He includes bahrain who rides for Landa who rides for Remco.
He also needs to ride the race and prove out any obvious weaknesses for next year's team.
it’s 25 km, even Mas can probably lose less then 90 seconds.
Even if it was a hilltop finish, Vingegaard, it is said, produced the best TT in the history of the Tour last time. That doesn't indicate someone who can be easily gapped significantly in the races against the clock, unless the Tour brings back the 50+ km TTs on mostly flat to rolling terrain. Yet in the third week, reserves, more than sheer TT ability, come to the fore and Vingegaard seems to have the most reserves in week three. The problem thus is that the Vingegaard who won the last Tour showed no chinks in his armor. Indeed his meer pressence in this Vuelta seems to have had a humbling effect on Evenepoel, who now plays down any hope of winning and talks about just the podium or even claiming stages as constituting a successful race. Whereas if Vingegaard were not at the start, I think his stated ambition would be 'we come to try and win." Hopefully Remco has good climbing legs. He'll need them to build confidence in what he can achieve in this Vuelta and in prospect for a good Tour in 2024. Because if he gets dropped like a stone uphill, he could develop a harmful complex.
Is this really serious? I will never believe WC ITT is a bigger target than Vuelta for him even considering the change of plans.
That's a fair point, but once you commit it's all in. It's no different for Roglic and Thomas. Now it's possible that maintaining his WCTT ambition will hurt his climbing in this Vuelta, but all the main competitors, save Ayusa and Almeida, have the Vuelta as "extra". So I really don't think that's an excuse if he isn't fighting for the top GC position, but stronger rivals.
It’s of course not possible for us on the outside to know exactly, but the WC ITT was always mentioned as one of the three big targets this season, together with Liege and Giro. The Vuelta participation was not decided before early July, so it’s hard from the outside to think that something decided less than 2 months before the start of the race is a bigger target than something set as a big target before the start of the season.
He always says that he goes for a podium because he's aware that a fall, or a bad day might really influence his performance. It's a 3 week race, a lot can happen, therefor podium is always the more realistic goal, but he'll obviously try to win it.
He did say that he had to lose some weight after the WC ITT. I would think that he isn't as lean as he was last year though. Might lose a bit during the first few stages, but I don't think that's healthy.
Last year he said he's going for top ten, with a stage victory (read: I'm here to win, but I can't say that or else I'll look presumptuous). This year, with Vingegaard showing up, he says: I'm going for the podium, but even if I just win some stages it will be a good Vuelta (read: I'm unsure if I can make the podium if I get dropped in the mountains, in which case I might drop out of GC altogether and go for some stages).
Wouldn't it be a good Vuelta if he wins 4 stages? Let's say he falls, and loses 15min. GC is over, so he makes the best of it and wins 4 stages. Would you call that a bad Vuelta?
The worst case scenario is everybody's problem, crashing hard or illness. What I'm talking about is performance level, without problems. In that case, winning 4 stages while fighting for red, isn't the same as winning 4 after you've dropped out of contention.
He’s said “podium and stages” before his last two GT’s. Dont think it has anything to do with his competition.
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