Re: 2016 Giro d'Italia - Castelrotto – Alpe di Siusi 10.8 km
Hakkapelit said:
ciranda said:
It's a fun situtation. Movistar will have lots of guys to send out too although they don't have as many strong riders as the Astanas. Kruiswijk probably has more race intelligence than someone like Evans for example. If he's still clearly better uphill he should attack himself and improvise.
Hmm, I never reallyt followed what Evens was up to - what is this referring to=?
Evans had two major flaws as a tactical stage racer which, for the most part, he was able to overthrow late in his career after winning the rainbow jersey.
He would often stay with a group, or with the leader, following every attack and going deep into the red before blowing up, whereas a rider like Sastre would often let go and be distanced quite early on only to ride back on at his own pace when the guys at the front were playing games, or limit his losses. After the infamous 2009 Vuelta puncture, Evans raced onto the Samu group and started hard charging, only to then tumble almost a minute behind the Asturian by blowing up powered by the rage at the unlucky wheel change; at the 2008 Flèche Wallonne he was the strongest rider but he went far too early and blew up (a mistake he learnt from and profited from two years later when Igor Antón did the exact same thing Evans had), and even after the rainbows, he tried to follow every Basso move in the 2010 Giro and blew himself up on the Zoncolan and on Mortirolo, eventually paying heavy prices. The other problem was that he would expect others to do his work for him sometimes, which combined with his ability to whine about his teammates' lack of support for him publicly and standoffish reputation didn't help. The Alpe d'Huez stage referenced is a key point. He only had Kohl who could help him (Valverde wasn't willing, the Schlecks were obviously Sastre's teammates, Menchov and Kirchen were hanging on for grim death) and didn't realise until way too late on that Kohl didn't have the legs; similarly in 2009 in the Dauphiné when Valverde rode away on the Ventoux and cut a deal with Szmyd to the extent that he almost had to stop and wait for the Pole at the summit to hand over the win, Evans looked around for help, was told that as the maillot jaune it was his job to chase, and sat there sulking and letting Valverde win. He tried to win the race back a couple of days later, but by then the damage was done.
Evans' main problem was that he'd try to chase every move, tire himself out, and then when he couldn't respond to one, sulk if he didn't get the help he needed from others. He took a long time to get over that and I feared he had wasted his best chances to win the big races before he came out of his shell and changed his mindset, however he did have one last chance at the Tour which he took - the difference between the 2008 and 2011 Evans is insane - the former was almost certainly stronger, but the last one actually looked like he could win the Tour (and did).
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