Interesting point made above about support. Froome seems to need a team around him shepherding him to the finish, yet contador does not….contador to win…

The tour Froome won he was often left without any team mates.

I’m not convinced that Sky can still dominate using the “riding flat out at the front all day” ploy. Other teams now seem capable of that too.

Hopefully they’ll all burn each other out and leave the GC guys all freestyling and fighting it out as individuals. There seemed quite a bit of that on the Giro and Dauphine which I thought made them particularly interesting

Watching the Giro, it struck me that Sky’s tactics have moved away from ‘riding flat out at the front all day’ to more of ‘let Astana and Tinkoff pull and come through later on for the final’. I wonder if they’ve been watching Luca Paolini – the master of the late move through the peleton. 🙂

Perhaps, after a few years Brailsford has gotten a bit more sophisticated in his approach. Froome will be fine looking after himself in the big hills. Its the cobbles, crosswinds and downhill finishes where he’ll need the help- he’s lost time through splits in the finishing group more than a few times. That’s where Nibbles and Bertie are a bit more streetwise and could easily peg back any time lost to Froome in the Prologue and TTT.

I can’t believe the love on here for Sean Kelly as a commentator. I’ve respect for him as a rider but I’m already making da calculation as to when he sends me to sleep.

Fingers and toes crossed here for the return of RealMan and his excellent daily bulletins.

Is it that time again… 🙂

Should we mention Velon in this thread ? Should we mention Tinkov too and his missive that he’d forgo next years TdF if ASO don’t start contributing to the running of the Teams (a la’ F1 model.) He’s certainly upsetting a few of the old guard at the UCI too..

Good for the sport ?

I think if he manages to bring about some fundamental changes to the way the funds from Broadcasting are distributed, then Yup, happy with that.
Also his comments made to Sagan about supporting Bertie first and foremost, then possibly he’ll be allowed to go for the Green jersey.

I like characters like Tinkov, not afraid to speak their minds.

I like characters like Tinkov, not afraid to speak their minds.

I wouldn’t mind so much if every single brain fart he had didn’t result in an article on cyclingnews. Though that’s really the fault of lazy media rather than Tinkov himself.

Agreed, but his Twitter feed is hilarious.

I can’t believe the love on here for Sean Kelly as a commentator. I’ve respect for him as a rider but I’m already making da calculation as to when he sends me to sleep.

I quite like him, but then I don’t rely on shouty voices to keep me watching. Dutch coverage is brilliant. Really laid back. I just wish I could understand it.

I think Contador will win as he is still reaping the benefits of his doping

Interesting article on Inner Ring ref Team Sky’s budget, in short £24 000 000 which is up to 2/3 more than some teams, moar interestingly that’s only 2% of Sky UK’s total marketing budget! Bloody bargain!

It also reckons Porte is moving to BMC which I hadn’t heard, Kawitsoski also moving to Sky which seems a well known rumour.

The Finances of Team Sky

Tinkoff is a nobber. Where’s this idea coming from that there’s massive money to be made from TV rights? Can’t see it myself, biggest bike race of the year isn’t even on normal TV.

Can’t see it myself, biggest bike race of the year isn’t even on normal TV.

Well the TdF is on ITV4, so either it’s not the biggest race or that’s not normal TV.

I don’t class that as normal TV. I suppose it is nowadays but it’s not the main channels. Look at the adverts that are played during, don’t seem to me to be big money adverts.

Sky wont win the TTT, they will lose time to Movistar for sure which helps Quintana, I dont see Astana ar Tinkoff having particularly special TTT teams but that might not be so much of a problem.

Also the 2013 Tour Froome won had 65 kms of TT in it which suited Froome well so not having any team mates wasnt an issue for the mountain stages as he had already built up a cushion of 4:30 on Bertie before Alpe d’Huex and the Col de Madaleine.

Eurosport can be irritatingly unreliable when it comes to recording stuff

This drives me to distraction. I have series links set up left right & centre, with 30 mins before & one hour after, yet I still missed stages of the Giro & Dauphiné.

Where’s this idea coming from that there’s massive money to be made from TV rights? Can’t see it myself, biggest bike race of the year isn’t even on normal TV.

Look at the adverts that are played during, don’t seem to me to be big money adverts.It gets the Sky brand massive coverage in Europe, where they aren’t currently as big a player as they are in other territories.

That’s not TV rights though, Tinkoff/Velon are talking about getting money back from the TV rights. There aren’t any…

Also the 2013 Tour Froome won had 65 kms of TT in it which suited Froome well so not having any team mates wasnt an issue for the mountain stages as he had already built up a cushion of 4:30 on Bertie before Alpe d’Huex and the Col de Madaleine.

Eh? stage 8 was where the sky team put everyone to the sword, more than they expected and there was no ITT before that – Froome had minutes on the others
porte and the others all blew up on stage 9 but froome stayed on Berties wheel
the ITT was pretty much honours even by the time it came

this year the TTT will be useful, but sky have enough decent riders to make a strong 5 (froome, Stannard, Porte, Geraint, Rowe, as well as the others who aren’t that bad either). Movistar will edge them though, they were much better drilled at the Dauphine

Also the 2013 Tour Froome won had 65 kms of TT in it which suited Froome well so not having any team mates wasnt an issue for the mountain stages as he had already built up a cushion of 4:30 on Bertie before Alpe d’Huex and the Col de Madaleine.

Froome was arguably the best climber in 2013 winning 2 mountain stages including Ventoux. So while it did not hurt, the TT was not needed. Also, apart from stage 9, he did have at least Porte with him for the whole time, iir receiving a penalty for going back to the team car on the Alpe.

That’s not TV rights though, Tinkoff/Velon are talking about getting money back from the TV rights. There aren’t any…

Sorry, I misunderstood where you were coming from; I was referring to the value of Sky’s investment in terms of TV exposure.

Entered my team in the fantasy league

Michael Flatley Quick Step

That’s not TV rights though, Tinkoff/Velon are talking about getting money back from the TV rights. There aren’t any…

Sorry, I misunderstood where you were coming from; I was referring to the value of Sky’s investment in terms of TV exposure.

It’s quite an interesting scenario. Tinkoff wants more money coming from the sport because it costs so much for him to run his team and he thinks the TdF is the key to this since it is the only race that actually makes any real money (Vuelta makes a loss, Giro some money, spring classics some money but not stellar).

But 80% of the costs of running a team are riders wages, it doesn’t cost much to hire a couple of mechanics, coaches and drive a few buses round Europe and these expensese are mostly covered by race fees already. There would still be enough riders if you paid then 50% less. So you could argee the issues with team budgets are the teams fault, the agree to pay their staff that much. But then you have organisations like Sky who see £24 million as a bargain for having their name on Bradley Wiggins t-shirt so why shouldn’t he get a significant proportion of this money. And then you have playboy team owners like Oleg and Andy Rhis who are happy to stump up that cash to join the party.

One issue is there aren’t enough companies who are able to get the marketing value that Sky do. Sky’s message is more than just, “look at our name on this shirt”, its also a CSR message about getting people cycling and it’s also based the popularity created by the Olympic success. Soudal aren’t selling £24m worth of extra silicon sealant because their name is on a team jersey.

A sallary cap is being suggested by Jonathan Vaughters, which would solve the cost issue in one easy step but teams like Sky don’t like this as it just means their sponsors get a spactularly good deal and their riders aren’t able to realise their true value as a billboard and a brand ambasador.

The article made a good point that the big riders are self employed and are “external contractors” to the team. The wage bill is mostly back room staff.

Another interesting point was that the “huge” SKY cycling budget is roughly 2% of SKY UK’s marketing budget, so peanuts to a big sponsor.

Interesting that Astana have left Aru at home to avoid any more issues with him out-riding Nibbles…

It amazes me that people think riding 2 Grand Tours in a row is easy. Same with people wondering why Kiryienka wasn’t on the SKY team. Hansen is a freak and Contador has his own reasons for being able to do it… but for the rest it is just asking far too much.

http://road.cc/content/news/156195-tour-de-france-bikes-2015-yellow-trek-fabian-cancellara

I’d like to see this!!

Witton Weavers in the league. Never finished outside the bottom half dozen so here’s hoping for this year!

Quintana to win…

Any others with last minute tinkering to your fantasy teams?

I’ve changed one of my climbers and now only have one lonely Frenchman in my Roulers

How do I enter this fantasy league?

Use this code: 29092751 on Velogames site once you’ve created a team:
http://www.velogames.com/

Just entered mine.

More Astana and MPCC shenanigans here. Has the MPCC had its day?

Entered 8)

Not making the same mistake as last year and made sure I have Sagan… Also – go Pinot! This is your year!

Inner Ring preview of stage 1,

Tour Stage 1 Preview

I see the first 2015 itv podcast is up https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/itv-tour-de-france-podcast/id163658288?mt=2

Sorry everyone, no threads this year, due to a combination of being too busy (riding my bike!), and kinda unreliable wifi where I’m staying. It does look like it will be a great tour though, hoping I get to watch most of it, and there won’t be too much controversy and crashes..

May I be the first to say.

NOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooo 😥

Boom still starting?

Apparently he is, back into normal/safe range again

So Liggett has already called Nicholas Roche Stephen 🙄 it’s going to be a long three weeks…

Think I prefer Kelly Doing Da Calculation (I know I do, Statler and Waldorf are why I subscribe to Eurosport).

What’s the thing hanging out the back of the saddle of the katusha and lampre Merida teams bikes? Di2/eps battery?

What’s the thing hanging out the back of the saddle of the katusha and lampre Merida teams bikes? Di2/eps battery?

No, live tracking gizmo.
Somewhere online was a description of what they are, how they work and how it’s all going to be used. Road.cc maybe. Details were a bit scarce, there was more on what they were rather than how the viewing public can actually find this data.