Esteban Chaves Discussion Thread

[Jspear]

Re:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJXcmsRc8AE

This warms my heart.

They’ve done a real good job on the media side of things. It’s cool watching Esteban behind the scenes. That’s one of the reasons why I’ve grown to like him so much.

 

[Escarabajo]

Great win for Chaves. Very happy for him. Hope that he continues to improve.

 

[42x16ss]

Re:

Great win for Chaves. Very happy for him. Hope that he continues to improve.

That win clearly meant a lot to Chaves, hopefully it gives him the confidence to ride the way we know that he can.

 

[yaco]

Apparently his training numbers have been good all season but he hadn't always brought that to the races - Suspect it's mental for Chaves.

 

[DNP-Old]

In it to win it. It's likely his best days are yet to come

 

[jaylew]

I really think he's got a good chance at winning this thing. He tends to get stronger in the 3rd week and I think he came into the Giro a little undercooked. Dumo will likely hemorrhage time on most of the remaining mtfs and I'm not sure Yates will hold this kind of form for the entire Giro.

 

[yaco]

Zoncolan and the ITT will determine the leader - Chaves has been in good shape all year but hasn't shown it in races for a variety of reasons

 

[42x16ss]

Re:

I really think he's got a good chance at winning this thing. He tends to get stronger in the 3rd week and I think he came into the Giro a little undercooked. Dumo will likely hemorrhage time on most of the remaining mtfs and I'm not sure Yates will hold this kind of form for the entire Giro.

If Yates can draw the spotlight until Finestre and Zoncolan and Chaves has a reasonable TT, look out.

 

[Blanco]

He's going to win this race. Yates will fade, Zoncolan and Finestre will murder Dumoulin, and Pinot will be his biggest challenger.

 

[Climbing]

Re:

He's going to win this race. Yates will fade, Zoncolan and Finestre will murder Dumoulin, and Pinot will be his biggest challenger.

I was thinking along those lines, with Pozzo in the mix maybe.

 

[ruamruam]

What is Chaves's TT like compared to Yates?

 

[claude cat]

Re:

What is Chaves's TT like compared to Yates?

Yates is stronger. As per stage 1.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

What is Chaves's TT like compared to Yates?

Slightly better than Purito.

 

[SafeBet]

Chaves has done some decent TTs when in shape.
He was even better than Yates in the Vuelta 2016 TT and they both were riding for GC.

 

[hfer07]

Re:

Chaves has done some decent TTs when in shape.
He was even better than Yates in the Vuelta 2016 TT and they both were riding for GC.

The tricky part here is that Yates is likely to be better positioned after the ITT in comparison the Chavito, But Chavito has proved to be a much better 3-week rider than Simon, so if the Team goes all in for Yates while sacrificing Chavito's chances, it could go either way....

I don't know if the team will play the "dual leader" card, which is always risky if both are too close to the GC - just remember the 2015 Giro with Astana forcing Landa to back off in order to allow Aru to get second, well knowing Landa was the better rider to Challenge Contador in all his right.....

 

[yaco]

Expect S.Yates to be a touch better than Chaves in the ITT - MS have to keep both riders up there because if one has a bad day ( which can happen to anyone ) then you have a back up - Reckon Chaves could have won stage 9 but he sat on and followed and would only intervene if Yates couldn't win the stage - Will add MS is wisely using their climbers - Haig hs taken on the brunt of the work with one or two appearances from Kreuziger and Nieve has followed - Expect the latter two to be used more in week three.

 

[Escarabajo]

I am really sad!
The important thing now is that he recovers so that he can help SY. Additionally he needs to prove himself that he can recover from these such calamities. In the past he has had issues with recovering well after being really good. Hope is not the case here. The 2016 Giro stage after the rest day was more a distraction than anything else. This seems to be more health related.

 

[May0maniac]

He already had a really puffy face for the whole Giro, I've never seen him with such a bloated face before.

 

[hfer07]

I wasn't expecting to see Chavito getting out of contention in that fashion I never foresaw that today's stage would represent a risk for the top 10 considering the length of the stage, but it was that what made him lose that time because apparently Chavito was feeling bad within the first 50K already, so either he was ill prior to the stage's star, felt ill during the race, or his body just reacted extremely bad to the rest day....

Stage hunting perhaps if given the chance, or commit 100% to help Simon keeping the maglia Rosa all the way to Rome seem to be Chavito's choices left....

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

We are all reminded this is a grand tour, a bad day can happen to anyone and no one is safe. This also goes for Yates and Dumoulin and Pinot. Anything can happen.

Nobody expected Froome to be so bad after his fall. Nobody expected Yates to be so good. Nobody expected Chaves to suddenly have an off day.
It's a GT guys.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

We are all reminded this is a grand tour, a bad day can happen to anyone and no one is safe. This also goes for Yates and Dumoulin and Pinot. Anything can happen.

Nobody expected Froome to be so bad after his fall. Nobody expected Yates to be so good. Nobody expected Chaves to suddenly have an off day.
It's a GT guys.

"It's the beauty of the Giro"

~Esteban Chaves

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Re: Re:

Chaves has done some decent TTs when in shape.
He was even better than Yates in the Vuelta 2016 TT and they both were riding for GC.

The tricky part here is that Yates is likely to be better positioned after the ITT in comparison the Chavito, But Chavito has proved to be a much better 3-week rider than Simon, so if the Team goes all in for Yates while sacrificing Chavito's chances, it could go either way....

I don't know if the team will play the "dual leader" card, which is always risky if both are too close to the GC - just remember the 2015 Giro with Astana forcing Landa to back off in order to allow Aru to get second, well knowing Landa was the better rider to Challenge Contador in all his right.....

I know everyone thinks this, but it just looks daft to me. It's like people forget Chaves is 2 and a half years older, and tends to be favoured by the team. Hardly surprising he's had slightly better results. At the age when Yates had 2 GT top 10s, Chaves had none, so seems pretty unreasonable to keep making a backward looking comparison and ignoring Yates is far more likely to still be getting better (and indeed, has looked better pretty consistently for 15 months now).

 

[DNP-Old]

When Chaves was as old as Yates is now, he was still fighting for his career after it had nearly abruptly ended in the Trofeo Laigueglia of 2013(!) and 9 out of 10 doctors failed him. But that doesn't fit your agenda me thinks. Or, who knows, maybe you just forgot to mention it.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Re:

When Chaves was as old as Yates is now, he was still fighting for his career after it had nearly abruptly ended in the Trofeo Laigueglia of 2013(!) and 9 out of 10 doctors failed him. But that doesn't fit your agenda me thinks. Or, who knows, maybe you just forgot to mention it.

It was a great come back up to 2016, but he hasn't shown any signs of taking the final tiny step in to the top tier since then. Not sure if it's because he looks younger than he is, or the general assumption that Colombians are climbing superstars, but I don't get the general assumption that Chaves is and always will be better than Orica's other GC men.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

When Chaves was as old as Yates is now, he was still fighting for his career after it had nearly abruptly ended in the Trofeo Laigueglia of 2013(!) and 9 out of 10 doctors failed him. But that doesn't fit your agenda me thinks. Or, who knows, maybe you just forgot to mention it.

It was a great come back up to 2016, but he hasn't shown any signs of taking the final tiny step in to the top tier since then. Not sure if it's because he looks younger than he is, or the general assumption that Colombians are climbing superstars, but I don't get the general assumption that Chaves is and always will be better than Orica's other GC men.

I'll put it out there and say Haig will be the best of them all.