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Ilnur Zakarin Discussion thread

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Re:

jaylew said:
Are we selling his chances short? I know it's Zaka and he's not always the most consistent but he put almost 2 minutes on Mollema after dropping him and I don't think anyone was gaining much if any time on him on the climbs. Didn't he lose some time due to a mechanical earlier in the race?

He lost like 3:15 to Roglic in the ITT's. 6seconds yesterday, 16seconds in the stage Carapaz won, But that's about it I think.
 
With Nibali and Roglic engaging in staring contests and neither having a really strong team, the time is ripe for a surprise win. Zakarin is the kind of rider who could pull it off. He's a very touch and aggressive rider on his day but his lack of descending prowess may come back to bite him in the buttocks.
 
Apparently his goal prior to the race was first a stage win and then a top 5 in GC if he was good enough, well he's got his number objective but I don't think he's good enough for the GC. He's out of the top 10 and could lose more tomorrow. I think if he nabs another stage win, that would be nice, but that'll be tough with the way Movistar have ridden in the mountains and others could want more (Yates, Dombrowski, Sivakov, etc). He's generally very good in the last week of GT's and he's stayed out of trouble so far, no crashes or major issues on the descents, so I am a bit puzzled by his performance today. I know he is probably knackered after yesterday's efforts, but that's a lot of time to lose, especially the stop-go tactics of the leaders, (except Carapaz, of course).
 

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