Re: Re:
Rollthedice said:
Mayomaniac said:
Rollthedice said:
It was a dominant performance. After Cataldo pulled like mad making the final selection, Aru dropped all with a vicious attack on the last climb and never looked back. He is definitely ready for Le Tour., might surprise a few.
He also said that Cataldo will ride the Tour with him as a domestique.
TdF team: Aru, Cataldo, Fuglsang, Grivko, Gruzdev, Kozhatayev, Lutsenko, Valgren, Zeits
Cataldo is the only one, who can be expected to be there in the mountains, when there is 25-30 riders left..... while both Sky and Movistar will be there with 4-5 riders each.
It leaves the team with fewer options.... though ofcourse, in the end, options mean nothing, if you don't have the legs.
For us viewers it's great, because it forces either Fuglsang or Aru (more likely) to attack early - especially in a tour with few mountain finishes.... at least if they have ambitions to win, rather than just placing top 5.
- unless ofcourse Lutsenko or Valgren really step it up on the big climbs..... like we saw Voigt do a couple of times.... I could see Valgren doing something extraordinary, because he is riding for a countryman for the first time.
I'll be looking for Fuglsang to attack downhill several times - like his former boss used to do
- The Dauphine showed only Froome can match him downhill (with obviously Bardet and Valverde in the mix, if they are in position when it goes down)..... and it showed that Porte is vulnerable.... which is also somewhat true for Quintana, Contador and indeed Aru.
If we get rain some of those days, the differences made downhill can be huge.
On the flipside, I see Porte, Quintana, Contador and Aru, attacking the climbs a bit earlier.
And then it's anybodyes guess, what the shape of the Yates/Chavez 1-2 punch is..... they might also very well try early, though I must admit I don't recall their downhill skills...
Should get interesting.