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Giro d'Italia 2015 Stage 20: Saint-Vincent – Sestriere 199km

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Re:

mihhint said:
Reading all this criticism about Astana team tactics, but I'm not really sure how they could have played it much better to put enough time on Alberto. They needed Kangert to bridge on the decent so that he could pace on that false flat, he tryed but couldn't do it, and dropped back to Contador. So Landa dropped back instead for pacing. But neither Aru nor Landa is great TT'ist and nobody else was working with them, so they couldn't get much time on Alberto. So what else should or could they have done there to put 5 minutes on Contador?

you are absolutelly right
 
bein switched out before any of their interviews and they are too re&^%$ed to put them into their highlights show at 1 am in the morning (in the past)

Soooo what did AC happened on the climb? I am curious to hear his version..
 
May 30, 2015
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Re:

mihhint said:
Reading all this criticism about Astana team tactics, but I'm not really sure how they could have played it much better to put enough time on Alberto. They needed Kangert to bridge on the decent so that he could pace on that false flat, he tryed but couldn't do it, and dropped back to Contador. So Landa dropped back instead for pacing. But neither Aru nor Landa is great TT'ist and nobody else was working with them, so they couldn't get much time on Alberto. So what else should or could they have done there to put 5 minutes on Contador?

I think the argument is that they should have attacked with Landa earlier in the race, they were never going to make up 5 minutes today but had they unleashed him earlier in the week it might have been possible. I disagree as I think it took all 20 days of Astana unleashing the full team against Alberto to wear him down and this was really the only day he showed weakness. IMO Contador wins this race no matter what Astana does.

What is undeniable is that Landa was held back by Astana. What's up for debate is weather or not he could have beaten Contador had he not been. Contador fans are going to Contador and detractors are going to detract. Maybe if Landa goes forth to be the next great cyclist and wins the treble in 2017 we'll look back and say that he definitely would have won here.
 
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gunara said:
There's always a chance that this might be Landa's biggest and only opportunity to be close to winning a grand tour, I hope there'll be more, I like him, but no guarantee he can find such form outside Astana.
And btw, Aru always strike me as childish and naïve. He's hard to like, but not bad enough to dislike.

I like him because he is trying to do everything to do race hard and nice, not like useless wheelsucker Porte which did pure nothing, only big talks about him
he is young, experience will came but giro he did was very nice from him and thanks to Astana and Alberto this was best GT in last years from my sight
 
Contador rode extremely conservatively after being dropped. He didn't look like he was in great pain at all. He knew that he had enough margin.
From this Giro, people are going to remember that Contador won and that epic Motirolo ride by him which by the way was not a finishing climb. None of the stage wins by Astana are that memorable at all.
Landa may not be remembered at all as it was Aru who is runner up
 
Aug 31, 2012
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IndianCyclist said:
Contador rode extremely conservatively after being dropped. He didn't look like he was in great pain at all. He knew that he had enough margin.
From this Giro, people are going to remember that Contador won and that epic Motirolo ride by him which by the way was not a finishing climb. None of the stage wins by Astana are that memorable at all.
Landa may not be remembered at all as it was Aru who is runner up
In the end, all circumstances are forgotten and only the winner is remembered. But the circumstances of a Giro like this one or the 2012 Tour will be remembered for at least a few years.
 
Re:

IndianCyclist said:
Contador rode extremely conservatively after being dropped. He didn't look like he was in great pain at all. He knew that he had enough margin.
From this Giro, people are going to remember that Contador won and that epic Motirolo ride by him which by the way was not a finishing climb. None of the stage wins by Astana are that memorable at all.
Landa may not be remembered at all as it was Aru who is runner up


True. Astana crap. Berto forever.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

It is just hilarious to read pages and pages of Contador's fanboys. After they almost had a heart attack today. ROFL!!!!
 
Feb 3, 2015
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Same podium as yesterday.

3. Rigoberto Uran. I'm really glad that he recovered and put strong performances yesterday and today. I'm not sure he could have podiumed overall anyway, but that's pity he had been ill (allergies?)
2. Ryder Hesjedal. I must admit, that I didn't believed much in him. Some bad positioning (stage 4, stage 15) made him to lose minutes, but he's just an amazing fighter! Day by day he got stronger and stronger. Fun to watch! I want to see Hesjedal at form in any race!
1. Fabio Aru. I think that he's shown his heart. 3 days ago it seemed very likely that he was gonna crack and lose a podium spot. He fought really hard though with both his opponents and himself. He never gives up and always give everything he's got left. Of course, having Landa in team helped him a lot these days, but still... And the pattern which SafeBet mentioned seems to be reasonable. He suffers more if slope is on 10% level or more

Such a shame it was the last real stage. I could definitely watch Fauniera tommorow. They are close :D
 
Re: Re:

whittashau said:
No_Balls said:
IamIronMan said:
whittashau said:
I'm shocked at the stupidity of people in this thread. Why would Astana ride for Landa if he is leaving?
Right, why let the guy who is CURRENTLY on your team try to win the Giro, or at least another stage and the blue jersey. I'm shocked at the stupidity of people in this thread.

Nothing beats self-proclaimed intelligent voices of reason write something that absurd you have to read twice to believe.

Why is what I wrote absurd? Clearly they're trying to build their team around Aru. Surely it's in their best interest to back him over some guy who is about leaving the team. Also, maybe winning the Giro with a Spanish rider that is leaving the team maybe isn't a big deal for them?

Is there logic in them putting all their resources into Landa? Sure there is, but for people to cry foul over Astana backing Aru is stupid too.

You have this guy, riding for the supposed same team that hopefully aims for the top step, who clearly is in the shape of challenging for this aim and then you let this guy do a ride (at the last stage) that he should have done from the beginning. And to add to the insults he is told to back off from his close to two minutes advantage in order to launch the weaker pawn for the overriding ambition of pleasing the italian crowd with stage victories.

How is it not possible to see this?
 
Re: Re:

Miburo said:
hfer07 said:
Alberto schooling Fabio on RAI .

nice :)

What happened?

both were interviewed along with Tiralongo- Contador truly praising Fabio as the future of Italian cycling and advising him that a GT is always won by dealing wisely the bad days, as he noticed how Fabio struggled and yet came back to win stages and secure his podium. Contador also was asked about his opinion between Fabio and Nibali, and he responded that Vincenzo has already reached his maturity as a cyclist, whereas Fabio is growing still with more room for improvement, as he has more explosiveness than Vincenzo.
 
Re: Re:

hfer07 said:
Miburo said:
hfer07 said:
Alberto schooling Fabio on RAI .

nice :)

What happened?

both were interviewed along with Tiralongo- Contador truly praising Fabio as the future of Italian cycling and advising him that a GT is always won by dealing wisely the bad days, as he noticed how Fabio struggled and yet came back to win stages and secure his podium. Contador also was asked about his opinion between Fabio and Nibali, and he responded that Vincenzo has already reached his maturity as a cyclist, whereas Fabio is growing still with more room for improvement, as he has more explosiveness than Vincenzo.
Alberto the Veteran :)



Sad: Ale-jet DNF today... 1 day from Milano, in his final GT :(
 
Aug 31, 2012
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Re:

Singer01 said:
if richie porte didn't have the luck of a dog, he would have won this thing.

bookies aren't reading too much into today for the tour.
Seems so. Throughout the Giro, Conta's odds remained fairly constant. A lack of market liquidity more than anything, me thinks.

I cant remember exactly, but I think Nibali's improved. The Astana effect in play.

Things will start moving come the Dauphine.
 
May 27, 2015
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Couple of my toughts about today's stage.

1) I was really surprised to see that Contador was having a bad day today. We can leave Landa and Aru aside because it is clear that Contador even when he's not at his best form should be able to follow Kruijswijk.
But I don't think that Contador regrets anything and especially that long attack that helped him gain about 1:20 on Landa few days ago.

2) To me biggest surprise today wasn't Aru but Uran Uran. He was able to stick with leaders almost until the end which shows that he is somewhat back to normal. Few days ago Uran would be left behind by the peleton rather quickly to say the least.

3) I think that Landa is starting to fade. He went after Zakarin fast and started to close the gap quickly but if you noticed it took Landa a long time to close that final 12-15 seconds to Zakarin. We don't know if Zakarin started to wait for him because at one point gap between Zakarin and Landa just disappeared but Zakarin had no troubles going with Landa.
I'm sure that Landa couldn't have gone to the finish alone today and he clearly tried - asking Zakarin again and again to do some work.

4) Contador seriously needs a team that can be with him at least until last 10 kilometers. We don't know if Astana had such an incredebly strong team or Contador team was simply having a bad giro. This situation probably made Contador more tired than he should have been.
This cannot happen again in Tour de France.

5) And nice ending to the tour by Aru. He seemed to have recovered pretty well from his bad days. But he seriously needs better time trialing ability because let's be honest Contador is a good time trialist but he is not Tony Martin.
 

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