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Giro d'Italia Giro d‘Italia 2024 Stage 20, Alpago-Bassano del Grappa, 184 km

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Volderke

Volderke

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Izzyeviel said:
People say this year is a weak Giro. They'd have loved 2014. Quintana beating the likes of Rolland, Kelderman, Majka, & an elderly Evans & Pozzovio.
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Weak indeed, as in: no competition for the win. Claiming people said the Giro is weak while referring to a year with lesser demi-gods is a straw man's argument, as you could use this every single year from now on that Pog won the race except maybe a Contador in the best form. There simply hasn't been any rider in the last 20 years that is as good as Pog, in the Giro. When people say weak, they mean: competition, not the average level of the top 5 (because in that case, with Pog as an outlier, the level would be pretty good).


Pog's trainer told me he is going to do a training ride for the Tour today. Just softpedal and the 2nd time on Monte Grappa he'll do an FTP test without looking behind, and win with 5 minutes, get the KOM on strava (currently a 1:03 effort around 340W) and subsequently gets flagged.
 
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Pippo_San

Pippo_San

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Two times Monte Grappa from Semonzo is ludicrous.
Could've been a nail biting stage with a different GC situation and a potential Colle delle Finestre attack could do wonders.
Except Pogacar.
So yeah the only question left is whether Tiberi will get the podium or will be left as a dead cat trying.
 
Red Rick

Red Rick

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sam6 said:
The problem with this is, do you think Majka will win from the break? Potentially, but there's no guarantee. On Tuesday's stage, he didn't chase Pellizzari down on his own when he'd probably done less work than him on that stage. Pellizzari is probably not the strongest of the potential breakaway opponents. If Majka is in a reasonably strong break, lots of guys could beat him and I'd say he's only about 15% to win. If it goes to GC, Pogi is 100% to win. Also, why would the others pull to get a stage win when they know they will get beat by Pogi. They might pull to make it hard so they can attack each other, but they don't care about the stage win. And why would Majka being in the break cause them to want to chase?
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I'm saying you can let Majka have a chance from the break while still being 100% to win by controlling the breakaway enough that Pogacar can always catch it.
 
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movingtarget

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RedheadDane said:
Pozzovivo was elderly 10 years ago?
What is he now? Ancient?
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And Thomas is a little older than Evans was in 2014. The criticism of Thomas keeps amusing me. Anyone of his age still hitting the podium in grand tours is doing very well and he almost won the Giro last year. Pozzo good for another top 20. Only his size stops him being a Zubeldia stealth rider as you can always spot him in the pack. He had a couple of bad falls late in his career which didn't help.
 
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Krzysztof_O

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Red Rick said:
It matters depending on the argument you wanna make. If you specifically want to defend the strength of the field, it really doesn't work.
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My point is that usually people's complaints about the field are associated with the race not being competitive (maybe it's the same in your case, maybe not, I don't know). In this regard the only sensible complaint is that there's no Vingo or Rogla in the Giro.
 
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Peyroteo94

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Volderke said:
Weak indeed, as in: no competition for the win. Claiming people said the Giro is weak while referring to a year with lesser demi-gods is a straw man's argument, as you could use this every single year from now on that Pog won the race except maybe a Contador in the best form. There simply hasn't been any rider in the last 20 years that is as good as Pog, in the Giro. When people say weak, they mean: competition, not the average level of the top 5 (because in that case, with Pog as an outlier, the level would be pretty good).


Pog's trainer told me he is going to do a training ride for the Tour today. Just softpedal and the 2nd time on Monte Grappa he'll do an FTP test without looking behind, and win with 5 minutes, get the KOM on strava (currently a 1:03 effort around 340W) and subsequently gets flagged.
Click to expand...
Are you joking right?
 
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Netserk

Netserk

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Who attacks first, Bardet or Pogi?

Volderke said:
Weak indeed, as in: no competition for the win. Claiming people said the Giro is weak while referring to a year with lesser demi-gods is a straw man's argument, as you could use this every single year from now on that Pog won the race except maybe a Contador in the best form. There simply hasn't been any rider in the last 20 years that is as good as Pog, in the Giro. When people say weak, they mean: competition, not the average level of the top 5 (because in that case, with Pog as an outlier, the level would be pretty good).


Pog's trainer told me he is going to do a training ride for the Tour today. Just softpedal and the 2nd time on Monte Grappa he'll do an FTP test without looking behind, and win with 5 minutes, get the KOM on strava (currently a 1:03 effort around 340W) and subsequently gets flagged.
Click to expand...
Robo-Basso was at least as good as Pogi. And I'll gladly bet you that he won't get the KOM for the segment you linked.
 
KZD

KZD

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Monte Grappa is a monster climb so I expect really big gaps among riders. I think Pogačar will want to win his sixth stage in this year's Giro so I don't think the breakaway has a chance though I still expect someone like Quintana to try but ultimately be catched and dropped by Pogačar in the last ascent.

Regarding the other GC spots, a lot can still happen, Martinez has been looking the strongest but this is actually the kind of stage where he can have a bad day, Thomas should be able to hang on for podium if he manges to survive the double descent and I think this is a good stage for Arensman if he is not on domestique duties, he might overtake Tiberi even though the Italian has been looking better.
 
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Volderke

Volderke

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Peyroteo94 said:
Are you joking right?
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for once: no.

The thing is that Pog doesn't have to go deep (zone 5) to drop them all. So why should he follow wheels in zone 3 when he can just ride his own pace solo in zone 4?

The sooner he is on the top, the more relaxed he can descend, and the longer he can sleep tonight. Resting for the Tour is the main goal from this week on. Monte Pana, Passo Broncon were already climbed in zone 4 while dropping them all. The last 2 days were very much rest days. One good effort today to tickle the legs and he'll come out of this Giro well-trained and fresh as a daisy. The only reason he will go hard today is so he won't get bored.
 
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Krzysztof_O

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Volderke said:
for once: no.

The thing is that Pog doesn't have to go deep (zone 5) to drop them all. So why should he follow wheels in zone 3 when he can just ride his own pace solo in zone 4?

The sooner he is on the top, the more relaxed he can descend, and the longer he can sleep tonight. Resting for the Tour is the main goal from this week on. Monte Pana, Passo Broncon were already climbed in zone 4 while dropping them all. The last 2 days were very much rest days. One good effort today to tickle the legs and he'll come out of this Giro well-trained and fresh as a daisy. The only reason he will go hard today is so he won't get bored.
Click to expand...

I would argue that zone 4 (when sustained i.e. for 20-40 minutes) is a perfect example of going deep. Zone 5 most likely used only for strong accelerations lasting a few minutes (obviously it hurts the body much, even more so after/before prolonged time spent in Z4).
 
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Volderke

Volderke

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Krzysztof_O said:
I would argue that zone 4 (when sustained i.e. for 20-40 minutes) is a perfect example of going deep. Zone 5 most likely used only for strong accelerations lasting a few minutes (obviously it hurts the body much, even more so after/before prolonged time spent in Z4).
Click to expand...
he was forced into zone 5 vs. Vingegaard in last year's Tour, stages 5 (Laruns, being dropped), 6 (Cambasque, giving everything for 24s) and 9 (Puy de Dome, giving everything for 12s).

In this Giro, he was never forced into zone 5 and probably never even chose to do so, except maybe in the TT as a test for the Tour, and just to rack up some more stage wins.
 
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