2021 Giro d'Italia, Stage 19: Abbiategrasso - Alpe di Mera 166 km

[Gigs_98]

If only we had good mountain stage designs in these last 2 days.

Probably wouldn't change that much anyway. Yates just doesn't come across as the kind of guy who can pull off a 50km solo on a stage with 5000m of climbing. If anything that's where Bernal thrives. I just don't See anything Yates could try on that kind of stage that he can't do tomorrow as well.

 

[broppo]

Overall Bernal clearly has been the strongest rider this Giro. He's been the best uphill apart from the last 2 mountain stages.

well he is lucky with dani martinez. yates doesn't have such a guy to help him out. Imagine Bernal having to ride solo this whole climb, he would have lost 1.30 minutes.

 

[Fantastico]

Attack with 6km to go to get 10-20s on his followers. Purito could get that in just 1km

But he had to attack early in order to gain a huge amount of time. Doesn't matter that the gap was rather small in the end, it was right to attack that early.

 

[IndianCyclist]

Unless Bernal was without any teammates, it was foolish to attack at 6 k. He had JC and Martinez with him. 3 k was the ideal spot and it would have given the same amount of gap. Tommorrow should have been 6 k or all out attack. Now i doubt that Yates and Almeida have enough energy to attack tomorrow

 

[limak_]

I think that today's outcome was exactly as most expected.

 

[Giro1914]

The trend is clear now and you have also to seriously consider the final tt

 

[CyclistAbi]

It was Wiggins who was in contact with Matt (Raymond?) who apparently does physio work on a lot of athletes and is a regular at bike races.

Yeah, but in reality it was just about finding excuses. I don't buy it for a second.

 

[movingtarget]

Bernal knew he had a time buffer on Yates and Caruso. While he didn't look great, not much damage done. ineos domestiques did very well.

 

[jmdirt]

A different year a different super domestique same old story of Ineos winning with the strongest team but not the strongest rider

I feel like you are watching this stage by stage: EB was the strongest until the rest day, and now he's still very close. Also remember that even though his team is strong, he has to be strong enough to hang on to them.

 

[staubsauger]

Bernal with his trademark 3k effort.

It's not his fault that this Giro d'Italia has a rather poor route design and favors this riding style though.

Correct side of the Zoncolan and Bernal probably kills it Ax 3 Domaines style to put pen to paper.

Proper mountain stages this weekend and he tumbles with his energy fading.

 

[Red Rick]

Probably wouldn't change that much anyway. Yates just doesn't come across as the kind of guy who can pull off a 50km solo on a stage with 5000m of climbing. If anything that's where Bernal thrives. I just don't See anything Yates could try on that kind of stage that he can't do tomorrow as well.

Well he was fine pulling off a solo to Sappada in 2018. But we will never find out cause Ineos will probably get Ganna over the San Bernadino ffs.

 

[roundabout]

Bouwman 8th and Covi 13th today, both of them have quietly reached a new level this Giro.

While those are very good results, honestly it seemed like about 15 people really bothered on the last climb

Top 10 + Bouwman in the top 11 of the stage and then 2 minutes to Covi with Bennett inbetween

 

[Tim Cahill]

Phonak on the front tomorrow hopefully

 

[Leinster]

A different year a different super domestique same old story of Ineos winning with the strongest team but not the strongest rider

Well, that's not strictly fair, Bernal was clearly the strongest rider in the first 2 weeks of the race. He's still one of the 3/4 strongest at least, and it does help him that one of the other strongest climbers in the race, Martinez, is his teammate. And while he was the strongest, he built up a big cushion on the others, who all had big bad days.

A big part of winning GTs is having the least-worst bad day. Yates had a 3' loss in the rain. Almeida had a 4' loss on stage 4. Bernal's worst day (so far, it must be said) was a <1 minute loss.

 

[ppanther92]

Unless Bernal was without any teammates, it was foolish to attack at 6 k. He had JC and Martinez with him. 3 k was the ideal spot and it would have given the same amount of gap. Tommorrow should have been 6 k or all out attack. Now i doubt that Yates and Almeida have enough energy to attack tomorrow

Bernal seemed to manage a bit but then he still ran into his limit with 500m to go. Martinez gave his all. So I don't think Yates "wasted" more energy today.

 

[Escarabajo]

I can't wait for Yates to attack on Passo San Bernadino tomorrow only for Caruso to decide he'd rather ride for Bernal than for the win.

You are just mad that stage 16 was curtailed!!

 

[Fantastico]

Unless Bernal was without any teammates, it was foolish to attack at 6 k. He had JC and Martinez with him. 3 k was the ideal spot and it would have given the same amount of gap. Tommorrow should have been 6 k or all out attack. Now i doubt that Yates and Almeida have enough energy to attack tomorrow

But why? Of course, it was unlikely to gain lots of time on Bernal, but it was the only chance to gain a huge amount of time in case he would crack.
I don't understand how fans always want riders to ride for first place instead of second, but if they obviously do, then they are criticized for attacking too early.

If Yates would have attacked at 3 km to go and gained 30 seconds, then everyone would be like "why didn't he attack earlier?".

 

[Mayomaniac]

Well he was fine pulling off a solo to Sappada in 2018. But we will never find out cause Ineos will probably get Ganna over the San Bernadino ffs.

Sappada was also shorter, rather steep climbs at lower altitude before the final uphill drag to Sappada.

 

[luckyboy]

The trend is clear now and you have also to seriously consider the final tt

Yes, could be close between Yates and Caruso for second place there.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Imagine if we had a classic Finestre stage tomorrow instead. That would be fun for various reasons....

 

[Krzysztof_O]

The final climb was similar to Sega di Ala and so were main characters: Yates and Almeida were strongest GC guys again and Bernal lost some time again. Impressive solo attack by Yates. Bernal decided to play it safe: steady tempo (by his teammates and himself) instead of risking going too much into the red. Yet he managed to overtake most of his rivals and finish 3rd only 27 seconds behind Yates. Caruso keeps 2nd but tomorrow he may lose it (there's still TT so we'll see). Bernal's situation is still pretty comfortable and tomorrow only a long-range attack can threaten him (the terrain is good for it). But can anyone do it?

 

[Forever The Best]

Great win by Simon Yates. But his job is almost impossible now with the disparity of team strength.

 

[Red Rick]

Simon was very lucky that Stage 16 was curtailed!

You are just mad that stage 16 was curtailed!!

Not just that. I'm just mad at the lack of suspense especially with Bernal being dropped like a stone in the third week.

 

[SafeBet]

Random result of the day: Stefano Oldani finished 21st, in front of Nibali, Ulissi and Pello Bilbao.

 

[Bonimenier]

Who is this guy "interviewing" Knox? Does he not know that an interviewer needs to ask questions and not just make statements?