2019 Tour de Suisse

[hfer07]

Re:

Bernal seems to really like his 2km attacks

should have won the stage had he gone a bit earlier...... but still - it was impressive!!

 

[Gigs_98]

Not sure what to make of this. Bernal looked incredible when they first showed him after his attack but he then basicall stopped gaining. 12 seconds on hirt and 25 in pozzovivo is good but nothing that makes me say he will easily win the tour.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

I have seen Bernal. Le Tour is over.

Jan Hirt will not be his competition.

Good point. He looked great, but putting 11 seconds into Hirt isn’t the kind of thing that will have Tour contenders shaking in their boots.

 

[sir fly]

Excellent effort from Tolhoek. Congrats.
Bernal took off strong, but didn't finish equally impressive.

Good racing. Nice beginning of GC fight.

 

[JosephK]

Tolhoek! Courage! Stage victory! . . . Bernal looking like the GC winner easily.

Surprise ride of the day: Rohan Dennis.

 

[shalgo]

I don't know how much this tells us about Bernal. The competition here is so weak that it is hard to know what this ride means. He was only 12 seconds ahead of Hirt and 14 seconds ahead of Pozzovivo, neither of whom was great in the Giro.

The big lesson from today is that Mas doesn't look ready for the Tour.

 

[Rollthedice]

Re: Re:

I have seen Bernal. Le Tour is over.

Jan Hirt will not be his competition.

At least the way he passed the guys up the road was impressive but at the end of the day it wasn't.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

No doubt Bernal will win the swiss tour, he just destroyed them all, over only 2 k.

Mas is a huge disappointment.

 

[SafeBet]

I would like to comment on this stage but it was impossible to understand anything happening behind Tolhoek.
Horrible production, among the worst I've seen in the past few years.

 

[Red Rick]

Not sure what to make of this. Bernal looked incredible when they first showed him after his attack but he then basicall stopped gaining. 12 seconds on hirt and 25 in pozzovivo is good but nothing that makes me say he will easily win the tour.

Even Bidard who had been in the break all day stopped losing time to him.

 

[JosephK]

Not sure what to make of this. Bernal looked incredible when they first showed him after his attack but he then basicall stopped gaining. 12 seconds on hirt and 25 in pozzovivo is good but nothing that makes me say he will easily win the tour.

Even Bevin who had been in the break all day stopped losing time to him.

Suffice to say it was something short of a Contador-level attack.

 

[Sestriere]

Kämna 13th, ahead of Mas!

 

[KZD]

Re: Re:

Bernal seems to really like his 2km attacks

should have won the stage had he gone a bit earlier...... but still - it was impressive!!

This is what I don't understand with INEOS. They have just 3 World Tour wins and the biggest candidate for this stage and still they stopped working in the beginning of the climb which enabled Tolhoek's win. In the next days they will probably just control the other GC contenders.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Stage

GC

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

I don't know how much this tells us about Bernal. The competition here is so weak that it is hard to know what this ride means. He was only 12 seconds ahead of Hirt and 14 seconds ahead of Pozzovivo, neither of whom was great in the Giro.

The big lesson from today is that Mas doesn't look ready for the Tour.

This. Pretty disappointing from him. I just hope he is doing a slow preperation but overall this surely wasn't a good sign for the tour

 

[SafeBet]

Going by the results, a few interesting performances:

Benoot 8th at 44"
Kamna 13th at 52" (was he in the break?)
Aru 15th at 1'11" (not there yet but promising)

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Tolhoek was clearly the best of the break, and he held off the upcoming favorites very well. Didn't really weaken, kept his pace up. Deserved winner.

I honestly expected a bit more from Bernal. His attack was good, but not earthshattering either. Mas has some work to do it seems.

Going by the results, a few interesting performances:

Benoot 8th at 44"

Not really surprising for me. He CAN do this, he just usually choses not to go for GC. He was 20th in TDF GC 2 years ago and 12th in Dauphiné GC. He has more potential as a climber than he's been given credit for on this forum.

 

[roundabout]

Re:

I don't know how much this tells us about Bernal. The competition here is so weak that it is hard to know what this ride means. He was only 12 seconds ahead of Hirt and 14 seconds ahead of Pozzovivo, neither of whom was great in the Giro.

The big lesson from today is that Mas doesn't look ready for the Tour.

They weren't great in the Giro, but they should have the advantage of doing it

 

[The Chicken]

The worst TV coverage of a bike race I have ever seen. Sack the director/producer/whoever is responsible.

 

[fantomas]

Not sure what to make of this. Bernal looked incredible when they first showed him after his attack but he then basicall stopped gaining. 12 seconds on hirt and 25 in pozzovivo is good but nothing that makes me say he will easily win the tour.

He also didn't gain time on Bidard in the final K or so. Still, he was very fast for the first K or so of his attack.

 

[Carols]

Re:

I don't know how much this tells us about Bernal. The competition here is so weak that it is hard to know what this ride means. He was only 12 seconds ahead of Hirt and 14 seconds ahead of Pozzovivo, neither of whom was great in the Giro.

The big lesson from today is that Mas doesn't look ready for the Tour.

True

 

[Escarabajo]

This tells nothing about Bernal. For all people asking. What do you expect?
He is still behind his top form. Remember he has had no racing days since Catalonia and then he crashed.

I was expecting something like this TBH.

 

[ppanther92]

Re:

I don't know how much this tells us about Bernal. The competition here is so weak that it is hard to know what this ride means. He was only 12 seconds ahead of Hirt and 14 seconds ahead of Pozzovivo, neither of whom was great in the Giro.

The big lesson from today is that Mas doesn't look ready for the Tour.

On the other hand, Giro riders seem to do better still than the riders aiming for the Tour (see also La Route d'Occitanie). So the fair comparison is Bernal against:

Benoot +0:27
Konrad +0:29
Soler
Dennis
Mas +0:51
Aru +0:53
...

Which pretty damn good on 1.6km but also against not quite top competition.

 

[sir fly]

Bernal can ride big altitude gains in stronger tempo than the rest, that's the deal.
Today's stage wasn't exactly his cup of tea.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Re:

Going by the results, a few interesting performances:

Benoot 8th at 44"
Kamna 13th at 52" (was he in the break?)
Aru 15th at 1'11" (not there yet but promising)

Nope, big Lenny wasn't in the break, he seems to be in good form.