Chad Underpants. The next Ivan Sosa.
There. I said it.
There. I said it.
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Ok, a bit out of left field, but ok. Let us know when Sosa finishes a GT inside the top 10. Or were you referring to Sosa getting out of a contract to sign with Ineos?
a bit of both. But the hype around Chad was really high a couple years ago. I don't really see him doing much at Jumbo and his top 10 doesn't rate much with me. I don't remember anything about it except him complaining something about Vlasov from that GT.
Full disclosure, I am a Chad hater since his contract thing.
*edit - i actually remember him crying that he wasn't in the group chat. What a baby, maybe if he wasn't so unlikable the other lads would actually want to hit the pub with him.
You remember him crying he wasn't in the group chat? You are in the group chat? Because as far as i know that was all made-up by a Dutch journalist.
Which I still find really odd, and I don’t understand the journalist didn’t say he was wrong after Cian said it wasn’t true.
that's how it goes!
crazy story gets made up, everyone hears about it because its gossipy
retraction on the back page, i never saw it
Cause he probably actually got told something along those lines by someone who would benefit from a story like that. Just how it goed sadly.
And now 75% of the cycling world still thinks Bora are a bunch of bully's and Cian had every right to get as far as he could from that toxic place. Yk that's just how it goes, story's like that never actually get rectified in the mainstream media or people just don't care anymore. Fair play to Cian for actually saying it wasn't true, but the damage was already done.
But then you blow up your relationship with one of the bigger Dutch cycling journalists. Seems so unnecessary from Visma’s pov
Don't know about the comparison, but the nickname works for me!
Doesn't have to be Visma, and the journalist is probably still convinced it's true.
The team doesn't have any expectations for him, definitely not after his lacklustre performance in Catalunya, but Uijtdebroeks himself is hoping on a top 5 finish and the white young rider jersey. That last one he'll probably have to battle out with Tiberi.
Personally I can only see him finish top 5 if he's at his Vuelta form, otherwise he should be happy with top 10.
Personally I can only see him finish top 5 if he's at his Vuelta form, otherwise he should be happy with top 10.
So I know it is important to welcome the new hire to the workplace. But if somebody comes in with that kind of baggage, I'm just going to be polite yet try to avoid him.
In order to beat Tiberi or Arensman he must have improved his TT'ing ability substantially. With 70k of TT which is predominantly flat and favouring the big engines this Giro is, on paper, less suited to his abilities than last year's Vuelta.
Are we talking about the same Tiberi who finished 42 minutes down on Uijtdebroeks in last year's Vuelta (his best GT result)? Why are his goals/wishes so much more realistic than Uijtdebroeks'? Uijtdebroeks already showed he can battle for GC 3 weeks, Tiberi hasn't. Uijtdebroeks finished 7th in the Tirreno, Tiberi 27th. In Catalunya clearly something was wrong (as was the case with Kuss), so i wouldn't exactly take that as an indicator that Uijtdebroeks is going nowhere. It's quite ironic to downplay his Giro chances based on what happened a month ago, and now completely ignore Arensman's MIA in Romandie a week before the Giro.
I ain't saying Uijtdebroeks is going nowhere. I just say with a TT loaded Giro he's, theoretically on the back foot vs Arensman and Tiberi who are better TT'ers. In a 40k TT he can loose 2:30 to 3 minutes vs the big guns if he hasn't improved drastically.
Arensmans one week results are a terrible pointer for his GT results historically speaking tho. The man is a modern version of Kruijswijk.
And even in Tirreno and Algarve he wasn't that bad (5 and 6). In Romandie he was whack but he already said in an interview that he wanted to avoid to peak prior to the Giro. Only thing that worries me about his development is that his TT's are pretty sub-DSM level.
I was also fairly surprised when Tiberi claimed he had the realistic goal of finishing top5 in GC (and dreaming of a podium).
But considering his limited experience as a team leader and the fact Bahrain elected to send him as a captain while having both Caruso and Poels available, his numbers must be very good at the moment. Otherwise the team wouldn't be so confident.
Note that Tiberi told me his recovery is excellent and during last year's Vuelta he felt better and better as days passed. The route is certainly on his side, with the amount of TT kms and the abundance of 6-8% climbs, since he doesn't fancy particularly steep hills.
I'd say right now fans and bookmakers favor Tiberi over Uijtdebroeks partly because of recency bias. It's true that Cian was much better in Tirreno, but Tiberi has steadily improved race after race and looked excellent in TotA.
Everything considered, I reckon a top10 should be reachable for Tiberi in this field. Anything more would be a great result in my eyes. Uijtdebroeks likely has a higher ceiling but I'm not very confident after his first mnths with Visma.
Last year Uijtdebroeks performed well the whole year. He showed that he could follow sub-top riders, and improved during the year, ending with an amazing Vuelta.
This year, I don't feel he made that step forward and showed a similar level of performance. Which was to be expected after the winter he had, and the weather we've been having. I think he'll do fine this Giro, but I'm not sure because I have no clue at what level he's riding at the moment.
On Tiberi, he did have a decent Catalunya and Tour of Alps, so if Uijtdebroeks isn't 100%, I wouldn't be surprised he's able to contest the white jersey.
For top 5 ITT ability doesnt matter that much cause further down gaps simply get bigger in mountain stages, and the top 5 competition are hardly ITT savants either
Yes, i agree on the 2-3 minutes in TT's. But those are of little consequence in relation to what can be lost in the mountains. More often than not, at the end of 3 weeks, it doesn't come down to a few minutes lost in a TT or two. That only matters in the unlikely event that these riders are their exact equals going uphill.
Last year he peaked for one week stage races in the spring, and it was not certain he would ride the Vuelta later on, or even for GC, for which he had time to rest and build up again. Now he didn't peak for these stage races in the spring since he was working towards the Giro. So you can't compare those results.
For me, Tiberi has a lot to prove as a GT GC rider, while i feel unreasonable questionmarks are being placed next to one single bad result for Uijtdebroeks. No explanations or context sought for. But for Arensman, there is an explanation and context, apparently.
I'm not saying it's impossible for Tiberi, as i recall, he's always had good numbers. But getting better as days pass... that can hardly be used as a yardstick considering he was already 50 minutes down in GC. On day 16 there was an easy stage with a cat 2 climb at the end, he still finished behind Uijtdebroeks, so what is that really worth, getting better, when you are still not good enough to beat the guy who doesn't make the same claims about getting better? When you take it easy the first 2 weeks, you will obviously be able to perform better in the third week relatively speaking, compared to riders who've been going all out since day 1.
How much stock are people willing to put in a good TotA result? He beat Paret-Paintre by 2 seconds. Cepeda has also finished 4th in TotA twice in recent years, his best GT result is 53rd. Skjelmose/Trek was also quite bullish on his GT chances ahead of last year's TDF. It didn't exactly work out for him either. So confidence is not really something i will use as any sort of indication.
Bottomline, Uijtdebroeks (and his entire team) did one bad race a month and a half before the start of the Giro and people go berserk. He was still ahead of Thomas the day before he DNF, and Thomas is expected to be runner-up in the giro. While a rider who just recently showed some potential in 1 week races, is now expected to suddenly do the same in a GT. I can't predict who will finish ahead, so i won't be making any bold claims, but i'd still give the advantage to Uijtdebroeks, who has been very consistent for two years, with the only exception of Tirreno. While Tiberi has neither been consistent, nor having shown he can top 5 a GT.
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