After bullying the rest for the whole race this is how JV powerhouses looked at the end. Moment of the decade so far.
Hang on, Lefevre leaves at home the French champion, the world champion and most popular rider in France, and the guy who can be the most successful stage winner of all time. But he cares about bringing the Danes because he wants a 'good image'? Ok...
Have you guys seen the route for this race? To me it makes absolute sense that QuickStep bring some guys for the tough terrain like Honoré and Bagioli and don't go all-in on a sprint train. French jersey or not. I don't buy that it's a question of nationality.
Imagine the strength of a team from riders not selected by Lefevre:Hang on, Lefevre leaves at home the French champion, the world champion and most popular rider in France, and the guy who can be the most successful stage winner of all time. But he cares about bringing the Danes because he wants a 'good image'? Ok...
View: https://twitter.com/AlpecinDCK/status/1541469709622820864
no sprint train, you say?!
Krieger seems to turn into some kind of GT specialist. Third one in the row, not much else in between
That's a beautiful picture.
No Gesbert, Edet, Dayer, Bouhanni, Ries, Vauquelin, Anacona, Delaplace, Ledanois (other than in a team car) or Guernalec?
On the other hand, thinking about it, don't Andersen's fairy tales usually end badly for the protagonists?
It’s certainly not great for team unity and morale to be implying that some of his colleagues were picked ahead of him for non-sporting reasons.He shouldn't be saying this anyway!
Have you guys seen the route for this race? To me it makes absolute sense that QuickStep bring some guys for the tough terrain like Honoré and Bagioli and don't go all-in on a sprint train. French jersey or not. I don't buy that it's a question of nationality.
They go all in with Vlasov while keeping flexibility for chasing breaks and stage wins.
Bora's line-up only lacks an elite mountain domestique, but Kämna, Grossschartner, Konrad and Schachmann should be enough to at least guarantee a couple of riders staying with Aleks in each stage when the peloton is heavily reduced.
So what you are saying is that the biggest bully doesn't always win this race?
Its only about being there in a high-mountain stage (but realistically - of how much help is a domestique there on the final climb?). Other than that, they will be fine. Konrad and Großschartner already finished two GTs in the top 10. Konrad's form a bit more questionable with a bad Covid infection in winter and a concussion in preperation. But I would say both have the potential to be a top 20 climber here. That should really be good enough. Kämna also usually shows up good to the TdFHe is a solid rider and he has been good over three weeks in the two past editions of the Vuelta, and like you said... he seems to be in great shape.
In a team sense, yes. JV pretty much dominated that race like Sky used to do and it wasn't funny. But they got KO-ed at the end.
On the other hand, thinking about it, don't Andersen's fairy tales usually end badly for the protagonists?
Still at lets say TDF 2021. That was likely even worse? Looking from such perspective.
Its a weird thing to say nevertheless. Could probably found a spot for Senechal