Bernal vs. Pogacar vs. Evenepoel

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Who was going to chase him down on Tignes? Not Alaphillipe or Thomas that’s for sure. Based upon what happened on Iseran the gap would have extended even further on Tignes.
Kruisjwijk had De Plus in the second group so there were one domestique ready (and capable) to pull the whole way down to the start of the final climb. Its a long time since now, but i am pretty sure i remember Kruisjwijk being a bit salty about the decision given he had De Plus with him and they were ready to work in the group behind Bernal.
 
Danish Aru indeed.
Fun fact: Fabio Aru is only 34, and he's been retired since 2021. Younger than Roglic, Landa, Bilbao, etc.
I remember when people believed UAE when they said Pogacar and Aru would co-lead the 2020 Tour.
OMG, It seems no one saw what UAE riders did at the Vuelta. Pogacar was underestimated, and Aru remained overrated for the next Tour.
I'll say it again, Pogacar´s Vuelta was very underrated. Winning the three hardest mountain stages as a roockie, 40km exhibition in one of them and everyone waiting for Aru at TDF2020.

Aru was a disaster in that Vuelta. I don't remember if he finished it.
They also had Sergio Henao, a complete disaster. Pogacar was the only UAE rider who performed well in Vuelta, but many people still thought Aru was a contender to win the Tour.

Sergio Henao was completely washed in 2019, but I think he's still competing in Colombia. Last year he competed in the Vuelta a Colombia.
 
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2019, the halcyon days, the other two will win far more races but Bernal will always have the streets.


Giro - Carapaz
Tour - Bernal
Vuelta - Roglic

MSR - Alaphilippe
Flanders - Bettiol
Roubaix - Gilbert
LBL - Fuglsang
Lombardy - Mollema(!!!!)

WCRR - Pedersen
WCTT - Dennis
Don't like dominant riders and teams, but Bernal had the streets when he won Sky's seventh consecutive TDF :tearsofjoy:

I never saw Bernal as a future dominant rider. I had doubts at first, as with everyone who wins a first tour, but the Giro where he won against Caruso cleared them up. His second GT win didn't give the impression of the great dominance that for example his teammate. Froome had at Sky. He didn't seem even more dominant than Roglic in the Vueltas he's won.

People thought so because he was young and was riding for Sky, which was very dominantteam in the Tour.
But if we look at the top five from that TDF, we see Alaphilippe, who achieved his only top5 in a GT; Buchman, his only top5 in a TDF, and Kruiswijk wh othe following year he became a domestique.
2019 TDF GC were a bit unusual when you see riders who have never been in that situation again.
Bernal's real rival was his teammate G. Thomas, he didn't seem worse than him and G. Thomas never gave the impression of being dominant.
 
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May 10, 2024
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These threads are funny because they show that 1. "Predictions are difficult, especially about the future" (sometimes attributed to Niels Bohr) and 2. We all trust in our power of prediction, post-rationalizing how we were basically right, even though we missed everything.
 
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I remember when people believed UAE when they said Pogacar and Aru would co-lead the 2020 Tour.
OMG, It seems no one saw what UAE riders did at the Vuelta. Pogacar was underestimated, and Aru remained overrated for the next Tour.
I'll say it again, Pogacar´s Vuelta was very underrated. Winning the three hardest mountain stages as a roockie, 40km exhibition in one of them and everyone waiting for Aru at TDF2020.

Aru was a disaster in that Vuelta. I don't remember if he finished it.
They also had Sergio Henao, a complete disaster. Pogacar was the only UAE rider who performed well in Vuelta, but many people still thought Aru was a contender to win the Tour.

Sergio Henao was completely washed in 2019, but I think he's still competing in Colombia. Last year he competed in the Vuelta a Colombia.
I definitely thought even going into the Tour 2020 that UAE were run by idiots if they were being genuinely serious about Aru being the leader.

I did believe in Bernal being the next dominator but now after the big crash and the emergence of Pogacar at all time greatness level it would just be nice to see Bernal pick up a Vuelta at some point to complete the career set.