Froome latest .

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RobNewcastle

Senior Member
You may be right. Sky riders (Porte especially) were accused of still occupying their usual roles in the train even after they changed teams, so I wonder if Froome will take up his usual position as "train driver" behind his former Ineos teammates, maybe sending some of ISN's climbers into breakaways for later slingshot after an attack... I also wonder how Ineos will handle that, as the obvious would be their usual co-leaders doing one-two punches to try to wear Froome down chasing, but that won't work if ISN can indeed sign someone as good as Nieve so Froome and Nieve can mark one each.

Oh, I really hope Froome is as opportunistic as he's seemed at times during the last couple of years and as stubborn as he's often looked. I'd really like to see what someone like that could do with recent inside knowledge of Ineos if they tried to fark them up. I think he'll stop short of a Movistar-style attack while Ineos's leader is crashed but that's about it.

Nevertheless, I expect lots of bland interviews from both INS and ISN about how everyone is still good friends right up to the day where Froome tries something cynical.

Porte and Nieve make sense, good, long-standing relationships. Porte could go back to his usual role for Froome but still have plenty of cracks at week long races and maybe Vuelta etc. Nieve is the ever dependable climber. I saw an article online about other possible options:https://www.cyclingnews.com/feature...elp-chris-froome-win-the-2021-tour-de-france/ ..............Izagirre brothers are solid climbers too There must have been long discussions about additional recruitment before he signed. It’ll be interesting to see who joins from August. Porte nailed on for me.
 
It will certainly make for an interesting season next year.
 
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Adam4868

Adam4868

Guru
I can see him doing a job for Froome,, what I don’t see is room for Dan Martin in a Froome focused tour team of 8
We're all overthinking it I think,why wouldn't Dan Martin be no 2 or dare I say joint leader.Theres also more than one GT so there's opportunitys there.Theres no guarantees that Froome will even be back to winning ways.
Don't forget how many top tier riders Ineos have and it hasn't done them any harm.Maybe one of Froomes assets is he knows how they work inside out ?
 
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Adam4868

Adam4868

Guru
On a different point I really don't see how the Tour will work for Ineos with three leaders this year.Anyone see Froome emptying himself on a climb for Bernal or waiting for Thomas ? What's to stop him upsetting things in the team,and going for things himself.
For this reason I'm thinking they won't pick him.
 
Location
Brussels
We're all overthinking it I think,why wouldn't Dan Martin be no 2 or dare I say joint leader.Theres also more than one GT so there's opportunitys there.Theres no guarantees that Froome will even be back to winning ways.
Don't forget how many top tier riders Ineos have and it hasn't done them any harm.Maybe one of Froomes assets is he knows how they work inside out ?
As much as I like Dan as a rider, and who doesn't like a mad instinctive attacker? The answer is, unfortunately, teams with pretentions to win a Grand Tour. You can argue that Simon Yates learnt how not to be an all out attacking rider and it won him the Vuelta, but I do not see Martin in such a lead road and what he does bring to the party, is not, I think what Froome will be looking for. I hope I am wrong bt let's get this year out of the way first.
 
Location
Brussels
On a different point I really don't see how the Tour will work for Ineos with three leaders this year.Anyone see Froome emptying himself on a climb for Bernal or waiting for Thomas ? What's to stop him upsetting things in the team,and going for things himself.
For this reason I'm thinking they won't pick him.

You could well be right.

On the one hand, INEOS just want to win. Any of them would do of course they would love the publicity of a Froome 5th win, and also would love to do what they were planning for 2019 before Froome's accident: a podium clean sweep.

On the other hand Froome is very ,very stubborn and driven and if it was felt that he is a risk to the team winning then they would no doubt drop him. Of course he may well accept the logic of the road. He did so in 2018 and he was clearly a bit short and he may do so again, if needs by in 2020.

Connected to all this would there really be three leaders or are we just calling it "Three leaders" I think that Thomas is probably plan C this year if all three race.
 
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Adam4868

Adam4868

Guru
You could well be right.

On the one hand, INEOS just want to win. Any of them would do of course they would love the publicity of a Froome 5th win, and also would love to do what they were planning for 2019 before Froome's accident: a podium clean sweep.

On the other hand Froome is very ,very stubborn and driven and if it was felt that he is a risk to the team winning then they would no doubt drop him. Of course he may well accept the logic of the road. He did so in 2018 and he was clearly a bit short and he may do so again, if needs by in 2020.

Connected to all this would there really be three leaders or are we just calling it "Three leaders" I think that Thomas is probably plan C this year if all three race.
Agreed...we sort of forget that even in 2018 Thomas win and Froome was still on the podium,2,3 is no good for him ! I'm just not sure I can see him riding the tour as a domestque if he thinks hes up for it ? But who knows,maybe it's a double bluff and he'll go and go for it 😁
I can't be arsed with all that " let the road decide" like Brailsford is really going to stand for that.I suspect there's a touch of bitterness between them in the end anyway.
Still all makes for some nice hype and speculation,who wouldn't like a every man for himself at the Tour scenario....
 
As already said , brailsford would love the publicity of a fifth win for froome , but in all honesty I think ineos would throw all their weight behind bernal, hes young and got many years of potential ahead of him, IF... and its a big IF ..froome does manage to defeat the odds and win a fifth , his age is working against him compared to bernal,

As for Dan Martin, I wonder if he sees it as a kick in the bollocks , or is it a case of froome for tour de france and dan martin can have a crack at owt else, I certainly don't see him as a domestique , he just doesn't have those qualities, hes more of a punchy , im not done yet kind of guy, I like dan martin and hope he doesn't get sh!t on by having froome on the same team.
 
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As for Dan Martin, I wonder if he sees it as a kick in the bollocks , or is it a case of froome for tour de france and dan martin can have a crack at owt else, I certainly don't see him as a domestique , he just doesn't have those qualities, hes more of a punchy , im not done yet kind of guy, I like dan martin and hope he doesn't get sh!t on by having froome on the same team.
Do you really see Martin as a 3-week GC contender? He's a mile off a fully-fit Froome, and there are now way too many riders around that level to make even a Vuelta/Giro win feasible for lesser riders. I'd love to be proved wrong though!
 

rich p

ridiculous old lush
Location
Brighton
There's some warm-up races to look forward to and consider where the contenders are formwise too.
Vuelta A Burgos, Dauphine and Tour of Poland.
Not much info about who's doing what yet but that may focus the DS's minds on who is number 1 and going well.
 
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