Re: Re:
Red Rick said:
Gigs_98 said:
Cookster15 said:
I wonder how Bernal would have fared if he rode? I doubt he would be better than Carapaz, Nibali or even Landa uphill though. Top 5 I guess.
I actually think he would have won. Wouldn't be shocked if he was the worlds strongest climber right now
Honestly while there is no doubt Bernal is a great climber there has been absolutely 0 indication he is the best in the world right now. He could not drop Quintana in PN and wasn't the best in Catalunya either.
While it's possible would have been stronger than Carapaz I would not blindly assume that. I imagine Bernal would've done better in the ITTs but I think Nibali and Roglic would have freaked out a lot more if Bernal had been there with Carapaz on the way to Courmayeur and Lago Serru.
For me Dumoulin is the bigger what if this Giro cause I'm convinced he'd have done better than Roglic everywhere from the 2nd ITT onwards and he had absolutely no team to back him up.
Dumoulin's team would not have been much better than Roglic's. Roglic lost De Plus and couldn't bring Gesink. But Dumoulin couldn't bring Kelderman and would have lost Oomen and Vervaeke too. I think in the time of need, Dumoulin would have been just as isolated as Roglic was. Not to mention Oomen was nowhere near last year's level.
If he would have been better... who knows. Possibly. As for Bernal, i agree that we haven't had a real benchmark in a GT were all contenders were in top shape. So it's difficult. However, he impressed me last year in the TDF and is a year older now. So it's quite possible he would have been able to follow Carapaz, and maybe Nibali wouldn't have given him the time (unlike Carapaz). But i agree, we can't say for sure.
Interesting comment yesterday by Karsten Kroon on Eurosport. Apparently Nibali ordered his team to put the pressure on De Plus in order to eliminate De Plus, who was sick at the time. They succeeded and De Plus went home, leaving Roglic without his right-hand-man. Had BM not done that, and had De Plus been there in the stage that Carapaz basically won the Giro, it's likely that De Plus would have maintained the tempo, preventing Carapaz from taking so much "free time" and Nibali would probably have won the Giro.