13/05 - 19/05: Tour of California

[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.

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.

Van Garderen has beaten Dennis in Cali before.

Like I said, Yanks perform much better on their own turf than they do else where. Just look at Brent Bookwalter, Powless, Dombrowski, Craddock. They aren't much of a reference here.

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

Re: Re:

...Bjerg, arguably the biggest time trial talent we've seen probably since Cancellara.

Because year in, year out we see all these laughable Danish and Norwegian riders destroy everything everywhere and then proceed to do absolutely remotely nothing in the professional level. I thought we had hit rock bottom, but this Bjerg guy absolutely takes the cake.

:lol:

 

[DNP-Old]

Re: Re:

...Bjerg, arguably the biggest time trial talent we've seen probably since Cancellara.

Because year in, year out we see all these laughable Danish and Norwegian riders destroy everything everywhere and then proceed to do absolutely remotely nothing in the professional level. I thought we had hit rock bottom, but this Bjerg guy absolutely takes the cake.

:lol:

I was obviously being somewhat ironic when describing Bjerg, lol. Before editting, it even read something along the lines of biggest talent in 83483758378 years

 

[AlexNYC]

Bernal did a pretty respectable job in my opinion. His ceiling as a time trialist is limited by his weight, but it's still considerably higher than where he is at right now. Just by tweaking his gear ratio he'll achieve much better results I think. While watching him and Yates during their runs yesterday, I was almost sure Yates' time was going to be better just because he looked way more balanced and comfortable on the bike. Bernal by comparison looked very uncomfortable and he was all over the place, and yet he did better.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

...Bjerg, arguably the biggest time trial talent we've seen probably since Cancellara.

Because year in, year out we see all these laughable Danish and Norwegian riders destroy everything everywhere and then proceed to do absolutely remotely nothing in the professional level. I thought we had hit rock bottom, but this Bjerg guy absolutely takes the cake.

:lol:

I was obviously being somewhat ironic when describing Bjerg, lol. Before editting, it even read something along the lines of biggest talent in 83483758378 years

You mean you were being ironic when you described him - in the other thread - as having absolutely taken the cake in doing nothing on the pro-level?
Bit early to say that about a guy who - at that time - hadn't even turned pro yet.

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

Bernal did a pretty respectable job in my opinion. His ceiling as a time trialist is limited by his weight

1kg lighter than Hinault

 

[AlexNYC]

Re: Re:

Bernal did a pretty respectable job in my opinion. His ceiling as a time trialist is limited by his weight

1kg lighter than Hinault

Very different eras. A more apt comparison would be Contador.

 

[GraftPunk]

Today's has thus far only merited a nap. Thankfully I enjoy naps.

 

[RedheadDane]

I'm getting to bed. But before I go I'll throw out a wild guess and say...

Kittel.

 

[Sandisfan]

I know it happens and having not ridden in a peloton i will never experience one but as an observer it's weird to see crashes on open roads. But with every one packed together it will happen.

 

[DNP-Old]

Nando!

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Weak sprint by Sagan. He doesn't seem to be at his usual

 

[DNP-Old]

Still haven't seen the big one. Cavendish and Kittel both with late mechanicals, peloton messed up after a crash. Hopefully Saturday will be better.

 

[DNP-Old]

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re: Re:

Bernal did a pretty respectable job in my opinion. His ceiling as a time trialist is limited by his weight

1kg lighter than Hinault

Very different eras. A more apt comparison would be Contador.

I disagree that eras are relevant in this case. But if you insist, Leipheimer weighed the same.

Weak sprint by Sagan. He doesn't seem to be at his usual

Seemed like the usual Sagan to me. Can make repeated accelerations better than anyone so gets the perfect wheel, but then doesn't have the speed to actually win against top sprinters. Par for the course.

 

[DNP-Old]

Geoghegan Hart lost 23 seconds, that could change Sky's tactics for tomorrow.

 

[carton]

Re: Re:

Bernal did a pretty respectable job in my opinion. His ceiling as a time trialist is limited by his weight

1kg lighter than Hinault

Very different eras. A more apt comparison would be Contador.

I disagree that eras are relevant in this case. But if you insist, Leipheimer weighed the same.

He's about Contador's height but 4kg lighter, in fact.

https://www.eurosport.com/cycling/egan-bernal_prs442161/person.shtml

P.S. Kudos to Quickstep for the great leadout and to Gaviria for finishing it off.

 

[CTQ]

Re:

Geoghegan Hart lost 23 seconds, that could change Sky's tactics for tomorrow.

No change in the GC, must be a mistake , no result for WISNIOWSKI Lukasz . a bike change between them and it's Lukasz at 23 seconds.


EDIT: some changes now on the classification

 

[fiddlers25]

Re: Re:

Bernal did a pretty respectable job in my opinion. His ceiling as a time trialist is limited by his weight

1kg lighter than Hinault

If you mean Bernard Hinault...he is way lighter than that. Hinault was only 1 cm shorter than Bernal but visibly much more muscular and based on his own words on his oxygen consumption at the link below his racing weight was 68 kgs (6400 ml/94 Vo2max) whereas Bernal I've seen listed at 59-60 kg.

https://decaironman-training.com/2014/01/07/yellow-jersey-training-what-we-have-learnt-from-cyclings-greats-part-13/

 

[DNP-Old]

Re: Re:

Geoghegan Hart lost 23 seconds, that could change Sky's tactics for tomorrow.

No change in the GC, must be a mistake , no result for WISNIOWSKI Lukasz . a bike change between them and it's Lukasz at 23 seconds.

Provisoire has been removed already, Matsport shows no mercy. I ran the coverage back and Tao was involved in the crash. Wisniowski finished 5 minutes down as well.

 

[Breh]

Wearing number 31, Gaviria nets his 31st career win.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

I really want last 280 meter power numbers from all of the sprinters here to compare with the Giro ones.

 

[AlexNYC]

Re: Re:

Bernal did a pretty respectable job in my opinion. His ceiling as a time trialist is limited by his weight

1kg lighter than Hinault

Very different eras. A more apt comparison would be Contador.

I disagree that eras are relevant in this case. But if you insist, Leipheimer weighed the same.

This is my original post:

Bernal did a pretty respectable job in my opinion. His ceiling as a time trialist is limited by his weight, but it's still considerably higher than where he is at right now. Just by tweaking his gear ratio he'll achieve much better results I think. While watching him and Yates during their runs yesterday, I was almost sure Yates' time was going to be better just because he looked way more balanced and comfortable on the bike. Bernal by comparison looked very uncomfortable and he was all over the place, and yet he did better.

Going back to your posts, comparing Bernal's time trialing to other riders might show who is/was the better time trialist, but it has nothing to do with my original point, which was that a cyclist's performance on flat TTs is naturally limited by his weight. So, Bernal being less than 60kg probably means that he will never consistently match the best TTers. However, his performance yesterday does show he has the potential and the room to get a lot better.

 

[claude cat]

Re:

Still haven't seen the big one. Cavendish and Kittel both with late mechanicals, peloton messed up after a crash. Hopefully Saturday will be better.

Ewan, Cavendish and Kittel all had punctures at the same spot, 12km out.
Then Cavendish's train got caught up in a late crash.
Ewan used his leadout train to get back on, and Kittel was gassed from the effort.

 

[The Barb]

Re: Re:

Bernal did a pretty respectable job in my opinion. His ceiling as a time trialist is limited by his weight

1kg lighter than Hinault

Oh I don't believe that for a moment. Hinault's legendary junk probably weighs more than Bernal.