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

[IndurainsTdF1994]

Even if O'Connor fails, which I think he will, Rogla will be forced to attack now, which means Almeida and the likes will be able to wheelsuck and we all know that's not how it's supposed to be...

So it's only Rogla that is racing for the win? Everyone else is racing for the third? Today's pacing of the peloton suggests the opposite. Or maybe Movistar, UAE, Bahrein were doing a poor job today intentionally, as in 3D chess.

And all this talk about O'Connor's palmares feels tongue in cheek. He was 2 minutes behind Martinez in Giro. 3 minutes behind Carapaz in TdF. And climbs here are tougher. I can't see him podium, honestly.

Lipo in white, Rogla in red & polka-dot at the end.

 

[Rackham]

Even if O'Connor fails, which I think he will, Rogla will be forced to attack now, which means Almeida and the likes will be able to wheelsuck and we all know that's not how it's supposed to be...

It's the Vuelta.

Who wheelsucks when the gradient goes over 12%?

At least Villa admits he is Dumb!

'Things got out of hand' - Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe regret time gap secured by Ben O’Connor at Vuelta a España

Top Vuelta favourite Primož Roglič cedes more than six and a half minutes to Australian GC threat

www.cyclingnews.com

I doubt we'll hear much truth from the DS.

If things had been going completely to sh*t he would have put Vlasov & Martinez on the front of the bunch to reduce the gap. He didn't. He could have called Lipowitz back as well. He didn't.

 

[Valv.Piti]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1826651673240240148

View: https://x.com/zoeface44/status/1826651673240240148

What delusion, what delusion.... lmaoooo

 

[Rackham]

What delusion, what delusion.... lmaoooo

I know, right? I just pm'd him on Insta & told him some guys in the cyclingnews forum think his comments are delusional.

So he's absolutely going to reconsider his opinion & do a mea culpa. Guaranteed 100%.

 

[Sciatic]

Roglic could be headed for a rare triple in the history of cycling: a palmares that includes losing a winnable Tour, a winnable Giro, and now an easily winnable Vuelta by underestimating an opponent (or being focused on the wrong opponent). Don’t think that’s happened very often!

 

[Valv.Piti]

I know, right? I just pm'd him on Insta & told him some guys in the cyclingnews forum think his comments are delusional.

So he's absolutely going to reconsider his opinion & do a mea culpa. Guaranteed 100%.

Thats funny, but he got beat fair and square. Vollering losing TdF Femmes like she did is one thing, so is Ocana crashing out in yellow after the demolishon job to Orcieres Merlette, but contrary to those examples Roglic just ran out of legs and was just beat by a better rider on the day.

 

[MLKarlos]

It's the Vuelta.

Who wheelsucks when the gradient goes over 12%?



I doubt we'll hear much truth from the DS.

If things had been going completely to sh*t he would have put Vlasov & Martinez on the front of the bunch to reduce the gap. He didn't. He could have called Lipowitz back as well. He didn't.

Thank you. Completely agree

 

[IndurainsTdF1994]

Thats funny, but he got beat fair and square. Vollering losing TdF Femmes like she did is one thing, so is Ocana crashing out in yellow after the demolishon job to Orcieres Merlette, but contrary to those examples Roglic just ran out of legs and was just beat by a better rider on the day.

Best to pm him yourself. So nothing gets lost. I'm certain he is at least as eager to hear from you as we are.

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

Yeah, I mean, I think Roglic lost the Tour earlier in the race when he declined to pressure Pogacar, even coached him, thinking he would beat him in the ITT. But he made that mistake and he got hammered in the ITT and it is what it is.

 

[bNator]

So it's only Rogla that is racing for the win? Everyone else is racing for the third? Today's pacing of the peloton suggests the opposite. Or maybe Movistar, UAE, Bahrein were doing a poor job today intentionally, as in 3D chess.

And all this talk about O'Connor's palmares feels tongue in cheek. He was 2 minutes behind Martinez in Giro. 3 minutes behind Carapaz in TdF. And climbs here are tougher. I can't see him podium, honestly.

Lipo in white, Rogla in red & polka-dot at the end.

No, but the situation changed from that where Rogla doesn't need to attack to that where he will probably have to. It's an objectively worse tactical situation than yesterday which I doubt RBH had in mind for today. The race will now be harder on Rogla and his team which is an opportunity his opponents may be able to seize. Assuming they are trying to maximise their chances of winning, that was surely a blunder.

Is it possible that the race will sort itself out and Rogla is still just able to mark a couple of other guys and pull it of? Yes, but yesterday that was a given and today it isn't anymore...

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

IMO, it’s be tough to argue using logic that Roglic’s position isn’t worse than it was before today’s stage, as said above by @bNator , but also the odds of fireworks and suspense are higher.

 

[CyclistAbi]

So off to a good start, Rogla doing his fastest ever ITT and finishing ahead of all GC contenders. Then a marvellous stage 4 victory to accompany it. Team always active at front and trying to keep Rogla out of trouble. On toughest terrain team still struggling so it was down to Rogla, to reduce the group on the last hill and on top of that to sprint at the end of stage 4, to take the win.

Stage 6 was about giving the jersey away and at the end of it to get Lipowitz higher in GC or even to go for a stage win. Was it the best idea to shift so much time to O'Connor?

Time will tell, as teams like UAE, Visma, Movistar, SOQ ... in my opinion focusing solely on Rogla, they could get their way further down the race. Now, for all the teams still in it to win the overall, now they have to race and the waiting game is over. This in my opinion does suit Rogla and having Lipowitz in a position to podium. That should make some other teams more active as all of the sudden it's rather crowded, when it comes to available podium places. Both O'Connor and Lipowitz making a case for themself. So what stage 6 did it totally changed the dynamics of this race and now lets enjoy that and lets see some racing.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

He is almost like me. I consider him the winner of 2020, 2021 and 2022 Tour.

You could also make a case for 2019

Primos Roglic 4x TDF winner.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1826651673240240148

View: https://x.com/zoeface44/status/1826651673240240148

It reminds me a recent interview with Olympic champion remco

🗣️Remco: 'its a huge honour to race alongside and learn from a winner of the Giro Lombardia'

📑interviewer: 'giro di lombardia winner?'

🗣️remco: 'Yes, I honestly consider 2021 to belong to Masnada. '

 

[Samu Cuenca]

It reminds me a recent interview with Olympic champion remco

🗣️Remco: 'its a huge honour to race alongside and learn from a winner of the Giro Lombardia'

📑interviewer: 'giro di lombardia winner?'

🗣️remco: 'Yes, I honestly consider 2021 to belong to Masnada. '

I've never really considered Samu to be a three or four time winner of that race, but perhaps I should.

 

[SHAD0W93]

I've never really considered Samu to be a three or four time winner of that race, but perhaps I should.

While we’re on it, Klöden winner of 2004 and 2006 with an outside chance of 2011 Tour. Cunego winner of 2011 TdS. We can go on.

 

[Gigs_98]

I think the gap to O'Connor is still very managable if his legs are decent. But after today it's absolutely certain he will have to get out of his comfort zone of waiting for uphill sprints to win this Vuelta. That's not good news for him. And of course there is the chance that O'Connor just had a bad day on Tuesday and is actually climbing at a really high level. If that's the case then good luck...

 

[dazaau]

I'm a big Roglic fan, want him to win here. I'm also Australian, so keep an eye on Ben.

This was dumb. Really dumb. And as confirmed by the Bora DS Ben showed he was very strong at the end and didn't lose time to a now chasing peloton. 5 minutes is a lot of time to the guy who was about 2.5 minutes behind the first human at the giro, and who was also not well there.

And as Roglic fans even if Roglic can take the 5min, we all know he may well have some incident that means he can't be at still strength. Honestly now many times had Roglic ridden a GT at full strength, and how often had he win by minutes, just the 2021 Vuelta right?

 

[zlev11]

i think if you just take Cuiti Negru, stage 20 and the TT, he should easily be good enough to make up 5 minutes on O'Connor just on those stages (if his back holds up and he doesn't crash again of course). if he gets to stage 20 in the right shape and around 2:30 behind, i think he wins. Ag2r are going to have a nightmare controlling that stage.

 

[dazaau]

i think if you just take Cuiti Negru, stage 20 and the TT, he should easily be good enough to make up 5 minutes on O'Connor just on those stages (if his back holds up and he doesn't crash again of course). if he gets to stage 20 in the right shape and around 2:30 behind, i think he wins. Ag2r are going to have a nightmare controlling that stage.

Why would Bora put him in such a position where we have to assume all goes well and he then edges O'Connor out. All does not generally go well for Roglic.

 

[FroomeWagon]

Horner was so outraged by Bora's tactics today, he did a second video

Primoz Roglic is furious

 

[zlev11]

Why would Bora put him in such a position where we have to assume all goes well and he then edges O'Connor out. All does not generally go well for Roglic.

I would not be surprised if O'Connor loses minutes already on Sunday

 

[IndurainsTdF1994]

Maybe the last stage victory in Giro, also on an ITT btw, tasted too sweet not to be replicated? Maybe he has a need to constantly exorcise the 2020 demons in the final TTs? Who knows... What we do know is that the chains of joy of last stage winning are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. It seems we may be there.

 

[Lequack]

Why would Bora put him in such a position where we have to assume all goes well and he then edges O'Connor out. All does not generally go well for Roglic.

Because they are a B team, and just bringing in more money doesn't change that. It takes years and years to become better as a team, especially the minor details and tactics.

 

[bNator]

Well one thing is certain - Patxi Vila is done being DS for Bora. He's got Roglic, Denk and probably a couple of guys in Red Bull pissed off completely. His idea was to promote a second man (Lipowitz) as a GC threat but somehow, he's missed a very simple logic: If Lipowitz is unable to hold O'Connor then what good will he be as a GC threat when they have to try and pull O'Connor back for the rest of this Vuelta. And he's had couple of tens of kms time to figure that out and put his guys in front... It's not a plan gone wrong - it's being too stupid to adapt his plan once he saw Lipowitz is not strong enough which he's had plenty of time to do so.

The more I think about it, the more pissed I'm getting. How could he be so incredibly stupid? If stage 4 was just a bad day for O'Connor (and in such and extraordinary circumstances that's quite likely), they're never bringing him back...