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

[SHAD0W93]

Knocking down that gap slowly while slowly growing the lead over Almeida. Like everyone else his team is very puzzling but he looks to be the strongest and can attack better on the steep parts vs Almeida and Mas.

 

[IndurainsTdF1994]

That sounds like bragging. I'm not sure you talk down like that to a guy with 85 pro wins, 4GT wins, etc. Not when there is more than 2 weeks to go and he dropped you on any climb he went 100%.

To me it sounds like someone who is miffed after the stage. Silly, but consider the timing. (I am actually skeptical that he will go into the rest day in red.)

 

[Sciatic]

It's gonna take 6-7 stages by 40 seconds average to get him back (say 30 if we assume Roglic wins them). It is certainly possible but I really wouldn't bet on such a scenario. One weaker day/great day for O'Connor and we are back to square one.

Go hard on Sunday and win as much as possible rather than calculating how much you can get on each stage.

I agree, if Bora want to control their destiny, they should go all in on Sunday. But by their behavior thus far, it’s more likely they will go with incremental gains and wait and see if O’Connor cracks some. But they if he doesn’t they will be in panic mode the final weekend.

 

[dazaau]

No one wanted to commit men into the chase because it'll be a hard, hot Vuelta.

But the very next day, when it is even hotter, they are happy to commit to the chase to setup the win for Wout

 

[VayaVayaVaya]

Wait, surely Vlasov wasn’t going all out at the end chasing Sivakov because Sivakov was 1 second ahead of him on GC, right?

 

[rokovski]

Maybe Rogla dont need a team to crack Ben, only 1 or 2 UAE asterix stages and Ben will be droped with 3 UAE doms left, he only need to follow them.

 

[Rackham]

But the very next day, when it is even hotter, they are happy to commit to the chase to setup the win for Wout

I think there's a huge difference between going to work on a cat 2 climb 25km from the finish (& chasing a bit at the end) versus filtering breakaways from km zero & working all day on the front.

I know people get caught up in the moment-to-moment drama but RBH didn't really do all that much today beyond riding hard for a few minutes.

 

[ppanther92]

agreed, unless this guy is on some real good clinic stuff he should have no reason to believe he won't be dropped by Roglic (and many others in this race) at every opportunity.

Lets see but who would be the "many others" that are so much better than a rider that finished 4th in the TdF, 4th at the Giro (this year btw), and 7th at the Vuelta already?

 

[Froome]

I didn't watch yet any single stage of the Vuelta, and i will not see anything of this boring race, but i heard this guy and his team let o'connor get 5 minutes, so i'm curious to know the reasons they let this happening?!

What the hell they were thinking?!

 

[CyclistAbi]

I didn't watch yet any single stage of the Vuelta, and i will not see anything of this boring race, but i heard this guy and his team let o'connor get 5 minutes, so i'm curious to know the reasons they let this happening?!

What the hell they were thinking?!

Don't bother with it, Giro 2023 all over again.

 

[zlev11]

Lets see but who would be the "many others" that are so much better than a rider that finished 4th in the TdF, 4th at the Giro (this year btw), and 7th at the Vuelta already?

4th in the TDF with a big time gift (lost 4 minutes on the very next mountain stage) and 4th in the Giro in a super weak field on a very easy route. context is amazing isn't it?

Carapaz, Mas, Almeida, Kuss, Landa, Rodriguez, just off the top of my head.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Good ride today by Rogla on stage 7, blowing the race apart on Alto del 14% and collecting bonus seconds. On top of that Rogla is really stressing and forming his team, watching Rogla at work is pure pleasure. Grateful to see the process of Bora getting their wings, elderly and crash prone ski jumper perfect for the job. I don't feel that collecting bonus seconds had all that much to do with O'Connor. It's basically a mitigation strategy for a potential bad day in mountains, team like UAE waiting in ambush. On top of that it's a fun thing to do. Another thing put to rest is Rogla dedicated a team member for van Aert to take the win. This should now settle that old debate, next one is Wright. One thing i don't get though, one day they give 6 minutes away and then next day they fight like lions for 6s. Go figure.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-EF60neguk


Sierra de Cazorla calling, lets go for the win!

 

[ppanther92]

4th in the TDF with a big time gift (lost 4 minutes on the very next mountain stage) and 4th in the Giro in a super weak field on a very easy route. context is amazing isn't it?

Carapaz, Mas, Almeida, Kuss, Landa, Rodriguez, just off the top of my head.

4th in the TDF with a big time gift: yeah, about the same as in this Vuelta and Pogacar and Vingegaard are not here

4th in the Giro in a super weak field: beating Tiberi who seems to be among the better climbers here

And on the riders: Carapaz finished stage 4 behind him , Rodriguez 2 places in front of him. Doesn't sound like dropping him "at every opportunity".

Good thing - time will tell.

 

[CyclistAbi]

"It's a bitch how much time O'Connor was given" - Enric Mas gives brutal reaction to upturned Vuelta a Espana GC

Enric Mas did not speak after the sixth stage of the

tinyurl.com

Had to use TinyURL due to original link getting X rated. GC guys slowly starting to realise they will actually have to work now.

Prior stage 6: what are you guys going to do?
Absolutely nothing.

After stage 6: what are you guys going to do?
Everything in our power and more.

 

[zlev11]

4th in the TDF with a big time gift: yeah, about the same as in this Vuelta and Pogacar and Vingegaard are not here

4th in the Giro in a super weak field: beating Tiberi who seems to be among the better climbers here

And on the riders: Carapaz finished stage 4 behind him , Rodriguez 2 places in front of him. Doesn't sound like dropping him "at every opportunity".

Good thing - time will tell.

i agree, he has a good chance to finish 4th here. but in the 2021 Tour, without the time gift he would've finished behind Guillaume Martin. Carapaz made up 6:30 on him in the last 10 stages and what's left in this race is much much harder than that was.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Seriously, I want Roglic to be back on red.

He is a red bull after all, relax.

Can't see ...

Not cool in my opinion and he is still a person, imagine him reading that.

 

[MLKarlos]

O’Connor don’t get it. They didn’t sprint for the seconds to beat him. They sprint for the seconds because they still view Almeida and Landa and Mas as their main rivals.

Dear O’Connor, I wouldn’t feel so great about the time they gave you. It basically means the whole peloton thinks that you are no threat and not in their league and that you will crack anyway.

 

[Miha81]

Am I the only person who doesn't even think O'Connor has to 'crack' for Rog to win this thing? All it takes is getting dropped à la pédale on multiple tough stages. 30 seconds here, 20 seconds elsewhere, 45 seconds another day, 1 minute etc.

This isn't a scenario in which Rog, Almeida & co will only take back time via bonus seconds. They'll do it the 'normal way', aka dropping the dude.

It is not time to panic yet. But if Rogla has his usual "off day" they might regret taking this decision.

There is a lot of climbing to be done and hopefully this gap means that Vuelta will have to be decided by a proper attack and not on "mountain sprint" bonifications.

 

[yaco]

O'Connor has never done well in a second GT for the season, however, he will be hard to peg back with his current lead.

 

[bNator]

I didn't watch yet any single stage of the Vuelta, and i will not see anything of this boring race, but i heard this guy and his team let o'connor get 5 minutes, so i'm curious to know the reasons they let this happening?!

What the hell they were thinking?!

O’Connor nuked them all, what can you say… Just like Pog nuked Vingegaard during the Tour🤣

 

[CyclistAbi]

Time to panic, Rogla to drop the hammer down.

 

[ppanther92]

i agree, he has a good chance to finish 4th here. but in the 2021 Tour, without the time gift he would've finished behind Guillaume Martin. Carapaz made up 6:30 on him in the last 10 stages and what's left in this race is much much harder than that was.

Carapaz made up a lot true - but it was also his best GT ever arguably. I mean, he also from that point on, only lost 1:30 to Pogacar and 1:42 to Vingegaard in two weeks racing.

I already said yesterday: Mas only made up 2:06 on O’Connor in two weeks racing, Keldermann was the largest time gainer outside the top 3 on O’Connor and it was 3:46.

I just think this can potentially get close. I wouldn’t be hugely surprised if O’Connor still cracks, but also not if Roglic (or certainly other podium contenders) struggle a lot, getting back that time.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Maybe Rogla dont need a team to crack Ben, only 1 or 2 UAE asterix stages and Ben will be droped with 3 UAE doms left, he only need to follow them.

It won't necessarily be impossible for O'Connor to handle 1 or 2 Asterix stages. He has Felix Gaul to help him.

 

[topcat]

It is not time to panic yet. But if Rogla has his usual "off day" they might regret taking this decision.

There is a lot of climbing to be done and hopefully this gap means that Vuelta will have to be decided by a proper attack and not on "mountain sprint" bonifications.

Yes and was the proper attack on stage 6 or is the proper attack yet to come? I would guess the strategy will be to make the race hard and get bonus seconds for a while and see if Ben cracks. If Ben doesn't crack and it's well into the race, then it'll be panic stations and we'll see an all out attack from Rog if he's got it. I never rated O'Connor highly but this is the best chance he'll ever have to win a gt, he's a decent climber and he has a good team. He'll be a tough nut to crack especially because he doesn't have to worry about losing a few seconds here and there.

 

[Miha81]

Yes and was the proper attack on stage 6 or is the proper attack yet to come? I would guess the strategy will be to make the race hard and get bonus seconds for a while and see if Ben cracks. If Ben doesn't crack and it's well into the race, then it'll be panic stations and we'll see an all out attack from Rog if he's got it. I never rated O'Connor highly but this is the best chance he'll ever have to win a gt, he's a decent climber and he has a good team. He'll be a tough nut to crack especially because he doesn't have to worry about losing a few seconds here and there.

I wonder if Bora is strong enough to keep the pressure though and what is actual shape of Rogla after injury recovery period. All out attack can backfire and there are other GC teams waiting in line for counter. Current situation actually makes this edition very intriguing especially if O'Connor does not crack soon or at all.