• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Il Lombardia 2021 (October 9th)

Page 30 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Calm down man, nobody said that almeida is the next eddie merckx, nobody here overhypes almeida like you and many people do to remco.
So the expectations should be more high to remco, almeida is just a humble guy, that respects everybody and is making is way.
In case it wasn't clear, i was only poking fun. I have nothing against Almeida, rather the opposite. Just find it funny how Almeida fanboys need to stress when he's better than Evenepoel, when it turns out he actually isn't.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: Sandisfan
Of course, like usually, you can find a reason for almost everyone in the group not to ride: Roglic didn't have the best day, Yates is not a good sprinter, Alaphilippe has Masnada ahead, Gaudu says: but Jumbo still has a helper, Bardet says: but Ala is going to outsprint me, Valverde says: I'm too old for this ** (or whatever his reason is)...
But what they forget is that there is a reason to ride full, and that is that they want to win and if they don't ride they have a 0% chance to win (okay, maybe 0,1 because Pogacar and Masnada might fall off their bikes after crashing into a dog who run on the street) while when they ride a bit more than their rival they at least have a chance of, I don't know, 15% or so.
 
i dont think DQS did poor job tactically

in theory sending a luxury teammember in front to force others to chase so your leader can rest is what you should do

however, particulary this year, once a guy gets up the road, those who should chase just stop giving a s*it

its new meta, instead of banking on everyones desire to win, you should bank on everyones unwillingness to drag somebody to the line even at the cost of your own success

It's not particular for this year, it has been happening since the dawn of time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
Valverde has actually been a bit disappointing this season. Yes he made a solid comeback at 41 after a disappointing 20202 and had some good wins. But he could have won 2 monuments (or at least win one and podium the other) if he didn't ride like such an idiot. You would think a guy with his experience would know better.

Today was difficult. And I don't think he would have won the sprint in LBL either. But yeah, he didn't exactly optimise his chances...
 
Congrats to Pogi on a great victory at the end of a superb season!

He took no hastages and attacked with 35 km to go gaining 30-35 seconds on Ganda. Roglic and co stomped! On the descend Masnada was going very fast (probably knowing these roads well) and caught Pogacar after 15 km of chasing. The contenders group wasn't going very fast on the descend (trailing by 45 seconds at the end of it). For a moment it seemed they had chances to catch the leading duo on flat but their cooperation was short-lasting. Masnada almost didn't help Pogi, who unsuccessfully tried to drop him on the last bump. However, at the end he gave the Italian no chance and won a sprint easily.

Pogacar completed one of the best cycling seasons (if not the best) in this century. Tour de France + 2 monuments and a few other stage races on top of that. Wow. He's a legend already. My intuition was right when I picked him for today in the prediction thread.

Unfortunately the cycling season is over and we won't see our faves battling for months. Hopefully GT route presentations will be satisfying for fans.
 
Today was difficult. And I don't think he would have won the sprint in LBL either. But yeah, he didn't exactly optimise his chances...
Tbh he's a lot better than I would've thought he'd be say a year and a few months ago.

He has stopped peaking for every race but he's doing a really good job getting it right for the few targets he keeps having.
 
In case it wasn't clear, i was only poking fun. I have nothing against Almeida, rather the opposite. Just find it funny how Almeida fanboys need to stress when he's better than Evenepoel, when it turns out he actually isn't.
Personally i'm a big fan of almeida, and i never said that almeida is better than remco. And honestly i didn't see someone on almeida's thread saying that almeida is better than remco, but i could be wrong.
I'm not saying that remco has no potential, but i think many people here, should calm down a bit about him because he's not yet in a certain level that they thing he is. Maybe one day he could be on that level, but not yet. Let's see his evolution, like the evolution of other young riders, and see what levels they can reach. I think is a "lot" saying that he is the new eddie merckx, or that he will be better than him, that he will smash in every race every rider....
I was referring to the fact that remco was dropped to soon when i said "hurt the felling of a lot of people", not to joao almeida drop remco or being better than him, and it wouldn't even make sense..when remco was dropped, almeida wasn't working at the front.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
Valverde has actually been a bit disappointing this season. Yes he made a solid comeback at 41 after a disappointing 20202 and had some good wins. But he could have won 2 monuments (or at least win one and podium the other) if he didn't ride like such an idiot. You would think a guy with his experience would know better.
Pogacar outsprinted Valverde at Liege..............when he retires he will still have a formidable record but he's not the rider he was and tactical errors are common not just for Valverde.
 
Tbh he's a lot better than I would've thought he'd be say a year and a few months ago.

He has stopped peaking for every race but he's doing a really good job getting it right for the few targets he keeps having.

True. And that is impressive. But that doesn't prevent it from being a bummer when he botches his tactics, though. Which he has done a lot of, this year.
 
Pogacar outsprinted Valverde at Liege..............when he retires he will still have a formidable record but he's not the rider he was and tactical errors are common not just for Valverde.
In liege Valverde made no attempt to not lead out the sprint, then opened the sprint at 300m to go from the front in a headwinds. It was comically amateur. Pogacar won because he was at the back and got a perfect lead out from Alaphilippe in the headwind.
 
Personally i'm a big fan of almeida, and i never said that almeida is better than remco. And honestly i didn't see someone on almeida's thread saying that almeida is better than remco, but i could be wrong.
I'm not saying that remco has no potential, but i think many people here, should calm down a bit about him because he's not yet in a certain level that they thing he is. Maybe one day he could be on that level, but not yet. Let's see his evolution, like the evolution of other young riders, and see what levels they can reach. I think is a "lot" saying that he is the new eddie merckx, or that he will be better than him, that he will smash in every race every rider....
And who exactly has ever claimed he is better than Merckx, other than Merckx himself (when Evenepoel was about to sign with Axel)? It's funny how people think that anyone talking about his performances in a thread with such a name, automatically means everybody thinks he's better than Merckx. Please, stop with these phony claims. Me and others, we're excited to see his development and what he does at times is spectacular. I don't see why you would need to laugh with him getting dropped ahead of Almeida after a rough year with ups and downs. But hey, you do you.
 
In liege Valverde made no attempt to not lead out the sprint, then opened the sprint at 300m to go from the front in a headwinds. It was comically amateur. Pogacar won because he was at the back and got a perfect lead out from Alaphilippe in the headwind.
I agree it was a poor sprint by Valverde and he should never have got stuck on the front but at the moment Valverde is no certainty to outsprint Pogacar at the end of a classic.
 
In case it wasn't clear, i was only poking fun. I have nothing against Almeida, rather the opposite. Just find it funny how Almeida fanboys need to stress when he's better than Evenepoel, when it turns out he actually isn't.
Usually they are just good at different things imo. This week they both have worked really hard and probably was just out of legs in the end. If anything they are both worse than Masnada today, and I hope if he is at that shape next year Masnada gets somewhat protected at next giro. I am still not sure Remco is a GT contender, but we'll see. I am going to suffer to see Almeida in UAE.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
And who exactly has ever claimed he is better than Merckx, other than Merckx himself (when Evenepoel was about to sign with Axel)? It's funny how people think that anyone talking about his performances in a thread with such a name, automatically means everybody thinks he's better than Merckx. Please, stop with these phony claims. Me and others, we're excited to see his development and what he does at times is spectacular. I don't see why you would need to laugh with him getting dropped ahead of Almeida after a rough year with ups and downs. But hey, you do you.
I'm gonna say it again, i wasn't laughing to the fact that he was dropped ahead of almeida. Probably you didn't read everything of my last comment, but that's ok.
It's not just because of the name of the thread, that's what really happens, the comments prove that. I hope that one day maybe pogacar has 10% of the hype that remco has here. And he already won 2 tours.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
I'm gonna say it again, i wasn't laughing to the fact that he was dropped ahead of almeida. Probably you didn't read everything of my last comment, but that's ok.
It's not just because of the name of the thread, that's what really happens, the comments prove that. I hope that one day maybe pogacar has 10% of the hype that remco has here. And he already won 2 tours.
Feel free to hype Pogacar. With him we already know what he can do, not much reason for additional hype. It's simply not interesting at this point. While his performances had been good prior to his breakthrough year, to most people he came out of nowhere. There was little reason to hype him, because he didn't stand out like Evenepoel, and once he broke through, he immediately leapfrogged the entire peloton. That trajectory is completely different from Evenepoel's especially considering he's 16 months younger and was injured for about 10 months. We didn't know where his limits were before his accident, and we're still none the wiser now. That's what makes it much more fun and interesting than hyping a guy who's already won 2 TDF's and now 2 monuments. So please, again, stop with the disingenuous posts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: gregrowlerson
It was a cross headwind, you can look at the flags in the final km. Pogacar came from not only the back but also sprinted up the sheltered side of the group on JA wheel. It was the absolute perfect conditions for him

Yep, if I remember correctly Alaphilippe very deliberately took a wide curve to drop behind, but Pogacar was still behind him and the result was exactly the reverse order of the row in the sprint?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ilmaestro99

TRENDING THREADS