Recent content by Brullnux

I feel like Lidl-Trek went from very focused squad-building, almost Quickstep like ability in classics (minus not having the aliens), to a bit scattergun in the hope of repaying Lidl and becoming the next superteam. Gee, Ayuso, Skjelmose (maybe even Ciccone) will all expect to be supported in...

A shame

I think it was likely a decision he toyed with last season, decided to give it another go, then midway through off season training/as it ramped up realised he couldn't mentally hack another year. Sometimes you have to try it before you really know. Visma do push their riders hard, after all.

I don't think they paid what they did for him to lead the Giro, but we'll see

Something remarkable is that only five stages have a climb Cat 3 or harder in the first third of the stage. I think only six have one in the first half of the stage.

The mountain stages are all as expected. I had hoped for a lot more from Stages 5, 8, 12, 17. The Andalo stage is maybe the most disappointing one, given the chance to make a genuinelu hard medium mountain stage after a simple unipuerto and before what is effectively a rest day. Worse than the...

The Giro doesn't want to be in August as RCS don't want it to be an afterthought, and May is synonymous with the Giro in Italy. ASO are happy for the Vuelta to be in August because they want as many riders from the Tour there. It would be a tragedy if they swapped, for the Giro at least

Too hard of a combo? As in, it'll fatigue domestiques too much to then nuke it? I think it depends on race situation and on the riders. The opportunity will be there, and I don't think it's a waste of the climb like the Giro has done with some others recently. It's one of the rare stages where...

I think if it hadn't been for all the other MTFs I'd say it's a risk worth taking. Lots of upside. Giau isn't as hard as Finestre but it's a great climb anyway

The first week has the potential to be the best since 2015. It's a shame for the possibly unipuerto Stage 9 – I'd have traded that for a flattish stage and then had Blockhaus/Fermo for the weekend, on an ideal world. The biggest issue is the number of MTFs and the lack of good mountain stages...

To be honest, the article eshnar sent suggested that there's a lot of scope for something like that. Stage 2, 4, 5, 8, 13, 17 all could be tricky medium mountain stages, and 11/12/18 are interesting, too. I'm sure some of them will turn into flat stages.

This would suggest very few sprint stages, a lot of nice transitional/medium mountain stages, and a lot of MTFs. None of the high mountain stages look particularly interesting, though, other than Stage 19.

Wait a second, Muro di Ca del Poggio! In a stage-defining position! Vegni has realised his dream in his final race. Great to see

It's hard to say. The riders from this year's Giro would've attacked on Giau, so maybe there's room to be optimistic

Seixas just rode a reverse Mont Blanc sportif, 320km and 12 hours, for fun. I don't think Seixas has any issues with distances of 200km+