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Giro d'Italia 2021 Giro d'Italia, Stage 20: Verbania – Alpe Motta 165 km

Page 26 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

WIll Bernal crack?

  • Yes, on the 1st climb

    Votes: 8 11.4%
  • Yes, on the penultimate climb

    Votes: 7 10.0%
  • Yes, on the final climb

    Votes: 10 14.3%
  • No, he will only lose a small amount of time at the end of the stage

    Votes: 34 48.6%
  • No, he will be able to follow his competitors

    Votes: 5 7.1%
  • No, he will destroy everyone

    Votes: 6 8.6%

  • Total voters
    70
  • Poll closed .
Imagine if he was still there. People wouldn't accept Bernal's win for sure (they already find it hard to do). "It's not him, it's Ineos, Simon would've been 10min ahead with a team like that"
Sivakov would have find a way to crash somewhere else just looking at the way the weather in this Giro has gone. And Yates, He would have lost more minutes had Stage 16 gone the way it was planned. So the answer to your remark is No.
 
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You have only said negative things about Bernal all the race. I am not even sure what you have against him. It is not like he is a bad winner.
You shouldn't pay too much attention to it. Red Rick is a bitter old man who likes to complain about everything. Eventually you'll learn to love it.
Barely. All my salt is directed at Ineos, gimme some credit.
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Escarabajo
Bernal and Ineos set new positive examples for modern cycling. Aggressive racing, strong technical skills, team spirit and a humble attitude towards competitors and competing teams, organisers and public. Worthy of a Giro win!

Happy to see Caruso achieve a major win.
 
Fantastic win by Caruso. Great ride by Dani Martinez. And heady stuff by Egan.

This is why I thought Yates should have saved all his strength for today. Maybe it was too cold for him, or too high. But this was the stage where you could win minutes. If he was to win the Tour this was the stage to gamble on. Going hard on Friday wasn't the right call. I think even Matt White agrees: "He did all he could but he made a very big effort yesterday [Friday] with his stage win and he’s obviously paid for it today."

Anyway, a nice stage design and the willingness from Bahrain and DSM to take advantage gave us a fun stage. At the end of the day Ineos, and particularly Martinez, Castroviejo and Bernam had the goods. But great to see them properly tested.
 
You have only said negative things about Bernal all the race. I am not even sure what you have against him. It is not like he is a bad winner.
The problem is Sky / Ineos, indeed, their wins.
No doubt they reduced the number of GT wins of Contador, maybe also Nibali's. And that's the source of well known hate all over the forum.
That's the difference between JV and Sky/Ineos: for now JV train is appreciated and Roglic is really amazing.
 
Winning minutes on this stage required a team that was both strong enough to detonate the race on the San Bernardino and be able to help the leader should he get a gap on San Bernardino after.
I mean that's the ideal scenario, obviously. But not the only one. You can go a la Froome on Finestre and hope that the legs work out and the tactics help out behind you. I think Bike Echxange at least had enough to detonate it on San Bernadino.

Then he would have asked Ineos and Bernal other questions. Would Bernal have just relied on the train? Would he have had Martinez push the pace, and after that, would he have waited for him on the descent?

At the end of the yesterday the most important answer we got was that Bernal and Ineos were very strong. And that Bernal was able to keep his head cool and rely on his team to pace him up Alpe di Mera, Spluga and Alpe Motta brilliantly. But I think there was a harder set of questions that could have been asked of them by Yates and Bike Exchange had Simon had the legs.
 
I mean that's the ideal scenario, obviously. But not the only one. You can go a la Froome on Finestre and hope that the legs work out and the tactics help out behind you. I think Bike Echxange at least had enough to detonate it on San Bernadino.

Then he would have asked Ineos and Bernal other questions. Would Bernal have just relied on the train? Would he have had Martinez push the pace, and after that, would he have waited for him on the descent?

At the end of the yesterday the most important answer we got was that Bernal and Ineos were very strong. And that Bernal was able to keep his head cool and rely on his team to pace him up Alpe di Mera, Spluga and Alpe Motta brilliantly. But I think there was a harder set of questions that could have been asked of them by Yates and Bike Exchange had Simon had the legs.

Bike Exchange 2nd strongest rider was quite a bit weaker than Ineos 3rd strongest rider and San Bernardino is nowhere near Finestre in terms of difficulty (and not because San Bernardino is 'easy', but because Finestre is one of the toughest climbs ever in pro cycling).

And of course the allround roleur capability of Ineos would not have allowed any OBE riders up the road to help after a potential San Bernardino attack.
 
Bike Exchange 2nd strongest rider was quite a bit weaker than Ineos 3rd strongest rider and San Bernardino is nowhere near Finestre in terms of difficulty (and not because San Bernardino is 'easy', but because Finestre is one of the toughest climbs ever in pro cycling).

And of course the allround roleur capability of Ineos would not have allowed any OBE riders up the road to help after a potential San Bernardino attack.
IMO Finestre is unlike any other climb in current cycling in that it's an hour+ long climb where you can drill it from the bottom to the top.
 

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