59th Itzulia Basque Country (2.UWT) 8 - 13 April

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Re: Re:

Pogacar great, Lambrecht good, Madouas ok, but i expected more from Gaudu. Hirschi complete offday?
https://www.itzulia.eus/Classification/16/0

EDIT: today Gaudu finished along with Lambrecht. Seems to have lost most of his time yesterday.

According to Groupamas own twitter, Gaudu crashed yesterday.

Thanks! That explains it a bit... but still i expected more (he was not great in the ITT either). He should be further in his development than Pogacar, Lambrecht, Hirschi... so i thought he 'd be in the mix for a podium spot or top 5 after last month's UAE tour.

 

[Lequack]

Great tactics by Bora, they probably suspected Schachmann might not hang on and sent Buchmann up the road while others were just focused on the leader. The tactics of other teams however were not good today, basically giving Buchmann so much advantage and on the flatter parts too. The team directors should have know that Buchmann was a real threat with how well he climbed in UAE Tour. I guess Bora could now also start becoming a GC team with less focus on Sagan.

 

[Samamba]

Re:

Pogacar great, Lambrecht good, Madouas ok, but i expected more from Gaudu. Hirschi complete offday?
https://www.itzulia.eus/Classification/16/0

EDIT: today Gaudu finished along with Lambrecht. Seems to have lost most of his time yesterday.

Madaous better then ok. I don't see him as a real climber, but he was still one of the first to come back to favorites after Izua and attacked after that with Buchmann & Henao.
Also don't forget Hamiltons performance.

 

[WKA311]

Re: Re:

Pogacar great, Lambrecht good, Madouas ok, but i expected more from Gaudu. Hirschi complete offday?
https://www.itzulia.eus/Classification/16/0

EDIT: today Gaudu finished along with Lambrecht. Seems to have lost most of his time yesterday.

According to Groupamas own twitter, Gaudu crashed yesterday.

Thanks! That explains it a bit... but still i expected more (he was not great in the ITT either). He should be further in his development than Pogacar, Lambrecht, Hirschi... so i thought he 'd be in the mix for a podium spot or top 5 after last month's UAE tour.

Well, he is further in his development than those guys. Don't think they could have done what he did at UAE. But that guy crashed and we don't know how hard and how it affects him. Also we're speaking about really young riders here, they're all developing at different speeds and levels. It's hard to compare them and would be harsh to expect them to deliver in every race. Not everyone is Bernal and not everyone will keep improving year on year.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Re: Re:

Well, he is further in his development than those guys. Don't think they could have done what he did at UAE. But that guy crashed and we don't know how hard and how it affects him. Also we're speaking about really young riders here, they're all developing at different speeds and levels. It's hard to compare them and would be harsh to expect them to deliver in every race. Not everyone is Bernal and not everyone will keep improving year on year.

I completely understand. I'm not necessarilly saying he's underachieving, just that after last years form in October, and his performance in UAE, i expected more. Maybe that's my fault.

Madaous better then ok. I don't see him as a real climber, but he was still one of the first to come back to favorites after Izua and attacked after that with Buchmann & Henao.
Also don't forget Hamiltons performance.

Yes, looked over Hamilton because he also lost time earlier in this week. Madouas, i'm judging him as a climber/GC guy like the rest of them, since some people assume he will be able to do that as well.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Lambrecht was actually quite lucky it all came back together after that difficult climb because he and some others were way behind. But the group didn't put the nail in the coffin at that moment.

 

[Anderis]

I wonder what was going on with Carthy. As far as I can tell, he wasn't in the main group at the bottom of Izua (which was strange to me because it was a biggish group and Carthy seemed to be in decent shape in this race) but then suddenly appeared out of nowhere and bridged to the group from behind on the climb.

A curious case of Dani Martinez who seems to be better at TTs than at climbs recently which is rather unusual for such a light rider. Did he suffer in the crash two days ago?

 

[tobydawq]

I wonder what was going on with Carthy. As far as I can tell, he wasn't in the main group at the bottom of Izua (which was strange to me because it was a biggish group and Carthy seemed to be in decent shape in this race) but then suddenly appeared out of nowhere and bridged to the group from behind on the climb.

A curious case of Dani Martinez who seems to be better at TTs than at climbs recently which is rather unusual for such a light rider. Did he suffer in the crash two days ago?

I think Martínez' climbing is a bit all over the place. His performance on the Turini was pretty epic but most of the time he is a touch or two below the best and today's performance was in line with his usual level, I would say.

 

[Anderis]

I wonder what was going on with Carthy. As far as I can tell, he wasn't in the main group at the bottom of Izua (which was strange to me because it was a biggish group and Carthy seemed to be in decent shape in this race) but then suddenly appeared out of nowhere and bridged to the group from behind on the climb.

A curious case of Dani Martinez who seems to be better at TTs than at climbs recently which is rather unusual for such a light rider. Did he suffer in the crash two days ago?

I think Martínez' climbing is a bit all over the place. His performance on the Turini was pretty epic but most of the time he is a touch or two below the best and today's performance was in line with his usual level, I would say.

I agree and that's what is surprising to me- that a rider of his type seems to be one of the top TT-ists this season despite rarely being able to keep up with the best on mountain stages.

 

[MADRAZO]

Re:

Lucas Hamilton is doing a phenomenal job

He ought to have helped Yates to catch Buchmann but didn't. Complete waste of his great legs.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Re:

Lambrecht was actually quite lucky it all came back together after that difficult climb because he and some others were way behind. But the group didn't put the nail in the coffin at that moment.

I don't think they were that far behind on the penultimate climb. They wouldn't have bridged despite the front group not setting the pace. Regardless, except for Hirschi, the young guys held up decently.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re: Re:

How did he get a lead of 2 minutes in no-time? Astana had riders to spare in the peloton, lol.

Gorka Izagirre <<<<<<< Emanuel Buchmann.

That's how you lose 2 minutes.

They had to sacrifice Fuglsang earlier. But because he's co leader they didnt

Yet, it's fully understandable that they did not since Ion Izagirre had not exactly been looking as strong as Fuglsang up to that point.

 

[Red Rick]

One more thought about this stage

Vuelta y u no do dis?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

One more thought about this stage

Vuelta y u no do dis?

What, put the hardest climb in a position other than MTF? Are we forgetting what Guillén's main modus operandi is?

 

[tobydawq]

Imagine the nightmare when compiling a highlight video that isn't just the last ten minutes of the stage!

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Re:

Imagine the nightmare when compiling a highlight video that isn't just the last ten minutes of the stage!

Oh come on, you didn't think Schachmann's rubber band trick was funny?

 

[Escarabajo]

Bora, Bora, Bora!

What is going on with the Bora boys?

Bor boys competing against the Astana boys. This is getting interesting

 

[Robert5091]

Nicely done by Bora - chapeau Buchmann and Schachmann did better then expected so it's Bora versus Astana tomorrow around Eibar - shame it's only 118.2 km (Pogacar shined again and Madouas tried, though I thought Gaudu was FDJ's climbing star) - start not until 14.32 CET so time to do the weekend shopping first

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Re:

Pogacar shined again and Madouas tried, though I thought Gaudu was FDJ's climbing star

While i also expected Gaudu to be better, today he finished along with Lambrecht 1'31" ahead of Madouas. Yesterday, apparently, he crashed, according to someone in this thread. Madouas did show more initiative.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

One more thought about this stage

Vuelta y u no do dis?

To be fair, there's 2-3 stages like these in this years Vuelta. The Andorra-stage and the last 2 hilly/mountain stages

 

[Pantani_lives]

Astana's only chance is to isolate Buchmann and attack with several riders, maybe send one or two riders ahead and let Ion Izagirre jump to them on Asensio. However Buchmann is physically and tactically strong, so I think he will defend his jersey.

 

[Velolover2]

Horrible tactics from Astana.

The Bird (who is the second best on these brutal gradients after Yates in the race) should have jumped MUCH earlier on Izua. They even had LLS up front and was about to eliminate a struggling Schachmann.

Instead they waited for the easy part where everyone can follow and all Ion did was to reel Sanchez in with his acceleration.

Now they have to deal with Buchmann who unlike Schachmann is nearly impossible to drop.

 

[Salvarani]

Should send some riders up the road in the San Miguel climb. Then start attacking Bora on Azurki and try to isolate Buchmann. Then every man for himself in the remaining climbs.

 

[Anderis]

It will be nearly impossible to isolate Buchmann while Konrad and Schachmann are still strong and relevant in GC, unless Bora plays it wrong or has some bad luck. And Muhlberger seems to be on par with any Astana's domestique as well.

 

[Salvarani]

Re:

It will be nearly impossible to isolate Buchmann while Konrad and Schachmann are still strong and relevant in GC, unless Bora plays it wrong or has some bad luck. And Muhlberger seems to be on par with any Astana's domestique as well.

I guess if they all end up in a group behind, Konrad and Schachmann might have to do the chasing and will eventually be empty too if they not closing the gap themselves. And Buchmann gets isolated having to close it himself, if the others ambush him and have riders up the road. But yeah, that is hard to pull off for the other teams.