General race thread 2021 **spoilers**

dastardly00

15 km to go in the Dauphine stage. One short, steep climb to be tackled before the finish.

Weepsie

happytramp wrote: »

True, but a lot of the talk about him is about how bad he's been and how crazy it is for ISN to be paying him so much... I know the old saying is that all publicity is good publicity but I'm not 100% convinced that's true when everyone is just talking about how foolish you've been.

Any non palestine conflict related publicity is probably great for this particular team

Weepsie

dastardly00 wrote: »

15 km to go in the Dauphine stage. One short, steep climb to be tackled before the finish.

That road they were just on was great. More of that place. Like a crappy L road in north dublin somewhere

dastardly00

Looking like Colbrelli should win this

mr spuckler

Weepsie wrote: »

That road they were just on was great. More of that place. Like a crappy L road in north dublin somewhere

That last corner was amazing :pac:

dastardly00

What a finish! :eek:

dastardly00

Thomas is a genuis plonker genius :pac:

Peterx

Brilliant finish. And fair play to team Postlberger too.

breezy1985

Weepsie wrote: »

That road they were just on was great. More of that place. Like a crappy L road in north dublin somewhere

Or what they call major roads in most parts of the country

Inquitus

Good move from Ineos, with G going at the U Turn and Richie Porte letting the gap go, gave G just enough room to hold off poor Colbrelli for his 3rd 2nd in the first 5 stages, he really should have won 4 stages to date instead of 1, he has been desperately unlucky!

Dcully

Inquitus wrote: »

Good move from Ineos, with G going at the U Turn and Richie Porte letting the gap go, gave G just enough room to hold off poor Colbrelli for his 3rd 2nd in the first 5 stages, he really should have won 4 stages to date instead of 1, he has been desperately unlucky!

Is that you Carlton?

Inquitus

Dcully wrote: »

Is that you Carlton?

Credit where credit is due, was a good move, he nearly made a bags of it between looking behind and thinking about celebrating. Colbrelli really should have won 4 out of 5 stages if his team were on the ball!

Only seeing it now, certainly a win I wouldn't begrudge Thomas or Ineos.

Dr. Bre

I see Porte is at Ineos now so he should win a grand tour finally !

retalivity

Dr. Bre wrote: »

I see Porte is at Ineos now so he should win a grand tour finally !

He'll need to finish ahead of Thomas, Carapaz, Yates, Bernal or even TGH first.

breezy1985

He was there back when he was a much younger and better rider and didnt win

Interviews I've seen with him 3rd at the tour was good enough for him at this stage. Crashes haven't helped him over the years.

breezy1985

Deleted User wrote: »

Interviews I've seen with him 3rd at the tour was good enough for him at this stage. Crashes haven't helped him over the years.

Back in the day when Sky seemed to only hire riders who were terrible bike handlers and every GC man had about 5 crashes a tour. Fair play to Froome he would keep getting back up but other than him that team spent an awful lot of GTs watching leaders crash out

CramCycle

I have to say, Froome is a lot more tolerable and while never a fan of his, I enjoy the fact that he convinced them to give him a paycheque and he is laughing all the way to the bank, I would do it myself if given half the chance. All those people mocking him on twitter now seems a bit sad for them, and actually garners more sympathy for him as he is taking it quite admirably.

I mean, he is like Lance and its all an act but it is working well IMO.

Macy0161

I rarely go on twitter, as it's a toxic place imo, but you'd wonder about the business acumen of yer man who owns it if there was nothing performance related in the contract.

Mefistofelino

Macy0161 wrote: »

I rarely go on twitter, as it's a toxic place imo, but you'd wonder about the business acumen of yer man who owns it if there was nothing performance related in the contract.

Sylvan Adams , co owner of the team, is a billionaire (and spent 80 million bringing the Giro to Israel back in 2018). I'm guessing his business acumen is pretty sharp. Froome's contract is pocket change to that guy.

Another co-owner, Ron Baron, is also a billionaire.

The pair of them could buy the entire World Tour several times over

Dodge

CramCycle wrote: »

All those people mocking him on twitter now seems a bit sad for them

It’s no different to what’s been said on this forum

Macy0161

Different to his (virtual) face though where there's an expectation he'd see it though?

Macy0161

Mefistofelino wrote: »

The pair of them could buy the entire World Tour several times over

I guess, but without it looks even more of a vanity signing for a vanity* project.

*trying not to go down the sports washing rabbit hole.

Mefistofelino

Macy0161 wrote: »

I guess, but without it looks even more of a vanity signing for a vanity* project.

*trying not to go down the sports washing rabbit hole.

I'd hazard a guess that the majority of sports sponsorship is a vanity project - Louis Knorr of KAS, Giorgio Squinzi of Mapei, Bob Stapleton of Columbia HTC High road put big money into the sport for personal rather than purely commercial reasons.

Brian?

Mefistofelino wrote: »

I'd hazard a guess that the majority of sports sponsorship is a vanity project - Louis Knorr of KAS, Giorgio Squinzi of Mapei, Bob Stapleton of Columbia HTC High road put big money into the sport for personal rather than purely commercial reasons.

Oleg Tinkoff as well.

I often wonder what the cost/benefit breakdown of sponsoring a cycling team is. Jumbo is everywhere here, does sponsoring a team really bring in more customers? How many extra floors to Quickstep sell?

Ineos, is a real puzzler. They are a fracking supply company. Why are they the main sponsor of the team with the biggest budget in cycling?

MangleBadger

Brian? wrote: »

Oleg Tinkoff as well.

I often wonder what the cost/benefit breakdown of sponsoring a cycling team is. Jumbo is everywhere here, does sponsoring a team really bring in more customers? How many extra floors to Quickstep sell?

Ineos, is a real puzzler. They are a fracking supply company. Why are they the main sponsor of the team with the biggest budget in cycling?

Ineos is the epitome of vanity project for Jim Ratcliffe.
Between the cycling team, the British Americas Cup sailing team, 3 football clubs and a principal partner in Mercedes Formula 1.

Macy0161

Owning or sponsoring a Team may be a vanity project, but all the teams/ owners mentioned are (or were) demanding of their star riders. Even Kelly at the height effectively compromised his spring having to do Spanish stage races in between. Tinkoff threatening to cut Sagan's salary when he wasn't winning enough.

Can't see him going to the Tour in his current state, yesterday's statement was the start of the process.
Underperforming in the Dauphiné etc can be written off as preparation races but doing that in front of the wider public at the Tour for those wages will look bad for the team.

De Bhál

when I see Valverde win, I wonder is that the last time I'll see him win. He continues to prove me wrong.

Poor finish from Geraint Thomas there I thought.