Giro d'Italia 2021 Giro d'Italia, Stage 1: Torino - Torino 8.6 km ITT

[BlueRoads]

Mr Evenepoel won exactly 2 short MTF‘s one of them mostly because of the crosswind action prior to the final climb and the other one even a „sprinter“ won there just the other day .. so not very convincing to use examples as proof that he is a godlike climber (unlike Agent Almeida)

And in other races the likes of McNulty, Guillaume Martin, Grossschartner, DAYER Quintana and Ben Herman’s dropped him, yeah sure he lost a couple of kg but not like 20 or so.
he is a world class TT and rides very entertaining on rolling terrain but he’s not climbing with the best of the best and be probably never will. Extremely sad

Okay that's just pure trolling.

 

[Netserk]

Like him or not, nobody looked better on a bike or had a better couple of years time trialling than Wiggins, though his peak was much shorter obviously.

Agreed (on the longer courses), but given Tony's crash and its impact you don't have the greatest benchmark for the Tour and OG.

 

[Zoef-Lightning]

The fact Evenepoel faded that much the second part of the TT is a sign (proof ?) he isn't ready to compete for the ranking. I only hope that he will deal with it sensibly. Only use the Giro to get back to normal. And help Almeida where possible.
But I fear his temper will not allow it. And that he will have a major breakdown. And a relapse. We'll see...

 

[Salvarani]

Neilands crashed on the way to the hotel after the stage?

Crazy...

 

[Carols]

Neither was this dominant. (But had the time to show greater longevity).

Peak Tony comes closest, and unlike Ganna he actually proved himself on the longer courses, but on short and medium length ITTs, Ganna is the most dominant rider in the 21st century so far.

When he has 4 Worlds TT Gold medals and 2 Olympic Gold medals we can talk again . Until then Fabian Rules.

 

[Skalman]

I'm quite a fan of Almeida, sad to see him leave DQT. His 2020 Giro was great considering the circumstances, and like i said in his thread, he could have made progress climbing since last time just like anyone else his age. However, he's a worker. That's why i said that intrinsically, Remco is a better climber. That doesn't mean he'll be the better climber this Giro. But as long as this year doesn't feature the same amount of top-dog DNF's as last year, Almeida will need to have improved his climbing, just to be able to match his GC of last year.


Higher placement. You would have a guy who is 2s slower in a 9k TT work for the guy who is 2s faster? Knowing the "slower" guy is still building up his form and is likely to improve over the next few weeks. It's about money, indeed. And the team has Belgian sponsors, and those companies are big in Belgium, and will get a lot more exposure in Belgium with Evenepoel, than with Almeida. Money they will get from the Giro is peanuts in comparison to what they get from their sponsors, and in this case the sponsor has much less interest in having "his" team put the local golden boy to work for the Portuguese rider who is going to leave the team anyway. In case Evenepoel implodes, and is no good anymore for GC and can't even get into a break or go for a stage, then there is no more use for him, and he can just as well start working for Almeida. But in this situation? You 'd have to be delusional to even consider the possibility.

Remco has the higher ceiling no doubt, but we where talking about this Giro and not in the future, i don't know where you got that idea.
It wasn't based off those 2 seconds and i think you understood that too, it was based off the overall impression, he faded, didn't look as good as expected while Almeida looked better than expected. I never said they should only work for Almeida, i said that if they have too choose. Yes, hopefully Remco will be riding in to form or he will get dropped hard the first time they reach over 2000 meters.
You are probably right regarding the sponsors, I was thinking fighting for pink in the eye of the general public would get more exposure than if you have a rider that gets dropped and is left with fighting for the odd stages if that would happen, god forbid.

 

[Netserk]

When he has 4 Worlds TT Gold medals and 2 Olympic Gold medals we can talk again . Until then Fabian Rules.

That's a nonsensical standard to measure peak dominance. It's also a measure that would rank Indurain and Wiggins as equals, and with Ekimov arguably ahead of them.

But I take it that you think Millar and Rogers were on the level of Indurain?

 

[Carols]

That's a nonsensical standard to measure peak dominance. It's also a measure that would rank Indurain and Wiggins as equals, and with Ekimov arguably ahead of them.

But I take it that you think Millar and Rogers were on the level of Indurain?

I'm not looking for an argument. Enjoy your day!

 

[Netserk]

It is rather poor etiquette to only offer a contradiction (DH3) without any will to engage with the argument. You might as well have kept your contradiction to yourself if you didn't want to have any conversation about it.

 

[Panda Claws]

The fact Evenepoel faded that much the second part of the TT is a sign (proof ?) he isn't ready to compete for the ranking. I only hope that he will deal with it sensibly. Only use the Giro to get back to normal. And help Almeida where possible.
But I fear his temper will not allow it. And that he will have a major breakdown. And a relapse. We'll see...

You really make a point about him fading but if you look at the other riders there were plenty who faded far harder (Bettiol, Dekker) and while there certainly were riders that rode a more evenly distributed time trial (Almeida) that doesn't necessarily Mean their condition was better.

If Evenepoel 'fading' is so worrying you must think Bettiol is absolute *** right now. I really urge you to compare the times of the top-20 and you'll find that Evenepoel was average in how evenly distributed his TT was.

Proof? Seriously. You make it sound like he bonked Completely.

The biggest joke is still that before the Giro we had zero idea about what Evenepoel could do in the GC but after the prologue we suddenly all know it.

 

[Salvarani]

Trolls gonna troll.

 

[spalco]

The biggest joke is still that before the Giro we had zero idea about what Evenepoel could do in the GC but after the prologue we suddenly all know it.

I think we do know more. We know he's at least at something like 90% of his form. We know it's not a froome situation. Ok he didn't win, but might not have even at 100%; he lost a couple seconds to almeida which he probably wouldn't have at top form, but i still think it's an encouraging sign for the weeks to come.

 

[Zoef-Lightning]

I'm convinced the Tour of Romandia would have been a better start for Evenepoel. Not going for the GC, but just doing kilometers in the peloton. Then a short period of resting. Then train en prepare for the Dauphiné. There, and for the first time, Evenepoel could test himself and go for the GC (not to win of course) and for a stage. After the Dauphiné, and after a short rest, an altitude training camp to prepare the Olympics.

 

[Froome]

Remco is a unbelievable talent, no doubt about that, but people forget that he never did a grand tour of 3 weeks, and we don't know how good he is on long climbs. If we see his results last year, he won the races in the itts and on punchy climbs. In tour of san juan in a long climb with a lot of altitude, he lost to martin, oscar sevilha and mcnulty.
I believe in the future he will be one of the greatest of all time, but the expectations are too high about him in this moment. I think in this moment the itt is his best weapon, but is skills on the mountains are not as good as people think.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Now, I'm not as on the bandwagon as some and would preach caution regarding recovery etc. especially coming off an injury, but Picón Blanco cannot be considered a punchy climb, it's nearly 9km at 9%. That's Alpe di Pampeago territory.