What next for Froome?

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OP
OP
smutchin

smutchin

Cat 6 Racer
Location
The Red Enclave
It's the recovery from the attacks as well as the ease, which is typified by Indurain's Sunday riding style, you half expect him to stop for a flask of tea.

Yeah, I was just looking at the 2013 stage for comparison - as per the list @Hont linked to earlier, Quintana's time was a few seconds slower than Bugno/Indurain in 1991. At least Riblon has the decency to look like he's put in an effort when he crosses the line!


View: https://youtu.be/rsO8dgU4XPg
 

Beebo

Firm and Fruity
Location
Hexleybeef
image.jpeg
This is what he did next!
 

HF2300

Insanity Prawn Boy
Funnily enough, this article just appeared on my twitter page:
http://velonews.competitor.com/2016/07/news/pro-wrestling-cycling_416038

Tone of the article's a bit silly. These crits aren't corrupt competition, they're more akin to a soap star opening a supermarket.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
I think I look on the Indurain era as the first real EPO wins, so therefore discredited in many ways. Indurain has sensibly kept his head down and himself out of the media attention.
I think Indurain kept his head down and himself out of the media attention as much as he was allowed to even while winning races, didn't he? I felt that was part of the reason why the press embraced the new range of "colourful" racers like Pantani and Armstrong a bit more than history suggests they should have.

Whilst acknowledging you said Anquetil as the first rider of the modern age, personally I would have Anquetil himself battling with Il Campionissimo, Fausto Coppi for third spot. Only IMHO, very subjective.
Coppi's better than Anquetil because he won seven grand tours and a world championship despite his career being interrupted by WW2 and cut short by an early death. However, both were unapologetic dopers so I don't think I'd put either of them there. On a straight count, surely Nibali (4 grand tours) is among the next in line unless he's discovered to be dopey? And if we're going beyond numbers, I think there's a fair argument for LeMond, for three tour wins (including that narrow victory and his rivalry with Hinault), for his continuing love of cycling and for being right and not backing down about Armstrong.

Absolutely - for many years it was the only cycle race you could watch on TV in the UK, and remains one of only two that are free to air (ITV4 still has the Vuelta I presume?)
There's much more than two. ITV4 has the Vuelta, but also has many other ASO and Sweetspot races, although I wonder if they had to take the ASO ones in order to keep the Tour because scheduling of one-day race highlights has been somewhat erratic. Bike Channel also broadcast a lot of races free to air now.
 
OP
OP
smutchin

smutchin

Cat 6 Racer
Location
The Red Enclave
Tone of the article's a bit silly. These crits aren't corrupt competition, they're more akin to a soap star opening a supermarket.

Very silly. What's more, the entertainment value of these races surely depends on the superficial pretence of playing it straight. If you openly admit they're just clowning around then it becomes less like the WWE wrestling and more like the Harlem Globetrotters.

Also I imagine the sight of a big bunch of world-class pro cyclists hammering round a crit circuit at great speed, even if it's not a serious race, must be a great spectacle.
 

400bhp

Guru
I think Froome and Team Sky were excellent this year and, in my view, his attack downhill was one of the legendary moments in the sport that will be looked back on and talked about forever.

However, I'm a little saddened by the sheer dominance of one team at one event. There are several reasons why Sky and Froome focus (solely) on the TDF but there are wider issues from cycling from this, namely:
- Other teams decide to focus on other races as the effort and money required to defeat sky is in the TDF is not available and/or the reward does not justify the effort/cash injection.

The dominance therefore becomes self defeating for the sport.

It feels like the Armstrong era (minus the doping).

Sky and/or Froome just don't seem interested in the history and all that comes with the sport of cycling and it makes me a little bit sad.

Maybe Tinkoff was right, the sport does need a shake up so that (for the money makers) it isn't all about one race once a year.
 
OP
OP
smutchin

smutchin

Cat 6 Racer
Location
The Red Enclave
Sky and/or Froome just don't seem interested in the history

How so? The Tour de France is the most historically significant race in the sport, after all.

What do you think they should be doing differently to show their respect for history? And would it compromise their objective of winning races in the present?
 
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