Colombia 2.1 (Feb 12-17)

[yaco]

Sky's tactics have ridden Lopez into the race - Strange indeed !

 

[Robert5091]

So at 26, Alaphillipe was the oldest of the top 5?

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

So at 26, Alaphillipe was the oldest of the top 5?

I see another Colombian youngling I haven't heard of coming eighth on the stage.

Alejandro Osorio, 20 years.

Does it never end?

 

[JosephK]

Great race, today. Julian Alaphilippe wasn't the strongest rider on the stage, but he played his cards the best and earned a very nice stage win. There are plenty of great riders in the top ten. Three or four have a chance to win the whole thing tomorrow, but the favorite looks to be Superman. Oh yes, the crowd was fantastic as well, and the announcers were en fuego! Great show!

 

[slosada]

Re:

I must confess I initially wasn't happy about the parcours, but now that I've watched the last 2 stages - my god- I was sooo wrong!! Those guys racing there are giving everything and making it so exciting to watch. Chapeau to Julian Ala - a truly warrior within the old school French tradition! Also kudos to Sosa & Dani Martinez for the Showdown on the last climb- it was a treat to the eyes & the spectacle.

I can hardly wait for tomorrow's stage

I think is the riders not the parcours. The smaller teams and the altitude also help.
I mean, 2 days ago, they where attacking in the last 10-15 Kms like there was no tomorrow. Yesterday López was on the break of the day on a flat stage. Today Ala, Martinez and Sosa were in the break. When or where have you seen those long range attacks from GC riders?

However, my issue is still there: They missed touristic spots, they repeated the same 2 towns over and over again.
Someone said, oh, it's just the place in the calendar... Sure, and San Luis had the luxury to put 3 MTFs for 3 years in a row

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Have only been able to watch two of the stages/finishes

 

[Anderis]

Nice to see Craddock climbing relatively well again.

 

[Koronin]

I'm guessing tomorrow's climb will be too much for Alaphilippe.

Race for overall between Martinez and Lopez?

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Vacek DNF apparently.

 

[Escarabajo]

19 DNF, 1 OTL and 1 DSQ. This stage was really hard and it took the toll on a lot of riders. This is the kind of stages that make you thing twice about putting a Letras or La Linea on the profiles. It would be a major crime on February. Not with this kind of crazy racing.

Tomorrow a different kind of climb:

I expect either Lopez, Dani Martinez or Sosa to take it. But they have been on the attack 2 days in a row. So maybe there is a chance from a rider further behind to take it as well. It could turn out to be very tactical like what happened in San Juan.

 

[CTQ]

Re:

19 DNF, 1 OTL and 1 DSQ. This stage was really hard and it took the toll on a lot of riders. This is the kind of stages that make you thing twice about putting a Letras or La Linea on the profiles. It would be a major crime on February. Not with this kind of crazy racing.

Tomorrow a different kind of climb:

I expect either Lopez, Dani Martinez or Sosa to take it. But they have been on the attack 2 days in a row. So maybe there is a chance from a rider further behind to take it as well. It could turn out to be very tactical like what happened in San Juan.

do you know why Attilio Viviani have been DSQ ???

 

[Escarabajo]

No CTQ. I don't know why it was disqualified. Tomorrow during the broadcast they will probably mention it.

 

[yaco]

Alaphalippe is now better at pacing himself on climbs to give him every chance of making the final - He is now prepared to back off the pace and drop back in the hope of regaining a second wind.

 

[rick james]

Safe to say the Froome era is now officially over with

 

[70kmph]

In the olden days mighty Froome would attack this stage to salvage his reputation

 

[rick james]

In the olden days mighty Froome would attack this stage to salvage his reputation

In the first race of the season?

 

[Valv.Piti]

Froome taking the early 2000s approach by peaking for GT/GTs and not doing much else - not that he really is capable at this point of his career. Slow buildup, maybe a decent showing in Romandie, altutude whole May and then looking like a GT-winner in Dauphine Libéré (look at me, Im a hipster).

Havent really followed this race so far apart from looking at the results, but it looks like it has been a very, very good one. Great MTF today as well, its a nice race.

 

[rick james]

Froome admitted before the race that racing all week at that altitude he knew all he could do was hang on and hope for the best

 

[rick james]

I wish we had better coverage of this race, some of the pictures I’ve saw it looked amazing.....the grand tour on amazon prime done a Colombian 2 part special and it really showed how amazing the country looks

 

[70kmph]

Froome can win multiple GTs in a row but he can't get up a small hill now

 

[Libertine Seguros]

In the olden days mighty Froome would attack this stage to salvage his reputation

In the first race of the season?

Other than 2012 he has come out of the gate hot in his peak years though - 2013 and 2014 at Oman, winning stages in both, winning the Ruta del Sol in an exciting H2H with Contador in 2015 (one of the best races Froome's been involved in, imho), and in 2016 he won his first race as well, but that was the Herald Sun Tour and the field was weak in comparison to those editions of Oman and Andalucía. It's only since 2017 that he's had to focus his building to form, because in those days the weaker form Froome was still competitive. 2012 was the year he apparently re-caught schistosomiasis which explained why after his amazing end to 2011 he could barely finish a race until the Dauphiné.

 

[Robert5091]

Re:

Froome can win multiple GTs in a row but he can't get up a small hill now

:lol:

 

[sir fly]

We'll see how will Froome look today, but assessing his capacities on performance so far isn't exactly the most reliable.
He's there to make some sort of base and examine altitude effects considering the complexity of this year's Tour. Also, he doesn't have to make any statements early and throughout the season any more, or get used to leader's role as it's been the case at the beginning of his GT reign.
His career peak probably was a year, year and a half ago, when he targeted doubles and rode 4 GTs in a row, so his approach these days is reasonably less weighted by the result requirements, paying attention to possible burnout.
Following Colombians on their home soil at this time of the year is more difficult than matching GT rivals later in the season.

Off to the broadcast, now.

 

[70kmph]

40KM remaining

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

We'll see how will Froome look today, but assessing his capacities on performance so far isn't exactly the most reliable.
He's there to make some sort of base and examine altitude effects considering the complexity of this year's Tour. Also, he doesn't have to make any statements early and throughout the season any more, or get used to leader's role as it's been the case at the beginning of his GT reign.
His career peak probably was a year, year and a half ago, when he targeted doubles and rode 4 GTs in a row, so his approach these days is reasonably less weighted by the result requirements, paying attention to possible burnout.
Following Colombians on their home soil at this time of the year is more difficult than matching GT rivals later in the season.

Off to the broadcast, now.

His true peak was 2013, from 11-12 to 14-now he has had a very high level with some variances obviously, but not a worldbeater like he was in 2013.