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Paris - Nice 2021, March 7 - March 14

Page 21 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Don't think there has been a better one week stage racer than roglic in my time of me following this sport. That combination of being an elite climber, an elite puncheur and an elite time trialist is straight up ridiculous. It's honestly hard to design a one week stage race that isn't entirely flat, he wouldn't be among the biggest favorites for.
What's even scarier is that he's not exactly the only rider in the current peloton with a skillset that's unparalleled in modern times.
 
the new profile for Sunday (stage will finish in Levens instead of Nice) is on Tissot already, and looks pretty bad. Three laps over Cote de Levens


Also tomorrow they scrapped like 50k, but at least the finishing climb will be still there
WTF
Looks terrible
 
Another one

EwS0VepWgAIDerS
 
Good old mountain top finish sprint from Primož. I absolutely love it. See on Strava files from guys, they were flying last ramp to the finish and to sprint on the top of it like this, tells you that Primož is majestic. Now, will Primož achieve his jubilee 50th Career Win tomorrow, or on Sunday? Great weekend ahead of us.
 
Plotting the climbs of Stage 8 right now, it looks like both the official profile and LaFlammeRouge are way off (one shows the summit of Duranus as being 70 meters lower than the other, so hardly surprising). Strava suggests that I'm (or rather, French topographical maps are) right and the categorised climb (Duranus) is over 5% average instead of 3.5 or 3.7%, so maybe the stage isn't quite as bad as it seems.

Either way, here's the profile I've pieced together, IGN elevation data with a bit of help from Strava and Streetview:
iKMInzj.png
 
Rogla showing that last year's Vuelta wasn't a fluke. He really is an upgraded version of peak Valverde.


No question Rogla is a better TTer possibly a better climber, but no way he beats a peak Valverde in a punchy climb. Alaphilippe doesn't touch a peak Valverde in that type of climb.
Remember when Valverde was young he was thought to be a sprinter who could climb. When he turned pro the peloton thought he was a sprinter.
 
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No question Rogla is a better TTer possibly a better climber, but no way he beats a peak Valverde in a punchy climb. Alaphilippe doesn't touch a peak Valverde in that type of climb.
Remember when Valverde was young he was thought to be a sprinter who could climb. When he turned pro the peloton thought he was a sprinter.

It's a close battle but Valverde's performance on Mas de la Costa against Roglic in 2019 makes a good argument that peak Valverde was superior.
 
Plotting the climbs of Stage 8 right now, it looks like both the official profile and LaFlammeRouge are way off (one shows the summit of Duranus as being 70 meters lower than the other, so hardly surprising). Strava suggests that I'm (or rather, French topographical maps are) right and the categorised climb (Duranus) is over 5% average instead of 3.5 or 3.7%, so maybe the stage isn't quite as bad as it seems.

Either way, here's the profile I've pieced together, IGN elevation data with a bit of help from Strava and Streetview:
iKMInzj.png
That’s a lot harder than the earlier version of the Duranus profile. Not a Bennett day after all.
 
No question Rogla is a better TTer possibly a better climber, but no way he beats a peak Valverde in a punchy climb. Alaphilippe doesn't touch a peak Valverde in that type of climb.
Remember when Valverde was young he was thought to be a sprinter who could climb. When he turned pro the peloton thought he was a sprinter.

Of course Alaphilippe touches a peak Valverde... :rolleyes:

You need to be blind to deny that.
 
If we are reffering by FW as the ultimate punchers test, Valverde was dominating in the mid 10's but I think that the lack of proper competition is one of the reasons for that. I mean, when Valverde was winning it, his main competiotion was Dan Martin and we all know his problems with positioning (a great puncher dont deny that). If Valverde had peak Alaphilippe he wouldn't be as big of a dominator, as he used to be. I'd say that 2014-17 would've been 2:2 between both of them. About Roglic on Mur de Huy-like climb I don't think he has a chance between any of them. On a moderate slopes, say 5-7%, Roglic, at least for me, as a very good chance of winnig depending of the daily form.
 
If we are reffering by FW as the ultimate punchers test, Valverde was dominating in the mid 10's but I think that the lack of proper competition is one of the reasons for that. I mean, when Valverde was winning it, his main competiotion was Dan Martin and we all know his problems with positioning (a great puncher dont deny that).

On the other hand, he won in 2006, which I would consider a sort of golden age of uphill sprinting, with the likes of Bettini, Rebellin and Di Luca around. Valverde's career has also overlapped with Gilbert's, who could be considered an all time great in his own right.
 
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