Most Underwhelming Giro d'Italia Performance

[saganators]

What riders did you have high hopes for and were left utterly disappointed? I didn't include riders forced to leave the race due to injury.

 

[saganators]

My vote is for Ben O'Connor, who was a complete no-show.

 

[Red Rick]

I would say Bob Jungels but he actually did exactly what I expected

 

[Max Rockatansky]

I vote for Elia Viviani. He went from four stages and maglia ciclamino in 2018 to nothing and whining in 2019.

 

[SafeBet]

Where is Simon Yates? Given the expectations and his own assessment of his level he's surely the biggest disappointment of the Giro.

Among the options available I'll go with O'Connor as well. Dropped for good on the very first mountain of the Giro, kept saying he would get in a break but never managed. Terrible performance, which is perfectly in line with his previous 4 months of racing and almost everything done by DD this season.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Where is Simon Yates? Given the expectations and his own assessment of his level he's surely the biggest disappointment of the Giro.

Among the options available I'll go with O'Connor as well. Dropped for good on the very first mountain of the Giro, kept saying he would get in a break but never managed. Terrible performance, which is perfectly in line with his previous 4 months of racing and almost everything done by DD this season.

Yeah both disappointing probably more so for Yates after he won the Vuelta. O'Connor was unlucky last year but this year he had no form. i was a bit disappointed with Zakarin as well. At his best he is near the podium but he is just too inconsistent though his stage wins are always good to watch.

 

[del1962]

Poll not working!

 

[Red Rick]

Fixed poll.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

DropBob Jungels
Because he literally could not make any impact even when realized (too late perhaps) that he had to pursue breakaways. Now, I did not expect him to make the top 10 beforehand, but he was so far from achieving it, that his performance can only be seen as a massive disappointment.

Ion Izagirre is probably the biggest name of any of the riders on the poll, but we all knew that his role would be supportive before the Giro, so he obviously did save himself at times. He underperformed relative to Hirt and Bilbao, but that is not a massive surprise.

 

[Squire]

Re:

Where is Simon Yates? Given the expectations and his own assessment of his level he's surely the biggest disappointment of the Giro.

Among the options available I'll go with O'Connor as well. Dropped for good on the very first mountain of the Giro, kept saying he would get in a break but never managed. Terrible performance, which is perfectly in line with his previous 4 months of racing and almost everything done by DD this season.

Agree with all this. Especially the Yates part. Most underwhelming by far. (Dis)honourable mention to Jungels, as well.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Good mentions. I'd pick Sosa - I know, its his first GT, but before Bernal crashed I had expected him to deliver Porte 2013 performances based on his high mountain climbing. For sure had him as a better climber than Sivakov.

 

[klintE]

Formolo and De Gendt.
Formolo, being in good shape before race just denied his GC capabilities.
De Gendt - the breakawayman - not entertaining much this time.

 

[SafeBet]

Formolo should stop pretending he's a GC rider and focus on what he's very good at: stage hunting and one day races

 

[Mayomaniac]

Re:

DropBob Jungels
Because he literally could not make any impact even when realized (too late perhaps) that he had to pursue breakaways. Now, I did not expect him to make the top 10 beforehand, but he was so far from achieving it, that his performance can only be seen as a massive disappointment.

Ion Izagirre is probably the biggest name of any of the riders on the poll, but we all knew that his role would be supportive before the Giro, so he obviously did save himself at times. He underperformed relative to Hirt and Bilbao, but that is not a massive surprise.

I think that at some point Bob just started to use it as a prep race for the Tour.
He had the worst possible schedule to ride for the gc at the Giro, cobbled classics and a long break after the RVV with no racing before the Giro.

 

[F_Cance]

definitely DDD as a team.

 

[Laplaz]

Simon Yates for me, although Bob Jungels is very close to him. Bob, please no GC leading in GT's anymore!

 

[topcat]

Simon Yates was the most underwhelming. Carthy was the most annoying.

 

[Gigs_98]

I guess Jungels wasn't actually much worse than expected but I just have to give him my votes after he skipped the Ardennes for this.

 

[saganators]

Re: Re:

Where is Simon Yates? Given the expectations and his own assessment of his level he's surely the biggest disappointment of the Giro.

Among the options available I'll go with O'Connor as well. Dropped for good on the very first mountain of the Giro, kept saying he would get in a break but never managed. Terrible performance, which is perfectly in line with his previous 4 months of racing and almost everything done by DD this season.

Yeah both disappointing probably more so for Yates after he won the Vuelta. O'Connor was unlucky last year but this year he had no form. i was a bit disappointed with Zakarin as well. At his best he is near the podium but he is just too inconsistent though his stage wins are always good to watch.

Well, you at least knew Yates was in the race, with 3 stage podiums. Everyone who doesn't win is generally disappointed, so I was going for more of the no-show riders.

 

[Singer01]

Re:

Good mentions. I'd pick Sosa - I know, its his first GT, but before Bernal crashed I had expected him to deliver Porte 2013 performances based on his high mountain climbing. For sure had him as a better climber than Sivakov.

Does he get a pass since he was a replacement and hence maybe not at the right point in his training cycle for his first GT?

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Jungels has got to have some sort of virus or injury. Even when he got in a big break with a chance of a stage win he finished 18th out of 18

 

[IndianCyclist]

Jumbo other than roglic
Quickstep
Yates
Dimension Data were poor along expected lines though

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

It's Sosa's first GT, he's only 21. Let's give him some time. He's no Bernal after all.
O'Connor got dropped by Grossschartner, Evenepoel, Kudus and Conti in Turkey on the only MTF, didn't race since and hasn't been great all year. Didn't expect more of him.
Tolhoek, about what i expected. If he has a good day, he can go far, but i don't think he's the type to be on edge 3 weeks as part of a GT train.
Vuillermoz, Izagirre, Jungels ... i guess i expexted more, but they are also riders i don't have a big interest in.

Voted for Kuss, who was originally riding California as a bigger goal this season. So when he was appointed to replace Gesink in the Giro, i expected to see some of the magic he is supposedly able to produce. If he was supposed to be in shape for california, he should have been in shape for the first week(s) of the Giro as well, maybe able to further grow into the climbing stages. But the opening (climbing) prologue was already abysmal, and his form didnt really improve. In stage 14 he rode a halfway decent result, but this was a stage of only 130km (perhaps this is key to judging his performances... the stages in Utah 2018 were also short). Perhaps what's even more unsettling, is the fact that he seems to be lower in the pecking order than Tolhoek and Bouwman, who are good guys, but hardly worldclass climbers themselves. He turns 25 in 3 months so he should be entering the stage where he is physically ready for this.

That said, had Yates been an option, i would have picked him. Not bad enough to drop GC and go for stage victories, but not good enough to compete for GC. No fun to watch, anonymous, underwhelming. Maybe expectations were too high after last year.

Alternatively, maybe we should also pick a guy that did surprise in a good way? Ciccone, Sivakov, Carapaz, even Haga. Or Carthy or Madouas...

 

[Breh]

Yates by far. After his performances in the Giro and Vuelta last year and his pre-race statements I expected him to obliterate the field or atleast make the podium, especially after Dumoulin and Bernal didn't participate.


Otherwise Jungels or O'Connor, probably O'Connor.

 

[Bolder]

Yates, relative to expectations.