Here we go
Pro Cycling 2020 **Giro d'Italia 2020 **
- Thread starter RedFish
- Start date
Rumour has it that they were searching for a personality in Quintana's room...
Moving on from the Tour de France, the build up to the world championships has begun. Men's individual TT on Friday followed by the road race on Sunday. I'm of course looking forward to Van Aert who has a chance in both disciplines, although there are a couple of riders who seem better equipped on both days. Rohan Dennis must be huge favourite for the TT, with Ganna and Dumoulin also strongly placed. Küng is participating as well and must be considered a strong candidate after his impressive European championship victory. I think 31.7 km is way too short for a world championship though. Guys like Dennis and Dumoulin thrive in longer TTs and I think both Dumoulin and Van Aert are at a slight disadvantage due to how flat it is. I wouldn't be surprised if Ganna or Küng take it, though Dennis should still have enough to win.
For the road race I see Fuglsang as biggest favourite, though Hirschi can't be underestimated. Not sure how strong Pogacar is in one-day races and the decompression after a Tour win might be too much, but nothing would surprise me with this guy. If Van Aert is still there in the final, I don't think anyone can beat him in a sprint after such a tough race. I'm looking forward to it in any case!
For the road race I see Fuglsang as biggest favourite, though Hirschi can't be underestimated. Not sure how strong Pogacar is in one-day races and the decompression after a Tour win might be too much, but nothing would surprise me with this guy. If Van Aert is still there in the final, I don't think anyone can beat him in a sprint after such a tough race. I'm looking forward to it in any case!
Van Aerts for the road race. Are Pogacar or Roglic competing in the TT? I’d put my money on either one of them. Shame next years Tour winner Evenepoel (you can quote me on that) is injured.
No, neither of them is doing the TT. They're both doing the road race though. Evenepoel would've been the top favourite for the road race in my opinion, given the terrain. Would've been a strong contender for the TT as well. It's a shame, I just hope he makes a full recovery.
Evanepoel’s going to make a full recovery, he should even be slowly back in training round about now according to his team.
Hard to see anybody beating Dumoulin in in the TT without the 2 Slovenians. Van Aert maybe? Dumoulin’s confidence should be back after riding out the tour getting stronger and he’ll be super motivated after working his socks off for 3 weeks for feck all!
Well, there's Rohan Dennis who won the last two TT world titles and had all the time in the world to prepare for this weekend without any distractions. And like I said, the short-ish distance perfectly suits Ganna and Küng.
About this year’s Tour.. apart from the general weirdness of it being held in September in a Covid ridden France and the dramatic ending on Saturday, I thought it was an incredibly boring race. The most boring in living memory. I think the parcours, with all the relatively difficult climbs so early on in the race, was counterproductive. It was clearly designed with Thibaut Pinot in mind. But what happened was that Jumbo-Visma had to control the race from the first stages, and most of the stages were more or neutralized. Also Roglic was far too pally with Pogacar. Roglic should have been far more ruthless and killed Pogacar off on several occasions during the race when Roglic had the opportunity. Roglic will be kicking himself and his team mates will be wanting to kick him.
Oh yeah Dennis, forgot him. But still, an in form Dumoulin should be unbeatable in the TT and I think riding the tour is ideal preparation for one off TT’s or road races. After a couple of days rest from competition most riders without injuries are going to be super fit and battle hardened if they rode out the Tour.
We’ll see anyway...
Agreed but I thought that it was a good learning experience because for years I have wanted to see a parcours that was that difficult and now I know that it's not interesting. Now I want to see a sort of 3 weeks classic race with few extremely difficult mountain stages, like 3 or 4 HC climbs.
The riders make the race. With such difficult mountain stages, nothing would happen until the final km of the last climb, just like this year. They're all too scared to attack early and blow themselves up. That's modern grand tour racing for you. Perhaps sticking a decent time trial in there early would shake things up, as it would force certain riders to attack more.
That's why I would like a tour that everyday looks like a classic. Basically 11 days for punchers, 3 for sprinter, 3 for climbers and 2 TTs. I also want to see a grand tour that allows the likes of Van Aert and Alaphillipe to be actual leaders.
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And more individual TT km’s! Bring back the prologue. Then the first half of the race a free for all for break aways and interesting finishes. 2nd half of the race top loaded with the Alpes and Pyrenees, at least 3 finishes on HC ascents. Then on the penultimate day a proper individual TT like on Saturday. Basically a classical Tour. Also, try to alternate Mont Ventoux and Alpe d’Huez. Every rider wants to win on either ascent and it makes for some of the most iconic moments in sport.
Really think Van Aert could've taken gold if it was 50km or so like it usually is instead of the 31 of today.
Ganna outstanding though.
Ganna outstanding though.
Quoting myself here, Ganna did it.
Van Aert a good second and was +- 20s faster in the second part. In a 50km time trial, I'd argue he would have been world champion. On to Sunday!Strong performance by Geraint Thomas as well, he's ready for the Giro.
Alaphilippe too strong, deserved victory. Van Aert two times Silver in 3 days time, painful.
Deserved. But I hate the French.
Think Van Aert might actually have been the strongest today, but apart from Hirschi no one helped him in hunting down Alaphilippe, he was the only one upping the pace while the others were just free wheeling.
Still happy for Alaphilippe, great guy and fantastic attack.
Alaphilippe is just the better rider on those steep punch climbs, so you can't really say Van Aert was the strongest. It was a similar situation as in Milan San Remo on the Poggio, only this time the gap was too big. On another note, I know these are national teams but Roglic didn't even attempt to work in that chasing group. It's extremely disappointing to see after all the work Van Aert did for him in the Tour.
I hope I never see Van Aert in front of Roglic again. He has no teammates at Jumbo. Such things would never happen with Quick-Step guys.
Yeah, my wording wasn`t really accurate, if a rider makes a successfull attack with 10km to go he is the strongest, Alaphilippe 100% deserves it. What I meant was that if everyone of that 5 head chasing group would`ve put in the same effort that Van Aert did they would`ve caught Alaphilippe and I`m pretty sure Van Aert would`ve won it. But that`s not how cycling works so yeah.
Tbf in Roglics case I think he was simply cooked, he was at times struggling to even stay at the back. But Fuglsang and Kwiatkowski definitely were saving themselves hoping Van Aert to bring them back.
I agree but if you see Van Aert's sprint in that group, you understand why they didn't want to work with him. This is a guy that can win bunch sprints in the Tour. On the other hand, now they were all riding for bronze at best, while they could've taken silver otherwise. But there's no way any of them would've stood a chance against Van Aert in the sprint. His sprint will win him many races in the future but sometimes it will work against him. In any case, it's a testament to his strength that he's second here on a route that doesn't really suit him. Next year's route is a much better one for him, but of course there's no guarantee he'll be as good as this year.
None of that takes anything away from Alaphilippe's victory, which was thouroughly deserved. I wanted him to win it a couple of years ago when Valverde won, so it's great for him to finally get it.
Can't begrudge a rainbow jersey for Alaphillipe. He'll enjoy wearing the rainbow jersey more than Valverde did, I'm sure of that.
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Congratulations to Alaphilippe!!! He's such a likable rider, great personality (as opposed to Roglic or What An Art - ducks from the incoming Belgian fire)
Assuming he fully recovers - which is never a given - that's a good shout
I'll bite. Why do you consider Van Aert an unlikable rider and why the need to butcher his name like that? I don't get it.
I’ve got a feeling Ala will win more in the rainbow than last year’s winner managed to do.
He'll get his first this upcoming Wednesday. No one can beat Alaphilippe in a sprint up the Mur de Huy. He'd have to be half drunk still from celebrations to lose that race.
Or just not participating
A shame, but indeed he was the overwhelming favorite beforehand, hopefully we'll have a more open ending right now.I guess he wants to fully focus on L-B-L next Sunday... 40 years since a Frenchman last won.
It's beautiful, like a moving postcard. The one from the women's race with Anna van der Breggen though:
Her perfect technique in combination with that backdrop and camerawork makes it seems like a work of art. How still her upper body is. Magnificent.
At least he'll get a chance to, Pedersen really got screwed this season due to covid.
Jose just posted digital blackface.
Sack!
Sack!
Weird but funny opening ITT in the Giro. Bit random to pick a course that goes downhill 80% but hey, the wind made it even more interesting. Thomas looks in great form, up a minute already on almost all the other contenders.