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

[Eclipse]

It'll be interesting what comes out about today after the race is done and dusted. Not sure we'll hear anything concrete or true while the race is active.

It's an odd choice to personally chase Yates if he wasn't 100% (especially given Martinez clearly wasn't done at the time) so perhaps it was just the legs going after a misjudgement, but I suppose it's also plausible he felt something in the back on the steeper grinds that he'd felt (or ignored) before and dialled it back.

 

[Ktarie]

teammate and friend

https://twitter.com/x/status/1397575463908818949

View: https://twitter.com/LVCKV/status/1397575463908818949?s=20

Well, Martinez embodies a certain habit, isn't he? As a strong domestique, he also rode meters ahead of Sivakov at this year TotA as he did today at Bernal to accelerate the pace. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. He shows the whole world (and his team bosses) that he himself has claims after his overall victory at the Dauphine 2020 and a great stage win in the Tour in the same year. During the last ~300 meters he was looking back to Bernal like every second. Someone from the team car might gave him a call. I like him.

 

[Valv.Piti]

I got a Froome/Wiggo vibe from Martinez today, I really didnt like his antics. Looked like 50% trying to help, 50% humiliation/showing he was much stronger

 

[Mayomaniac]

I got a Froome/Wiggo vibe from Martinez today, I really didnt like his antics. Looked like 50% trying to help, 50% humiliation/showing he was much stronger

It would surprise me a bit, they have been pretty close for years. Maybe he just paniced a bit and tried to motivate Bernal.

 

[luckyboy]

Should be ok as long as it isn't the start of his back problems returning. He was very calm after the race.

 

[Pinot's goat]

Martinez was not even listed as a leader prior to the Giro and he is 7 mins down on Bernal, he is not stupid and doing a Froome, he is just trying to motivate him.

 

[Gigs_98]

People were very reactionary to claim Bernal could take it to Pogacar.

Were we? If he races like he did for the first 2 weeks for 3 him vs Pogacar is f*cking tough to call. So I do think the reaction was valid, it was just completely impossible to predict he would suddenly lose almost a minute to Yates today.

 

[BlueRoads]

I was very surprised to see Martinez pacing Bernal so badly, but I can't believe that was mean, maybe he just has problems to estimate other's needs and pace and was surprised that Bernal was going so "slow" when he still could make an effort, because to be fair so far he hasn't looked stronger than Bernal at all.

 

[limak_]

I got a Froome/Wiggo vibe from Martinez today, I really didnt like his antics. Looked like 50% trying to help, 50% humiliation/showing he was much stronger

Naah, on such extreme gradients there's practically no benefits from drafting. On the last flatter part he was with Bernal all the time.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Naah, on such extreme gradients there's practically no benefits from drafting. On the last flatter part he was with Bernal all the time.

Im strictly talking about giving viewers the impression he was much stronger by constantly dropping him at one point and the little motivation thingy. I just didnt like it, thats all.

 

[Pinot's goat]

Were we? If he races like he did for the first 2 weeks for 3 him vs Pogacar is f*cking tough to call. So I do think the reaction was valid, it was just completely impossible to predict he would suddenly lose almost a minute to Yates today.

Bernal will lose minutes in the ITT to Pogacar, even at the level he has shown in the first 2 weeks I doubt he can make that up.

 

[limak_]

Im strictly talking about giving viewers the impression he was much stronger by constantly dropping him at one point and the little motivation thingy. I just didnt like it, thats all.

I get your point, but belive me it's not that easy to adjust your pace to someone else on 13% climb.

 

[johnymax]

Im strictly talking about giving viewers the impression he was much stronger by constantly dropping him at one point and the little motivation thingy. I just didnt like it, thats all.

I didn't like he dropped him for a moment several times there, but I liked the motivational thing. I think it also helped Bernal.

 

[Gigs_98]

Bernal will lose minutes in the ITT to Pogacar, even at the level he has shown in the first 2 weeks I doubt he can make that up.

Probably, but let's wait until they have a proper battle first. So far Pogacar's PdBF TT is a complete outlier and before that it's not like he was absolutely unbeatable on the climbs. On the Col de la Loze he lost 30 seconds to MAL and I have no reason to believe Bernal wouldn't be even better.
Needless to say though, I don't know if Pogacar doesn't further improve drastically. If that happens that would of course change my view on the comparison of the two.

 

[Pinot's goat]

The way Bernal followed initially and then completely blew up gave me Prato Nevoso vibes.

 

[wheresmybrakes]

So he made a mistake and followed Yates' attack when he should have just paced himself as Yates was quite a bit behind in GC. Makes sense, but whether folk believe him or not......

Still on the limit and showed weakness, he will get attacked and I won't be surprised if it starts from tomorrow.

 

[Krzysztof_O]

Were we? If he races like he did for the first 2 weeks for 3 him vs Pogacar is f*cking tough to call. So I do think the reaction was valid, it was just completely impossible to predict he would suddenly lose almost a minute to Yates today.

Pogacar at his best can sustain a VAM of 1850 m/h on an 8% climb. Not sure if anyone can match it but Bernal and Yates have best chances in uphill mano-a-mano against the Slovenian. Obviously anyone can have a worse day (Pog lost some time on Loze, Bernal lost even more today). But a GT is not only about climbing speed. It's also about TT-ing (Pog is a much better TT-ist even excluding PDBF performance) and consistency/regeneration over 3 weeks (Pog showed his best performances at the very end of GTs he took part). In a mountains dominated GT (with very few kms of TT) Bernal would give Pog a run for his money but the more TT kms there is the bigger advantage for the Slovenian.

 

[carton]

Were we? If he races like he did for the first 2 weeks for 3 him vs Pogacar is f*cking tough to call. So I do think the reaction was valid, it was just completely impossible to predict he would suddenly lose almost a minute to Yates today.

I don't think it was surprising at all given how he raced the first two weeks. I think it's something he had to learn, you can't win multiple grand tours by pulling on the flats everytime your media narrative "rival" is dropping. Maybe you can eke out one or two. But the way to win a fair few is by picking your spots and otherwise playing it safe and relying on your team.

 

[Põhja Konn]

Lot has been said about Remco coming into the race with suboptimal preparation for a GT, but to a lesser extent that applies to Bernal too. His back flared up during Tirreno and he did not do a single raceday after that before the Giro. He is much more experienced as GC racer than Remco, and as such able to cope much better with it, but it still could play a part in him having a bad day today, specially given the extremely difficult weather conditions of this Giro which have had to have taken more out of the riders than weatber usually does.

 

[hfer07]

I got a Froome/Wiggo vibe from Martinez today, I really didnt like his antics. Looked like 50% trying to help, 50% humiliation/showing he was much stronger

It was rather tough love and raw encouragement from Dani to Egan - the kind of Ol' school type where even insults & knowing what to say to your mate to ignite the grinta in him.

All cool & fine among themselves

 

[Bolder]

If this is his bad day, then nothing to worry about. He's in the same position as after the Zoncolan, just with a reshuffling of positions 3 to 10.

 

[limak_]

If this is his bad day, then nothing to worry about. He's in the same position as after the Zoncolan, just with a reshuffling of positions 3 to 10.

The same position except for Yates seems to be getting stronger and stronger (unless the sunshine is provided).

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Didn't really like the way he was moving after the stage but having had back problems myself I'm probably overly paranoid. Hope so.

Interesting final week ahead.

 

[Red Rick]

Probably, but let's wait until they have a proper battle first. So far Pogacar's PdBF TT is a complete outlier and before that it's not like he was absolutely unbeatable on the climbs. On the Col de la Loze he lost 30 seconds to MAL and I have no reason to believe Bernal wouldn't be even better.
Needless to say though, I don't know if Pogacar doesn't further improve drastically. If that happens that would of course change my view on the comparison of the two.

PDBF is an outlier cuase the route was a ridiculous outlier, but Pogs ITT results in UAE and Tirreno tell me his ITTs, while not the best in the world are still up there with the top tier of GC riders.

Meanwhile, Col de La Loze is sort of cherry picking Pogacars only time he got dropped in the Tour, and his result was still good in the end. Also don't think you can blindly claim Bernal would put half a minute into MAL there when MAL is a guy with high highs and low lows.

 

[AlfaLum]

Funny to read that even if you are almost a perfect team mate like Martinez you still receive critisism.

If your leader is bad, like Bernal was today, it is very hard to make him look not bad. Martinez tried to pace and motivate Bernal as best he could. He even made sure the gap to Caruso was as small as possible.

If it wasnt for his fall/slow downhill on the Giau and his domestique duties he would now be in perfect position to contend for a podium himself. But he has never shown for a second that he has problems sacrificing his own chances.