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

[Samu Cuenca]

Did I already ask this or did I only plan to?
Shall we make a thread for Foss?

Sure, why not?

 

[Leinster]

I just noticed that Gaviria was 60th today, 15 minutes ahead of most of the rest of the sprinters. What's up with that?

As much as there's nothing else for him to ride for at this Giro, UAE definitely aren't taking him to the Tour either. So he might as well get some race-situation training on some big mountains. Maybe he wants to have a craic at the sprints jersey in the Vuelta.

 

[roundabout]

I went back on PCS and whilst some years seemed to have no points jersey on there, it seems it is the lowest score that happened on the road. 2011 is lower cos Contador was dqed after the race and Scarponi ended up with it then on 122 points.

On the road though, if Sagan can grab points tomorrow, he'll move above Purito in 2012 who had 139 points. Sprint point is very early so this could happen.

Under the 2012 points system Bernal would have been well ahead of Sagan

 

[movingtarget]

[

I think Bernal's back is bad. I noticed him get out of the saddle only once on the climb. Compare that to his climbing style on stage 9 or stage 14, where he was standing on the pedals as much as Yates. Bernal did a great job maintaining a steady pace today and minimizing his losses. The question is just whether his back can hold out for one more stage.

If so they are trying to hide it but Bernal never gets out of the saddle that much especially on long climbs. The fact that he isn't talking about his back might indicate something. He's not like Yates or Quintana who often get out of the saddle. I just think Yates prepared himself to peak later in the race as much as that can be done after what happened to him in in the 2018 Giro when he was riding, it looked like, confidently to victory. The fatigue hit him in the final week and I think he became ill as well. If Yates loses this race he lost it in the second week. Bernal will have to have a semi collapse to let Yates get close enough in the TT but if Yates and Caruso went up the road things could get interesting. Not sure Caruso is good enough to hold onto Yates on the climbs at the moment. But it looks like Caruso will get his podium as he seems to in the top four climbers in the race at the moment and he has plenty of time on Almeida.

 

[Salvarani]

"if" was a long shot even before today . No collapse today and the "others" are running out of road. Caruso actually seems to be the one who is showing signs of fading. TT will favor Bernal.

Ok.

I was still only saying what the others should do to gain more time. Nothing else.

Not that it would be successful nor that Bernal would crack. He had just showed some weakness the day before.

I dont know why you keep going on about this or why quoted me from the beginning. I havent disagreed nor have I argued anything of what you are saying because you are having a whole other conversation than what I originally wrote about.

 

[jaylew]

Well the team enables their leaders to maximize when they're good and minimize when they're trash. With a weaker team there's definitely a few of Froomes GT wins that he loses. Bernal probably doesn't win the 2019 Tour with an average team either.

Pure speculation. We don't know any of that. Just because someone benefits from having a good team it doesn't mean they would't have won without it. You can't simply take a result, eliminate or swap out riders and accurately predict the subsequent result. Change a roster and it completely changes how everyone races from the start.

 

[Red Rick]

Pure speculation. We don't know any of that. Just because someone benefits from having a good team it doesn't mean they would't have won without it. You can't simply take a result, eliminate or swap out riders and accurately predict the subsequent result. Change a roster and it completely changes how everyone races from the start.

It's completely disingenuous to pretend it wouldn't have hurt his chances whatsoever.