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

[BigCoward]

Like Greg Lemond after the accident. He was never the same.

Lemond won more after than before. Though I take your point.

 

[Red Rick]

He's better than half his pre accident GTs.

 

[Cycling111]

The other difference is that Lemmond was more dominant than Bernal.

Bernal won a Tour that I think was a transitional one.
In the Giro, he suffered in the mountains with Carusso, something that wouldn't have happened to a dominant rider.

Without the accident, I think Bernal wouldn't be a favorite for a Tour today either.
He´d be a candidate for the podium, I don't know if he was more or less than Roglic or Remco, but many Bernal fans think that without the accident, he´d be more at the level of Pogacar and Vingegaard than Remco and Rogli in GT, and I think it's quite the opposite.

 

[Berniece]

He was unlucky with Arensman having issues with his bike, otherwise he would've finished in front of the big GC favourites group. I can still see him finish on the podium.

 

[Squire]

The other difference is that Lemmond was more dominant than Bernal.

Bernal won a Tour that I think was a transitional one.
In the Giro, he suffered in the mountains with Carusso, something that wouldn't have happened to a dominant rider.

Without the accident, I think Bernal wouldn't be a favorite for a Tour today either.
He´d be a candidate for the podium, I don't know if he was more or less than Roglic or Remco, but many Bernal fans think that without the accident, he´d be more at the level of Pogacar and Vingegaard than Remco and Rogli in GT, and I think it's quite the opposite.

I really like Bernal, but I agree with this. There was a bit of star-aligning happening with his Tour win, too. We don't know what would have happened without the Tignes cancellation and Pinot DNF.

He was only 22 at the time though, so there was an expectation that he would continue to improve, but now that we have a lot of hindsight to benefit from we can see that he didn't really take another step even before his injury.

 

[Red Rick]

Is it sacrilege if I think Bernal wasn't better than Quintana peak vs peak and Quintana was just way less lucky racing against Sky in Froome's best TdF years?

 

[Salvarani]

He was unlucky with Arensman having issues with his bike, otherwise he would've finished in front of the big GC favourites group. I can still see him finish on the podium.

I wonder if Arensman was actually stronger.

He had to stop twice I think and made it back on his own again to the Ayuso group. Very strong performance from him.

 

[Rackham]

He was unlucky with Arensman having issues with his bike, otherwise he would've finished in front of the big GC favourites group. I can still see him finish on the podium.

I don't see it. He was handed a golden opportunity but got blown off the wheels and then couldn't hold the faster climbers from the main group at the end either.

That was his 'moment', basically. Now he'll be forced into long range attempts with a bit of a roll of the dice.

 

[Netserk]

I really like Bernal, but I agree with this. There was a bit of star-aligning happening with his Tour win, too. We don't know what would have happened without the Tignes cancellation and Pinot DNF.

He was only 22 at the time though, so there was an expectation that he would continue to improve, but now that we have a lot of hindsight to benefit from we can see that he didn't really take another step even before his injury.

Before 2020, was there any indication that he had trouble with his back?

 

[Berniece]

I don't see it. He was handed a golden opportunity but got blown off the wheels and then couldn't hold the faster climbers from the main group at the end either.

That was his 'moment', basically. Now he'll be forced into long range attempts with a bit of a roll of the dice.

But he had it harder than the climbers from the main group by being in the smaller group that was in the attack.