hang onto Contador's accelerations when Bertie is in top-shape like he seems to be this year, especially since Valv seems to lack a bit in this department in recent years. I noticed him dropping a few times in previous Grand Tours, however he managed to come back in most cases. I know, Valverde is probably the most complete rider of our era, but at this Tour, he is also some kind of dark horse?
Except for Pais Vasco and the Ardennes, he hasn't ridden major races. He was great at all of them but those are hills, no mountains. Instead he rode flanders classics, won Roma Maxima and some smaller stage races, and now rides Rout du Sud instead of Daup/Suisse. Hm.
Edited by Shonak on 06-06-2014 18:44
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
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