- May 29, 2019
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Comparisations...Zabriskie, van Garderen or Leipheimer? I will go with Bobby Julich. Good enough climber to get some GT results onTT heavy routes early in his career. Not a future GC winner. Will probably be among the 3-5 best TT specialists for at least 5-10 years. Will be interesting to see if he can make the Dumoulin/Wiggins transformation and improve his climbing or if he will go the Julich/Martin route and focus on TTs.
- Jun 7, 2011
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Don't mean to be a jerk or a party pooper, but... remain realistic.
It is not probable for him at all to be one of the 3-5 best TT specialist, let alone for the next 5-10 years even if he manages. Today was a strong performance but you seem to read into it too much. First of all, this was a short ITT. Second of all, this was a very atypical ITT. And lastly, some of the biggest TT guns were not here. No Evenepoel, no van Aert, no Ganna, no Dennis...
Beating/rivaling Roglic once also doesn't mean as much as you might think it does. Campenaerts has beaten Roglic, Bernal has beaten Roglic, Dumoulin, Thomas, van Aert, Pogacar, Van Emden, Ganna, Kwiatkowski, Evenepoel, Kangert, Porte, Dowsett, Oliveira, Bevin... have all beaten Roglic. And i'm not talking about 6 years ago, i'm talking about the last 3 or so years. Only last month he was beaten by Bissegger and Cavagna. And most of the big hitters aren't that much older, or even younger. He's a great rider, he'll definitely be in the mix and win his share of races, but i'd remain cautious with lofty expectations, even if he still can improve.
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- May 1, 2009
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- Apr 3, 2009
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Disappointed to see him drop 4 seconds on a finish like today. Didn't see closely what happened, anyone?
- Nov 16, 2013
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- Apr 3, 2009
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Assumed so. Always hate to see someone so close in GC losing silly seconds like that.
- Nov 16, 2013
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- Apr 3, 2009
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- Jun 7, 2011
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He should count his blessings that UCI didn't disqualify him
- Nov 16, 2013
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My point is that it was because he didn't have the legs and not because he was inattentive, so I don't really see why you in general would hate GC contenders losing time in such a way.
Nice race today! This will be a great learning experience for Brandon.
- Jul 7, 2013
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His great TT was no fluke. His superb climb time at the TT and a very good second part of the TT (indicating that the climb didn't cook him) was a strong sign of great form.
- Oct 2, 2020
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His climbing is improving, too. I think it's helping him to be on the same team as Pogi.
- Jun 7, 2011
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- Apr 10, 2019
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Are we sure that it's mainly the length of the effort (yesterday was a sub 11min effort) or is it the really steep stuff and really hard mountain stages?
- May 1, 2009
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He was the strongest today! I doubt he'll keep the GC lead on Saturday, but it will be close.
Results would suggest it is the length of the climb which is exacerbated by hard mountain stages - Though he should be OK in stage 6 of Basque Country - Bigger tests await at the Giro.
- Jun 7, 2011
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Well, it's still possible that he'll simply surprise us all. He's surprised me so far this week, and considering his age it's not out of the realm of possibility that he will still surprise us more. With some luck, in a few months he'll make sure when i read one of my previous posts i think to myself "hah, what idiot wrote that!".
I'll agree with Yaco, we'll know more during the Giro.
OK young man, eat that one, and then wake up tomorrow looking forward to all of your potential!
- May 29, 2019
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It didn't pan out regarding GC, on Itzulia Basque Country 2021, still that was a strong TT performance on stage 1.
- Jun 7, 2011
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After all is said and done, i think he'd have liked taking that ITT, rather than "be in the mix for the overall" and go home empty handed. If only he hadn't screwed up that corner, he would have beaten Roglic in the TT.
- May 29, 2019
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