71st Tour de Romandie - April 25th-30th

[May0maniac]

Re:

How good is Emanuel Buchmann? Remember him from some breakaways in the Tour last year (I think). 10th GC-wise is not bad for him, or what's the deal with him?

A pure climber from Germany, that's something pretty exotic. I've talked to him a bit before the start of a stage of the Giro del Trentino, he dislikes cold weather and isn't able to produce his usual wattage under those kind of conditions. Back then he also said that he's still not at his best after the Paris-Nice stage.
Bora only agreed to sign him if he'd do well in the 2014 Tour de l'Avenir and he finished 7th on gc.
Frankly that was a bit strange, the guy was already the best German climber before turning pro.
In 2014 he won the German Mountain championship, a MTT by beating all the pros.
The climb was the Roßfeld-Höhenringstraße, 13km at 9.3% and Buchmann climbed it in 40:15 at the age of 21.

 

[Mr.White]

Re: Re:

Roglic did this in the Basque country as well, more or less completely the same. Down a decent amount, then descended very well (I assume) and turned the turbo on down on the flat section.

Best time trialist on a decently hilly course in the world?

On a hilly course it's usually Dumoulins specialty. Look at the big difference in the TDF last year.
Would be interesting to see them go toe to toe.

Roglic better on the flat/downhill parts, Dumoulin on the hills itself and corners.

Roglic was amazing in the corners today, I'm not sure Dumoulin has an advantage on him in that part

 

[Velolover2]

Re: Re:

Roglic did this in the Basque country as well, more or less completely the same. Down a decent amount, then descended very well (I assume) and turned the turbo on down on the flat section.

Best time trialist on a decently hilly course in the world?

On a hilly course it's usually Dumoulins specialty. Look at the big difference in the TDF last year.
Would be interesting to see them go toe to toe.

Roglic better on the flat/downhill parts, Dumoulin on the hills itself and corners.

Dumoulin is a weird rider. He is better on muros and shorter, steep climbs. If it's up and down all the time, he will win it.

Roglic should be pretty equal if not better on a 5% gradient climb. He prefer longer, more gradual hills with power-descents. As witnessed in stage 5 of Pais Vasco, his achilles' heel is the very steep gradients.

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

Felline can do anything except the high mountains. Impressive.

18th onthe final 2 mountain stage of the 2015 Giro (the 236km long Cervinia stage and the Finestre stage) without entering the breakaway. The guy isn't really a climber, but he likes climbing and has great recovery.

 

[Velolover2]

Re: Re:

Felline can do anything except the high mountains. Impressive.

18th onthe final 2 mountain stage of the 2015 Giro (the 236km long Cervinia stage and the Finestre stage) without entering the breakaway. The guy isn't really a climber, but he likes climbing and has great recovery.

I discovered his super-versatility when he became 6th on this brutal time trial. Before that, I thought he was a sprinter.

http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Vuelta_Ciclista_al_Pais_Vasco_2015_Stage_6_Aia

 

[Velolover2]

Re:

Wonder how Valverde would have done on a time trial like that if he could carry on his shape in Liege. He has done two similar time trials (+ a TTT) with a great result.

Likely 3rd, maybe s/t as Porte.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re: Re:

Roglic did this in the Basque country as well, more or less completely the same. Down a decent amount, then descended very well (I assume) and turned the turbo on down on the flat section.

Best time trialist on a decently hilly course in the world?

On a hilly course it's usually Dumoulins specialty. Look at the big difference in the TDF last year.
Would be interesting to see them go toe to toe.

Roglic better on the flat/downhill parts, Dumoulin on the hills itself and corners.

Roglic was amazing in the corners today, I'm not sure Dumoulin has an advantage on him in that part

Well Dumoulin is known for winning a lot on aero and corners + hills. Not so much the big flat power parts (unlike what you would expect)

 

[rick james]

Re: Re:

What a ride by Porte... but Felline, is there anything he can't do?

Win big races?

lol :lol:

 

[johnymax]

It was a beautiful hilly ITT. Rogla smashed it in the second half again. He's been amazing.

Porte showed his superiority on the climbs once again in the first half of the TT. It'd be interesting to watch a MTT with all Porte, Froome, Quintana and Contador in top shape. I'd have a hard time picking the winner.

TVG surprised me in the past two days. He's been showing some form. I was laughing at the Eurosport promo video of Il Giro the other day when I saw a picture with Quintana, Nibali, Kruijswijk and Tejay (the big four). I thought to myself WTF is TVG doing up there. Maybe they were on to something. We'll see.

Felline didn't surprise me. He's become one of the best allrounders in the peloton.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Felline has previously done some good ITT's, but today's performance is definitely one of his best in the discipline. Only the CI win stands out to me as an equal performance.

 

[Forever The Best]

Simon Yates is really becoming a rider with a great mindset of racing. He attacked from Col du Pillon and took its rewards. He did that on Fayence stage and on GP Miguel Indurain as well.
Also the previous winners in Leysin were Cunego in 2011 and Contador in 2006.
Also another win for Roglic. He is really a world class in the hilly time trials.
Felline was also really good winning a stage and finishing 4th overall.

 

[yaco]

Most interesting part of the ITT was the splits - Porte nailed the uphill section as he did in Paris Nice - He's undoubtedly in good climbing form.