The Austrian Boys

[May0maniac]

Why are Bora sending Konrad to the TdS after riding the Giro once again?
The guy already has 47 race days and just finished a really hard Giro, give him a break, you already tried the same thing last year, he faded and was pretty bad durning the 2nd half of the season.
I get that the route should suit him, I just think that it's a bit much. Maybe he won't ride the Vuelta, maybe it will just be Formolo and Buchmann (his big goal, wants to fight for top 5 on the gc), but Konrad will probably want to ride the Vuelta to prepare for the WC.
Speaking of Bora messing up, Formolo recently said in an interview that the team choose the wrong gearing for the Zoncolan, he and Konrad had to climb with 36x30 as their smallest gear and couldn't get their cadence up to 75 rpm or higher, according to him 34x32 would have been much better.

 

[Kokoso]

Re: Re:

I still think Konrads true strength are his engine and sprint (for a climber) and not so much his high mountain climbing. But he surprised me woth holding on for sure. Like Mayomaniac, i can see the Vuelta fitting him best of the GTs.

On an other noter - Pernsteiner won the GP Lugano today. After only switching to the road fully this winter he amazes me. 14th at Tour de Romandie and now a win (against a very strong field). Seeing his climbing strength i hope for a GT debut this year. Preferable winning the Tour of Austria and July and then going for the Vuelta.

Was one of the best climbers in MTB Marathon racing, so him doing well is not a huge surprise, he already finished 6th on gc in the Österreich Rundfahrt 2 years ago when he did both, MTB Marathons and a few road races, at the same time.
He was already a good MTB stage racer, so he should have good recovery.

I know, i know, but still i am amazed by how easy he made that change.

I mean, MTB Marathons and stage races are probably the closest thing to hard mountain stages and stage races that suit the climbers, the difference isn't that big.

True, but are there others who made a successful transition? I mean riding in a peloton on the road and road tactics are still a different thing.

Yes, there are quite a few of them.

 

[Beobachter]

Re:

Why are Bora sending Konrad to the TdS after riding the Giro once again?
The guy already has 47 race days and just finished a really hard Giro, give him a break, you already tried the same thing last year, he faded and was pretty bad durning the 2nd half of the season.
I get that the route should suit him, I just think that it's a bit much. Maybe he won't ride the Vuelta, maybe it will just be Formolo and Buchmann (his big goal, wants to fight for top 5 on the gc), but Konrad will probably want to ride the Vuelta to prepare for the WC.
Speaking of Bora messing up, Formolo recently said in an interview that the team choose the wrong gearing for the Zoncolan, he and Konrad had to climb with 36x30 as their smallest gear and couldn't get their cadence up to 75 rpm or higher, according to him 34x32 would have been much better.

The thing is Bora is racing on three different fronts at the same time (Dauphiné, Suisse, Slovénie). Knowing that König and Schwarzmann are currently out and Baska probably not completely fit after his fall during its training, Bora has only 24 riders that can race. 3x7 = 21. So, there aren't really a lot of options left.
Konrad racing in Switzerland makes anyway kind of sense in the situation since he's a very reliable rider, his profil is perfect to assist Sagan and also to ride for its own for the GC, and last but not the least, it's also useful to compare his development compared to last year. Konrad for his first time ever raced two GTs last year. It can be expected he's now stronger than ever and he won't fade for the rest of the season. Honestly, he's so regular I'm not worried for him at all. He has developped in such a very strong rider there is not much to be afraid in him participating to the TDS.

And yes, he (very problably) won't ride the Vuelta. The leadership has to be shared fairly. And Konrad has got his fair share (leader in Algarve, in Paris-Nice, in the Flèche Wallonne, co-leader for Liège, co-leader for the Giro, wouldn't be surprised if Bora favours him for the Austrian NC too since the profil should be good to him and he's kinda racing at home). Others also deserve their fair share. And I think Bora is pretty good at giving opportunities to everyone! With only 8 riders for the Vuelta, you can't put in everyone that would have liked to racen it.
Buchmann will be the leader (completely normal since the three other GC contenders all got the leadership on a GT). Formolo will also race. Probably Majka too. Ackermann fully deserves a spot and it would be a real shame not to see him on the Vuelta. I guess Schwarzmann will race too since he couldn't race the Giro because of his hard crash. The non-selected for the Tour (expectingly Pöstlberger and Kennaugh) are also likely to race the Vuelta.
In my eyes, only one spot is still in debate. And I don't think Konrad is the most convenient for this spot at all.
(different options are preferable: 1) König (but I don't believe he'll ever be back ) 2) Kolar (not a big fan of him but he deserves to race a GT at some point) 3) Grossschartner (it would make sense he tries to race two GTs in a season. It's a necessary step in a development of a rider like him))

In my eyes, Konrad has plenty of other races to race (Deutschland Tour where I see him as the leader of the team, the Italian races and especially Il Lombardia, the Canadian races in support of Sagan....). He has a lot of nice races ahead of him. And hopefully for him, he'll eventually get a win

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Konrad again showing himself as one of the few climbers a sprinter is actually happy to see in the race squad. Muhlberger also looked very strong.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I would have liked to create a new thread called "Felix is the biggest Schartner", but I'll stick to this one.

The Austrian boys have had a fine season with both Konrad and Pernsteiner finishing in the top 10 at the Giro and Grossssschartner with a 9th place in the Vuelta. If they keep improving, one of them might finish in 6th place next year.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

I would have liked to create a new thread called "Felix is the biggest Schartner", but I'll stick to this one.

The Austrian boys have had a fine season with both Konrad and Pernsteiner finishing in the top 10 at the Giro and Grossssschartner with a 9th place in the Vuelta. If they keep improving, one of them might finish in 6th place next year.

Well Pernsteiner finished 15th at the Vuelta last year (was around 20th until a dns the previous year), and 10th in the Giro. From this, I'm predicting he'll win a grand tour in 2022.

 

[BlueRoads]

From an interview with Patrick Gamper, google translated:

On the 7th stage of the Giro d’Italia, Patrick Gamper's first season with the professionals came to an abrupt end. The 23-year-old Austrian from Team Bora - hansgrohe had a hard fall and, as he has now announced to radsport-news.com, suffered a concussion, which is why he had to leave his first Grand Tour prematurely. "I still can't remember the day or the fall. I probably slipped away after 30 kilometers and then lay on the ground with other riders," said the Tyrolean, describing the dramatic moment. Cared for by the race doctor, Gamper completed the stage and reached the finish in Brindisi just under six minutes behind the day's winner Arnaud Demare (Groupama - FDJ). "After that, I was immediately taken to the hospital by the team doctor for closer examinations. Fortunately, no bleeding was found, but a concussion. Actually, I shouldn't even have finished the stage, but that is simply impossible to tell after the crash," said Gamper who had to experience first hand the risk involved in road cycling. "Luckily it didn't happen anymore. Even if I really wanted to continue, there was no discussion in the team. I don't know whether that would have been the case in other teams," said Gamper, pointing out that such should be the first “Invisible” consequences of falls still attract too little attention. "I really took it out two or three weeks later, was in constant contact with our team doctor and had to rest until I recovered from it," said Gamper, who of course would have liked to end the Giro as planned: "It was a nice leap of faith of the team that I even got the chance to take part as a neoprofessional. It was a lot of fun and a great experience. "

Saisonende nach brutalem Sturz und Gehirnerschütterung | radsport-news.com

www.radsport-news.com

And again, a rider which seems to have had a serious concussion, finished the race (day).