"Which is the best of Evenepoel, Pogacar and Bernal"
"I pick D, Alex. Contador should have won the Tour in 2014"
"I pick D, Alex. Contador should have won the Tour in 2014"
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No doubt Contador was crash happy after 2010 in the Tour especially. Didn't really see him doing the double in 2011. He won the Giro and then had to beat both Schleck and Evans in good form. 2014 we will never know as when he crashed out he was already two minutes behind a flying Nibali and Froome crashed out as well. To me Contador was at his very best between 2007 and 2012.
Maybe. But Nibali was never better then around this time (including 2013 Giro) so I think a worthy TdF winner. Nibs cruised to a nearly 8 minute TdF win without being forced to break a sweat."Which is the best of Evenepoel, Pogacar and Bernal"
"I pick D, Alex. Contador should have won the Tour in 2014"
Annihilated depleted Tour field better than Pogi didMaybe. But Nibali was never better then around this time (including 2013 Giro) so I think a worthy TdF winner. Nibs cruised to a nearly 8 minute TdF win without being forced to break a sweat.
"Which is the best of Evenepoel, Pogacar and Bernal"
"I pick D, Alex. Contador should have won the Tour in 2014"
He won the Giro 50 days ago, so I assume he's back.As for this thread as of this time we have to rank Pogacar as clear best. Evenepoel needs to stop teasing us and finish a grand tour with ideal prep. But I do think Egan Bernal will be back. We haven’t seen the best of him either. Interesting times.
He won the Giro 50 days ago, so I assume he's back.
As for this thread as of this time we have to rank Pogacar as clear best. Evenepoel needs to stop teasing us and finish a grand tour with ideal prep. But I do think Egan Bernal will be back. We haven’t seen the best of him either. Interesting times.
Evenepoel doesn't belong in the same discussion yet. I'll wait until he's podiumed a GT or won some GT stages before taking part in a versus match.
Funny dig, but the thread was about potential. As you are likely aware, Evenepoel is still 1 year younger than Bernal when he won the Tour, and 3 years younger than Bernal when he won the Giro. Regardless of his lost season, his victories still outshine those of Bernal at that age.Stage races won:
Pogi: 2xTour, T-A, UAE, Cali, Slovenia, Algarve, Valenciana
Bernal: Tour, Giro, Suisse, P-N, Cali, Occitanie, Oro y Paz, Sibiu
Evenepoel: Pologne, Burgos, Algarve, 2xBelgium, San Juan
One is not like the others.
It 'was' about potential, now 2 have delivered of course he isn't looked at in the same bracket until he does so.Funny dig, but the thread was about potential. As you are likely aware, Evenepoel is still 1 year younger than Bernal when he won the Tour, and 3 years younger than Bernal when he won the Giro. Regardless of his lost season, his victories still outshine those of Bernal at that age.
Evenepoel doesn't belong in the same discussion yet. I'll wait until he's podiumed a GT or won some GT stages before taking part in a versus match.
Let's generalize a few riders who did between 0 and 1 good Tours each and then flame them for never attacking, when in fact some of them were pretty damn aggressive when they had the legs.Just imagined that we thought the class of Aru, Bardet, Majka, Chaves, Pinot, Kelderman, Dumoulin etc. would dominate the GTs after Froome, Nibs and Contador. How wrong we where and how good is it that they didn't, because these rider barely contributed anything other than hanging on and sporadic attacking.
Just imagined that we thought the class of Aru, Bardet, Majka, Chaves, Pinot, Kelderman, Dumoulin etc. would dominate the GTs after Froome, Nibs and Contador. How wrong we where and how good is it that they didn't, because these rider barely contributed anything other than hanging on and sporadic attacking.
How did it not age well?This thread did not age well...
Funny dig, but the thread was about potential. As you are likely aware, Evenepoel is still 1 year younger than Bernal when he won the Tour, and 3 years younger than Bernal when he won the Giro. Regardless of his lost season, his victories still outshine those of Bernal at that age.
That was my first association when I saw thread title again... A lot has changed since that thread was created.How did it not age well?
2 of the 3 won the GT's this year and are arguably among the 3 best GC riders at the moment while still being youngsters. The third one showed a lot of promise before his crash in stage races so it's not unlikely he'll get there in the future as well.
Bernal is not top-3 anymore, IMO. Vingegaard >> Bernal.How did it not age well?
2 of the 3 won the GT's this year and are arguably among the 3 best GC riders at the moment while still being youngsters. The third one showed a lot of promise before his crash in stage races so it's not unlikely he'll get there in the future as well.
Hence the word arguably in my post. I like Vingegaard, but it feels very premature to call him a top 3 GC rider after finishing 2nd over 5 mins down in a Tour where a lot of GC riders crashed out of contention in the first week.Bernal is not top-3 anymore, IMO. Vingegaard >> Bernal.
Bernal may have won the Giro, but only beat Caruso by a pretty small margin. Bernal had the 2 best doms in the race, too -- Martinez and Castroviejo. Martinez (could have) dropped him in several mountain stages, too.
Imagine if Caruso had those two super doms racing for him instead...
Yes, Bernal raced pretty aggressively in the first part of the race, but never opened up a huge gap over Caruso.
It just wasn't an impressive enough GT win to put him up there with Vingegaard, who didn't lose a lot of time to Pogacar in weeks 2 & 3.
Same for Carapaz, pretty much, except for the ITT
I seriously doubt that a rider that got dropped by S. Yates, Martinez, Almeida and Caruso could have stayed with Pogacar, Vingegaard and Carapaz. Or Roglic. (Although I suspect that Almeida could be up there with the best very soon)
Bernal may (or may not) face the 2 best GT specialists in the Vuelta. Both of them with a less than ideal prep, to put it mildly. If he's competitive or even wins that won't mean he's top-3, either. The 5th best GC rider in the world could easily win the GC, IMO.
We won't know until Bernal targets the Tour again (which may be never). He's a clever guy. He actually has a shot at the 2021 Vuelta. He could complete his GT collection and bounce.