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That could be true. Although there was an article last year where Slongo stated they increased Aru's rpm to 90 going uphill.Mayomaniac said:Isn't Aru mostly working with Maurizio Mazzoleni instead of Slongo?
It could explain the fact that the rest of the team was good and peaking at the right time (apparently Rosa suffered from dehydration on stage 5, so he suffered a bit on the first week mountain stages after riding a great Dauphine).staubsauger said:That could be true. Although there was an article last year where Slongo stated they increased Aru's rpm to 90 going uphill.Mayomaniac said:Isn't Aru mostly working with Maurizio Mazzoleni instead of Slongo?
staubsauger said:Not quite sure, yet. But apparently he ain't gonna race the Tour of Spain. It's the Olympics followed up by the Italian fall classics instead.
Mayomaniac said:Aru will race the Canadian classics and then all the Italian Autumn races except Memorial Pantani to built some form for Lombardia.
Source: http://www.tuttobiciweb.it/?page=news&cod=93284&tp=n
At least he's trying something different (the Canadian Classics).
TourOfSardinia said:Fabio just fell while training in Sierra Nevada
painful left knee - (un trauma contusivo)
Italian source here http://www.gazzetta.it/Ciclismo/07-04-2017/aru-brutta-caduta-allenamento-dolorante-190567145141.shtml
Beware, Nairo!El Pistolero said:TourOfSardinia said:Fabio just fell while training in Sierra Nevada
painful left knee - (un trauma contusivo)
Italian source here http://www.gazzetta.it/Ciclismo/07-04-2017/aru-brutta-caduta-allenamento-dolorante-190567145141.shtml
Seems the Voodoo Master is starting early this year in his bid for his third Giro title.
SafeBet said:Aru has always been the master of super peak. He never does much outside of the GTs he's targetting, so 2016 is the norm rather than the exception. The problem is that he failed miserably in his only goal of the season, hence the whole season now looks like a waste now.
I heard his interview after the stage. He said he doesn't have an explanation for his collapse. It wasn't a hunger knock and he wasn't feeling the cold. And his preparation was actually very good (by the words of his own coach Mazzoleni).
I do believe Aru had never experienced such a high competition in a GT, I presume his watt numbers were comparable to the ones in last year's Giro and Vuelta. The problem is that in this TdF there were 8-10 riders producing the same amount of watts. What happened in stage 20 could be an effect of all the efforts of the previous stages, something he was not used to. Even in his best GTs, he always looked to me like a rider on his limit and likely to crack at a certain point.
To reply to movingtarget: I'm still convinced Astana was hitting peak shape at the right time. Rosa, Tiralongo, Nibali, Lulu and Kangert were going way faster than at the beginning of the Tour. There's no easy explanation for Aru's collpase, but his MTT result shows his shape was on the rise to me.
Sometimes riders crack. We tend to believe pro athletes are robots who can always perform at the same level, but this is an illusion. There are a few exceptions of course, and those are the ones we call champions, natural freaks, whatever.
This TdF actually made me like Aru a little more. He finally showed his human side.