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Giro d'Italia stage 20, Stage 20: Alba – Sestriere 190 km

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My problem isn't that the faces are new, my problem is that I'm still very unsure about how good the level in this giro actually was. I just don't know whether those guys are now consistently gonna compete for gt's for the next decade or whether this was a Hesjedal like one off.
Isn't it maybe also that neither of the two actually made any attacks this Giro and it was just 3 different stages of choo choo train?

Oh yeah TGH attacked on Roccaraso but that's basically 2018 at this point
 

Definitely a chance. Tao is a lot less consistent (a bad prologue here and a shocker at La Vuelta last year) but it's hard to know whether at least one of those was just a case of soft peddling.

recent H2H

TaoJai
giro 2020 ITT 21334
giro 2020 ITT 112646
Tirreno 2020 ITT3141
Giro 2019 ITT 22539
Giro 2019 ITT 1774
 
Can we please stop the knee-jerk reactions lol
That's why I added the "depending on race situation" part that you didn't bold.

Tao would previously have been seen as an option B at most for the time being, and Bernal as an obvious leader. Now, however, with Tao likely to become a GT winner and almost certainly at least a GT podium rider, he's above and beyond being a serious threat and seeing as Ineos have so many worthwhile leaders, they can readily choose a leader for a race and have everyone else fall in line.

You know, like how Carapaz was working for Bernal in the Tour.
 
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I really don't care if the level at this Giro is high or low, what I care about is about the racing. And I think this Giro has delivered in that department. The Tour had a high level and was boring as hell.
What racing? They got carried by the best climber in the world. They barely attacked the entire Giro. Hindley's attacks were so bad Dennis recovered twice. Tour was definitely more entertaining, less super domestique work.
 
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No worries, Konrad and Pernsteiner are simply doing a huge yoyo.
Austrians dominating in Sestriere since 2006:
GEPA_full_7957_GEPA-2502061397-976x650.jpg
Yikes, you should have put some trigger warnings for non-Austrian Ski fans before posting this kind of stuff. ;)
Speaking of Benni Raich, there's a video of him doing a recon of one of the Austrian Tour of the Alpes stages with Bettini.
View: https://youtu.be/O6GoJriKV_8
 
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Isn't it maybe also that neither of the two actually made any attacks this Giro and it was just 3 different stages of choo choo train?

Oh yeah TGH attacked on Roccaraso but that's basically 2018 at this point
I think the last 2 stages were pretty memorable despite it mainly being choo-choo. Very selective penultimate climb is always great. Problem was mainly the racing on the last climb of the day, that had a bit to be desired, but these guys are new and it was a very tactical race on both occasions which also had it charms with all the tactics sourronding distancing Kelderman etc.
 
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I think the last 2 stages were pretty memorable despite it mainly being choo-choo. Very selective penultimate climb is always great. Problem was mainly the racing on the last climb of the day, that had a bit to be desired, but these guys are new and it was a very tactical race on both occasions which also had it charms with all the tactics sourronding distancing Kelderman etc.
Today might have been crazy with Agnello/Izoard but then I guess it would have been Dennis putting 3 minutes into Kelderman while riding below threshold all the way until the final but less steep Sestriere climb.

The hilarious thing is that Hindley and TGH "duked" it out on two finishing climbs and it was basically both like Contador/Schleck on Ax 3 Domaines.

Except instead of the 2 best climbers in the words its Jimmy an Timmy
 
That's why I added the "depending on race situation" part that you didn't bold.

Tao would previously have been seen as an option B at most for the time being, and Bernal as an obvious leader. Now, however, with Tao likely to become a GT winner and almost certainly at least a GT podium rider, he's above and beyond being a serious threat and seeing as Ineos have so many worthwhile leaders, they can readily choose a leader for a race and have everyone else fall in line.

You know, like how Carapaz was working for Bernal in the Tour.
I think Carapaz was seen as a plan B and lieutenant, not necessarily just a dom. Reason he quickly got full dom duties were mainly due to him riding at 90% capacity and obviously not being in Giro shape while we all thought Bernal still had a great shot. Turns out he didnt..

I dont think theres a world where Ineos will put Bernal on full domestique duty unless Tao just sweeps all races like Wiggo 2012 or Froome 2013 and I simply cannot see that happening. If anything they will probably approach races with a flatter hierarchy if Tao, Carapaz, Bernal etc. seems to be at a similar level, but I think everything Ineos cares about is winning, so Bernal being on duty for Tao wouldnt be for nationalistic reasons at all. And that being the case is still very unlikely in my opinion - I still consider Bernal to be at least one level above Tao.
 
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