jaylew said:Doesn't seem like a straw man to me. And I was thinking the same thing. Even more so when you say that the Vasco says more to you GC-wise than what you've seen from Chaves.
You can argue that Adam Yates has shown more potential there so far but it's certainly not clear cut. And lets not forget that Chaves is coming off of major injuries that kept him out for basically an entire year. That has to be taken under consideration as do his fine results the year before that injury.
Of course it must be said that I have nothing against Simon. In fact, I like his style and I hope he becomes a great rider.
The straw man was picking a lesser result from the wrong brother.
Adam's results are clearly more numerous, consistent and impressive. I watched both those stage wins live and they were good rides, but they were a sideshow for the GC riders who did not engage. It's very different to being a genuine player in the race. I'm sure he can be in the future, but it seems daft to pretend he has shown it already after 2 good rides and lots of races trundling in the bus.
My original post on this was in response to a pretty peevish suggestion that Simon couldn't be justified over Chaves without nationality. It struck me as an odd observation given neither of those 2 have the strongest results in that cohort.