PeaceVegan

Albiet that I am already unhappy that BMC continues to defy logic by making Cadel their main man for this years Tour. Now they are asking him to ride the Giro? And in Cadel's own words, "...not as a training exercise...". At what point should they move their illogical support of Cadel over to a logical support of Teejay?

Cat4Lifer

Sounds like their in the middle of it to me.

tinrobot

When Cadel's contract is up

Kind of Blued

"When Tejay demonstrates that he is a consistently better stage racer than Cuddles" is, I think, the proper answer. Evans supposedly had some virus at last year's Tour, which I think is a legitimate hindrance. If it was anything like the virus that kept Thor from racing more than a few dozen days last year, the fact that Cadel still placed 7th in the toughest race of the year is still pretty amazing. Even with the form of his life, Tejay still blew himself up on a pretty unremarkable climb in the Tour. That's the type of relative immaturity that makes a directeur sportif uncomfortable putting all of their eggs in one rider's basket (HAPPY EASTER PUN!).

That said, if Cadel sucks in the Giro, then uses Contador's "I didn't recover from the Giro" excuse, which also probably holds plenty of legitimacy, and then places behind Tejay in the Tour again, more people will start to move over to the Tejay bandwagon, possibly some of the people whose opinions make a difference (no offense to the OP).

ultraman6970

I have to agree with the posters but kind'a changing the subject but related at the same time... anybody see BMC pretty much dead as a team? Too much chiefs in there and the only low range warrior was big george and now the machine of pulling is not there no more and you can tell something looks disconnected.

I dont see evans doing anything this year, the same with the god of thunder and the World Champion, actually at least you can tell he is trying to show up his tittle but at the same time he looks like tired to me.

To me smells like the right time for the young americans, my only question is if they will have support of the X-champions (The SNL X-presidents comes to mind now), at the same time you can tell TJ is still not 100% ready for this. IMO that team is in problems for this season...

As for that move last year when he blew up big time, I believe what they tried to do was set up an attack for cadel and have TJ to pull him up the climbs, the problem was that cadel's attack was more like a fart than a explosion, that thing started bad from the beginning...

PeaceVegan

I don't see Cadel getting results this year. Since they won't be in the mix with him as leader I would rather see them put Teejay in there and get some experience. Even if they still don't get results at least he will gain valuable experience in the No.1 spot. You don't get that as a domestique.

otter1833

I kinda look at Superteams with a wary eye. Look how Radio Shack Nissan Trek blew up last year! It seems like BMC has some real heavy hitters on the squad but perhaps you can't expect results based their laurels....form changes from season to season you know!

cthenn

Why is it logical to support TJ vs Evans? Remind me again what races TJ has won?

Jed19

Exactly.

You don't, all of a sudden, replace a TdF champ (and seventh place GC finisher last TdF) with somebody who has not won any meaningful race as a pro.

Cat4Lifer

I'd say it's premature to suggest that BMC should publically give TJ outright leadership, but suggest that TJ's professional wins are meaningless...well, it just shows a rudimentary understanding of pro-cycling. I'm thinking that unless Cadel performs much better than he has in the last 20 months, BMC management will leave it to them two to sort it out on the road in the first week or so if the TDF.

cthenn

Never said they were meaningless. Kept it simple just for that reason. Truth is he's a damn good bike racer who *may* win a GT one year, though I personally doubt it. He reminds me of a new-era Levi Leipheimer, good TT'er with wheel-following (only) climbing legs. But he's certainly not ready for prime time leadership in a GT race.

Cat4Lifer

I never implied that you said TJ's pro wins were meaningless.

As for him winning a GT...who knows. I never thought Wiggins or even Evans would win one, let alone the Tour.
But then, Pantani won...

PeaceVegan

Almost 36.5 years old at the Tour this year? His Tour win reminds me of Carlos Sastre's Tour win because they both dropped off the face of the cycling earth since their wins. Neither had a quality defense of their crown. Neither to be heard from again.

Teejay will be almost 25 at the tour. Go and compare his palmares against Cadel's at 25. Not even close.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tejay_van_Garderen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadel_evans

Jed19

Evans was also an exclusive mountain biker throughout his junior years and some.

Just saying!

PeaceVegan

Understood. I believe you can still compare the successes of each one by 25 even though they were in different disciplines. Wins are wins.

cafzali

They were called a superteam, but how super was RNT ever, really? Aside from the Schleck brothers and Fabian, RNT was a team built around older stars that were largely past their prime, two of whom are now gone. This was even more evident in the post-Lance era. And it's beginning to look like Andy Schleck may not materialize into an actual racer that mirrors the talent he's supposed to have. He's got great physical talent, but doesn't seem to be there mentally and this sport requires as much mental agility as physical in many cases.

When you consider Radio Shack's decision to pull out of the sport, I think it's a very real question whether they'll even exist next year.

ultraman6970

What doesnt make too much sense to me is that the whole team is not riding good, evans was pretty constant in his performances but since after the last TdF he just went south, IMO like if the whole team was tired, with no motivation, doesnt look like a happy team at all and those tiny things affect the performance of the riders.

Personally cadel will be smoked in the Giro, and since the trio of spaniards will be in the TdF he won't even see their saddles from behind this year. The top 6 in the tour this year are contador, rodriguez, valverde, henao, porte and Froome. Sincerely anybody thinks that any member from BMC would even dare to go hand by hand in a large climbing stage with any of those 6? TJ maybe???

Hope the team gets better but i dont see too much of action from BMC this year, as for Radio SHleck, well... I never thought the guy was too good either (i liked him tho) but when you have a whole team working for you it makes your life easier and thats a factor to consider in his wins, thanks to lance now nobody can dope no more so just wonder if the whimpy kid (AS) was just product of juice, only time will say but so far up today after seeing him in the basque country tour, you can tell he is just done for for example gilbert that is not even a climber got almost 8 mins out of him in a climbing stage. Probably is the right time for him to become an actor, a news anchor or a politician since he has all the publicity and PR work done already.