Rigoberto Uran discussion thread.

[Gigs_98]

It's actually quite strange. You would normally call guys who have 3 2nd places in gt's unlucky, and would normally say that they deserve to finally win a gt, but in his case I've never had the feeling that he was anywhere close to a gt win and except for the few stages in pink after the ITT in the giro 2014 I never had the feeling he could ever win one.

 

[Red Rick]

Exactly. Uran is a weird rider cause he rarely is able to make the difference, and seemingly randomly pops up at the podium of huge races. He's been very close in massive one day races too, and if not for that crash in 2013 might have had a 2nd place at the Worlds too. If his TTs were more consistent he'd basically be Cadel Evans minus the wins.

 

[hrotha]

I don't remember the last time he tried to make the difference. Hell, in the Giro he lost to Quintana, he mostly refused to pull for his own interests, let alone attack.

 

[jmdirt]

Re:

Not a bad stage 20 TT considering he crashed and his "inferior" Cannondale equipment!! Well done Rigoberto! Colombia is spoilt for choice between their two big GC stars now.

If that was a crash, I wish my crashes were more like that!
If he would have had a Castelli vortex suit, and a Shiv or Bolide he would have won the TT and taken over the GC lead.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I remember when Uran was younger he did try to make the difference. Even remember he attacked multiple times in the Tour of Germany when he was really young, like 20 or 21.. and then crashed horrible in the descent of the same stage.

 

[movingtarget]

It's actually quite strange. You would normally call guys who have 3 2nd places in gt's unlucky, and would normally say that they deserve to finally win a gt, but in his case I've never had the feeling that he was anywhere close to a gt win and except for the few stages in pink after the ITT in the giro 2014 I never had the feeling he could ever win one.

Convincingly beaten by Nibali and Quintana but I guess after the TT you could say the same about Froome and Bardet. People hoped but there was no chance it was going to happen. Uran only gets so close because of Froome's climbing form which had little to do with Uran because he rarely attacked.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Uran is very good at making the most of his abilities.

Can't see him winning a GT but he is definitely capable of winning a big classic (Lombardia is definitely a race he should target)

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Uran is very good at making the most of his abilities.

Can't see him winning a GT but he is definitely capable of winning a big classic (Lombardia is definitely a race he should target)

I think the opposite of this. To me, he is an incredible talent who has failed to convert his ability into wins. At various points in his career he has been one of the best climbers in the world, one of the best time triallists, one of the best hilly classics riders and one of the best sprinters among climbers. He has very good endurance and has ridden on some of the strongest teams in the peloton throughout most of his career.

Yet, at 30 years old, he's never won a stage race, and his only prestigious one day win is Quebec.

 

[roundabout]

My memory is not the best, but I do not remember him usually being able to make a difference uphill. Someone who has followed him closer can correct me, but the only time he was the best of the favorites uphill was on that Giro stage where everyone else was initially focused on Wiggins and he was already a couple (?) of minutes back on GC.

 

[Alexandre B.]

My memory is not the best, but I do not remember him usually being able to make a difference uphill. Someone who has followed him closer can correct me, but the only time he was the best of the favorites uphill was on that Giro stage where everyone else was initially focused on Wiggins and he was already a couple (?) of minutes back on GC.

He was strong on Zoncolan in Giro 2014.

 

[Red Rick]

I think Uran is a world class rider who doesn't have one niche where he's actually the best. That hurts him. That hurts a lot of riders.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

Uran is very good at making the most of his abilities.

Can't see him winning a GT but he is definitely capable of winning a big classic (Lombardia is definitely a race he should target)

I think the opposite of this. To me, he is an incredible talent who has failed to convert his ability into wins. At various points in his career he has been one of the best climbers in the world, one of the best time triallists, one of the best hilly classics riders and one of the best sprinters among climbers. He has very good endurance and has ridden on some of the strongest teams in the peloton throughout most of his career.

Yet, at 30 years old, he's never won a stage race, and his only prestigious one day win is Quebec.

The problem is he's one of the best at many things, but not the best at anything, and that's reflected on his palmares.

Runner up in three grand tours, olympic road race, a couple of grand tour stage wins, couple of podiums at week long stage races, 3 podiums in lombardy

It's not a bad palmares at all, just lacks the wins, but reflects his abilities

 

[roundabout]

My memory is not the best, but I do not remember him usually being able to make a difference uphill. Someone who has followed him closer can correct me, but the only time he was the best of the favorites uphill was on that Giro stage where everyone else was initially focused on Wiggins and he was already a couple (?) of minutes back on GC.

He was strong on Zoncolan in Giro 2014.

Yes, but even then I seem to recall he was quite content to ride behind Poels and gained practically nothing on the rest considering the difficulty of the climb.

 

[Red Rick]

My memory is not the best, but I do not remember him usually being able to make a difference uphill. Someone who has followed him closer can correct me, but the only time he was the best of the favorites uphill was on that Giro stage where everyone else was initially focused on Wiggins and he was already a couple (?) of minutes back on GC.

He was strong on Zoncolan in Giro 2014.

Yes, but even then I seem to recall he was quite content to ride behind Poels and gained practically nothing on the rest considering the difficulty of the climb.

Can't really blame there. Had minutes to win or lose to change GC position, breakaway was 15 minutes up the road. Attacking in the last 2km for shits and giggles and dropping everyone but Quitnana was the best he could've done.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I think he thought he thought win condition was to follow, follow and follow being as anonymous as possible and hope for an out of the world ITT or bad luck for Froome. If that happens, he wins. If that doesnt happen he still gets 2nd, his greatest result of his career.

I can't blame him.

 

[roundabout]

He was relatively close with Aru at that point (under a minute I think), but you are right, there was no real incentive to be aggressive at that point.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Yeah well I don't think he and his team had the resources to put up a fight and I think the current results exceeded their expectations to the point that they quite frankly was very surprised he was going that well. Urán and Cannondale have had a lot of bad luck, I understand 'settling' for 2nd. But still, just being to close to Froome in the end, you never knows what can happen.

 

[Brullnux]

I was just thinking that had the opening TT been dry, and had he not almost crashed coming into the stadium yesterday, and had he actually attacked once or twice, then Uran would have very likely won this Tour.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

I was just thinking that had the opening TT been dry, and had he not almost crashed coming into the stadium yesterday, and had he actually attacked once or twice, then Uran would have very likely won this Tour.

Doubtful!
Too many ifs. Froome could have raced a bit different.

I am not sure if he had any incentive to go on the attack. He and his team had a lot more to lose than to gain.

 

[hrotha]

It was unlikely to work, but it can only be super sad that the 2nd in the GC never tried to win the race.

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

I was just thinking that had the opening TT been dry, and had he not almost crashed coming into the stadium yesterday, and had he actually attacked once or twice, then Uran would have very likely won this Tour.

Doubtful!
Too many ifs. Froome could have raced a bit different.

I am not sure if he had any incentive to go on the attack. He and his team had a lot more to lose than to gain.

Let's assume 25-30 seconds back from a non wet TT (which would put him around half a minute behind Froome, which is possible looking at the final time trial), and another 10-15 from not going into a barrier, that puts him between 19 and 9 seconds behind Froome depending on which end of the bracket he falls. Then actually attacking at some point could well have taken back 10 seconds, perhaps on the way to Foix (which is where his only mini-dig ever came), or at Galibier, or Izoard, or when Froome had a mechanical. Froome might've raced differently, but he never had the legs to drop any of the contenders on the climbs, as we saw on Planche des Belles Filles, Mont du Chat, Peguere and Izoard.

But, no matter what Vaughters says or claims, he wasn't interested in the yellow jersey.

 

[Tonton]

I agree with all the above posts. Bravo Rigoberto. You had a great Tour, won the queen stage, enjoy the podium and the Champagne. Great job .

 

[jmdirt]

Re:

I was just thinking that had the opening TT been dry, and had he not almost crashed coming into the stadium yesterday, and had he actually attacked once or twice, then Uran would have very likely won this Tour.

Two more ifs and I could have won la TdF.

The reason the if game doesn't work is that it goes both ways. If RU crashes (or crashes out), if he blows up, if his frame brakes...if...if... and for every if there is opposing if.

 

[IndianCyclist]

It's actually quite strange. You would normally call guys who have 3 2nd places in gt's unlucky, and would normally say that they deserve to finally win a gt, but in his case I've never had the feeling that he was anywhere close to a gt win and except for the few stages in pink after the ITT in the giro 2014 I never had the feeling he could ever win one.

2nd is the ceiling for him

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Uran is very good at making the most of his abilities.

Can't see him winning a GT but he is definitely capable of winning a big classic (Lombardia is definitely a race he should target)

I think the opposite of this. To me, he is an incredible talent who has failed to convert his ability into wins. At various points in his career he has been one of the best climbers in the world, one of the best time triallists, one of the best hilly classics riders and one of the best sprinters among climbers. He has very good endurance and has ridden on some of the strongest teams in the peloton throughout most of his career.

Yet, at 30 years old, he's never won a stage race, and his only prestigious one day win is Quebec.

The problem is he's one of the best at many things, but not the best at anything, and that's reflected on his palmares.

Runner up in three grand tours, olympic road race, a couple of grand tour stage wins, couple of podiums at week long stage races, 3 podiums in lombardy

It's not a bad palmares at all, just lacks the wins, but reflects his abilities

I guess it reflects his abilities to an extent, but I think a better tactical rider or even someone who was a bit braver with their riding would have won a lot more. He reminds me a bit of Valverde before his ban (though not quite as good), in that he has it all but races just a bit too passively at times.

Hopefully Uran can change that later in his career, the way Valverde has done and start racking up some impressive wins.