13/05 - 19/05: Tour of California

[Pricey_sky]

Should be set up for a good stage on Friday. Bernal will surely think he can take 23s on Tejay.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Nice from TJ. Pretty mediocre from Bernal. It sets up the race nicely.

 

[Bot. Sky_Bot]

Yes, let's wait till Friday.

 

[DNP-Old]

More than acceptable time trial from Egan. Could it have been better? Undoubtedly. But he more than held his own.

 

[Moviefan1203]

Tejay, baby! Tejay!

 

[Poursuivant]

Re:

More than acceptable time trial from Egan. Could it have been better? Undoubtedly. But he more than held his own.

The kid is special

 

[Red Rick]

Don't find it that special to be honest.

 

[carton]

Re: Re:

Riding tempo until 2km to go doesn't create the big gaps typically. Riding way too hard and have everyone explode early one does.

That's why some uniclimb stages that have insane pace in the first few climbs lead to insane time differences.

Not in the power meter era, where cool-headed riders can time trial back to you like Dumoulin at Oropa or like Froome oh so many times. Lately it's just a recipe for losing a stage race in the first summit finish, a la Quintana at LPSM.

P.S. If Sky play their cards right stage 6 might be really fun. Also, happy Tejay found his form. He was hyped up as much as he was torn down. I hope he can hold it into the summer.

 

[pastronef]

grande Tejay! about time! happy to see him win the stage and take the lead. well done man!

don´t know if he can hang on until the end, but very nice to see him in the lead

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Hoped a bit better for De Plus. At the WC ITT last year, he was 22nd, and in front of guys like TJVG. But it's been less than a month since his comeback after a 7 month recovery (crash + hit by a truck), it's still pretty impressive nonetheless. I think he would have been a contender without these setbacks.

 

[Koronin]

Great to see Tejay riding a good TT again. Friday's climb should be better for him. I'm hoping he can find a way to win the overall. Maybe Friday a break wins the stage?

 

[woodburn]

Re:

Don't find it that special to be honest.

Imagine if some elite TTers were here? How much would have Bernal lost in 34k? Close to three minutes to Dumoulin?

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Don't find it that special to be honest.

Imagine if some elite TTers were here? How much would have Bernal lost in 34k? Close to three minutes to Dumoulin?

Remember when Tejay rides a TT he's capable of (which he did today) he's not that far of the TT specialists. Maybe loosing around 30 seconds or so on a course like this one.

 

[DNP-Old]

Re: Re:

Don't find it that special to be honest.

Imagine if some elite TTers were here? How much would have Bernal lost in 34k? Close to three minutes to Dumoulin?

Americans in America always ride a lot faster than they usually do elsewhere. If you look at it big picture, he lost 30 seconds to Bjerg, arguably the biggest time trial talent we've seen probably since Cancellara. It's not all sad and glum.

 

[Anderis]

Re:

Dani Martinez 10th! He's having an extremely good season.

I wonder if he will be riding Tour or Vuelta this year. I expected him to ride the Giro but somehow that is not the case.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Dani Martinez 10th! He's having an extremely good season.

I wonder if he will be riding Tour or Vuelta this year. I expected him to ride the Giro but somehow that is not the case.

He did suffer a rather nasty concussion back in March.

 

[Anderis]

He did ride La Fleche, LBL and Romandie (with decent result) between his concussion and the Giro, so he should be OK to race there if he/his team wanted.

 

[SafeBet]

Very promising TT from Dani Martinez. Improving in the shadows while Bernal takes the spotlight. I had some doubts about him last year, but he's having a great season in 2018.

 

[del1962]

Great time trial from Tao, if he had been Sky's leader he might have been in leaders jersey by now, Bernal needs to improve his ITT, though the likes of Henao have not really

 

[yaco]

Posted that I thought Bernal found his stage victory tough going, probably because of the infernal pace set by Geoghan Hart - So no surprise he struggled in the ITT - I suspect Geoghan Hart is stronger than Bernal and it gives Sky two cards to play.

 

[Escarabajo]

What's up with Bernal massive gear ratio that he used in the TT? I thought it was not the appropriate one for him. Maybe some experts can shed a light on this issue.

 

[woodburn]

Re: Re:

Don't find it that special to be honest.

Imagine if some elite TTers were here? How much would have Bernal lost in 34k? Close to three minutes to Dumoulin?

Americans in America always ride a lot faster than they usually do elsewhere. If you look at it big picture, he lost 30 seconds to Bjerg, arguably the biggest time trial talent we've seen probably since Cancellara. It's not all sad and glum.

That's fine. But losing almost 90 seconds to TJ who would normally be at least a minute behind the best in TT means there is room for improvement for Bernal.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Don't find it that special to be honest.

Imagine if some elite TTers were here? How much would have Bernal lost in 34k? Close to three minutes to Dumoulin?

Americans in America always ride a lot faster than they usually do elsewhere. If you look at it big picture, he lost 30 seconds to Bjerg, arguably the biggest time trial talent we've seen probably since Cancellara. It's not all sad and glum.

That's fine. But losing almost 90 seconds to TJ who would normally be at least a minute behind the best in TT means there is room for improvement for Bernal.

Of course there is room for improvement, he just turned 21, is a pure climber (well he isn't but given his kg he should be!) and is on a different setup. On top of that, a time trial like this is one which suits him the least. Reminds me of the time trial where Froome annihilated Quintana and Contador in TdF 2013. Saint Montrond or something?

 

[woodburn]

Re: Re:

Don't find it that special to be honest.

Imagine if some elite TTers were here? How much would have Bernal lost in 34k? Close to three minutes to Dumoulin?

Americans in America always ride a lot faster than they usually do elsewhere. If you look at it big picture, he lost 30 seconds to Bjerg, arguably the biggest time trial talent we've seen probably since Cancellara. It's not all sad and glum.

That's fine. But losing almost 90 seconds to TJ who would normally be at least a minute behind the best in TT means there is room for improvement for Bernal.

Of course there is room for improvement, he just turned 21, is a pure climber (well he isn't but given his kg he should be!) and is on a different setup. On top of that, a time trial like this is one which suits him the least. Reminds me of the time trial where Froome annihilated Quintana and Contador in TdF 2013. Saint Montrond or something?

Yeah. That was Mont-Saint-Michel. Effectively ended the race. Not trying to denigrate Bernal. Just that it was a little below par considering the talent that was here. Has plenty of time to be good enough.

 

[Breh]

Saint Amand Montrond was the echelon stage.
Mont Saint-Michel was the TT in which Froome almost beat T. Martin in his prime on a pan flat course.