Tirreno-Adriatico 2019, March 13-19

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Re: Re:

Good day for the top 3 in GC - Have 30 riders contesting the final in the upcoming stages which means tyhe shouldn't lose any time before the final ITT and maybe one can pinch bonus seconds.

Lol no chance. Have you seen the profiles. There will be gaps at the top. Not big gaps but riders will lose time. Even among the favourites.

I suspect the profiles aren't as hard as expected - There will be minimal gaps if riders are at their level.

well, both stage 4 as well as 5 have ~3000m of climbing, basically most of it at double digit gradients, with brutal circuits in the end:

but sure, feel free to suspect whatever you like.

 

[Red Rick]

Both climbs are longer than ideal for Alaphilippe.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Both climbs are longer than ideal for Alaphilippe.

:lol:

 

[Anderis]

I'm so glad to see Bettiol back to form.

 

[SafeBet]

Re:

I'm so glad to see Bettiol back to form.

I'm curious if he can survive those steep ramps in stage 4 and 5.
He sure looks back to top form after a couple of meh years.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Just got home and saw the Bora TTT crash. I hope the riders involved are alright. As for the moron they need to find something to charge him with, like endangerment or something.

Amazing TTT time by M-S. It appears the GC is between Dumoulin, Roglic, and Yates. I don't think anyone else can get into the mix especially with the ITT still to come.

I think Alaphilippe is still in it if he wins stages and you cannot rule out SKY

Jut hope there is some attacking racing

As I said you cannot rule out Allaphillipe with the bonus seconds , the parcours and he is no mean TTer


The problem for Alaphilippe is there is still an ITT in this race in which both Dumoulin and Roglic will gain some time on him.

Bonus seconds won't win him the race when he's going to lose more time to Dumoulin and Roglic in the ITT.

 

[Anderis]

Re: Re:

I'm so glad to see Bettiol back to form.

I'm curious if he can survive those steep ramps in stage 4 and 5.
He sure looks back to top form after a couple of meh years.

A couple of meh years?

I think he only had one meh year-2018. 2017 was rather good.

 

[Blanco]

Re: Re:

Good day for the top 3 in GC - Have 30 riders contesting the final in the upcoming stages which means tyhe shouldn't lose any time before the final ITT and maybe one can pinch bonus seconds.

Lol no chance. Have you seen the profiles. There will be gaps at the top. Not big gaps but riders will lose time. Even among the favourites.

I suspect the profiles aren't as hard as expected - There will be minimal gaps if riders are at their level.

I don't think so. There will be many attacks on those ramps. Guys from behind in the GC will try for sure: Van Avermaet, Wellens, Benoot, Lutsenko, Fuglsang, Pinot... That will tear this race apart, and no team is strong enough to control things on this parcours. There will be gaps, believe me.

 

[Robert5091]

GvA will be getting tired of seeing Ala & QS - Ala could turn around with 25 m to go and start to celebrate. Monster performances.

Chapeau Yates family! Good day for the MS team too.

 

[Lequack]

24 Big Photos from Stage 2 (more photos added) — rcs/corvos
http://www.steephill.tv/2019/tirreno-adriatico/photos/stage-02/

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re:

Alaphilippe and Roglic are frightening right now. Søren Kragh is now 5th on GC but it does look like he has to baby-sit Dumoulin (if he wasn't allowed to sprint today because of that, it is just ridiculous) and Kasper Asgreen just keeps improving.

Kragh Andersen was suffering and didn't feel good according to the Sunweb report. So dim it a little with the baby-sitting stuff. Stop assuming stuff.

 

[Alexandre B.]

The Valverdization of Alaphilippe was quite telling yesterday.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

Alaphilippe and Roglic are frightening right now. Søren Kragh is now 5th on GC but it does look like he has to baby-sit Dumoulin (if he wasn't allowed to sprint today because of that, it is just ridiculous) and Kasper Asgreen just keeps improving.

Kragh Andersen was suffering and didn't feel good according to the Sunweb report. So dim it a little with the baby-sitting stuff. Stop assuming stuff.

Yeah, you can maybe read the thread to the end before lashing out at me.

 

[Red Rick]

I don't understand all the comparisons to Valverde. He's just not nearly good enough in the high mountains to warrant that comparison. He's much more similar to Bettini in my opinion.

 

[Lequack]

$hitty design, really. Set up for defensive riding: whomever won the TTT will now try to keep it that way until the ITT and see what happens. Not one mountain stage to shake things up. A shame. Weird. It seems like Dumoulin and Roglic have the best shot now, unless Yates hangs on.

Can Yates do a good enough ITT to win it?

He could do a Simon Yates and win the ITT.

 

[Hellyea]

$hitty design, really. Set up for defensive riding: whomever won the TTT will now try to keep it that way until the ITT and see what happens. Not one mountain stage to shake things up. A shame. Weird. It seems like Dumoulin and Roglic have the best shot now, unless Yates hangs on.

Can Yates do a good enough ITT to win it?

He could do a Simon Yates and win the ITT.

I mean, they got the same doctor after all.

 

[JosephK]

$hitty design, really. Set up for defensive riding: whomever won the TTT will now try to keep it that way until the ITT and see what happens. Not one mountain stage to shake things up. A shame. Weird. It seems like Dumoulin and Roglic have the best shot now, unless Yates hangs on.

Can Yates do a good enough ITT to win it?

He could do a Simon Yates and win the ITT.

Before yesterday's ITT win by Simon, I wouldn't have seen this coming . . . but now it has to be on the radar. Imagine Adam Yates putting time into Dumoulin on a pan-flat ITT! :lol:

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Break now at 3:30 mins -78km

 

[RedheadDane]

$hitty design, really. Set up for defensive riding: whomever won the TTT will now try to keep it that way until the ITT and see what happens. Not one mountain stage to shake things up. A shame. Weird. It seems like Dumoulin and Roglic have the best shot now, unless Yates hangs on.

Can Yates do a good enough ITT to win it?

He could do a Simon Yates and win the ITT.

So, what you're saying is that Yates could do a Yates?

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

I don't understand all the comparisons to Valverde. He's just not nearly good enough in the high mountains to warrant that comparison. He's much more similar to Bettini in my opinion.

Agree. In his earlier days, Bettini was a very decent climber, similar to Alaphilippe, maybe Julian is better (based on last year's TdF, maybe). On the other hand, Bettini would mix it up later in his career on regular sprint finishes against the likes of Petacchi and McEwan. Its a tough one - maybe its more in between. His climbing ability to compared to the hilly stuff is probably best compared to a rider like Boogerd, but they are obviously vastly different riders.

 

[Lequack]

$hitty design, really. Set up for defensive riding: whomever won the TTT will now try to keep it that way until the ITT and see what happens. Not one mountain stage to shake things up. A shame. Weird. It seems like Dumoulin and Roglic have the best shot now, unless Yates hangs on.

Can Yates do a good enough ITT to win it?

He could do a Simon Yates and win the ITT.

So, what you're saying is that Yates could do a Yates?

Well they are identical twins.

 

[tobydawq]

$hitty design, really. Set up for defensive riding: whomever won the TTT will now try to keep it that way until the ITT and see what happens. Not one mountain stage to shake things up. A shame. Weird. It seems like Dumoulin and Roglic have the best shot now, unless Yates hangs on.

Can Yates do a good enough ITT to win it?

He could do a Simon Yates and win the ITT.

So, what you're saying is that Yates could do a Yates?

Well they are identical twins.

I have read that they are fraternal (isn't that the right word?) twins.

 

[Lequack]

When was a last time a breakaway has won a flat stage in a WT race? It seems like it's been years.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Viviani ate Sagan

 

[Velolover2]

Viviani has such a brutal sprint in the last 50 m.