He used to be decent, not great but decent, in the u23 ranks. He's from the same town as Berzin. With the Russians it's always a lottery, one out of ten of those who were great in the u23 ranks becomes a great pro, they remind me a lot of the Americans in that regard.
It's a great season for him by any means. But i somehow expected a bit more. Maybe got caught up in the hype after his early season results.
The brutal start to the Vuelta hurt him probably more than any other rider, maybe even just one flat day to reacclimatise to racing and he might have lost 1 minute rather than 4 and a half and thus still been in the top 5 conversation.
Yeah, in the lanterne rouge interview he said that he spent time off the bike after giro illness so he was always going to struggle the first few days. If we had the start in Utrecht as planned I think he would be in the top 5 even if he came in undercooked.
When exactly were Fuglsang's GC days?
Great news! Ineos could really use a few more good climbers.
Interested how they're gonna manage these young guys. Few years ago, there was a clear hierarchy. But now? I can assume Bernal is still #1. And then? Carapaz #2? Thomas? Hart? Sivakov? Martinez? De Plus? Vlasov? I don't consider Sosa and Dunbar to be GC material, but who knows. I'd put Sivakov, Martinez and De Plus ahead of Hart in terms of shear quality, but he's won the Giro so clearly he's got the better cards. Ineos are lacking a clear killer (like they had in Froome), but they are bringing in a lot of dark horses instead. Are they going to go into each GT with 2 or 3 leaders and try to tag-team the opposition? I can't imagine them doing the Ineos train with this line-up, because they are lacking the killer to finish it off. They'd just be doing the work for Roglic, Pogacar or other climbers that can hang on an jump away close to the finish.
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