2019 Strade Bianche, March 9th, 184 km 1.WT

[kingjr]

Re: Re:

In the TG sport of Rai they showed his post race interview before the podium, asked about his favourite classics he said that he likes a lot of classics and wants to win all the ones he can but he also said that in the future he wants to win the Tour. I like this because I want to see a Tour route tailor made for him in the future, considering how boring is the Tour maybe taking out the high mountains could be a good idea and lead to a better race.

A Tour for Alaphilippe to win would be an atrocity of a design probably.

The train make high mountains a borefest, taking out the high mountains IMHO could be a good idea to try, I don't think a lot of hilly/medium mountain stages could be controlled in the same way.

I'd honestly rather watch the borefest.

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

I don’t think anyone or anything could have stopped JA at this race. So perfect for him.

He still has time to improve his climbing, would not rule out a GT challenge at some point.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Re: Re:

In the TG sport of Rai they showed his post race interview before the podium, asked about his favourite classics he said that he likes a lot of classics and wants to win all the ones he can but he also said that in the future he wants to win the Tour. I like this because I want to see a Tour route tailor made for him in the future, considering how boring is the Tour maybe taking out the high mountains could be a good idea and lead to a better race.

A Tour for Alaphilippe to win would be an atrocity of a design probably.

The train make high mountains a borefest, taking out the high mountains IMHO could be a good idea to try, I don't think a lot of hilly/medium mountain stages could be controlled in the same way.

I think that it could be interesting to watch as a one off, hypothetically. More stages that are GC relevant, but that generally see smaller time gaps whilst still providing 'racing' for more than a few kms.

However, it takes away from what has always been a key component (at least to my historical knowledge) to being a GT winner, being able to climb well in the high mountains. The climbers would then have every right to claim that one of the five monuments be made into a genuine 'queen' stage (Lombardia is really more hilly than mountainous, correct?).

For me, I'd mainly like to see more proper high mountain stages again, in combination with more ITT. If you can't time trial then that is too bad, and if the organisers still want the standings to look close throughout, then the majority of those kms can still be put into the now extinct once traditional 50-60 km ITT on the penultimate stage.

None of this, "But Froome/Dumoulin" stuff either. Not that the variable nature of the event has ever been up for questioning, but they didn't change the 100 metres to 70 metres to reduce Usain Bolt's dominance.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

In the TG sport of Rai they showed his post race interview before the podium, asked about his favourite classics he said that he likes a lot of classics and wants to win all the ones he can but he also said that in the future he wants to win the Tour. I like this because I want to see a Tour route tailor made for him in the future, considering how boring is the Tour maybe taking out the high mountains could be a good idea and lead to a better race.

A Tour for Alaphilippe to win would be an atrocity of a design probably.

The train make high mountains a borefest, taking out the high mountains IMHO could be a good idea to try, I don't think a lot of hilly/medium mountain stages could be controlled in the same way.

I think that it could be interesting to watch as a one off, hypothetically. More stages that are GC relevant, but that generally see smaller time gaps whilst still providing 'racing' for more than a few kms.

However, it takes away from what has always been a key component (at least to my historical knowledge) to being a GT winner, being able to climb well in the high mountains. The climbers would then have every right to claim that one of the five monuments be made into a genuine 'queen' stage (Lombardia is really more hilly than mountainous, correct?).

For me, I'd mainly like to see more proper high mountain stages again, in combination with more ITT. If you can't time trial then that is too bad, and if the organisers still want the standings to look close throughout, then the majority of those kms can still be put into the now extinct once traditional 50-60 km ITT on the penultimate stage.

None of this, "But Froome/Dumoulin" stuff either. Not that the variable nature of the event has ever been up for questioning, but they didn't change the 100 metres to 70 metres to reduce Usain Bolt's dominance.

Well Lombardia is more mountainous that LBL is, but it doesn't have the high mountains of the Italian or French mountains. Then again the Vuelta doesn't have the high mountains of either of those races either.