Bardet and Pinot PHOTO / LIONEL BONAVENTURE
That is my question. Both want to be considered great cyclists, not great French cyclists. It is a cruel and heavy burden to be an excellent French cyclist. When are you going to win the Tour de France? Bernard Hinaults don’t come around very often, maybe never again. Hinault was the French Merckx; winning was everything. If he was not a cyclist he should have been a professional fighter. Fignon was called the professor because he was from Paris and wore glasses, not because he was an intellectual. He managed to win some Tours and not be a badger. He was not out happily slugging protesters. If Hinault had lost to Lemond by eight seconds…one, it wouldn’t have happened. Hinault would have burst his own heart to finish nine seconds faster. Two, if he had lost by eight seconds, he would have slugged Lemond so damn hard it would have put him back in the hospital.
I hope the French are happy they have any prospective Tour winners. The Americans have none. Most countries do not because it takes a special genetic freak in a sport of genetic freaks to be one. The English had to sweep their post-colonial, high altitude Kenyan supply system to come up with one. Of this French pair I have a bias toward Romain Bardet partially because he rides for AG2R and on Keepers Tour 2012 we met directeur Vincent Lavenu. VL seemed a good sort and for inexplicable, Rule ignoring reasons, I sort of like their kit, but I digress.
Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet: both 24 years old, both stage winners in the 2015 Tour, both prodigious climbers, both saddled with the “next French hope” mantle.
Judging from this edition’s Alpe d’Huez stage, Pinot actually may be be the stronger climber. If you can ride everyone off your wheel on Alpe d’Huez, you are a badass. For climbing style points, Romain wins. He is solid and smooth to Pinot’s lack of. Going downhill, if you try to pedal through a corner and catch your inside pedal (and crash) doing so, points off. Bardet descends like Philippe Gilbert, that is to say, avec grande vitesse et les grand testicules.
Being the best climber or best descender does not make a grand tour winner. A grand tour winner does not have to be the best at anything, just very capable at everything. And not sucking at anything, like descending or time trialing and not having a jour sans.
Can either of these guys time trial? If Pinot can he should, by all rights, be one podium step closer in Paris than Andy Schleck* ever got. There is a large leap between a top ten Tour finish and a podium finish. It might be a larger leap from the third podium step to the top. Pinot and Bardet are in this mix.
Neither of these guys seem like punch throwing firebrands like Hinault, which may be good. Then who can better handle the pressure of being the next Fignon?
*I can still make fun of Andy Schleck even though he retired, yes?
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@Oli
We're very far apart on this!
@Gianni
In the last year I've picked up a house and a 9-5 job. I find myself provoking arguments with people much less often than I have all of my life. Am I getting old? Contented? Bored? I'm trying to take it as it comes, but I find myself much less motivated to yell at people. It feels wrong.
RE: Danielson. Allow us to recall that fuckface Vaughters said he'd fire THE ENTIRE SQUAD if anyone tested positive. Let us await Tom's B sample and see what the bespectacled dork does. Gonna be rough if Dombrowski gets fired a week after that win...
@frank
Yes, that's because you're delusional.
@Oli
No, no, no...in this particular example, you're the crazy cunt chasing the teddy bear up a fence. Sorry if that was confusing for you.
@Gianni
Because he is clearly African, not British. He was born in Kenya, raised and educated in ZA, and only took a Pommy passport specifically for the betterment of his Cycling career.
Speaking of sub par descending, anyone seen the footage of Matt Brammeier's crash at the Tour of Utah on the weekend?
Think Barguil vs GT, except Brammeier was going way faster & decided to use a support car as his stopping mechanism instead of a fellow rider...ouch!
@frank
You're the delusional one, thinking teddy bears can climb fences.
Other than the first week, both could have podiumed. It was especially fun watching Bardet claw back time, day after day to end up in the top ten. Regardless of outbursts, both show good character. Much better than the TJ/Porte variety who look great, then inevitably fade.
And the AG2R kit is fine by me. Easy to pick out from a low-res Steephill feed, and reminds me of The Who's Tommy LP cover. What's not to like?
Froome might be African yes. But Team Sky is clearly a Pommy (I only just learned this term thanks to this wonderfully classy educational site) team and I really dig 'em and the whole Tinkov, they're gonna kill the business thing...
Ian Stannard and Geraint Thomas? The fact the Froome is racing with these uber cool cats makes him British enough for me.
Their bikes are mounted on bad a** Jags!! Yea, I know, an Indian company for now but that's probably temporary. Jag and Land Rover will always be British.
Team Sky may also have the Baddest Kits. Baddest Bikes, Buses, Trucks, RVs, Etc.
So, the wife and kiddos and I are in London over the 4th and we see a t-shirt that says, Happy Traitor Day you Ungrateful Colonists. I love that place. And Team Sky.
And Froome? Yea, I really like him too. And I don't care if he looks like a squid falling out of a tree when riding a bike. That staring at the stem thing. And huffing on a puffer... he can ride a bike fast up a mtn and he's not tiny kid small. Team Sky, their racers and their Pinarellos I like. And Kwiatowski is sounding like a good British dude to me if he's racing with Stannard and Thomas.
Oh, that's right, this thread was about French riders... meh... whatev...
God Save the Queen and Cheers all for the new week.
@Oli
Where is the "like" button ? 10-4 to this!