Teams & Riders Nairo Quintana discussion thread

[Escarabajo]

I am not sure if that is good news or bad news!

 

[klintE]

So the real question is now: who is weaker - Qui o r Froo?

 

[Escarabajo]

????

I am not sure we should compare these two at this point.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Nothing much to it, he tried to drop Alarcón and couldn't, the climb was too short and in a 120km stage which meant endurance didn't come into it all that much, Alarcón countered just before the summit and Quintana couldn't follow, Alarcón attacked the descent while Nairo stayed with the chasers. For Nairo, there's bigger fish to fry in the Giro, a bit like when he let Contador go on the descent in the Route du Sud a couple of years ago; for Alarcón this is his biggest career victory on the line. Once Quintana recognized he wouldn't win the GC, he had little reason to work hard; Sevilla, Benta and Bizkarra each needed almost a minute to pass him on the GC so he wasn't going to lose anything either.

 

[klintE]

To be more precise: who exhibited more weakness by recent performances of this two

And for God sake, its only discussion about chances, how we all see them now. It could be instructive for the future
But honestly, I wish , I have very great wish to see some big surprises in GTuors this year. (maybe with Pinot, Pozzo and TJ in a leading role [
Or anybody else who can to bring the starlets down a peg

(Nibali's curse is omitted because I know this year it will not happen again)

 

[Escarabajo]

Libertine, I am not questioning Quintana's performance at all. My comments was more referring to the performance of Alarcon than the one from Quintana. Why should Quintana worry. This is a Continental race with nothing to gain other than form for Quintana.

About Alarcon, well, I don't know him. Maybe he is very good. However, he is 31 years old.

 

[Escarabajo]

Well I noticed something strange in Quintana today. Not sure if he is tired or He is just conserving a lot of energy. Must be the second. If true he must riding these early mountains with only one lung.

He is so focused on the double. We'll see. Hope doesn't come back to bite him to be thinking about the Tour now.

 

[SafeBet]

I don't know what you were expecting. With the double in mind, he'll be cruising until the third week. Can't be in peak shape this early.
I actually think he's among the big winners of today's stage.

 

[Mr.White]

Re:

I don't know what you were expecting. With the double in mind, he'll be cruising until the third week. Can't be in peak shape this early.
I actually think he's among the big winners of today's stage.

Yep, rode exactly as he had said...

 

[Pantani_lives]

If I were Quintana I would try to take 20-30 seconds on every MTF and ride conservatively the rest of the time. Now he's risking a deficit of two-three minutes to Dumoulin, Thomas and Zakarin. Is he that confident he will take minutes in the third week?

 

[Mr.White]

Re:

If I were Quintana I would try to take 20-30 seconds on every MTF and ride conservatively the rest of the time. Now he's risking a deficit of two-three minutes to Dumoulin, Thomas and Zakarin. Is he that confident he will take minutes in the third week?

He hasn't got the form to do that right now, he's building slowly, he's targeting two of the biggest races in the world! I expect much better Quintana on Blockhaus, but even there I don't think he'll win or drop all of his main rivals. But I do expect that on Stelvio and Dolomite stage.

 

[DNP-Old]

Re:

Even if the form is there, there was no point to attack today anyway, mostly due to the headwind. Not for Nairo, not for anyone. Zakarin went all out and gained what, ten precious seconds? The ITT in Monza is also on the very last day, when recuperation plays a very, very big part in the race. We all know Nairo is head and shoulders above everyone in that regard, the time trialists are yet to show that.

 

[Forever The Best]

Re: Re:

Even if the form is there, there was no point to attack today anyway, mostly due to the headwind. Not for Nairo, not for anyone. Zakarin went all out and gained what, ten precious seconds? The ITT in Monza is also on the very last day, when recuperation plays a very, very big part in the race. We all know Nairo is head and shoulders above everyone in that regard, the time trialists are yet to show that.

I think Kruiswijk and Nibali's recovery are very good too.

 

[dacooley]

Re: Re:

Even if the form is there, there was no point to attack today anyway, mostly due to the headwind. Not for Nairo, not for anyone. Zakarin went all out and gained what, ten precious seconds? The ITT in Monza is also on the very last day, when recuperation plays a very, very big part in the race. We all know Nairo is head and shoulders above everyone in that regard, the time trialists are yet to show that.

so quintana will easily put 3 minutes into the other contenders in the mountains on aggregate once he needs it, won't he?

 

[DNP-Old]

Re: Re:

Even if the form is there, there was no point to attack today anyway, mostly due to the headwind. Not for Nairo, not for anyone. Zakarin went all out and gained what, ten precious seconds? The ITT in Monza is also on the very last day, when recuperation plays a very, very big part in the race. We all know Nairo is head and shoulders above everyone in that regard, the time trialists are yet to show that.

I think Kruiswijk and Nibali's recovery are very good too.

Of course, no doubt. But I think we can all agree Nairo is the sure number one in that regard.

 

[DNP-Old]

Re: Re:

Even if the form is there, there was no point to attack today anyway, mostly due to the headwind. Not for Nairo, not for anyone. Zakarin went all out and gained what, ten precious seconds? The ITT in Monza is also on the very last day, when recuperation plays a very, very big part in the race. We all know Nairo is head and shoulders above everyone in that regard, the time trialists are yet to show that.

so quintana will easily put 3 minutes into the other contenders in the mountains on aggregate once he needs it, won't he?

No reason to think he won't put 3 minutes into the time trialists in the last week. Five hard, consecutive stages to Bormio, Canazei, Ortisei, Piancavallo and Asiago. That's when Nairo is likely on his best and his advantage of having a much, much better recuperation than, say Thomas or Dumoulin, comes into play.

 

[Forever The Best]

Re: Re:

Even if the form is there, there was no point to attack today anyway, mostly due to the headwind. Not for Nairo, not for anyone. Zakarin went all out and gained what, ten precious seconds? The ITT in Monza is also on the very last day, when recuperation plays a very, very big part in the race. We all know Nairo is head and shoulders above everyone in that regard, the time trialists are yet to show that.

I think Kruiswijk and Nibali's recovery are very good too.

Of course, no doubt. But I think we can all agree Nairo is the sure number one in that regard.

Quintana has the best recovery of the GC contenders indeed but I still expect him to lose some time to Nibali and Kruiswijk in the final TT. (not sure about Kruiswijk though as he may be a bit weaker this year because of his crash in Yorkshire)

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

I don't know what you were expecting. With the double in mind, he'll be cruising until the third week. Can't be in peak shape this early.
I actually think he's among the big winners of today's stage.

I think so as well. Just a little nervous. Quintana rides with a calculator on his hand.

 

[DFA123]

Where has this theory come from that Kruijswijk is an absolute monster in the third week? Last year he faded big time in the final mountain stage (possibly affected by his crash) and finished off the podium. And in 2015, though he was good in the last week, he was still outclimbed by Aru, Landa and Uran (!), so he was hardly tearing the field apart. Other than that, you have to go back to 2011 where he had a couple of reasonable top 10 finishes in the last week. And that's it.

Pretty shaky evidence imo, to suggest that he's going to dominate the mountains and the TT against the likes of Quintana and Nibali in the final week this year. Two riders who have shown many more times that they can peak at a very high level in the third week of a GT.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Where has this theory come from that Kruijswijk is an absolute monster in the third week? Last year he faded big time in the final mountain stage (possibly affected by his crash) and finished off the podium. And in 2015, though he was good in the last week, he was still outclimbed by Aru, Landa and Uran (!), so he was hardly tearing the field apart. Other than that, you have to go back to 2011 where he had a couple of reasonable top 10 finishes in the last week. And that's it.

Pretty shaky evidence imo, to suggest that he's going to dominate the mountains and the TT against the likes of Quintana and Nibali in the final week this year. Two riders who have shown many more times that they can peak at a very high level in the third week of a GT.

Observation.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Where has this theory come from that Kruijswijk is an absolute monster in the third week? Last year he faded big time in the final mountain stage (possibly affected by his crash) and finished off the podium. And in 2015, though he was good in the last week, he was still outclimbed by Aru, Landa and Uran (!), so he was hardly tearing the field apart. Other than that, you have to go back to 2011 where he had a couple of reasonable top 10 finishes in the last week. And that's it.

Pretty shaky evidence imo, to suggest that he's going to dominate the mountains and the TT against the likes of Quintana and Nibali in the final week this year. Two riders who have shown many more times that they can peak at a very high level in the third week of a GT.

Observation.

Any evidence to back that up? Or is the observation just through rose (or should that be orange) tinted glasses?

 

[dacooley]

Re: Re:

Even if the form is there, there was no point to attack today anyway, mostly due to the headwind. Not for Nairo, not for anyone. Zakarin went all out and gained what, ten precious seconds? The ITT in Monza is also on the very last day, when recuperation plays a very, very big part in the race. We all know Nairo is head and shoulders above everyone in that regard, the time trialists are yet to show that.

so quintana will easily put 3 minutes into the other contenders in the mountains on aggregate once he needs it, won't he?

No reason to think he won't put 3 minutes into the time trialists in the last week. Five hard, consecutive stages to Bormio, Canazei, Ortisei, Piancavallo and Asiago. That's when Nairo is likely on his best and his advantage of having a much, much better recuperation than, say Thomas or Dumoulin, comes into play.

thomas and dimoulin are second tier favorites. nobody will be surprised if they completely crack and end up losing 10 minutes at one of the mountain stage. still quintana easily putting 3 minutes into nibali or landa in week 3 sounds like an exaggerration to me.

 

[Netserk]

Re:

Where has this theory come from that Kruijswijk is an absolute monster in the third week? Last year he faded big time in the final mountain stage (possibly affected by his crash) and finished off the podium. And in 2015, though he was good in the last week, he was still outclimbed by Aru, Landa and Uran (!), so he was hardly tearing the field apart. Other than that, you have to go back to 2011 where he had a couple of reasonable top 10 finishes in the last week. And that's it.

Pretty shaky evidence imo, to suggest that he's going to dominate the mountains and the TT against the likes of Quintana and Nibali in the final week this year. Two riders who have shown many more times that they can peak at a very high level in the third week of a GT.

:lol:

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Where has this theory come from that Kruijswijk is an absolute monster in the third week? Last year he faded big time in the final mountain stage (possibly affected by his crash) and finished off the podium. And in 2015, though he was good in the last week, he was still outclimbed by Aru, Landa and Uran (!), so he was hardly tearing the field apart. Other than that, you have to go back to 2011 where he had a couple of reasonable top 10 finishes in the last week. And that's it.

Pretty shaky evidence imo, to suggest that he's going to dominate the mountains and the TT against the likes of Quintana and Nibali in the final week this year. Two riders who have shown many more times that they can peak at a very high level in the third week of a GT.

Observation.

Any evidence to back that up? Or is the observation just through rose (or should that be orange) tinted glasses?

Because just about all of Kruijswijks best results have come in the 3rd week of GTs or in a week race after a GT. Nothing to do with wishful thinking.

Now how good that level is compared to the Quintanas of this world, is another question.

 

[lenric]

Re:

Where has this theory come from that Kruijswijk is an absolute monster in the third week? Last year he faded big time in the final mountain stage (possibly affected by his crash) and finished off the podium. And in 2015, though he was good in the last week, he was still outclimbed by Aru, Landa and Uran (!), so he was hardly tearing the field apart. Other than that, you have to go back to 2011 where he had a couple of reasonable top 10 finishes in the last week. And that's it.

Pretty shaky evidence imo, to suggest that he's going to dominate the mountains and the TT against the likes of Quintana and Nibali in the final week this year. Two riders who have shown many more times that they can peak at a very high level in the third week of a GT.

Not possibly. Certainly.