Itzulia Basque Country 2022 April 4-9

[Roku]

I mean Revco was very good, and if their best GC rider competed here on this kind of parkours and with this field, he would have won 3 stages and GC easily, but unfortunately he's recovering from covid and wouldn't race here anyway... So lots of reasons to be content as a Belgian fan imo

Van Aert wouldn't have won this race and is not a traditional GC rider.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

He still wouldnt beat Pog

Then give him the 2012 opposition as well!

 

[Jumbot]

Interesting take. But i don't think Van Aert would have been able to compete for the win on this course. I think, just as Evenepoel, he'd have better chances on less steep climbs.

I see him getting dropped on Krabelin and then coming back like Revco, with the difference of getting bunch of bonus seconds in sprints, and maybe even doing a better TT than Roglic,,, I don't see him losing enough time on the last Arrate climb and on other stages he ain't losing anything,,, But of course, it's just speculation and opinion, we'll never find out

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I see him getting dropped on Krabelin and then coming back like Revco, with the difference of getting bunch of bonus seconds in sprints, and maybe even doing a better TT than Roglic,,, I don't see him losing enough time on the last Arrate climb and on other stages he ain't losing anything,,, But of course, it's just speculation and opinion, we'll never find out

We saw what happened at the Olympics. Nobody wants to ride with Van Aert, they'd all attack him and he'd break just as well finally. Assuming he'd not lost time on Arrate seems like wishful thinking especially considering it had been a very hectic stage, where he'd be forced to go deep on every climb with little time to catch a second breath. We also saw what happened at the WCC RR last year, and while that race was 100k longer it was also a lot less brutal. Yet Van Aert slowly died. He might have take a few seconds in the ITT and he might have gained 30 boni seconds, but i think he would have suffered as much if not more than Evenepoel eventually did (while i assumed Remco would have suffered more initially) just as well. Even more than with Evenepoel, his rivals would jump at every opportunity to get rid of him, because they know they can't bring Van Aert to the line, which is no issue with Evenepoel.

 

[BigCoward]

Then give him the 2012 opposition as well!

Wiggins and Froome both wreck Remco on that route.
And if not, Nibali makes him follow downhill somewhere and we can guess how that ends up.
There isn't a route opposition combination in last 20 years of grand tour GC where I'd pick him as favourite.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Wiggins and Froome both wreck Remco on that route.
And if not, Nibali makes him follow downhill somewhere and we can guess how that ends up.
There isn't a route opposition combination in last 20 years of grand tour GC where I'd pick him as favourite.

If Remco has Pogi as a domestique (like Wiggo had Froomey) and Rogla is a mummy then who knows.