2019 Tour de Suisse

[JosephK]

Re:

The time trial is pancake flat. Bernal will lose about a minute to Dennis.

I still hope Bernal wins the overall tho'. But he needs to destroy the rest on Furkapass.

I would guess about a minute, too. Bernal can be fairly strong in time trials. Lots of variables can affect the outcome: how deep the riders went today, how well they recover overnight, whether Dennis has sacrificed a bit of flat power to be a better climber, whether the riders are feeling well (no sickness), technical nature of the course, and wind direction/speed. Bernal could surprise us and keep the yellow jersey by a few seconds. Dennis could have used a couple extra bonus seconds from Pozzo.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Re:

Bernal can do rocket attacks which look spectacular but then it seems he can't do much more. The train looks perfect for him, launch with 2-3 km to go.

he needs to learn to dance out of the saddle
if he is going to pick up
Contador fans

 

[luckyboy]

Re:

Bernal can do rocket attacks which look spectacular but then it seems he can't do much more. The train looks perfect for him, launch with 2-3 km to go.

Did you miss him demolish the field at California last year from 10km out

 

[nevele neves]

Re:

These mountains just show that two TTs in a week-long stage race is overkill.

Dennis just diesels up and limits his losses on the climbs and then blows Bernal away on the flat TTs.

I tend to agree. Makes the race not as good as it could be.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Rohan Dennis, Le Tour, it's happening.

But not before he visits the Nibali home and looks at ze trophies

 

[Squire]

Re: Re:

These mountains just show that two TTs in a week-long stage race is overkill.

Dennis just diesels up and limits his losses on the climbs and then blows Bernal away on the flat TTs.

I tend to agree. Makes the race not as good as it could be.

This is such a short-sighted view. The truth is the complete opposite. With no time trials, the climbers would soft-pedal everything but the hardest stage, and then duke it out there.

This race suffers from too many sprint stages, though.

 

[wheresmybrakes]

Re: Re:

Bernal can do rocket attacks which look spectacular but then it seems he can't do much more. The train looks perfect for him, launch with 2-3 km to go.

he needs to learn to dance out of the saddle
if he is going to pick up
Contador fans

Mas did a very good impression of Contador today, Dancing on the pedals, nice attack, only to be caught and shot out the back. Not looking good for the Tour mind.

 

[RedheadDane]

Could Bernal potentially end up with all the jerseys?

 

[KZD]

Re:

These mountains just show that two TTs in a week-long stage race is overkill.

Dennis just diesels up and limits his losses on the climbs and then blows Bernal away on the flat TTs.

Even a guy that like me that often criticises GT routes for having too little TT agree. Its not even the two time trials that bother me but more the fact that none of them have a single climb.
What's ironic is that what Bernal showed today may be enough to win the Tour but not the Tour of Switzetland against a super Dennis.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

These mountains just show that two TTs in a week-long stage race is overkill.

Dennis just diesels up and limits his losses on the climbs and then blows Bernal away on the flat TTs.

Even a guy that like me that often criticises GT routes for having too little TT agree. Its not even the two time trials that bother me but more the fact that none of them have a single climb.
What's ironic is that what Bernal showed today may be enough to win the Tour but not the Tour of Switzetland against a super Dennis.

Seriously, Bernal attacked at what? 3km?

If he can't put more than 23s on a bigass climb into the Worlds ITT champion, maybe he isn't the most deserving winner in this race.

 

[Anderis]

Re: Re:

These mountains just show that two TTs in a week-long stage race is overkill.

Dennis just diesels up and limits his losses on the climbs and then blows Bernal away on the flat TTs.

I tend to agree. Makes the race not as good as it could be.

I disagree. There's nothing wrong with Dennis being in contention. It's good to have some variety. We have no TT one-week races like Catalunya so we should have some TT-heavy races as well. And seeing how Bernal is clearly above anyone else in the mountains here, I can't see how having less flat TT would make this race any better. Now it's Bernal vs Dennis, it would be a boring no-story Bernal win otherwise.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

These mountains just show that two TTs in a week-long stage race is overkill.

Dennis just diesels up and limits his losses on the climbs and then blows Bernal away on the flat TTs.

I tend to agree. Makes the race not as good as it could be.

I disagree. There's nothing wrong with Dennis being in contention. It's good to have some variety. We have no TT one-week races like Catalunya so we should have some TT-heavy races as well. And seeing how Bernal is clearly above anyone else in the mountains here, I can't see how having less flat TT would make this race any better. Now it's Bernal vs Dennis, it would be a boring no-story Bernal win otherwise.

But the 2015 Vuelta was terrible because Dumoulin always won it /s

 

[wheresmybrakes]

Re: Re:

These mountains just show that two TTs in a week-long stage race is overkill.

Dennis just diesels up and limits his losses on the climbs and then blows Bernal away on the flat TTs.

Even a guy that like me that often criticises GT routes for having too little TT agree. Its not even the two time trials that bother me but more the fact that none of them have a single climb.
What's ironic is that what Bernal showed today may be enough to win the Tour but not the Tour of Switzetland against a super Dennis.

Seriously, Bernal attacked at what? 3km?

If he can't put more than 23s on a bigass climb into the Worlds ITT champion, maybe he isn't the most deserving winner in this race.

Agree with this, but what if he doesn't need to put more time into Dennis if he thinks he can stay quite close in the TT and then demolish him on sunday? Enough effort that is needed to win the overall, not trying to impress fans/non fans. At least it will make the next 2 days hopefully exciting.

 

[yaco]

Now that Dennis 'is in love' with his TT bike, I expect he'll take around 1min and 20s on Bernal which will set up a fascinating finale.

 

[fantomas]

Re: Re:

Bernal can do rocket attacks which look spectacular but then it seems he can't do much more. The train looks perfect for him, launch with 2-3 km to go.

Did you miss him demolish the field at California last year from 10km out

He also wanted to go earlier today, but his DS told him to wait. Rasch said so in an interview with Danish TV.

 

[KZD]

Re:

Now that Dennis 'is in love' with his TT bike, I expect he'll take around 1min and 20s on Bernal which will set up a fascinating finale.

I think this is too much. It would mean Bernal loses more than 4 seconds per km while in the first time trial he lost a bit less than 2.5 per km. Based on that first TT I expect Bernal to lose around 40-50 seconds which would still likely mean a yellow jersey for Dennis although by a much smaller margin.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Lennard Kämna getting a Top 10 here is as unexpected as it is great.

 

[pastronef]

Re: Re:

Bernal can do rocket attacks which look spectacular but then it seems he can't do much more. The train looks perfect for him, launch with 2-3 km to go.

he needs to learn to dance out of the saddle
if he is going to pick up
Contador fans

he's already picked up Alberto, check the first comment

https://twitter.com/EyalFidel/status/1141800490776313857

 

[nevele neves]

Re: Re:

These mountains just show that two TTs in a week-long stage race is overkill.

Dennis just diesels up and limits his losses on the climbs and then blows Bernal away on the flat TTs.

I tend to agree. Makes the race not as good as it could be.

This is such a short-sighted view. The truth is the complete opposite. With no time trials, the climbers would soft-pedal everything but the hardest stage, and then duke it out there.

This race suffers from too many sprint stages, though.

we just disagree

agree on the sprint stages

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Thank goodness for Rohan's climbing. Without it this race would be a procession.

Also, what was that clown move by Pozzovivo, stealing the bonus seconds from his leader?

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Hopefully Dennis can annihilate the Colombian come TT time.
Then we shall see if the climber can actually deliver something significant in the final mountain stage.

Game on.

 

[Robert5091]

Bernal won though Ineos set a fearsome speed up the last climb (when did Swift become a climbing dom?). Pozzovivo should have let Dennis come 2nd and Mas faded. Be interesting to see how well Dennis climbs in the TdF and if Bernal ends up having to shoulder Ineos leadership.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

All that minor placement stuff matters little. Pozzo just wants to show hes still relevant.
Dennis now needs to deliver big time in the TT.

 

[HelloDolly]

Re:

All that minor placement stuff matters little. Pozzo just wants to show hes still relevant.
Dennis now needs to deliver big time in the TT.

I think you'll find it matters to the riders (and the teams)

But agree Pozzo should not have taken the bonus seconds

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Well, it's still wide open for the third podium spot.