Pro-cycling thread

I reckon if Sky really wanted to improve their worldwide image and properly endear themselves to the public they'd ask froome to ride with his fucking elbows tucked in, one awkward conversation with froomy and a front view gif of his riding position and Sky could rule the cycling world like a benevolent king

You can't tell Skeletor what to do.

Porte never seems to have that hunger to win. Both Porte and Froome always comes across as friendly and genuine media wise (to me at least) but Froome is always 100% focussed on getting what he wants.

Porte never seems to have that hunger to win. Both Porte and Froome always comes across as friendly and genuine media wise (to me at least) but Froome is always 100% focussed on getting what he wants.

Froome strikes me as someone doing a Porte impression. Porte seems to be the genuine thing. Would be thrilled for him to get his day.

Porte nailed on to have a bad day in the mountains in the Tour and his team isn't good enough to get him out of the shit.

Would be just like Froome to move to BMC and totally bogart his old buddy again.

For their budget, BMC seem remarkably light on top tier mountain support riders. Do they have anyone who is capable of being alongside Porte when it's down to 15 riders in the lead group?

TVG? trollface.gif

daniel oss?

Roche is fairly classy and knows his way around a grand tour. Bookwalter is pretty versatile.

Oss isn't a climber. Not sure why they let Morabito go.

So basically BMC don't have anyone capable of giving Porte support in the mountains until the final few kilometres of the stage. Sky, in comparison, can choose from Poels, Landa, Thomas, Henao and, possibly, Nieve.

Maybe that's why BMC want to sign Froome; to reprise his super dom role for Porte...

Sky's budget is astronomical in fairness. But I agree BMC ought to be have built a more solid looking team given the amount of resources invested and the time they've been around.

Slightly unlucky getting behind TvG who turned out not to be the superstar he fleetingly promised to be. Ditto Phinney. Seems strange they weren't able to coax more wins out of Gilbert.

Evans' win in 2011 and GVA's recent string of Classics is a haul most teams would kill for.

Did laugh.

He'll be feeling like Tony Martin when QS signed Cav. "Not fucking lead out trains again"

My understanding is that BMC's budget is similar to Sky's.

Estimates from last year:

Tour de France team budgets (estimated)
Team Sky – €35m
Katusha – €32m
BMC – €28m
Tinkoff – €25m
Astana – €20m
Etixx-Quick Step – €18m
Movistar – €15m
Lotto-Soudal – €14m
LottoNL-Jumbo – €14m
Dimension Data – €13.5m
Orica-BikeExchange – €13m

Read more at http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/tour-de-france/tour-de-france-team-largest-budget-262275#yljCvAxlVj3HvHO5.99

I didn't realise Katusha had such a big budget so did a little research. It's Russian oil money.

Sunweb fucking bossing this season man..

Be interesting to calculate some ROI vs wins on that.

Etixx and Sunweb have to be getting the most bang per buck? Guess it depends how you rank wins.

Movistar too, no?

http://inrng.com/2017/05/team-victory-rankings-may-2017/

BRB. Doing a spreadsheet.

I sum the difference between Richie and Skeletor up like this: If you invited both of them round for some beers and a film, Porte would chat to you about the film, Froome would chat to you about your TV.