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

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Re:

Red Rick said:
Ohwell, the notion of GT as a Vuelta leader instead of Bernal is hilarious in the first place.

Thomas has 3 top 10s in WT stage races in the last 3 years

Bernal has 3 this year, and he would've had 4, including a win and 2 second places if not for crashing out of Catalunya.
But of course it is hillarious but Bernal as a leader at Vuelta will be an affront for GT.
If Sky wants to keep GT in squad Bernal wouldnt be a leader.
EDIT- and we should remember, GT is a Brit.
 
Re: Re:

Bot. Sky_Bot said:
Red Rick said:
Ohwell, the notion of GT as a Vuelta leader instead of Bernal is hilarious in the first place.

Thomas has 3 top 10s in WT stage races in the last 3 years

Bernal has 3 this year, and he would've had 4, including a win and 2 second places if not for crashing out of Catalunya.
But of course it is hillarious but Bernal as a leader at Vuelta will be an affront for GT.
If Sky wants to keep GT in squad Bernal wouldnt be a leader.
Why would you want to keep a rider who wants to lead a race he has no business leading?

That said, I guess a lot will depend on the outcome and aftermath of the Froome case.
 
Re: Re:

Red Rick said:
Parker said:
Bot. Sky_Bot said:
But if Froome appears at Tour the rest of the squad will play pure domestique role, also Bernal.
At Vuelta with GT as a leader, Bernal might be a joker.
Exactly. It will be a great learning experience for him. He's got 10-15 years to lead GTs.
You know what teaches you more about leading a GT?

Leading a GT.
Not on your debut. They're not like other races. Do you really think he can't learn anything from Froome?

Failure to deliver on overblown expectations has crushed many a young sportsman.
 
Re: Re:

Red Rick said:
Bot. Sky_Bot said:
Red Rick said:
Ohwell, the notion of GT as a Vuelta leader instead of Bernal is hilarious in the first place.

Thomas has 3 top 10s in WT stage races in the last 3 years

Bernal has 3 this year, and he would've had 4, including a win and 2 second places if not for crashing out of Catalunya.
But of course it is hillarious but Bernal as a leader at Vuelta will be an affront for GT.
If Sky wants to keep GT in squad Bernal wouldnt be a leader.
Why would you want to keep a rider who wants to lead a race he has no business leading?

That said, I guess a lot will depend on the outcome and aftermath of the Froome case.
Yes, and it is likely Froome will not appear at Tour. And then? Bernal as a joker at Tour and.. leader at Vuelta.
It sounds incredible but is not absolutely impossible.
 
I think Bernal might be too good to go to a gt without being the leader. I might completely overrate him but if any rider in the peloton had done what he did in California we would assume he is one of the main favorites for the tour. I expect that both Thomas and Froome will struggle in the mountains for different reasons and both might be out of contention or at least relatively far behind after the first three mountain stages. If Bernal is able to climb with the best and the two Brits aren't, I really think it would be the wrong thing to pull him back. Imagine if Froome had been a few minutes behind yellow last year but sky still would have forbidden Landa to ride for himself. It sounds ridiculous but Bernal could face such a situation this year.
 
I hope he delays his Tour debut and rather goes for La Vuelta, where he can play a freelance role with no pressure, rather than becoming a superdomestique for Froome while being kept on the leash/team orders.....

If SKY plans to make Egan a GT winner, he better start "commanding & leading" the races he's going to be participating in, and not mix it with the Froome crew yet.....
 
Gigs_98 said:
I think Bernal might be too good to go to a gt without being the leader.
Froome's first GT podium was while supporting Wiggins
Contador's first podium (a win) started with him supporting Leipheimer
Quintana's first podium started with him supporting Valverde
Nibali's first podium was while supporting Basso's victory

Let him learn working for someone else. There's no rush.
 
Gigs_98 said:
I think Bernal might be too good to go to a gt without being the leader. I might completely overrate him but if any rider in the peloton had done what he did in California we would assume he is one of the main favorites for the tour. I expect that both Thomas and Froome will struggle in the mountains for different reasons and both might be out of contention or at least relatively far behind after the first three mountain stages. If Bernal is able to climb with the best and the two Brits aren't, I really think it would be the wrong thing to pull him back. Imagine if Froome had been a few minutes behind yellow last year but sky still would have forbidden Landa to ride for himself. It sounds ridiculous but Bernal could face such a situation this year.

Not on this route
Not with his build up
Not now
Not yet
 
Can't we just wait for official confirmation before jumping to all sorts of scenarios? Team Sky will announce their team after Suiza.

The only thing we know is that they are considering him, which tells me that they don't have a real plan for him or go into panic mode once Froome doesn't deliver / isn't as good as anticipated. Short term seems to be more important than long term.
 
Parker said:
Gigs_98 said:
I think Bernal might be too good to go to a gt without being the leader.
Froome's first GT podium was while supporting Wiggins
Contador's first podium (a win) started with him supporting Leipheimer
Quintana's first podium started with him supporting Valverde
Nibali's first podium was while supporting Basso's victory

Let him learn working for someone else. There's no rush.

All those guys also raced at least 1 GT before they were ready to compete - Nibali had 4, Froome 3, Quintana and Contador had 1.

Also he's a year younger than Froome/Nibali/Quintana were at their first GT and 2 younger than Contador.

Bernal's longest stage race so far has been nine days. I love him but it's crazy to say he should be an unquestioned lone GT leader already. First give him one with no pressure, where he can ride for someone else or try for some stages and get used to racing for three weeks.
 
luckyboy said:
Parker said:
Gigs_98 said:
I think Bernal might be too good to go to a gt without being the leader.
Froome's first GT podium was while supporting Wiggins
Contador's first podium (a win) started with him supporting Leipheimer
Quintana's first podium started with him supporting Valverde
Nibali's first podium was while supporting Basso's victory

Let him learn working for someone else. There's no rush.

All those guys also raced at least 1 GT before they were ready to compete - Nibali had 4, Froome 3, Quintana and Contador had 1.

Also he's a year younger than Froome/Nibali/Quintana were at their first GT and 2 younger than Contador.

Bernal's longest stage race so far has been nine days. I love him but it's crazy to say he should be an unquestioned lone GT leader already. First give him one with no pressure, where he can ride for someone else or try for some stages and get used to racing for three weeks.


Valverde's first GT podium 2003 Vuelta he was 23. He was not riding for anyone else. It was also the first Grand Tour he finished and was in his 2nd year as a pro. He competed in the 2002 Vuelta, but Kelme pulled him on the 2nd rest day as they had planned on doing before that Vuelta started. He would have been 2 years older than Bernal is now. Could he do well? Yes. However, I'd rather he not be put in that situation and race a different GT first.
 
Parker said:
Gigs_98 said:
I think Bernal might be too good to go to a gt without being the leader.
Froome's first GT podium was while supporting Wiggins
Contador's first podium (a win) started with him supporting Leipheimer
Quintana's first podium started with him supporting Valverde
Nibali's first podium was while supporting Basso's victory

Let him learn working for someone else. There's no rush.
So Quintana went to the tour being too good for being a dom, Contador went to the tour being too good for being a Dom and froome went to the vuelta being too good for being a dom. (Nibali is a different case as his team got the win anyway) What I was trying to say (tbh my post was very poorly written ) is that Bernal might go to the tour as a dom but if he is too good for that he might very well become the leader just like Quintana, Froome and contador. Therefore the whole argument of him going to the tour for so he doesn't have the pressure of being a leader might end with him being in the leader role anyway, which means sky's plan would completely backfire. That's what I was trying to bring across
 
Well this is the curse of being too good already at 21.. Whichever path you take might be wrong. To me Froome will be nowhere in the Tour after that reaally hard Giro, so Bernal will most probably end as the main GC hope. And Sky is probably the biggest team right now, so they have high expectations (you know with all my respect but it's easier to lead some smaller team FdJ, Cofidis..even Lotto's) and with all the hype this could burn the kid too early.. The Vuelta seems like the better choice, at least he wont be under the major spotlight and media hype in the Tour, but Sky look desperate.
However is there any 21 years old guy, who was expected to deliver big in his first GC ??
 
Jul 6, 2016
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Terrific, love this decision of Team Sky. Maybe they feel this could have a positive influence on their image as well. I don't care, I have high expectations for the kid. I'm not afraid this will burn him or something. Come on, don't be so anxious. The Tour isn't really that tough in recent years... (all GC riders seem relatively fresh in Paris, imho)
 
Re:

Pennino said:
Terrific, love this decision of Team Sky. Maybe they feel this could have a positive influence on their image as well. I don't care, I have high expectations for the kid. I'm not afraid this will burn him or something. Come on, don't be so anxious. The Tour isn't really that tough in recent years... (all GC riders seem relatively fresh in Paris, imho)

That is a good point about Sky’s image, if they take a climbing phenomenon, it takes a little of the talk off Froome.
 

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