Teams & Riders Everybody needs a little bit of Roglstomp in their lives

[johnymax]

Well I'll gladly sign a petition for him to truck off

Roglic will surely light up the scene, if those 48 seconds were the most action packed they could find from a whole year.

I'm not sure about that. He'll probably wait for the last couple hundred meters to do a manoeuvre. That'll probably last less than 48 seconds. But yeah, if he does that every race then they can do a 2min highlights video at the end of the season. He'll be known as the "walking (driving) highlight reel".

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I'm not sure about that. He'll probably wait for the last couple hundred meters to do a manoeuvre. That'll probably last less than 48 seconds. But yeah, if he does that every race then they can do a 2min highlights video at the end of the season. He'll be known as the "walking (driving) highlight".

But he'll only win if it's an uphill sprint. On a flat course he will lose out to his teammates Groenewagon and van Aert.

 

[Oldermanish]

Looks like his TT skills are working.

 

[johnymax]

Good ITT from him today. Top 3 and the best of the GC riders as expected.

I've had a feeling though, in the last couple of years, that he is leaking time on turns in comparison to some of his rivals, and today I think I've had another confirmation. There was a wide turn towards the end where he was not pedalling at all going through it and even Adam Blythe (commentator on ES) was shouting "Pedal man, pedal, pedal!". I think he lost a significant amount of time relative to Pogačar in the PdBF TT, because he was being too cautious on the turns.

In the past it was different. I remember him taking a lot of risks and riding on the limit. I know times have changed, because now he is thinking more of the GC and his long term goals. But every now and then I'd like to see him again riding on the edge. Today wasn't that day, I agree. But in the Tour he'll have to.

Has anyone else noticed the same or am I imagining things?

 

[CyclistAbi]

Yes, Primož for sure took the corners in a rather reserved mode. His position on the bike was also rather relaxed. In addition his physique tells us he likely wanted to do well on this TT, but clearly the overall race will be decided elsewhere. Small time differences confirmed that. All in all Primož pushed hard on the sections he needed to do that, and he did a good job doing that. Hopefully some day Primož will enter a TT, suited for him and being able to prepare for it for a couple of weeks. That will likely be a joy to watch again.

P.S. Kruijswijk is in great shape, TJV should be able to enforce their game in the following days, starting tomorrow.

 

[Gregor_Slovenia]

Will be interesting to see how Kruijswijk climbing performance is, but we can guess he is in good shape, so co-leadership it seems to be for beginning, but I think also on that very long climb in PN, Primož will show that he is the leader.

 

[johnymax]

Will be interesting to see how Kruijswijk climbing performance is, but we can guess he is in good shape, so co-leadership it seems to be for beginning, but I think also on that very long climb in PN, Primož will show that he is the leader.

There is no co-leadership, Primož is the leader. But if somebody from the GC hopefuls attacks early, Steven should follow and then see what happens. If the situation arises in which they gain enough time and Stevie happens to be in the best position, he should go for it and the team needs to capitalise on that.

 

[Gregor_Slovenia]

There is no co-leadership, Primož is the leader. But if somebody from the GC hopefuls attacks early, Steven should follow and then see what happens. If the situation arises in which they gain enough time and Stevie happens to be in the best position, he should go for it and the team needs to capitalise on that.

Uf yes, that would be extremely interesting position if that happens, and you know what, that reminds me instantly on Tour de France 2018 when Kruijswijk messed up Primož on every single occasion when Primož attacked on the mountain. Primož attacks and makes the difference, Froome, Dumoulin and Thomas get dropped. Instead of just sitting on their wheels, because Primož was leading the race, guess what Kruisj starts doing. He is going on the front of the group and drives Froome and others back to Primož. I was very disappointed on that day, even though Primož won the stage. That kind of showed me the team spirit of Steven. Primož would never drive the others back to his team mate if that team mate was on the front of the race attacking full gas..

 

[Netserk]

That day, Kruijswijk should have gone all in on Tourmalet, like he previously did on Croix de Fer.

 

[Gregor_Slovenia]

Maybe long range attacks could be his future niches, yes.

 

[Oldermanish]

There is no co-leadership, Primož is the leader. But if somebody from the GC hopefuls attacks early, Steven should follow and then see what happens. If the situation arises in which they gain enough time and Stevie happens to be in the best position, he should go for it and the team needs to capitalise on that.

Primoz seems appropriately supportive of teammates and SK could use a big win like PN. That said, they'd both know who would stand up for 3 weeks and Primoz knows how to be a Boss without being a tool, IMO. SK's not there and he should know it.

 

[Carols]

Our boy is in Fine form, in the TT and on the hills. Great showing so far in his first race of the season Shows everyone why he's ranked #1 in the world. He'll be a force to be reckoned with all season!

 

[Alexandre B.]

His record on stage races is the stuff of Merckx/Hinault.

Primoz freaking Roglic.

 

[tobydawq]

He now has stage wins in UAE Tour, Paris-Nice, Tirreno, Itzulia, Romandie, Dauphiné and all three Grand Tours.

That's 9 out of 15 stage races on the WorldTour. He is missing Tour Down Under, Catalunya, Suisse, Poland, BinckBank Tour and Tour of Guangxi.

So if we only count the good old stage races, he is missing only Catalunya and Suisse. But they are not on his schedule this year.

 

[Lequack]

Perfect start of the season for him, what an exciting ride today

 

[Red Rick]

He learned from the Pogacar marginal gains of having hair sticking out of helmet

 

[johnymax]

He now has stage wins in UAE Tour, Paris-Nice, Tirreno, Itzulia, Romandie, Dauphiné and all three Grand Tours.

That's 9 out of 15 stage races on the WorldTour. He is missing Tour Down Under, Catalunya, Suisse, Poland, BinckBank Tour and Tour of Guangxi.

So if we only count the good old stage races, he is missing only Catalunya and Suisse. But they are not on his schedule this year.

And the ones he is missing is mostly because he has ridden them only once, and it was before his prime years, or he hasn't ridden them at all.

But it goes beyond that. If you take into account also GC, he has won a stage or final GC in every WorldTour stage race he has entered since Pais Vasco 2017. That 'd be exactly 4 years, since his next stage race is, in fact, Pais Vasco 2021. Insane stuff.

 

[johnymax]

He learned from the Pogacar marginal gains of having hair sticking out of helmet

I tried that the other day, it didn't work. Strange. I must have been doing something wrong. Probably not enough hair sticking out

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I tried that the other day, it didn't work. Strange. I must have been doing something wrong. Probably not enough hair sticking out

Ask your doctor if Alpecin is right for you

 

[tobydawq]

He has also won at least one stage in all the seven Grand Tours he has ridden so far. I don't imagine there can be too many riders in cycling history to have won stages in all of their first seven Grand Tours. But it would be a massive undertaking to try to research the exact number thoroughly. But at least I can say that Merckx won stages in his first 14 and then only got second places as the best in the final two, while Hinault won stages in all his 13 Grand Tours.

 

[johnymax]

On a more serious note, there are three theories circling around in the cycling world on why Rogla attacked so early today.

The first is, that he thought the bonus sprint at 3km to go was actually the finish line. I don't believe that's true. Primož and the team are usually very careful with every little detail.

The second one... Primož knows CN forum members don't like his 500m uphill sprint, so he decided, with no Pogačar, Bernal, Yates brothers, Carapaz, etc. around, it's an ideal opportunity to attack from further out. With doing so, he'll (maybe, I'm not sure) make CN forum members happy and quite, even if just for a couple of days. And at the same time he gets his attack from afar out of the way early in the season, so you can all but forget another one in the following races. This is probably all you'll get, he is now back to uphill sprinting for 500m max.

The third theory (Libertine's favourite)... At the time when the riders were approaching the final climb, Sepp Kuss was spotted eating a hamburger far away from France.

 

[johnymax]

Ask your doctor if Alpecin is right for you

I use Bora. Probably not the right one

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I use Bora. Probably not the right one

It works for Sagan and Oss

 

[tobydawq]

Okay, I found a way to approach it. PCS has a list of the riders with most stage wins in Grand Tours (annoyingly they have a flaw which makes you unable to view more than the top 50) so I checked the top runners.

Which rider has the most grand tour stage wins?

With a total of 64 stage wins, Eddy Merckx has won the most stages in the grand tours. He won 24 stage in the Giro d'Italia, 34 stages in the Giro d'Italia and 6 stages in la Vuelta a Espana.

www.procyclingstats.com

It turns out that Rik Van Steenbergen and André Leducq won in all their 9 Grand Tours.

Rudi Altig won in his first 8 Grand Tours.

Alfredo Binda, Gino Bartali and Giuseppe Saronni won in their first 7, so Roglic is equal to them.

So, possibly a joint 6th place so far, but I didn't check beyond the top 50. Possibly, all who have at least 7 stages could potentially be equal to Roglic in this statistic and even though one can sort by country and in that way find everyone who fulfills that criterion, there is a limit to my interest in this matter, so I decided not to do that

Other active riders who are in the running for this are Pogacar, Van Aert and Ackermann with 2 Grand Tours as well as Hirschi, Ganna, Jakobsen and Damiano Cima (!!) who have all ridden just one Grand Tours and won at least one stage.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Such a classy rider. He looks really confident and relaxed in this race. Considering Bennett crashed rather severely yesterday, he managed to do a great job today, Kruijswijk made a difference too. And then Roglič enters the scene, last 3 km to go in a solo action. I guess that qualifies as a successful long(er) range attack (or maybe he forgot today was not TT). Taking an addition of sprint and finish bonus seconds. Roglič constantly evolves and we already got to see a glimpse of what is to come in the 2021 edition. Tomorrow hopefully GC guys will have a bit of a break.

P.S. Unless Roglič gets an idea to challenge Bennett (not the one from TJV, the other one, the sprinter).