Itzulia Basque Country 2023 (April 3-8)

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We were told last September that Enric Mas is a formidable opponent ;)

Jumbo used their assets perfectly on this final stage, they rode it like they had to attack the lead, when they were the leaders themselves. Even Kruijswijk rose from the dead.

Mas has never quite lived up to expectations. But he like really Hot weather.

And yes Jumbo has changed a lot as a team! Did they get new management? Today was a Masterclass in tactics and Vingo had the legs to do the job!
 
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Mas has never quite lived up to expectations. But he like really Hot weather.

And yes Jumbo has changed a lot as a team! Did they get new management? Today was a Masterclass in tactics and Vingo had the legs to do the job!
They know how to ride this final stage in Pais Vasco. Two years ago they completely upended the race, beating both Pogacar and McNulty and finishing 1-2 with Roglic and Vingegaard. It doesn't matter how many races they win with great tactics, people only remember the bad ones. That goes for every team, sometimes rightly and sometimes less so.
 
They know how to ride this final stage in Pais Vasco. Two years ago they completely upended the race, beating both Pogacar and McNulty and finishing 1-2 with Roglic and Vingegaard. It doesn't matter how many races they win with great tactics, people only remember the bad ones. That goes for every team, sometimes rightly and sometimes less so.
Yeah I can't even begin to tell you how tiresome it's been to hear Rabofail for years now.....In 2019 they deserved though. Wasn't that when the car was stopped for a piss when Rogic needed a bike change?
 
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Yeah I can't even begin to tell you how tiresome it's been to hear Rabofail for years now.....In 2019 they deserved though. Wasn't that when the car was stopped for a piss when Rogic needed a bike change?
It's just stupid, I think there's just one DS left from the Rabobank era, Frans Maassen. Who was in the car for this race :)

EF stuffed up their strategy - Chaves had the form to top ten or even top five if he was not wasted early in the race by the team.
They put too much faith in Carapaz and Uran, neither of whom had any form to speak of.
 
EF had to go for Carapaz and then Uran, so you cannot blame them for it.

Having said that, Chaves has great form since the beginning of the year. He won that hard Colombian title. When he is fit, He excels when the race is very hard. Lombardia, Giro queen stage, today. He should be in Ok form for the Giro. Plus he doesn't have to go in stupid attacks in the Giro. Just by attrition he can climb a lot of places in a 3 week race.
 
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It is not the first time Landa is no so strong in the Eibar stage if It is short and with several hard climbs from the begining. He is a rider for longer stages, and that is going to be a problem in the currebnnt cycling for him.

Anyway he had no strong team and that is always a problem, and Vingegard used well his team at the right moment, so Landa didnt caught him as he did the rest days. I have the doubt if Vingegard wouldnt had the help of Atila and K, but It would have been close for sure.
 
So who will they race against?
They aren't really racing against anybody else in the first place right now. It's the big issue of this era and it's at its worst (so far) this year because almost every WT stage race has only had one of the big 4 in form, leading to one-sided non-event after one-sided non-event, now culminating in the first boring edition of Itzulia in a very long time. Evenepoel and Roglic are just as bad as Pogacar and Vingegaard in this regard, they were every bit as far ahead of the rest of the field in Catalunya as Vingegaard was here, it only gets forgotten because they had each other to fight. Also means that a major crash (or something with similar effect) by Evenepoel or Roglic in the Giro or by Pogacar or Vingegaard in the Tour all but guarantees a one-sided Giro or Tour.

We really need either the gap to the other riders to narrow, or some new riders to jump the gap, because an era inevitably goes stale if it lasts long enough without evolving much and IMO we're seeing the first signs of that starting to appear.
 
They aren't really racing against anybody else in the first place right now. It's the big issue of this era and it's at its worst (so far) this year because almost every WT stage race has only had one of the big 4 in form, leading to one-sided non-event after one-sided non-event, now culminating in the first boring edition of Itzulia in a very long time. Evenepoel and Roglic are just as bad as Pogacar and Vingegaard in this regard, they were every bit as far ahead of the rest of the field in Catalunya as Vingegaard was here, it only gets forgotten because they had each other to fight. Also means that a major crash (or something with similar effect) by Evenepoel or Roglic in the Giro or by Pogacar or Vingegaard in the Tour all but guarantees a one-sided Giro or Tour.

We really need either the gap to the other riders to narrow, or some new riders to jump the gap, because an era inevitably goes stale if it lasts long enough without evolving much and IMO we're seeing the first signs of that starting to appear.


I totally agree

So much is said that we are seeing the best racing ever...we are seeing the strongest racing ever by a few ....a different thing entirely

Take riders like Chaves or Landa ..still probably pushing the numbers they did when they podiumed GTs but Pog and Vinge make them look like poor riders ..they are not... they just not at the very top level

And yes there is the issue if Pog crashes out of the Tour ot Rog out of the Giro its a one horse race

Yes and I know that there was Froome v Contador but there seemed others who could be up there with them , even beating them on occasion like Quintana , Landa, Bardet , Evans, Aru, Dumoulin, Valverde, Purito, and of course Nibali etc

Now Vinge and Pog are beyonf reach ... got to be so disheartening for the rest
 
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