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Teams & Riders The official Egan Bernal is the new Egan Bernal thread

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There is an effect.

But it's not a unique trait that's super different between riders that magically makes them much better or worse just because there's high/low altitude.
Not sure about that. I know altitude affects everyone differently. Watching the 2019 TdF it seemed obvious to me altitude was the big difference for Bernal once the roads were consistently over 2,000m.
 
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Not sure about that. I know altitude affects everyone differently. Watching the 2019 TdF it seemed obvious to me altitude was the big difference for Bernal once the roads were consistently over 2,000m.
Some people definitely suck at altitude. But it's not that magical, some just are better, some are worse. Like any race characteristics.

I think the biggest thing for Egan was that 2019 did not end up being the full race at the end. He might have been extra dominating. Or perhaps G or someone else would have overtaken him.
 
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Now we know, from that other thread. Bernal will need to drop Ramco:

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P.S. That guy entering the helicopter. In front is Almeida.
 
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I don't know what kind of back problems Bernal has, but I can totally relate to him.
For years I've been plagued with back pain (lumbar) , with my body leaning to the opposite side of the pain, despite not being an herniated disk. It comes suddenly and then disappears for months.
I don't know if he also has this problem frequently, but it can be very troublesome, so I hope that he can overcome it as much as he's able to, though it wouldn't surprise me if his schedule over the years gets reduced.
 
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Basically better at everything, and about the same in terms of climbing.
I feel like Quintana was (and on his day probably still is) a better climber. I have yet to see Bernal completely obliterate the competition going uphill like Quintana has done a dozen times in his career.
But yeah, I agree that Bernal is better at pretty much anything else cycling related.
 
This Giro have the potential, in several years, to be one of those dubbed "there were highlights, but not enough competition for pink" which is actually "my boy's spanked hard by the winner", and will not last too long in the GT elimination game.

Yeah, races where one guy is just miles away the best tend to make people misinterpret it as "weak field" instead of recognising the great performance.

Still a bit of road left to cover to Milan though.
 
Honestly a brilliant performance. Always positioned aggressively, took on the burden himself many times, and finished it off in style.

I look forward to seeing how he goes in the big stuff; maybe he pays for the efforts or maybe he's simply not as good as we thought, but this was super and I am thoroughly entertained by him as a racer

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As a big Nairo fan I think Bernal is yet to demonstrate the absolute elite competition shattering climbs Nairo posted at his best (though they may be coming), but I do think he's better at most other things (though Nairo posted some decent performances on unusual terrain a few times and Bernal has a smarter team)
 
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