32ème édition du Tour de l'Ain (2.1) // August 7th - 9th 2020

[RedheadDane]

Jeezes, still no results online.

Everyone else just got lost...
Even Dan Martin who was in the favourite group until really close to the finish. He just bloody disappeared!

 

[Ranagazoo]

I wouldn't read too much into form at this stage (apart from Roglic > everyone). The Dauphine will be more revealing

 

[Lequack]

 

[sir fly]

I'm really not certain about that national jersey.
Doesn't give away a lot while on the bike.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Maybe this Roglic guy can rival Evenepoel in a few years.

maybe when roglic starts doing 50km solo's in difficult terrain.

 

[Poursuivant]

Dropping back, checking on Bernal, maybe even giving him the look, letting the poor boy attack then just casually ride away.

Reminded me of Riis up Hautacam today.

TLJ tactics were strange when Ineos were isolated and Bernal was dropping, they could’ve killed him, or at least send Bennett on the attack they could’ve done a lot more in hindsight.

 

[Oldermanish]

Froome could do be into a quick ascent to form in the next few weeks. I have a feeling he will improve like he's done more often. Let's see. In any case it may likely not be enough though.

The Tour starts in two weeks....Unless Froome is planning a stealth assault on the Tour and is sitting on form we are seeing what we'll see.
Geraint and Bernal can certainly move up a bit as well. Dumoulin and Bennett can as well so there is that for Jumbo. There will be other animators, crash victims and bonkers to make this Tour exciting!

 

[Red Rick]

Why does it look like Dumo and Roglic have similar length lower legs but Dumo has twice as long upper legs

 

[Oldermanish]

maybe when roglic starts doing 50km solo's in difficult terrain.

...or riding away from the lead group on a descent for a win. Oh, wait. That was Roglic.

 

[Red Rick]

They're distinctively different riders.

 

[Blanco]

Bernal is fast but Roglic is the de facto Valverde of the climbers now.

Indeed. He has 2nd, 1st, 1st and 1st overall in three days of racing. Scary..

 

[memyselfandI]

Indeed. He has 2nd, 1st, 1st and 1st overall in three days of racing. Scary..

Must see that with Pogacar yet, I think he could give Rogla good run for the money.

 

[yaco]

Roglic toyed with bernal on each of the three stages of L'Ain - Reckon he had lots more in the tank.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Roglic might be the strongest man in the first half of the Tour, but then fade away in the high mountains in the second half - as he did in the Giro last year. Bernal looks like the top favorite.

 

[Red Rick]

Roglic might be the strongest man in the first half of the Tour, but then fade away in the high mountains in the second half - as he did in the Giro last year. Bernal looks like the top favorite.

Yeah.

And then he didn't in the Vuelta.

They're at a point where form is still very managable. The real mistake was riding Romandie a week before the Giro last year.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Yeah.

And then he didn't in the Vuelta.

They're at a point where form is still very managable. The real mistake was riding Romandie a week before the Giro last year.

He also didn't race a single race for nearly 2 months before the Vuelta and had Valverde as the main rival to beat on the "proper" mountain stages, so I don't know if we can draw any conclusions.

 

[Rollthedice]

Roglic might be the strongest man in the first half of the Tour, but then fade away in the high mountains in the second half - as he did in the Giro last year. Bernal looks like the top favorite.

Roglic seems to be in the part of his career like Froome 2013 winning every race with a consistent very high level. In the Giro he appeared to be very good in the first part because the route favored him then his weak team got exposed, had a crash and the high multi-mountain stages weren't exactly his speciality at that point of his evolution. We'll see this year.

On the other hand let's not forget Bernal had a hard time with Rohan Dennis in a race before last year's Tour. He'll get much better when it's important.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Roglic might be the strongest man in the first half of the Tour, but then fade away in the high mountains in the second half - as he did in the Giro last year. Bernal looks like the top favorite.

He didn't fade in the 3rd week of the Tour '18. I think his recovery is more than fine, although Bernal probably, as he's younger, has better recovery. Roglic is the clear favorite for me, though.

 

[bajbar]

Roglic seems to be in the part of his career like Froome 2013 winning every race with a consistent very high level. In the Giro he appeared to be very good in the first part because the route favored him then his weak team got exposed, had a crash and the high multi-mountain stages weren't exactly his speciality at that point of his evolution. We'll see this year.

On the other hand let's not forget Bernal had a hard time with Rohan Dennis in a race before last year's Tour. He'll get much better when it's important.

The Giro last year was a series of unfortunate events for Primož. First Gesink crashed out even before the race began and then they have lost De Plus in week 1. So the team was basically non existent. Then he got serious health issues after the first mountain stage (digestion - he said he lost 4 or 5 kilos during that week). I have heard that ketones have digestion issues as a potential side effect, but we cannot be certain. In the final couple of stages he was as pale as a wall and basically looked completely dead when going around. His girlfriend said he was on the verge of quiting the race. And then there was the pee-gate, the crash and the total pesimism during the whole last week from mister Engels. So the fact that he managed to finish on a podium was basically a miracle. I am interested to get some more details about the Giro and the Vuelta since his girlfriend is publishing a book end of August (only in Slovenian for now though).

 

[Bushman]

All this talk of Roglic’ supposedly ‘bad recovery’ is grossly exaggerated. Yes, he faded towards the of the the Giro 19’, but he probably came in to the race a bit too hot and had few unlucky crashes. Despite his age he still doesnt have loads of experience in terms of going for GC wins, and the Giro last year was the first time he came into a GT as an indisputed leader with the goal of winning the race.
In the Tour 18’ and Vuelta 19’ he showed no Signe of trouble sustaining his effort over three weeks.

 

[Escarabajo]

Nice preparation race. This last stage was too hard and nobody wanted to risk anything, especially in a preparation race. Bernal will always lose in the anaerobic game against Roglic. His thing is aerobic. Maybe he'll make some adjustments. It bothers me that he was doing the same thing that he did in L'Iseran. Always going to the back. Just that this time he waited too long.

 

[Escarabajo]

Castroviejo the mountain goat!

 

[Red Rick]

So the climbing time was slower than Pinot last year, who did the last 11km alone.

Obviously todays stage was harder, but it's quite telling they held back, and the field was just much stronger than last year.

 

[johnymax]

So the climbing time was slower than Pinot last year, who did the last 11km alone.

Obviously todays stage was harder, but it's quite telling they held back, and the field was just much stronger than last year.

How much slower?

 

[Rollthedice]

How much slower?

40 sec.