Felix Gall is the new Austrian Emperor of the Alps

[Mayomaniac]

Terrible in time trials, shite in descending, hopeless in crosswinds or gravel and below average in punchy terrain.

Love him, one of the few respectable cyclists in the peleton.

The rest is explained by his Triathlon background, but his bad TT-skills and being as aero as a kite is still an enigma to me. Back when he rode for DSM I actually rode past him when he was training for the mixed relay at the Trento EC. No, I didn't supass him with my road bike (he isn't that bad) he was going the other way.

 

[Gigs_98]

Terrible in time trials, shite in descending, hopeless in crosswinds or gravel and below average in punchy terrain.

Love him, one of the few respectable cyclists in the peleton.

That's Austrian cycling heritage right there!

 

[Brullnux]

Terrible in time trials, shite in descending, hopeless in crosswinds or gravel and below average in punchy terrain.

Love him, one of the few respectable cyclists in the peleton.

Nice guy in interviews too. Will give an insight/opinion into something but always friendly and quite cheerful. He's not a PR/media trained robot but also isn't really rude like a Haaland or smth

 

[search]

His time trialing actually improved quite a lot this year, though, to be fair. He's never going to win one, of course, but he used to get a numb leg after after a while, and they managed to fix that with a different position.

 

[tobydawq]

What an absolutely shocking performance today!

 

[ppanther92]

Lets *** go! Up there yesterday and today and high mountains (the only real Gall terrain) still to come

 

[Tim Cahill]

All the main Gall-danger stages are over, and I'm getting Pantani Deux Alpes vibes.

 

[theyoungest]

What an absolutely shocking performance today!

Apparently he deliberately lost time on the earlier stages (according to his teammate Naesen) to give him some freedom in the mountains.

I'd say, what a stupid tactic. You're a legitimate candidate for the podium, behind Pogacar and possibly Vingegaard it's all pretty open. Why not just try to minimize your losses, now you're too close to be let in a huge break but too far away to challenge the Evenepoels or Jorgensons of this world.

 

[ppanther92]

Apparently he deliberately lost time on the earlier stages (according to his teammate Naesen) to give him some freedom in the mountains.

I'd say, what a stupid tactic. You're a legitimate candidate for the podium, behind Pogacar and possibly Vingegaard it's all pretty open. Why not just try to minimize your losses, now you're too close to be let in a huge break but too far away to challenge the Evenepoels or Jorgensons of this world.

I mean, from the 4:49 on Pogacar, he lost 2:47 in the ITT. I think considering his weaknesses in positioning I would say thats a quite good first week outcome and I wouldn’t subscribe to the deliberate theory.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I mean, from the 4:49 on Pogacar, he lost 2:47 in the ITT. I think considering his weaknesses in positioning I would say thats a quite good first week outcome and I wouldn’t subscribe to the deliberate theory.

Yeah, that was poor positioning and not deliberate, at least imo.

 

[theyoungest]

I mean, from the 4:49 on Pogacar, he lost 2:47 in the ITT. I think considering his weaknesses in positioning I would say thats a quite good first week outcome and I wouldn’t subscribe to the deliberate theory.

It's not a theory, his teammate Naesen said it, even before the time trial. So I'm inclined to believe that.

There's poor positioning, and there's riding all the way at the back and letting yourself get dropped.

 

[ppanther92]

There's poor positioning, and there's riding all the way at the back and letting yourself get dropped.

On stage 4 he rod all the way back and lost 0:54 but he also closed several gabs of dropping riders before being gapped finally. So not very energy saving. I don’t really believe in Naesen in that respect then.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Best climbing performance in the Tour since Col de la Loze and Markstein.

Is top 5 within reach?

 

[search]

Sounded like he suffered a bit from the heat so far, meaning the colder conditions today likely played into his hands.

So it may come down to the weather next week, but there are hardly any GC riders left anyway.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Skillwise he really is like comeback Basso. Not a good TTer, rather poor descender, diesel climber with a poor acceleration, but surprisingly decent sprint.

 

[ppanther92]

Sounded like he suffered a bit from the heat so far, meaning the colder conditions today likely played into his hands.

So it may come down to the weather next week, but there are hardly any GC riders left anyway.

Also had a cold till the restday or even the day after.

 

[Gigs_98]

Ventoux doesn't seem like a stage that suits him but I hope he'll make some noise in the Alps. I think he'll come up just short of a top 5 but he it's looking like a really good Tour for him regardless.

 

[Red Rick]

Ventoux doesn't seem like a stage that suits him but I hope he'll make some noise in the Alps. I think he'll come up just short of a top 5 but he it's looking like a really good Tour for him regardless.

If you don't like the heat and can't attack because of the big trains I'm kinda wondering wtf you're even doing at the Tour instead of the Giro but then the Giro hardly had a great route for him and he's on a French team.

 

[Valv.Piti]

4th is highly achieveable. He's a better pure climber than anybody in front of him, and Onley at 4th only has something like 2'40. Primoz in this condition is no match for Gall in the Alps, neither is Kevin V, but Onley could potentially be a problem for 4th, but I really doubt it. Gall is just that good when he's on, and the stages in the Alps couldnt be better for him

 

[ppanther92]

Btw., and just for the record (still a long way and first and foremost Gall has to have the legs in week 3 and a good rest day), Austrias best results at the TdF:

3. Adolf Christian 1957
3. Bernhard Kohl 2008
5. Peter Luttenberger 1995
7. Georg Totschnig 2004
8. Felix Gall 2023

No other top 10s.

Top 5 might seem doable.

 

[Gigs_98]

4th is highly achieveable. He's a better pure climber than anybody in front of him, and Onley at 4th only has something like 2'40. Primoz in this condition is no match for Gall in the Alps, neither is Kevin V, but Onley could potentially be a problem for 4th, but I really doubt it. Gall is just that good when he's on, and the stages in the Alps couldnt be better for him

The thing is, last year I also thought he'll get better as the Tour progresses and pick off guys in front of him one by one. Then the exact opposite happened. I don't want to jump to conclusions because of one very good stage when the two days prior he did not look like a top 5 candidate

 

[Valv.Piti]

Sure, but I think Gall is just better this year, he didn't show anything close to this IMO last year, and the opposition is just worse as well. None of Onley, Vaquelin and Roglic at this stage of his career is really made for what coming up in stage 18 and 19 and the time gaps are just too small for Gall not to erase them