tobydawq said:
It wasn't the best example, I'll give you that. People expecting Bernal to win the Tour would have been better because he hadn't done that before.
That doesn't mean that I don't disagree entirely with what you write. Expecting Fuglsang to win the Tour was not out of order after his spring where he was riding so much better than before. If he had been able to display that level in the Tour, he would certainly be in the running. Sadly for him, he hasn't been able to do that but that doesn't prove that it was delusional to expect it because he proved to have the physical abilities to do it.
Expecting Ineos to be what they usually have been in this Tour would have been stupid (not delusional, correct), because it would mean that people either didn't watch any races in 2019 (so in this case maybe uninformed rather than stupid), didn't trust their eyes or just ignored everything, believing that Ineos can produce magic, which they of course can't.
Look, i have nothing against the guy, i just need to make sure my eyes aren't rolling out of their sockets when people start hyping a guy for something when there is absolutely no reason for it. Yes, he was su-perb in the classics and i enjoyed watching him. That just doesn't mean he is all of a sudden turning into a GC threat in the twilight of his career. Those are completely different things. I mean, if next year Jungels has a stellar spring, will you expect him on the podium of the TDF? I mean, Jungels has proven more in GT's than Fuglsang and he's 8 years younger. Let's be real here. Another example, when Claude Criquielion had a stellar classics season, he was never considered to be a title contender in the TDF. And he also had a (much) better track reckord in GT GC's, including a podium in the Vuelta and a top 5 in the Tour. One (classics) has little to do with the other (GT GC).
To me, expecting him to win, was completely out of order. Even in order to get on the podium, so much would have needed to happen, unless you in fact expected him to make a "sky-like" step as GC rider at that age.
As for Bernal, that comparison doesn't work. When, in 12 years, it turns out Bernal never exceeded a 7th place in the Tour after cracking evey time in the third week (could still happen), then i'm sure nobody would declare him a favorite to win TDF at 34 years of age, because he won a classic 3 months before.