The official Egan Bernal is the new Egan Bernal thread

[Escarabajo]

Looks like he is in Yellow now!

 

[ppanther92]

Ok, just about won the lottery today. He for sure would have had a hard time at the flat section against the group. Now a pretty good lead.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Ok, just about won the lottery today. He for sure would have had a hard time at the flat section against the group. Now a pretty good lead.

Meh. The flat part wasnt that long at all and only De Plus would have lead that group probably. Bernal wanted to win the stage properly as well.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

Ok, just about won the lottery today. He for sure would have had a hard time at the flat section against the group. Now a pretty good lead.

Meh. The flat part wasnt that long at all and only De Plus would have lead that group probably. Bernal wanted to win the stage properly as well.

Yeah it was everyone for themselves at that stage. Unless he completely blew up on the final climb he would’ve won anyway.

 

[Bonimenier]

Re:

Ok, just about won the lottery today. He for sure would have had a hard time at the flat section against the group. Now a pretty good lead.

Actually think he would have had a larger gap at the finish.

 

[AlexNYC]

He was the strongest climber by far at this point, had yellow, and nothing but mountains before Paris. Kind of ridiculous to say he won the lottery.

 

[RattaKuningas]

Re:

Ok, just about won the lottery today. He for sure would have had a hard time at the flat section against the group. Now a pretty good lead.

There is no lottery. He worked hard on the Iseran and built a significant gap and lets not forget hat he had Simon Yates with him as well who was interested in the stage win so I think that these two could've stayed away. I think that maybe Thomas would've attacked late and closed some of the gap, but not catched Bernal anymore.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

He was the strongest climber by far at this point, had yellow, and nothing but mountains before Paris. Kind of ridiculous to say he won the lottery.

Agree. Theres a little asterisk which just sucks so much ass tho. I just hopes he wants to prove he is the best tomorrow.

 

[ppanther92]

I can see him having significant less gap (20-30s) at the start of the last climb. Chances are good that he would have hold that or increased it again. But of course the situation is good for him. That said, he is the strongest climber in the race and maybe he will show himself again tomorrow to set the record straight.

 

[RattaKuningas]

Re: Re:

He was the strongest climber by far at this point, had yellow, and nothing but mountains before Paris. Kind of ridiculous to say he won the lottery.

Agree. Theres a little asterisk which just sucks so much *** tho. I just hopes he wants to prove he is the best tomorrow.

There are no asterisks. I mean it is a sport done outside and weather is always going to have an impact on the race (be it a wind, rain, heat, cold, landslides etc).

 

[SafeBet]

Re: Re:

Ok, just about won the lottery today. He for sure would have had a hard time at the flat section against the group. Now a pretty good lead.

Meh. The flat part wasnt that long at all and only De Plus would have lead that group probably. Bernal wanted to win the stage properly as well.

100% agree.
De Plus was cooked, he would have lost a ton of time to Bernal in the flat part. And I'm not sure anybody else would have dared to chase hard considering Thomas was on their wheel.
Think Carapaz in Courmayeur, similar situation, we know what happened.

Perhaps someone (Kruijswijk?) gains some time on the last climb, but not one minute. Unless he cracks badly.

 

[Red Rick]

Would have won the Tour anyway.

 

[fauniera]

Re:

He was the strongest climber by far at this point, had yellow, and nothing but mountains before Paris. Kind of ridiculous to say he won the lottery.

This.

 

[Valv.Piti]

My take on it:

Bernal and Simon reaches the bottom with 1.30 to the big group
Kruisjwijk and Thomas especially have something left in the tank, but Bernal is superhuman and holds that gap to the top. Buchmann looses 30 sec to those two and 2 minutes to Bernal.
Alaf gets very close to the group in the bottom, but doesnt and loses around 1-1.30 on the climb to Bernal, 3 minutes in total.

 

[ppanther92]

Yeah, ffs, i take back the word lottery...

But its surely a great outcome for him.

 

[Valv.Piti]

It seems Bernal doesnt get the stage which I guess is fair enough. Does that mean he would want to win tomorrow?

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

It seems Bernal doesnt get the stage which I guess is fair enough. Does that mean he would want to win tomorrow?

Play it safe, secure 1/2 is prolly priority?

Could do both anyway

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

It seems Bernal doesnt get the stage which I guess is fair enough. Does that mean he would want to win tomorrow?

Play it safe, secure 1/2 is prolly priority?

Could do both anyway

Thinking Alaf will crack a bit without them having to do too much. Then you just have to worry about Kruiswijk, but I dont know, he doesnt really have that top level to challenge Thomas I feel. He is more of a follower. Just dont hope we have a Ventoux scenario from 2009 after this debacle, would feel so wrong after such a relatively good Tour.

 

[MatParker117]

Re:

It seems Bernal doesnt get the stage which I guess is fair enough. Does that mean he would want to win tomorrow?

If he wants a shot at polka dots maybe, but if the right break goes I doubt he or Ineos will care.

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

Ok, just about won the lottery today. He for sure would have had a hard time at the flat section against the group. Now a pretty good lead.

Actually think he would have had a larger gap at the finish.

I think he would have got a larger gap at the foot of the last climb, with Kruijswijk and above all Thomas possibly taking part of that time back on the climb itself as Bernal would have been more tired.

But the flat section wouldn't have been a problem. It wouldn't have been Bernal against the group, it would have been Bernal and Yates (if Bernal was smart and traded the stage win for Yates's cooperation) against De Plus, who was in the break. Thomas wouldn't pull to bring back his teammate (even though he'd love to ), and Kruijswijk wouldn't pull personally as long as Thomas was there, IMO.

All in all, I doubt the early finish made Bernal lose a lot of time, though, except relative to Alaphilippe. This feeling that no one in particular was robbed is part of what makes the whole affair not too bad or unfair.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Re: Re:

Ok, just about won the lottery today. He for sure would have had a hard time at the flat section against the group. Now a pretty good lead.

Actually think he would have had a larger gap at the finish.

I think he would have got a larger gap at the foot of the last climb, with Kruijswijk and above all Thomas possibly taking part of that time back on the climb itself as Bernal would have been more tired.

But the flat section wouldn't have been a problem. It wouldn't have been Bernal against the group, it would have been Bernal and Yates (if Bernal was smart and traded the stage win for Yates's cooperation) against De Plus, who was in the break. Thomas wouldn't pull to bring back his teammate (even though he'd love to ), and Kruijswijk wouldn't pull personally as long as Thomas was there, IMO.

All in all, I doubt the early finish made Bernal lose a lot of time, though, except relative to Alaphilippe. This feeling that no one in particular was robbed is part of what makes the whole affair not too bad or unfair.

The big question is if Yates would have trusted him, he could have dropped him on the final climb after getting some help on the flat. In the end it's anyones guess.

 

[yaco]

No way Yates would work with Bernal in the valley - He may have worked with him on the final climb.

 

[Publicus]

Re:

No way Yates would work with Bernal in the valley - He may have worked with him on the final climb.

If he doesn’t work, for sure he doesn’t win. If he works, the chance of winning goes up exponentially whether legitimately or as a gift. In any event, Bernal’s biggest challenger is G’s ego at this point

 

[Bardamu]

Re:

No way Yates would work with Bernal in the valley - He may have worked with him on the final climb.

Yates wanted to be overtaken by the poursuivants?

 

[Gigs_98]

Still can't attack further away than a few kilometers from the top of the final climb