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Mikel Landa Discussion Thread

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Re:

staubsauger said:
Valverde always does very bad tt's as well like at the Tour of 2007. He is the better tt guy. But it's not guaranteed he can fully take that advantage. He has failed at it multiple times from my memory. Mainly when he just was considered to do a good one like this year at the Giro. It's a miracle that happens every now an then with him. Why? No clue. Can't be just clinic related tbh.

But it's hilly so I imagine he should do well, like he did in the Vuelta 2014
 
Re: Re:

Brullnux said:
staubsauger said:
Valverde always does very bad tt's as well like at the Tour of 2007. He is the better tt guy. But it's not guaranteed he can fully take that advantage. He has failed at it multiple times from my memory. Mainly when he just was considered to do a good one like this year at the Giro. It's a miracle that happens every now an then with him. Why? No clue. Can't be just clinic related tbh.

But it's hilly so I imagine he should do well, like he did in the Vuelta 2014
Or the Vuelta 2015 where the ITT was pretty much like the one in the giro. There he finished 3rd in front of riders like Kiryienka.

Edit:
And he was almost 4 minutes in front of Landa there although Landa probably didnt go all out.
 
Re: Re:

Gigs_98 said:
Brullnux said:
staubsauger said:
Valverde always does very bad tt's as well like at the Tour of 2007. He is the better tt guy. But it's not guaranteed he can fully take that advantage. He has failed at it multiple times from my memory. Mainly when he just was considered to do a good one like this year at the Giro. It's a miracle that happens every now an then with him. Why? No clue. Can't be just clinic related tbh.

But it's hilly so I imagine he should do well, like he did in the Vuelta 2014
Or the Vuelta 2015 where the ITT was pretty much like the one in the giro. There he finished 3rd in front of riders like Kiryienka.
Think I meant 2015. Although, the 2015 one was pan-flat, so I guess a mix of the two.
 
Re:

staubsauger said:
Landa probably ain't got no problem following squalo downhill which descending is clearly overrated and certainly ain't on the level of falco and Sagan anyway!
Say what you want but it certainly is impressive to win a monument on a descent. The thing is that descending might be crucial in this years giro because there are many downhill finishes and extremely difficult descents (arezzo, sestola, cividale, pinerolo) so although his descending is maybe overrated, it surely gives nibali an advantage over landa.
 
Re: Re:

PremierAndrew said:
staubsauger said:
Landa probably ain't got no problem following squalo downhill which descending is clearly overrated and certainly ain't on the level of falco and Sagan anyway!

Considering his weight though, Nibali is a monster descender.
Yeah he's pretty good but usually because he takes lots of risk. Sagan or Cancellara for instance are technically better, also heavier which helps a lot.
 
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Re:

staubsauger said:
Fuglsang !?
Nope, usually a great bikehandler but not great on wet descents (see Romandie 2014 when he had problems following the other guys in the Nibali group).
I don't know if we can stil call him a gt contender, but Samuel Sanchez is one hell of a descender, probably even better than Nibali.
Back to Landa, he's a solid descender, maybe he could loose some time on very technical descents, but normally it shouldn't be a problem.
 
Re:

Rollthedice said:
Since we are talking about Grand Tour contenders here, apart from Valverde nobody comes close to Nibali when there's a descending that matters.

But in the descent of Civiglio he lost 30 seconds and that mattered.

I don't think that Nibali will be able to gap Lands solely on the descent in any stage apart from Cividale. If he already has a gap I'd back him to extend it and if he's behind I'd back him to take a bit of the gap back. But solely gapping on the decent will be hard. Landa is not Schleck or Wiggins.
 
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Brullnux said:
Rollthedice said:
Since we are talking about Grand Tour contenders here, apart from Valverde nobody comes close to Nibali when there's a descending that matters.

But in the descent of Civiglio he lost 30 seconds and that mattered.

I don't think that Nibali will be able to gap Lands solely on the descent in any stage apart from Cividale. If he already has a gap I'd back him to extend it and if he's behind I'd back him to take a bit of the gap back. But solely gapping on the decent will be hard. Landa is not Schleck or Wiggins.

but he probably takes back a bit of time if he is ever dropped on the proceeding mountain! landa needs decent gaps at the top of any final climb where there is a descent finish.
 
Re: Re:

Singer01 said:
Brullnux said:
Rollthedice said:
Since we are talking about Grand Tour contenders here, apart from Valverde nobody comes close to Nibali when there's a descending that matters.

But in the descent of Civiglio he lost 30 seconds and that mattered.

I don't think that Nibali will be able to gap Lands solely on the descent in any stage apart from Cividale. If he already has a gap I'd back him to extend it and if he's behind I'd back him to take a bit of the gap back. But solely gapping on the decent will be hard. Landa is not Schleck or Wiggins.

but he probably takes back a bit of time if he is ever dropped on the proceeding mountain! landa needs decent gaps at the top of any final climb where there is a descent finish.
Thats the point. If Landa has a 10 seconds gap on the last climb of the cividale stage he and Nibali will finish together. If Nibali has a 10 seconds gap the gap will probably be bigger than 40 seconds at the finish
 
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Re:

Matteo. said:
Good result.
Just 21s to Nibali and 16s Valverde. A bit better that i expected


As expected + - some seconds, as I stated in the how much time will landa loose to Nibali in TT thread. People who thought Nibali is a baller in short TT havent really watched previous results very well, hes good but not spectacular by any means.

But indeed good start for Landa I think hes gonne be very strong this Giro!
 
Re: Re:

blackmamba said:
Matteo. said:
Good result.
Just 21s to Nibali and 16s Valverde. A bit better that i expected


As expected + - some seconds, as I stated in the how much time will landa loose in TT thread. People who thought Nibali is a baller in short TT havent really watched previous results very well. But indeed good start for Landa I think hes gonne be very strong this Giro!

I agree. I though he could lose 30s , so it's good. About Nibali : he always has perfomed well in ITT , also with a poor shape , so his result it's not a surprise.
Last yeat he was the best of GC guys in tour prolugue...
 

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