Oude Geuze said:
I think Nibali or Dumoulin looks the best, simmering form, ready to build towards 3rd week. Roglic and Yates a bit hot, MAL surprised me, will definitely be a threat now.
Dumoulin looks by no means the best! This is his sort of stage, he was supposed to have the TTs as his advantage, and he loses to Yates, Nibali and López who even beat him on the flat part.
He looks worse than expected and has been bad all spring. I don't think he will get on the podium, honestly.
I really don't get all this. GT riders are supposed to be good for three weeks, and they usually are.
And Simon Yates has clearly been underdoing it so far this season. Surely, he does not look too good right now. Roglic maybe, but Yates; definitely not.
I also think Landa was the biggest disappointment of the day because there were 6 big favourites for the race; 5 of them did top 5 today, Landa was 36. Very bad. Zakarin was even worse, but I didn't have high expectations for him. Sosa was still worse but it really looks like he has no intentions of trying for the GC.
Surprisingly good performances by Majka, De Plus and Mollema, and I really would not have bet on Víctor de la Parte going top 12!