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Carlos Betancur discussion thread

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El Pistolero

El Pistolero

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Re:

SafeBet said:
He looks great. Pulled the bunch for a long time, attacked and still had legs to finish in the top5. I can't wait for the Giro.
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He looked "great" (he didn't really) because the field there was crap. Put him in the Ronde and we'll see how great that form of his is.
 
El Pistolero

El Pistolero

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Kazistuta said:
So you think a rider of Betancurs type should be able to perform in De Ronde? Let's put Terpstra in GP Indurain while we're at it and see "how great that form of his is".

Don't be that guy...again.
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Terpstra would have probably won it in his current shape lol.

Nibali won Milan-San Remo, the sprinter's classic, by attacking on the Poggio.

Good cyclists can contend for the victory on all kinds of terrain. Greg won on a mountainous Olympic course, Paris-Roubaix, Tirreno-Adriatico, the Grand Prix de Montreal and a mountainous stage in the Tour from the break.

Gilbert won three different Monuments, countless of classics and semi-classics and stages in all three Grand Tours.

Betancur's type can only perform well in eating contests.
 
Kazistuta

Kazistuta

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Re: Re:

El Pistolero said:
Kazistuta said:
So you think a rider of Betancurs type should be able to perform in De Ronde? Let's put Terpstra in GP Indurain while we're at it and see "how great that form of his is".

Don't be that guy...again.
Click to expand...

Terpstra would have probably won it in his current shape lol.

Nibali won Milan-San Remo, the sprinter's classic, by attacking on the Poggio.

Good cyclists can contend for the victory on all kinds of terrain. Greg won on a mountainous Olympic course, Tirreno-Adriatico, the Grand Prix de Montreal and a mountainous stage in the Tour from the break.

Gilbert won three different Monuments, countless of classics and semi-classics and stages in all three Grand Tours.
Click to expand...


No way Terpstra would have had a chance in GP Indurain. Did you see the race?

And yes, VERSATILE riders can contend for the victory on MOST kinds of terrain. Nibali, Van Avermaet and Gilbert are three prime examples on versatile riders, which Betancur and Terpstra are not. How do you think Contador would have fared in De Ronde? Just because a rider can't contend in De Ronde (and other hard man races), doesn't mean he's not good.

For sure, the competition for Valverde, Betancur etc. today wasn't exactly grand, but Bananitos performance did gave us the impression he's on his way to some kind of top form, where his presence in Giro d'Italia is going to be interesting.
No need to compare with guys lining up for one of the greatest and hardest one day races, cycling has to offer. It's like comparing apples and oranges.
 
Popchu

Popchu

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27th in the GC of 'Itzulia Basque Country', which isn't too bad in a high level field and after the work he did for Landa. But there's still work to be done. Sometimes he dropped too early, but he never faded badly. If you compare with 2013, he was 7th in Itzulia (but he was a leader back in the day).

Today Klasika Primavera de Amorebieta. Not much quality on the startlist, but I suppose he will be tired of riding Izulia.
 
staubsauger

staubsauger

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I don't know pals. His current shape probably still isn't enough to at least contest for the KOM classification at the Giro like Betancur tried in 2015. Only, that this time around it isn't really his fault,since he was back in decent shape at last year's Vuelta. The Giro comes a bit too early after his injury I fear.
 
Saint Unix

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carton said:
There are 89 pages on here about a guy whose biggest results are a Paris-Nice win and a Giro 6th place. For comparison the threads for Thibaut Pinot and Ilnur Zakarin run for 19 pages and 9 pages, respectively. Fat jokes account for about 95% of the Pythagorean difference.

Carlos Betancur is the fat cyclist. For some he's the modern epicurean antagonist of the hackneyed romantic concept of cyclists as hard men aesthetes who stopped at nothing in their relentless pursuit glory, prisoners of the road but masters of their own fate. In that view he has all the exogenous talent but lacks any of the endogenous will. Some of these folk believe they could be better racers than Betancur, but lacked the god-given talent: Betancur is thus the human embodiment of the tragedy that is life.

For others Betancur symbolizes the return of the hackneyed romantic concept of cyclists as literal larger than life bon vivants, moody characters who ate full meals washed down with beer and wine between Tour de France stages; who stopped for coffee amidst Milan-San Remo. His image harkens back to those sepia tinted days where passion and flair were more important than watts/kg. Many of them believe they cycle just like Betancur, but lack the god-given talent: Betancur is thus the human embodiment of the comedy that is life.

In any case given that the fat jokes have only gotten better three years in, I wouldn't hold my breath.
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This is why he has so many pages on this forum.
 
Valv.Piti

Valv.Piti

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Re:

staubsauger said:
I don't know pals. His current shape probably still isn't enough to at least contest for the KOM classification at the Giro like Betancur tried in 2015. Only, that this time around it isn't really his fault,since he was back in decent shape at last year's Vuelta. The Giro comes a bit too early after his injury I fear.
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The Giro definitely doesn't come to soon for him to hunt the KOM-jersey. He is already in very good shape at this moment - very good in the one day races and decent enough in Pais Vasco. Thats 8 days of proper racing in hard terrain that will benefit him greatly going into the Ardennes and later the Giro - still one month to go. Had it been 2 weeks later it would have been optimal, but it is what it is and he should be able to go into the race in very good shape, possibly still a little undercooked which maybe isn't that bad after all.
 
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Re:

Popchu said:
27th in the GC of 'Itzulia Basque Country', which isn't too bad in a high level field and after the work he did for Landa. But there's still work to be done. Sometimes he dropped too early, but he never faded badly. If you compare with 2013, he was 7th in Itzulia (but he was a leader back in the day).

Today Klasika Primavera de Amorebieta. Not much quality on the startlist, but I suppose he will be tired of riding Izulia.
Click to expand...

A fine summation. It's nice to remember how good he was back then. (Is this thread an example of saudade?)
 
Popchu

Popchu

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Poor performances past week, tomorrow must be better. Last year he was quite active in the Flèche Wallonne with a lot of counter attacks and work in the finale. This year he was pretty fast spent and wasn't very useful for Valverde, which is strange, because his form was better than last year at this point.

Something else, he has a serious scar on his chin after that Vuelta crash.

Schermafbeelding_2018-04-21_om_20.08.17.png
 
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