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True that Evans was up and down with his TT but just about everyone expected him to win all the same as Sastre had never showed much in the TT before. Evans had a hard race of course and he didn't get that early buffer that Dumoulin got in the first TT.
Ramira said:
True that Evans was up and down with his TT but just about everyone expected him to win all the same as Sastre had never showed much in the TT before. Evans had a hard race of course and he didn't get that early buffer that Dumoulin got in the first TT.
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Ofcourse, he basically has to stay on his bike to bag this giro.Ramira said:Breh said:oops, thought tomorrow was 23km
If it were only 23km it would still heavily favour Dumoulin, but I think Quintana might have had an outside shot.
Re:
much difficult to make a gap and maintain it alone than to close a small gap and ride in group...
You speak as if "Colombian" was an ethnicity or a family
also, he's podiumed at least half of the GTs he has rode.
the_cutter said:
much difficult to make a gap and maintain it alone than to close a small gap and ride in group...
portugal11 said:
You speak as if "Colombian" was an ethnicity or a family
also, he's podiumed at least half of the GTs he has rode.
any grand tour contender aims to peak for a gt often sacrificing one week races. for some uncertain reason nairo roughly remained on his march terminillo level which is not enough against the well-prepared opponents in the giro. yet i wouldnt be very much surprised to know that he got sick in third week. hope for some comments upcoming.
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who seriously cares about being far from best form? riders of nairo's calibre must prove their ability to reach the best (winning) form in any gt they participate.DNP-Old said:
rick james
BANNED
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Of course, there is a chance he smokes everyone at the Tour now and has got the long plan spot on, but I certainly wouldn't bet on it right now.
Completely agree with this. Peaking well for a GT is more than half the battle, and that's two years in a row now Quintana has messed it up to some extent. Once is careless and could be an isolated mistake, twice suggests he doesn't really fully understand how his body responds to training load, so there is a good chance it will happen again.dacooley said:
Of course, there is a chance he smokes everyone at the Tour now and has got the long plan spot on, but I certainly wouldn't bet on it right now.
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Well he came here under raced. He and Eusebio knew there was a risk. Had he done more kilometers then there was no need to go to the Tour anyway.
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Yeah, it looks like they just miscalculated. And unfortunately not for the first time. Even if he is going for the super peak at the Tour, there is no way that he was aiming for a third week level at the Giro which saw him getting comfortably reeled back in by Reichenbach, and unable to bridge a small gap to Zakarin even with help from Nibali.Escarabajo said:
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the argument of a single rider losing the race because of being below par is hilarious stuff as it could be easily applied to any big favorite. kind of nibali could've comfortably won this giro in the 2014 tour form. it's way harder on the road than on the level of our assumptions.
what's the wrong with the critisism adressed to a rider who performs worse than expected? Do you know it for sure? I'm not assured. most likely nairo was going to come to the giro at the best possible form, win it and then explore for himself what he will be capable of in the tour. i personally don't buy the hypothesis of him intentionally coming to the giro at 80-90% to win it with minimal effort. nonetheless, the race is not lost thus far, who knows maybe we'll be congratulating him in 24 hours.DNP-Old said:
the argument of a single rider losing the race because of being below par is hilarious stuff as it could be easily applied to any big favorite. kind of nibali could've comfortably won this giro in the 2014 tour form. it's way harder on the road than on the level of our assumptions.
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This kind of works against Nairo in terms of public opinion. People expect him to be one of the greatest climbers ever, and the two most recent "greatests", Pantani and Contador, are/were the two most aggressive multiple GT winners on the big mountains. Even Schleck, for all the criticism he took, exploded the field on Serre Chevellier in 2011. In this Giro, Nairo's attacks seem like he's being chased down by the Sky machine in last years TDF, and without Froome's Postal-lite squad present, people placed enormous expectations on him.
Pinot attacked. Zackarin attacked. Dumoulin attacked (though his attacks are diesel instead of explosive). You could say Zackarin was the most aggressive of all the GC riders, and Pinot isn't far off. Nobody really expected a rider like Dumoulin to attack, so anything relative was a bonus.Andro said:
This kind of works against Nairo in terms of public opinion. People expect him to be one of the greatest climbers ever, and the two most recent "greatests", Pantani and Contador, are/were the two most aggressive multiple GT winners on the big mountains. Even Schleck, for all the criticism he took, exploded the field on Serre Chevellier in 2011. In this Giro, Nairo's attacks seem like he's being chased down by the Sky machine in last years TDF, and without Froome's Postal-lite squad present, people placed enormous expectations on him.
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He won't win, but your mixing your feelings here. I see why TD can deserve it in that sense of the meaning, but other than that I didn't see clearly who was more, or just as deserving as Quintana. Not for the 3 weeks.
???Tonton said:
He won't win, but your mixing your feelings here. I see why TD can deserve it in that sense of the meaning, but other than that I didn't see clearly who was more, or just as deserving as Quintana. Not for the 3 weeks.
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People obviously have existing preconcepcions about riders and remarkably large amount of them are completely incapable and/or unwilling to interprete everything they (and in this case specifically Nairo) do during the race without the restrictions of that preset framework of thinking.
Today was the only time he deserved some of that criticism. On the last climb at the very least he should have laid it all on the line - retaining the status quo from yesterday would have meant losing the Giro (as is gonna happen now). But that doesn't change the fact that the amount of sheer hatred shown toward him is beyond comprehension. More than that actually, it has been downright despicable and pathetic.
DNP-Old said:
People obviously have existing preconcepcions about riders and remarkably large amount of them are completely incapable and/or unwilling to interprete everything they (and in this case specifically Nairo) do during the race without the restrictions of that preset framework of thinking.
Today was the only time he deserved some of that criticism. On the last climb at the very least he should have laid it all on the line - retaining the status quo from yesterday would have meant losing the Giro (as is gonna happen now). But that doesn't change the fact that the amount of sheer hatred shown toward him is beyond comprehension. More than that actually, it has been downright despicable and pathetic.
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This 100%. He did the two fiercest all out attacks in this Giro plus several shorter, more half-hearted efforts later on. One was a moderate success, the other backfired badly and might have been a part of the reason he was below par during the last week. Frankly, no-one else in this Giro has shown more meaningful agressiveness over the whole three weeks. Combination of negative preconceptions, short and selective memory as well as over the top expectations resulted in a maelstrom of sh*t targeted toward him in the race threads and this one.
Escarabajo said:
This 100%. He did the two fiercest all out attacks in this Giro plus several shorter, more half-hearted efforts later on. One was a moderate success, the other backfired badly and might have been a part of the reason he was below par during the last week. Frankly, no-one else in this Giro has shown more meaningful agressiveness over the whole three weeks. Combination of negative preconceptions, short and selective memory as well as over the top expectations resulted in a maelstrom of sh*t targeted toward him in the race threads and this one.
He had a very weird race. If you look at his approach objectively he put in a considerable number of serious attacks. He went all out on Blockhaus and it worked. He went all out on Oropa and it went badly wrong. I suspect that Oropa demoralised him to some extent. He did attack again afterwards repeatedly, but if it didn't immediately and obviously work he would knock it off straight away and lapse into passivity. Oropa showed him that his opponents were too strong to just ride away from. Sometimes weak attacks were certainly all he could manage - it's not cowardice that sees a multiple GT winner easily controlled by Reichenbach, it's physical weakness. On other occasions, his tactics were just baffling, like he doesn't have any idea how to maximise his chances when he isn't just obviously the strongest.
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