(Presidential) Cycling Tour of Turkey [April 11th-April18th 2021]

[Zinoviev Letter]

It’s interesting to see just how quickly the ruthless confidence came back. He rode that today like a guy sure that he’s the fastest in the race.

 

[will-10]

Lefevere again showing that he’s the smartest guy running a team: he got Cavendish for practically nothing, which means nice publicity at zero risk and a chance of huge publicity if it goes right. Now it’s going right and DQS get a thousand times the publicity they’d get from winning stages in Turkey normally. Lots of people hate Lefevere, but nobody doubts his cunning.

He was saying yesterday that they’d promised Hodeg the Giro, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cavendish taking that role. Losing with Hodeg is much less valuable than losing with a resurgent Cav, coming off the back of a bunch of small wins. Winning with Cavendish there would be a publicity jackpot.

PCS have this as their Giro longlist:

Deceuninck - Quick Step

• CATTANEO Mattia
• KEISSE Iljo
• KNOX James
• BAGIOLI Andrea
• ALMEIDA João
• EVENEPOEL Remco
• MASNADA Fausto
• SERRY Pieter
• HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich

 

[F_Cance]

QS ignited the spark and cav started wanting it more again

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

PCS have this as their Giro longlist:

Deceuninck - Quick Step

• CATTANEO Mattia
• KEISSE Iljo
• KNOX James
• BAGIOLI Andrea
• ALMEIDA João
• EVENEPOEL Remco
• MASNADA Fausto
• SERRY Pieter
• HONORÉ Mikkel Frølich

Maybe by this time they'd given up on Hodeg, like any normal person would have. But from this team i would think Bagioli, Knox or Honoré are those most likely to lose their spot. They need a road captain like Keisse, they need a guy for all terrain like Serry, who will take over from Keisse when things get harder. But if they bring a sprinter, they're gonna need at least one guy in support, Keisse can't do everything. I guess Knox would be the most likely guy to shift towards the TDF team, in support of Alaphilippe, maybe a tad too soon for Bagioli?

 

[jmdirt]

WOOHOO Cav X2!

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Maybe by this time they'd given up on Hodeg, like any normal person would have. But from this team i would think Bagioli, Knox or Honoré are those most likely to lose their spot. They need a road captain like Keisse, they need a guy for all terrain like Serry, who will take over from Keisse when things get harder. But if they bring a sprinter, they're gonna need at least one guy in support, Keisse can't do everything. I guess Knox would be the most likely guy to shift towards the TDF team, in support of Alaphilippe, maybe a tad too soon for Bagioli?

As of yesterday Lefevere was saying Hodeg is to sprint at the Giro. It seems pretty strange, but officially that seems to be the current plan.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

As of yesterday Lefevere was saying Hodeg is to sprint at the Giro. It seems pretty strange, but officially that seems to be the current plan.

At this point Evenepoel has a bigger shot at winning a stage than Hodeg. Even a sprint, lol.
I suppose they're gonna wait for the Vuelta to bring Jakobsen. Maybe they can bring Cav and Hodeg and have them tag-team the sprints every other day? Or go for whoever's got the legs? Actually, how many real sprint stages will there be in the Giro?

 

[Krokro]

Glad that Cavendish gets his mojo back. Still, it's the worst camerawork I've seen in a while. I miss San Juan for real when I watch this.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

In a team with Bennett, Ballerini, Cavendish and (if he were to get fully back on track before the end of the year) Jakobsen, it would be pretty ridiculous to have the Hodeg of the past 18 months be your sprinter in any GT. With Ballerini's form having been toast the past month, I'd send either Cav or no sprinter at all to the Giro. Then pencil in Ballerini for the Vuelta (who could do a '17 Trentin there) and phase out Hodeg, who has had and missed enough opportunities at this point, if I were QS.

 

[Red Rick]

At this point Evenepoel has a bigger shot at winning a stage than Hodeg. Even a sprint, lol.
I suppose they're gonna wait for the Vuelta to bring Jakobsen. Maybe they can bring Cav and Hodeg and have them tag-team the sprints every other day? Or go for whoever's got the legs? Actually, how many real sprint stages will there be in the Giro?

5 or so I think

 

[BlueRoads]

Looking at the Giro profile I think it's more of a punishment than a prize for a sprinter anyway...
And if they bring the young climbers crew a sprinter won't have much support.

 

[Gigs_98]

Seeing Cav win again makes me feel a little less old. I needed that during a lockdown.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Looking at the Giro profile I think it's more of a punishment than a prize for a sprinter anyway...
And if they bring the young climbers crew a sprinter won't have much support.

They aren’t going to be bringing a train but at the very least Ewan and Merlier will have teams there primarily to make sure the potential sprint stages do end in sprints

 

[tobydawq]

Seeing Cav win again makes me feel a little less old. I needed that during a lockdown.

I think you're way too young to be allowed to complain about feeling old...

 

[RedheadDane]

I think you're way too young to be allowed to complain about feeling old...

If that "98" in the username refers to birth-year; definitely!

 

[tobydawq]

If that "98" in the username refers to birth-year; definitely!

I'm pretty sure it does.

 

[tobydawq]

And I don't think it's 1898 but in that case I will allow the complaints.

 

[Red Rick]

Seeing Cav win again makes me feel a little less old. I needed that during a lockdown.

Wait til Nadal wins RG again.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Wait til Nadal wins RG again.

That's almost like a guarantee.

 

[dicanio_michael]

Lefevere again showing that he’s the smartest guy running a team: he got Cavendish for practically nothing, which means nice publicity at zero risk and a chance of huge publicity if it goes right. Now it’s going right and DQS get a thousand times the publicity they’d get from winning stages in Turkey normally. Lots of people hate Lefevere, but nobody doubts his cunning.

He was saying yesterday that they’d promised Hodeg the Giro, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cavendish taking that role. Losing with Hodeg is much less valuable than losing with a resurgent Cav, coming off the back of a bunch of small wins. Winning with Cavendish there would be a publicity jackpot.

Hodeg is really bad at this moment, even Ballerini could outsprint him 10 out of 10 these days. He lost himself today again in the leadout trying to battle Cav for the wheel of Philipsen. He just didn't know what himself was doing in a race anymore.

I hope if they intend to bring a sprinter to Giro, it would be Ballerini.

 

[Gigs_98]

I think you're way too young to be allowed to complain about feeling old...

Well, the lockdowns certainly make you think about age more often. You probably didn't spend your early twenties just sitting at home staring at a screen all the time.
Then again considering how much time we are all spending on this forum and watching cycling races, you probably did.

 

[BlueRoads]

When I was young we still looked into books from time to time.

 

[Lequack]

 

[Gigs_98]

When I was young we still looked into books from time to time.

You mean like facebook? I'm sorry but I'm too young for that sort of stuff

 

[Samu Cuenca]

The picture is six years old, so he may just have finished eating all the bananas this year. Maybe carrying that extra weight is what actually slowed him down over the last years.