Re: Re:
And you fail to see that I'm only trying to tell the 20sec skinsuit advantage does not seem plausible given the TT history of these competitors in the field + saying Berto delivered bad TT. I've never said he delievered badly because of bad form, I've always agreed he was probably way too cautios. But it is bad TT regardless as ultimately only the clock measures whether it is good or bad.rhubroma said:You keep saying, however, that Contador's performance was so terrible using Aru (and Quintana) as the gauge, while acknowledging Aru was better this time against Froome. Do you fail to see this also applies to Aru in relation to Contador, who also rode more conservatively thus giving away more time?bambino said:Yes, i.e Aru is better this year, and he was better in stage 1 compared to last year. He lost around 3m 25s to Froome last year in roughly 35km flat TT... so no news there either.rhubroma said:You need to consider, though, that Aru definitely and Fulgsang too have increased their level considerably. Yates has apparently done so as well and Quintana we know can be stronger in his second GT.bambino said:Agreed, but I do want to point out still that if Froome got 20sec advantage by the skinsuit, then he actually delivered pretty awful performance by his standards.LaFlorecita said:Porte and Contador's performance compared to Quintana, Martin, Aru can be explained by their extremely cautious approach. Froome's massive gain on all of them can be explained both by taking more risks and the bumps on the skinsuit.
What I'm trying to say is that looking back TDF TT history, vast majority delivered as in the past against Froome. Only 2 delivered worse than in past.
So which is more propable, Froome got 20sec advantage on skinsuit, but has actually lost about 50% of his TT advantage against Yates, Nairo, Dan, Aru, Fuglsang and Bardet - OR Berto and Porte just delivered bad TT?
Froome did stress that this year his rivals would be stronger. I'm hoping this assessment is right, so he is attackable in the mountains. Contador did look quite lean in the opening pictures. Surely he would not have shown up to be dominated the rising crew. Perhaps he's better than the TT showed.