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

[johnymax]

He is the real deal. I didn't know what to expect from him in the MTT yesterday. I know all signs pointed to a great performance but I was still somewhat hesitant. With his performance in Catalunya, yesterday and today he is showing he'll be an absolute force in the following years and I'm really looking forward to see him battle other GC contenders in the future.

 

[bigcog]

Re:

Sky's latest half man, half machine.

So any rider that goes to Sky is half man, half machine, such as Kwiato, Bernal, Elissonde etc ? Clearly the riders themselves see positives in riding for them, obviously they pay well but as Elissonde said recently what a rider expects to be there, provided by the team, is there and they have a lot of resources to support them.

 

[hfer07]

At this point, I can foresee in a very, very very near future Egan dropping Quintana like nothing.... :surprised:

I'm very pleased with his performance so far, and also the way SKY has given him the chance to shine, given the fact that "G" was the plan A for Romandie....

more of him please!!

Do we know what is his next race?

 

[Carstenbf]

California I believe.

 

[Red Rick]

I guess he won't but I think it would be a good idea for him to ride Clasica San Sebastian to get some one day racing in this year ahead of the Worlds.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

California I believe.

He will win that race with one leg I think.

Actually, looking at the route it will be super interesting. There's the mono-climb to Gibraltar road which is a super hard climb, 8% in gradient at 12 km. Then you have an interesting stage with a murito in the end and then a long and flat TT at 35 km. At last we have the long queen stage to Lake Tahoe, so something for every taste. Will be interesting to see how he fares on these different types of stages.

I think he is at his absolute best when it has been a relatively easy day and just smashing the last climb (like Contador, think Verbier 2009) due to his insane Vo2 max and mountainbike background. At least early on.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

California I believe.

He will win that race with one leg I think.

Actually, looking at the route it will be super interesting. There's the mono-climb to Gibraltar road which is a super hard climb, 8% in gradient at 12 km. Then you have an interesting stage with a murito in the end and then a long and flat TT at 35 km. At last we have the long queen stage to Lake Tahoe, so something for every taste. Will be interesting to see how he fares on these different types of stages.

I think he is at his absolute best when it has been a relatively easy day and just smashing the last climb (like Contador, think Verbier 2009) due to his insane Vo2 max and mountainbike background. At least early on.

Cali usually has a weak enough climbing field, and it's not like the climbers that show up will take all the time back in the ITT.

And yeah it's very likely Bernal's main strength lies in efforts under an hour. Don't think that's weird considering he packs a decent sprint at his weight.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Nope, he will probably be one of the best in the time trial as well despite his climber frame. Again, in that sense he reminds me a lot of Contador, altho Contador probably had a few extra kilos on Bernal who looks slimmer. How much weighted Contador at this peak? I expect LF to answer this.

Nope, it isn't weird, but he probably copes with the marathon-stages just fine as well. Or longer stages since we don't really have any marathon days left anymore.

 

[yaco]

Interesting that it's still snowing at Lake Tahoe - Hopefully it clears up in the next three weeks.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Nope, he will probably be one of the best in the time trial as well despite his climber frame. Again, in that sense he reminds me a lot of Contador, altho Contador probably had a few extra kilos on Bernal who looks slimmer. How much weighted Contador at this peak? I expect LF to answer this.

Nope, it isn't weird, but he probably copes with the marathon-stages just fine as well. Or longer stages since we don't really have any marathon days left anymore.

I think Contador varied a bit over the years, and I think some of that has to do with his change to big gears and out of saddle climbing and another part of that is clinic related I think.

I see Bernal listed as 175 and 60kg, I think Contador at his peak was like 176 at 61kg but I've seen him listed as tall as 177.

But heights are pretty unreliable.

 

[Valv.Piti]

That surprises me a bit.

In that case, I can't see why Bernal shouldn't be able to ride as good time trials as Contador, minus 2009.

 

[Forever The Best]

Re:

That surprises me a bit.

In that case, I can't see why Bernal shouldn't be able to ride as good time trials as Contador, minus 2009.

Wasn't Contador already regarded as a good TT rider at the of his career?

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

That surprises me a bit.

In that case, I can't see why Bernal shouldn't be able to ride as good time trials as Contador, minus 2009.

Contador was very good at ITTs early on, especially hilly ones, and Contador had his fair share of average flat ITTs. Bernal hasn't done any regular ITTs since his move to Sky. We'll see. But I don't think he'll be as good as Contador in his best years in ITTs.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

That surprises me a bit.

In that case, I can't see why Bernal shouldn't be able to ride as good time trials as Contador, minus 2009.

Wasn't Contador already regarded as a good TT rider at the of his career?

Just looking at his results, it seems that most of Contador's best performances actually was in the time trial compared to the hills/mountains in the very beginning of his career. Especially the shorter ones, but I don't really know how he was regarded back then.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

That surprises me a bit.

In that case, I can't see why Bernal shouldn't be able to ride as good time trials as Contador, minus 2009.

Wasn't Contador already regarded as a good TT rider at the of his career?

Yes. His first pro win was an ITT in Poland, and at 21 he was riding top 5s in ITTs like in PN. He didn't win many, but he was always close.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

That surprises me a bit.

In that case, I can't see why Bernal shouldn't be able to ride as good time trials as Contador, minus 2009.

Contador was very good at ITTs early on, especially hilly ones, and Contador had his fair share of average flat ITTs. Bernal hasn't done any regular ITTs since his move to Sky. We'll see. But I don't think he'll be as good as Contador in his best years in ITTs.

His performances of especially 2009 will most likely be impossible to replicate for Bernal, but outside of that year, he wasn't really dominant in time trials unless they were rather hilly or mountainous. Though his other great years also were very good time trial wise, I think its doable for Egan altho it may be the ceiling, but lets see.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

That surprises me a bit.

In that case, I can't see why Bernal shouldn't be able to ride as good time trials as Contador, minus 2009.

Contador was very good at ITTs early on, especially hilly ones, and Contador had his fair share of average flat ITTs. Bernal hasn't done any regular ITTs since his move to Sky. We'll see. But I don't think he'll be as good as Contador in his best years in ITTs.

His performances of especially 2009 will most likely be impossible to replicate for Bernal, but outside of that year, he wasn't really dominant in time trials unless they were rather hilly or mountainous. Though his other great years also were very good time trial wise, I think its doable for Egan altho it may be the ceiling, but lets see.

His great ITTs weren't all that limited to 2009, though he was a bit more inconsistent. His flat ITTs were amazing in 2011 and even in 2014 he was getting like 2nd in the Dauphine prologue and stuff. 3rd in that huge 2015 Giro ITT despite wind direction changing, etc. Monster performance.

In any case, I don't think Bernal will be that kind of ITTer, but the implications are different regardless. Competition will be very different for him.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Of course, and you can also add some time trials from the Giro in 2008, but he had a few stinkers as well, especially the long, late and flat ones in the Tour, 2007 and 2010. Thats the exception rather than the rule, though, and obviously also comes down to recovery and such. His time trial in the Giro 2015 was a thing of beauty.

My main point was that I don't think Bernal has any change of competing with absolute peak Contador-performances on the TT (especially in 2009 obviously), but its certainly possible that he can come very close to or match the level just under. Just see how much getting a new bike meant on Sky.

 

[Netserk]

How is 5th in a 55km dead flat ITT a stinker? Not super, sure. Weak competition, agreed. But stinker?!

He was maybe the best TT'er ever in his weight class.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I remembered is as way worse for some reason.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re:

I remembered is as way worse for some reason.

Because Leipheimer was absolutely ridiculous that day.

 

[gospina]

interesting tidbit, there haven't been that many ITTs that are mostly climbing ones in the last few years. There are a few that standout, 2014 Giro, 2016 Route du Sud, 2013 pais vasco, and now this one, 2018 tour de romandie.

The riders that seem to standout, in no particular order have been Primoz Roglic, Richie Porte, Fabio Aru, Rigoberto Uran, Pierre Rolland, Chris Froome, Dumolin and Nairo Quintana. Of these, Nairo and Aru both have stated that they consider themselves the best at this discipline. IMO, this was Nairo's expertise. Now? Obviously Bernal but Roglic is right in there! would love to see a world championship that happens to be an ITT. I believe last time that happened, Santiago Botero won

 

[DNP-Old]

He's been practicing on his TT bike, since the time trial in Cali is coming up. So it seems he's taking it very seriously. It's close to flat, so it'll be the first time we'll actually see what his new position, his work in the wind tunnel and his new materials are worth against somewhat representative competition. I'm looking forward to his H2H with Bardet - weird for the latter to go to Cali imo btw.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Yeah, I picked that up on Strava as well. Seems like he got a few very good TT intervals in his legs judging by his heart rate. That will be the most interesting of the stages to me in Cali

 

[DNP-Old]

Really impressive win, but at this point already expected (scary thing to say about a 21 y/o). Anyway, he has really found his person of trust and luitenant within Team Sky in the form of Geoghegan Hart, great to see. Together they'll achieve some big things. The real test comes Thursday!