[Closed] Froome - Are you feeling the love?

the truth seems to be that now the sweet shop has been shut for a lot of these people , their 'performances' are just like everyone elses' !!

Most importantly - I saw Didi running along. Yay!

I think he had sponsors' logos on his top
It's ruined the whole sport for me

Didi has (I believe) almost always been sponsored. Mainly by LUK clutches, who also sponsored Hans. Which is good.
[img] [/img]
[img] [/img]

I'm feeling the Froome love. He's let his riding do all the talking and been very humble and generous when being interviewed. He's the antithesis of Wiggins, which for me is another reason to like him even more. Yesterday's stage will go down as a tour classic, and he's achieved this with a team who are struggling with injury and form, unlike last year's efforts.

SPOTY only goes to participants of sports shown on the BBC. No olympics this years, so no cycling. The most he can hope for is making the shortlist.

Like when Cav won it for winning the Green jersey in 2011?

Short memory!

Richie Porte finished 51 seconds behind Froome on Stage 8 with Contador nearly a full minute further back.

He also finished 4th in the time trial only 1:21 back from Tony Martin and 54 secs in front of Contador. All this on top of his domestique duties for Froome.

I'm pretty certain that if Porte were the leader of a team as strong as say Saxobank Tinkoff he would be a lot further up the GC than Contador and would probably be Froome's greatest rival.

Wiggins may well have been good at setting the pace on the front for much of the climb but I doubt that he would have had Froome's or even Porte's level of sustained acceleration to break Contador, Valverde et al.

Fair enough on Porte maybe being better than I suggested - however Wiggins is still a better climber than him - as discussed above, he was the second best climber last year, and I've yet to see anything to suggest that anybody not there last year is climbing better this year than he was last year. Where exactly did Porte accelerate to break anybody?

aracer - hard to say really as Porte is riding in support of Froome, but when he accelerated on Ventoux only Froome and Contador went with him - then he looked round and smiled. When Froome went Porte sat up of course, his day's work done, so who knows what he'd have done as a protected man.

yes i did not think he did anything beyond ride super fast tempo which wiggo would have held. Porte that is not froome he could not have held on to that as i dont think anyone can currently

SPOTY only goes to participants of sports shown on the BBC.

I recall watching SPOTY 1998 and despite there being several british world champs that year (some of which dominated their chosen sport) the winner was Michael ***ing Owen! Firstly he didn't win anything that year

1998, argentina? "that" goal?

the game that was only on ITV?

CaptainFlashheart - Member

I think he had sponsors' logos on his top
It's ruined the whole sport for me

Didi has (I believe) almost always been sponsored. Mainly by LUK clutches, who also sponsored Hans. Which is good

I still think accelerating is over rated. The quickest way to the top of a mountain is to ride a steady speed. As demonstrated by lots of people on Ventoux, you don't have to attack to drop people.

I think its psychological as much as anything....seeing a rival accelerate away cant be good for the spirit.
Also the person accelerating away gets to prevent his rival sucking his wheel for any significant time while he increases the tempo....which is what Froome did, accelerated away then settled into a faster tempo than before without allowing Contador the benefit of a tow.

aracer:

I still think accelerating is over rated. The quickest way to the top of a mountain is to ride a steady speed. As demonstrated by lots of people on Ventoux, you don't have to attack to drop people.

I can see where you are coming from with this and if it were say a time trial I would probably agree that the fastest way up the mountain would be a steady climb. However, we are actually talking about a race here where other factors are involved.

Consider this; If Froome, Wiggins or Contador for instance were the fastest up any particular mountain, why would they benefit from having a team mate pace them for part or all of the climb? Surely they would all just start off at the bottom at whatever pace they could manage and the fastest rider would then just outstrip all the rest?

Obviously that isn't the case and witness Froome's three attempts to drop Quintana each time sprinting out of the saddle I think. On the first two occasions Quintana managed to match Froome's acceleration to get back on to his back wheel and then just resume at Froome's pace.

On the third attempt Quintana couldn't match Froome's acceleration and just had to settle down to the pace he could manage to the top while Froome rode away. Froome also then settled down once more and rode to the top to take 30 seconds out of Quintana.

Do you think Froome could have achieved a similar result if he had just cruised up to Quintana initially and then carried on at a similar pace? You may argue that Quintana had weakened himself by the earlier accelerations that he did to break away from the pack and if he had just maintained his optimum pace all the way up the result may have been very similar.

I think you would probably be right in that assumption but obviously this is a race not a time trial where tactics and positioning are all important, mentally as well as physically as deviant has asserted.

Like when Cav won it for winning the Green jersey in 2011?

Short memory!

Yes, i have a poor memory but recall BBC2 showing some road cycling that year.

1998, argentina? "that" goal?

the game that was only on ITV?

So he wins a goal? (BBC covered half the matches including highlights of the games it didn't broadcast live)

Dougie Lampkin was a double world champ that year (to go along with the many others he'd won previously) and Carl Fogarty won his 3rd WSB title in 98. I can't recall the others, but there were several other world beaters not even on the shortlist.

I think that the media are asking these drug questions because:

1. It is the first TDF after Armstrong was caught.
2. Froome is very impressive.

And because Froome is looking so good, it is not a really close race - therefore there is a 3:

3. They dont have much else to write about and hope that a little controversy will increase circulation.

Previous Tours were often won by 5 minutes and not that close. Mind you riders tended to blow up in a big way back then, so even leads of 4 mins were not safe till the mountains and TTs had passed. Not riderds dont tend to blow so much so while Froome does not have it in the bag, it is hard for them to spend to much time writing about possible attacks and clawing back time etc.

SPOTY is supposedly sports personality (though I agree lack of personality sometimes wins out) and not British sports achievement of the year. Or in other words its what the generality of voting TV viewers like, not who did rather well this year.
How many people who participate and follow sport vote as opposed to "I'm into football, by which I mean I like watch it on telly" types? I don't.

I think that the media are asking these drug questions because:

1. It is the first TDF after Armstrong was caught.

They were asking them last year as well.

Well until Wiggins called them all ****s and gave them something else to wrtie about instead.

TBH, I don't think either Andy Murray or Chris Froome will regard winning SPOTY as the pinnacle achievement of their sporting year.

Surely they would all just start off at the bottom at whatever pace they could manage and the fastest rider would then just outstrip all the rest?

It worked quite well last year iirc. Maybe there's more than one way to do it. Maybe your tactics should match the physiology and maybe psychology of your lead mam....

aracer - Member

Wiggins (with last year's form) could have set the pace on the front of the group whilst still cruising.

I don't see how you can get anywhere near that conclusion, it's complete supposition! The combined ascent this year is almost twice last year, double the number of Hors Categorie climbs...and when have we seen Wiggins lead a climb or finish a climb alone? (not saying that's never happened just can't remember it!)

Also second best climber after who? What about Polka dot jersey?

What about Polka dot jersey?

In recent years the polka dot jersey hasn't really been the climbers jersey, more of the chancers prize. Its been won by people going out on early breakaways to hover up the points and then relying on GC guys sharing out the points at any mountain top finishes.

This year is different so far due to the two mountain top finishes out of 3 mountain stages and Froome winning both stages, leaving Froome leading and Quintana second. Wiggins would be fairly high up in the competition this year as well as he would have finished highly on both Ax 3 Domains and Ventoux. Infact I'd say he would be 3rd so far.

jfletch - Member
In recent years the polka dot jersey hasn't really been the climbers jersey

Despite climbers winning if for the last 5 years(Voeckler, Sanchez, Charteau, Pellizotti*, Kohl*)?

Yes, but this years Polka Dot jersey wearer just happens to be a GC contestor, thats what makes him so complete, the next ITT could well be another stage win too as its a bit lumpy.

You have to hand it to him whatever your personal opinion.

He is the best climber, the best or almost best TT on this tour, & fit enough to maintain it day after day, still a long way to go, but its a fantastic Tour ride.

Froome wore Polka dot last year too, and finished 6th in the Jersey competition. Wiggins was 15th...

Despite climbers winning if for the last 5 years(Voeckler, Sanchez, Charteau, Pellizotti*, Kohl*)?

Srsly? Voeckler (or any of the others for that matter) a better climber than Wiggins?

Nobody is saying that you don't have to be able to climb to win the polka dots, simply that the best climbers set their sights on other things.

aracer - Member
Srsly? Voeckler (or any of the others for that matter) a better climber than Wiggins?

Yep.

Yep.

😆

How come Wiggins was faster up the important climbs then?

Here is your answer aracer...

[IMG] [/IMG][/img]

What was the question, sputnik?

Despite climbers winning if for the last 5 years(Voeckler, Sanchez, Charteau, Pellizotti*, Kohl*)?

I suppose you could class them all as climbers but they are far from the best climbers. I can't be arsed to look it up but I bet they all finished over 30mins down on the winner and they lost most of that time in the mountains. Even when Wiggins had a shit tour in 2010 he didn't lose as much time as your average KOM contender.

Met his Chris Froome's Aunt today at work

Her assertion that her nephew was "doing really quite well so far this year" was hugely understated in only the way well heeled British people can be!

The boy might have grown up in Kenya, but his family roots are very Gloucestershire...