Well you could built him a castle instead of just taking your hat off!I was worried that would fly by
Pro Cycling 2020 **Giro d'Italia 2020 **
- Thread starter RedFish
- Start date
Deceuninck Quick-Step are a bloody impressive team. Viviani basically just had to coast over the line. He had two guys ahead of him with 300 metres to go... They have to be the most dominant team ever to ride bikes. They've looked likely to win every race they've entered in the past two years.
Viviani gave all the credit too to his teammates. Happy for him, now that he’s got a TDF stage win to go along with the Giro and Vuelta stage wins. The holy trinity?
Btw, on the NBC broadcast, during the race they had a feature with Lance Armstrong which surprised the hell out of me. Are they trying to get him back on the road to redemption?
Btw, on the NBC broadcast, during the race they had a feature with Lance Armstrong which surprised the hell out of me. Are they trying to get him back on the road to redemption?
Very visible nowadays with his podcast and whatnot. He's interesting to listen to most of the time although I find him difficult to warm to. Marmite or something.
I can’t wrap my head around Lance being back in the public eye for cycling
I'm not against Armstrong having a public platform to give his opinions, after all he's still very knowledgable about cycling. But the scale of his cheating and the culture of bullying and threats he created to protect that shouldn't be forgotten.
Sure, he knows the sport. And Bernie Madoff knows trading.....
Sagan!
Sagan with the first win in this year of Tour. Was in green from the start though.
Easy for Sagan, if the pure sprinters are gone, he's just so strong. Nice to see Van Aert in second place.
Van Aert is something else, he can sprint, time trial and is even a more than a decent climber. This from a cross country cyclist. Possible Grand Tour winner in the future?
Far to early to say, but his talent is obvious and i wouldn't rule it out. He strikes me as a power rider who will do well in the one day classics and feature in the 1 week stage races. His weight right now, at >70kg is not an optimum weight for a 3 week long mountainous grand tour, though is main objectives here are of course to support his LJV team-mates Groeneseggen and Kruijswijk.
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All.set up for a GC ding-dong today. Can't wait.
Tick tock tick tock
Definitely not. He's far too heavy to be a grand tour winner and that will never be his focus. His main objective is the Spring classics and particularly Paris-Roubaix, which favours the heavier riders (light weights just bounce around on the cobble stones). I think he has it in him to win the slightly tougher courses like Amstel Gold Race and Strade Bianche, but I don't see him competing in real climbing classics like LBL or Lombardia. If there's a clear target for him in Grand Tours in the future, it's the points jerseys. If he ever gets a chance to go for the green in the Tour without distractions, I think he can pull it off.
Why is de Gendt stealing mountain points from his teammate who is wearing the polka?
It’s amazing how well he can climb for somebody so heavy. So you can imagine how well he might be able to climb if he sheds his weight... he can take Geraint Thomas as an example..
Those final 500m were brutal 
Early days but that was brutal finale. Thomas looks alright there.
And that is exactly it. Grand tours nowadays favour all-rounders and getting from his weight down to the mid 60s is definitely double even in this cleaner age of bike racing. If the focus is there then he could do a Geraint/Dumoulin and potentially be up there. All ifs and buts but Wiggins was not a natural climber and neither Thomas. It would be exceptional, not impossible gven his current obvious attributes.
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Popped out and missed the last 50km! Got back to see Alaophilippe cross the line and Thomas not that far behind him.
Got back to see Alaophilippe cross the line and Thomas not that far behind him.The attention on Bernal might just suit him down to the ground. He could be the man for Ineos just yet.
Popped out and missed the last 50km!
It was Thomas who finished ahead of Alaphilippe
Aha!. I stand corrected. Thank you sir.
I can’t wrap my head around Lance being back in the public eye for cycling
About bloody time, he’s been in time out for far too long. Btw, his podcast The Move is around the top of the most downloaded sports podcasts via Apple.
He's decent on short, explosive climbs like you'd get in a lot of Spring classics, a bit like Cancellara who was of a similar build. That doesn't make him a potential climber in mountain stages. In my opinion it doesn't make sense to sacrifice his explosiveness and classics specialism for something he might never excel in.
Van Aert comes from cross country cycling like Mathieu van der Poel, arguably the 2 biggest talents in cycling, and both are nothing like Cancellara. But let’s agree to disagree.
What an amazing finale
I actually struggle to think of a rider Van Aert resembles more than Cancellara. Both excellent time trialists, both excellent on cobbles, both have/had the ability to develop incredible power from the saddle on short climbs and both strong finishers. Van Aert has developed into a stronger finisher, something closer to Sagan, but it's point 3 in particular which makes him remind me of Cancellara so much. "Nothing like Cancellara" is a weird thing to say when their best attributes, their position on the bike and even their build are very similar.
I don't think weight would be the problem with van Aert - if he sheds a kilogram or 5, he'd be around the same weight as guys like Nibali, Froome, Thomas, Evans, ... which are all previous Tour winners. Van Aert is 1m89 though so he'll undoubtedly lose power as well if he wants to go that way.
My gripe with this theory though is - when has he ever shown that he's capable of climbing with the better riders? It's not just a case of "lose some weight and he'll be top in the mountains". He would also give up his specialties if he does that, both on the road and in cyclocross. It's just weird to think that he'd be able to win a race of one week like the Dauphiné, let alone a grand Tour. He's just not that kind of rider and there's nothing wrong with that. At best, he can develop into a rider in the mould of Sagan who's very consistent, does well in bunch sprints, can get by in the hills (not mountains) and excels on difficult finishes. The green jersey is something he could be looking at if that interests him, but still you need to sacrifice a lot in order to just have a shot at achieving that goal. As long as Sagan is in this kind of form (the green jersey race is over at this point for me), I can't see anyone beating him (which is a bit of a shame since I used to really like the days when pure sprinters like Zabel, McEwen, Petacchi, Boonen and others battled it out in bunch sprints for the green jersey).
For what it's worth I do think the Cancellara comparison is very apt - not only are they built in the same way, they also excel at the same specialties. If there's any past rider you can compare him to, it's him.
My gripe with this theory though is - when has he ever shown that he's capable of climbing with the better riders? It's not just a case of "lose some weight and he'll be top in the mountains". He would also give up his specialties if he does that, both on the road and in cyclocross. It's just weird to think that he'd be able to win a race of one week like the Dauphiné, let alone a grand Tour. He's just not that kind of rider and there's nothing wrong with that. At best, he can develop into a rider in the mould of Sagan who's very consistent, does well in bunch sprints, can get by in the hills (not mountains) and excels on difficult finishes. The green jersey is something he could be looking at if that interests him, but still you need to sacrifice a lot in order to just have a shot at achieving that goal. As long as Sagan is in this kind of form (the green jersey race is over at this point for me), I can't see anyone beating him (which is a bit of a shame since I used to really like the days when pure sprinters like Zabel, McEwen, Petacchi, Boonen and others battled it out in bunch sprints for the green jersey).
For what it's worth I do think the Cancellara comparison is very apt - not only are they built in the same way, they also excel at the same specialties. If there's any past rider you can compare him to, it's him.
Cycle crosses and mountain bikers tend to be decent climbers. Van Aert is a cycling crosser, Cancellara was definitely not a cycling crosser.
And yet, cyclo crossers tend to excel in the exact same races as Cancellara (and similar riders like GVA). Stybar, winner at the Strade Bianche and E3 and often a strong contender at P-R. Lars Boom, at his best on the cobbles of P-R. Sagan has a history of cyclo cross as well, he's always brilliant the entire stretch from Strade Bianche up to P-R. Van Aert, van der Poel, we've seen how well suited they are to these races.
I don't think cyclo cross necessarily produces good climbers, there's barely any climbing to be done in cyclo cross. Certainly not compared to MTB. What it does is produce riders with great technique and explosiveness due to the constant twisting and turning and accelerating out of corners, and riders who can go all out for extended periods, as cyclo cross is often going close to 100% for a full hour.
No they do not. Cyclocrossers tend to suck on the road, and Van Aert and Van der Poel are just two exceptional talents.
Sven Nys - not good on the road, definitely not a good climber, never tried racing in the mountains
Zdenek Stybar - a great talent who, just like Van Aert, is good in the classics and short hills. Definitely not a good climber
Lars Boom - same as Stybar, definitely not a good climber.
More recently, Tim Merlier looks like a sprinter and Toon Aerts is average at best. There are very few other riders who succesfully came to the road. Even VdP, a generational talent, still needs to prove that he’s able to climb with the best.
If cyclocrossers race on the road, Roubaix is usually the race that appeals to them for obvious reasons.
I used to the phrase ‘tend to be’. There are plenty of example of cycling crossing & montain bikers turning in to climbers in road racing. Just as indoor track racers tend to turn in to sprinters and or time trialers on the road. Obviously with some exceptions, but exceptions prove the rule.
Mountain bikers, yes, but who are these cyclo crossers that turned into climbers in road racing?
I'm talking cyclocrossers here - which ones turned into climbers in road racing?
I don't disagree on the MTB part by the way, as demonstrated by the likes of Rasmussen, Evans, Fuglsang and others.
@RobinLFC we just keep making almost the exact same posts!
Noticed that as well@RobinLFC we just keep making almost the exact same posts!
I don't even want him to try it - much rather he battles it out for victory in races like Strade Bianche, E3, or even better, Tour of Flanders and Roubaix. Given his progression this year, he certainly has the ability to do so.
The future luckily looks bright in grand Tours as well with Evenepoel, and now it (maybe, fingers crossed) even looks like Teuns is capable of getting a good GC ranking.
I will be extremely shocked if Van Aert doesn't win P-R at least once in his career. He's had back luck there in both attempts so far and still managed to impress. Much like Boonen and Cancellara before him, that race is practically made for him. And yeah I'm really excited to see what Evenepoel can do in stage races. I think he'll limit himself to shorter, 1 week races next year though.Noticed that as well
I don't even want him to try it - much rather he battles it out for victory in races like Strade Bianche, E3, or even better, Tour of Flanders and Roubaix. Given his progression this year, he certainly has the ability to do so.
The future luckily looks bright in grand Tours as well with Evenepoel, and now it (maybe, fingers crossed) even looks like Teuns is capable of getting a good GC ranking.