Euskal Herriko Itzulia 2018 - April 2-7

[Samamba]

Great rides from Mas, Vanendert (It's April and he's there ) & Lucas Hamilton.

And obv also from Alaphilippe & Roglic.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Is that Nibali in the 2nd group now?

Ion most probably.
Nibali must have exploded on the last climb.

Yeah my stream has **** footage and a language I don't even know

Nibs came home with Ion in the second group.

A lot better than I expected

 

[TourOfSardinia]

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Roglic or Alaphilippe? Place your bets

Alaphilippe should have this

Pretty close surprisingly!

I thought the AG2R was Latour, but it's Bardet.
Vanendert has found his extra 100 Watts reserved for April yet again

 

[Gigs_98]

That was a pais vasco stage just like I love them. Steep climb, crazy fans, tricky descent, gc relevant time gaps. You just have to love this race

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

Man Sky are so ****, aside Bernal and Thomas the rest of team nowhere. I wonder how much spirit is left in that team

While your overall point is valid, it's a bit harsh on de la Cruz and Henao.

Edit: oh, and Moscon.

 

[Laplaz]

Gotta love Roglic, great ride!

 

[MuskyOurSaviour]

Re: Re:

Man Sky are so ****, aside Bernal and Thomas the rest of team nowhere. I wonder how much spirit is left in that team

While your overall point is valid, it's a bit harsh on de la Cruz and Henao.

Edit: oh, and Moscon.

You think so?

Compared to Henao of last year, winning Paris Nice, this year he can barely climb with Top 20. He was good in Colombia, but other than that he is nowhere. Seems very surprising cause he was good in Colombia.

De La Cruz had this race as his big goal of the season and came nowhere today.

And yea Moscon is trying at least

 

[Arredondo]

Where was De La Cruz?

He was my pick today

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Landa made it in the +23s group

 

[Alexandre B.]

Apparently Bardet, who was leading the second group (can't quite tell as I was watching on my phone), almost crashed on the last descent.
That's why he only reappeared onscreen when second and third groups merged onto the final.

 

[Climbing]

Re: Re:

Is that Nibali in the 2nd group now?

Ion most probably.
Nibali must have exploded on the last climb.

Yeah my stream has **** footage and a language I don't even know

Nibs came home with Ion in the second group.

Yeah it was Gorka in the first group, my bad.

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

Roglic is so refreshing. I can't remember him ever doing a half-arsed attack. When he decides to go, he just goes.

 

[HelloDolly]

The Landa hype is still strong over here i see

But indeeed alot of top riders (as we expect) have not performed in stage races this year
Where were SKY and BMC ??
Where was Molema , etc

Seems its between Roglic & Allaphillipe but I think Allphillipe will fall away in the long climbs and while Roglic will boss the TT I think its still between Quntana (looking good) Uran & Ion Izagirre

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re:

Landa made it in the +23s group

Yeah, barely.. he was even behind the Mollema group (3rd group) uphill, so like the 4th group by himself. I find that surprising.

 

[jonan92]

Tomorrow the finish has a similar climb, a little big longer and the previous km are all going up and down. Good start for the race

 

[durtyfat7]

Re: Re:

Landa made it in the +23s group

Yeah, barely.. he was even behind the Mollema group (3rd group) uphill, so like the 4th group by himself. I find that surprising.

Maybe it was only a bad day for him. It happens to everybody.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

Man Sky are so ****, aside Bernal and Thomas the rest of team nowhere. I wonder how much spirit is left in that team

While your overall point is valid, it's a bit harsh on de la Cruz and Henao.

Edit: oh, and Moscon.

You think so?

Compared to Henao of last year, winning Paris Nice, this year he can barely climb with Top 20. He was good in Colombia, but other than that he is nowhere. Seems very surprising cause he was good in Colombia.

De La Cruz had this race as his big goal of the season and came nowhere today.

And yea Moscon is trying at least

Perhaps they're not where they were last year, but they're not 'nowhere'. A fair few of the results have come from the fairly meaningless preseason races, sure, but Tirreno-Adriatico was a good one for them, even if the TTT was the biggest difference maker in Kwiatkowski's win. A stage and a middling GC in Paris-Nice is roughly the same as he managed last year for de la Cruz, he was great in the Itzulia last year and very anonymous today, sure, but we'll see if it's part of a general down-turn or just a bad day. Froome's been a large part of early season results for them in recent years with Oman, Ruta del Sol and Herald Sun, though doesn't tend to do too well in the Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, Volta, Itzulia block of stage races, and his absence from the results sheet is self-explanatory - he has bigger fish to fry right now (mind you, if targeting the Giro, one would expect a bit more racing to get some preparation in the legs, of course). Some of their most respected helpers are now getting quite over the hill - Kiryienka, Knees, López are all 37 at some point this season (Knees already has turned 37) - and maybe a bit like Bruseghin or Szmyd at Movistar/Caisse d'Epargne just can't quite put in the lengthy shifts they used to, resulting in the team either not having the same stranglehold on the position they want in the péloton or the leaders having to use up energy earlier. Moscon's card is marked in the bunch as he's rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way with his behaviour and words. Wout Poels was going well until he crashed out of Paris-Nice, and he'd be one of those expected to pick up the slack for Froome. There's also a big gap in the team's results where Geraint Thomas' one day racing used to be since he's trying to become a GC leader because he really has turned into George Hincapie.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

Landa made it in the +23s group

Yeah, barely.. he was even behind the Mollema group (3rd group) uphill, so like the 4th group by himself. I find that surprising.

Landa screwed up his placement coming into the climb, he was about 10th wheel beforehand, but then the next time we saw him he was about 25th. He was in the fourth group for a while but comfortably riding through and then away from it, he was certainly strong enough for the Mollema group, maybe at a push strong enough for that second group with Woods and co. had he been better placed, but no chance of hanging on to Roglič & Alaphilippe.

But then even with Astana when he was really strong and won the Aia stage comprehensively, he sucked in the first two days. Quite often - but not always - he gets better as races go on, so it may be that he simply doesn't have the legs, it may be that he's done a good job of limiting his losses on his bad day and will be strong come race end. Hard to judge because he's really not particularly consistent and never has been.

 

[Gigs_98]

With Landa we shouldn't forget that his preparation is just completely different this year as for the first time in years he isn't targeting the giro. He is most likely in a different phase of his build up than last year so comparing his result with previous ones won't give you a definitive answer of how good he is. Anyway, he won the tirreno adriatico mountain stage, so I'm really anything but worried.

 

[staubsauger]

Landa was supposed to peak for this race, since this year, there ain't no need for him to held back shape for the Giro. So it's indeed weird to see him apparently perform so poorly. It opens up room for speculation again.

 

[SafeBet]

Landa will be fine, he started the hill way back and then overtook dozens of riders. The team didn't really help him.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

Man Sky are so ****, aside Bernal and Thomas the rest of team nowhere. I wonder how much spirit is left in that team

While your overall point is valid, it's a bit harsh on de la Cruz and Henao.

Edit: oh, and Moscon.

Plus Sky’s plan A for this race went out the window when Bernal crashed last weekend, given his early season form he’d have had a decent chance here.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

So:

Alaphilippe
Roglič +4"
Más, Gorka, Buchmann, Konrad, Bardet, Quintana, Urán, Mollema, Landa +33"
Ion, Woods, Nibali +1'01"
Costa, Antón, Vuillermoz, Zakarin, de la Cruz, Špilak, Carthy +1'32"
Verona, Pardilla +2'14"
Latour, Betancur +3'06"
Kwiatkowski +4'14"
Porte +7'27"

 

[Gigs_98]

Re:

So:

Alaphilippe
Roglič +4"
Más, Gorka, Buchmann, Konrad, Bardet, Quintana, Urán, Mollema, Landa +33"
Ion, Woods, Nibali +1'01"
Costa, Antón, Vuillermoz, Zakarin, de la Cruz, Špilak, Carthy +1'32"
Verona, Pardilla +2'14"
Latour, Betancur +3'06"
Kwiatkowski +4'14"
Porte +7'27"

Didn't see that coming. I actually expected Kwiatkowski in decent shape and although I heard Porte wouldn't target the gc this is still worse than expected. I thought he would at least be about as good as Nibali.