Top Alien Awards 2017

[Blanco]

Re: Re:

Afaik, it has only been slow in the high mountain stages in the GTs. Fast everywhere else.

Giro: Blockhaus and Oropa were super fast. Etna was headwind. Umbrail is hard to tell because it was such a high and hard stage (probably up there with Mont du Chat in the Tour). Rest of the third week was all weak to ok.

Tour: Aru on la Planche, Contador on the Croix de Fer, and the Izoard across the field were pretty fast. But I agree, not the strongest climbing performances of the year.

Vuelta: All short climbs were fast. All the big ones pretty slow. I think all of Calar Alto, Pandera, Sierra Nevada and the Angliru had headwinds. Froome must've sacrificed a large number of bunnies to the cycling gods

Strongest climbing performances would probably be something like

In a random order

Quintana on Blockhaus and Terminillo
Valverde on Tortosa
Contador on Muchachos and Angliru
Lopez on the Sierra Nevada
Porte on the PN and Romandie MTFs
Dumoulin on Oropa
Alarcon (didn't watch Portugal, so I don't know how good/bad it actually was)
Barguil on the Izoard - Maybe
Aru on La Planche and Mont du Chat (Dauphine) - maybe

Then you might get Froome - Cumbre del Sol and Xorret de Catí.

Porte got beaten by S.Yates in the Queen stage of Romandie - That's hardly an alien performance.

The guy attacked before the final climb and had a headstart, in the end Porte was over 45 seconds faster on a 7.5min long climb, that's a lot.
http://www.climbing-records.com/2017/05/richie-from-another-planet.html

So What ? S.Yates used up energy by attacking on the second last climb and then conserved energy on the final climb, after he found out Porte was on a rampage on the final climb - And Porte lost the stage to S.Yates and was actually second on GC before the final stage ITT - It was not a wow performance by Roche, unless you think S.Yates is a superstar.

It was a wow performance! He dropped the whole field on relatively easy and short climb. Yates could've beat him only becuase it flatten up in the end and he was in slipstream of Porte all the time.

 

[The Hegelian]

I actually thought Porte on the last climb of the Dauphine was more alien than in Romandie. He was isolated in the valley and still roasted the best climbers in the world all approaching top form.

 

[yaco]

Re:

I actually thought Porte on the last climb of the Dauphine was more alien than in Romandie. He was isolated in the valley and still roasted the best climbers in the world all approaching top form.

You are right - The Dauphine performance was more impressive than Romandie.

 

[Pennino]

Most Clinic posters who can't watch cycling normally. In a race, someone will cross the line first, remember...

 

[The Hegelian]

Re:

Most Clinic posters who can't watch cycling normally. In a race, someone will cross the line first, remember...

"Normally" as in "abstracting our interpretation of events from history, causation and well established knowledge?"

I'm happy with such a definition, but it follows that normal is a synonym for ignorance. In that, interpreting events without historical, causal, institutional, political and economic context is to see them in some realm of imagination or fantasy. And I agree that sport is designed (rather carefully) to entice us into such a realm.

I'm happy to be alien in rejecting this way of viewing.....

 

[noddy69]

The TT worlds- Dumoulin was insane- but I actuallly though Roglic was pretty funny with the bike swap and sprinting up the final climb too. I'll spread my vote across those two.

If that hadnt happened then Poels/Froome double act up the Angrilu was ridiculous.

 

[Tonton]

Not too many in '17...

Valverde
Dumoulin - Blockhaus
Barguil - Izoard
Contador - Angliru? (one last one for the road)

Not much, really.

 

[The Hegelian]

I said in the OP 'can be updated in lieu of the autumn classics.'

So, I'm dropping Gilbert's RVV + spring to number 2, and just having at number one: Moscon's season.

At 23, to hold his Vuelta form into the 3rd week was phenomenal. And then to hold it to the WC and then Lombardia.......wow.

 

[rick james]

The TT worlds- Dumoulin was insane- but I actuallly though Roglic was pretty funny with the bike swap and sprinting up the final climb too. I'll spread my vote across those two.

If that hadnt happened then Poels/Froome double act up the Angrilu was ridiculous.

But not Bertie

 

[noddy69]

The TT worlds- Dumoulin was insane- but I actuallly though Roglic was pretty funny with the bike swap and sprinting up the final climb too. I'll spread my vote across those two.

If that hadnt happened then Poels/Froome double act up the Angrilu was ridiculous.

But not Bertie

Didn't say it wasn't but at least he looked fatigued- the two lads sauntered up and could have caught him easily if they went earlier. they were talking away, on the way up arguably the hardest climb in the pro ranks and their performance was in my mind a level above Contadors, albeit without winning.

 

[42x16ss]

The TT worlds- Dumoulin was insane- but I actuallly though Roglic was pretty funny with the bike swap and sprinting up the final climb too. I'll spread my vote across those two.

If that hadnt happened then Poels/Froome double act up the Angrilu was ridiculous.

But not Bertie

Contador was a red flag, but the Froome/Poels show on Angliru was one of the most ridiculously OTT displays we've seen for a while now, even for Sky. Deep down you know it too.

 

[rainman]

Angliru Poels in particular looked ridiculously comfortable, strolling and chatting through the steepest lines, Sky clearly gifted Bertie, good PR given the hysteria on the day.

Award of the year tho - Gilbert/RVV 50k solo, not seen since the days of Merckx at his best. Given todays formulaic racing - Absolutely Ludicrous.

 

[SafeBet]

Moscon is in a league of his own, he's so alien that I'm pretty sure Sigourney Weaver was on San Fermo last Saturday.

 

[rick james]

The TT worlds- Dumoulin was insane- but I actuallly though Roglic was pretty funny with the bike swap and sprinting up the final climb too. I'll spread my vote across those two.

If that hadnt happened then Poels/Froome double act up the Angrilu was ridiculous.

But not Bertie

Contador was a red flag, but the Froome/Poels show on Angliru was one of the most ridiculously OTT displays we've seen for a while now, even for Sky. Deep down you know it too.

They were in big groups hardly at the front until almost the last 1.5k....

 

[meat puppet]

Being at the front is really moot here. This is angliru we are talking about, chrissakes.

What is relevant is freshness, which they had plenty of. Others, not so much.

 

[heart_attack_man]

My winner is Poels/Froome Sunday riding and chatting through the steepest section on Angliru. Ridonkulous. Will admit that I didn't get to see RVV though, so didn't see Gilbert. Will have to dig it out and watch.

 

[Durden93]

Gilbert RVV, Moscon in the Vuelta,

 

[the delgados]

Re:

Gilbert RVV, Moscon in the Vuelta,

Sorry to interrupt, but I overheard someone mention Gilbert at De Ronde. De Ronde Van Vlaanderen.
I agree. His performance that day was way over the top.
Guy comes back from relative anonymity and drops everyone 50 km's from the finish line. And he didn't even change bikes.
He be jacked to the gills.

 

[burning]

Re:

Dumoulin on Oropa.
Valverde braking uphill on Mont Caro.
Sagan with the fastest ascent on Poggio since '98!
Porte going nuclear the whole first half of the season.

This has to be the lowkey full *** performance of the year. Imagine that someone beat 2001 Lance's time on Alpe, that's literally what happened on Poggio. Also, Gilbert was off the charts.

Also, I think Oropa is heavily overrated because we have only 2 data points and it was a ________/ stage.

 

[Echoes]

Forgive him, he's making wheelies after each win. The best thing that ever happened to the sport because he's a showoff.

 

[Bardamu]

Re: Re:

Dumoulin on Oropa.
Valverde braking uphill on Mont Caro.
Sagan with the fastest ascent on Poggio since '98!
Porte going nuclear the whole first half of the season.

This has to be the lowkey full *** performance of the year. Imagine that someone beat 2001 Lance's time on Alpe, that's literally what happened on Poggio. Also, Gilbert was off the charts.

Also, I think Oropa is heavily overrated because we have only 2 data points and it was a ________/ stage.

I think it mainly shows that the pace of Dumoulin on the Poggio was very high. Sagan, Kwiatkowski and Alaphilippe only broke away some 300-400 metres from the top.

 

[Netserk]

It was roughly 900m out and they had something like 13'' at the top to the bunch.

Or in other words: he took 1'15'' to climb the last 900m, which took the bunch 1'28''. So during his attack he was 17% faster than the bunch, with wind on his nose the whole time.

Back-of-the-envelope that took what, roughly 50% more power?!

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

It was roughly 900m out and they had something like 13'' at the top to the bunch.

Or in other words: he took 1'15'' to climb the last 900m, which took the bunch 1'28''. So during his attack he was 17% faster than the bunch, with wind on his nose the whole time.

Back-of-the-envelope that took what, roughly 50% more power?!

Gravity and rolling resistance are both linear I think (gravity is and rolling resistance in negligable anyway). Air resistance would be like 60% more than those at the head of the peloton, and probably more than twice of those in the the middle of the peloton. Don't really know how much both contribute at those speeds, but given that the last part of the Poggio is like 3%, 50% could well be about right.

That's assuming no wind though.

 

[The Hegelian]

Re:

It was roughly 900m out and they had something like 13'' at the top to the bunch.

Or in other words: he took 1'15'' to climb the last 900m, which took the bunch 1'28''. So during his attack he was 17% faster than the bunch, with wind on his nose the whole time.

Back-of-the-envelope that took what, roughly 50% more power?!

To be fair though, he was cooked for the sprint. He definitely laid it all out on the Poggio.

I personally don't find it that alien that Sagan can destroy all comers - across the generations - on the Poggio. Mt Baldy.....that's a different story.

 

[therealthing]

•Gilbert, obviously.
•Unstoppable Valverde first half of season
•Likewise for Porte- particularly on that summit finish at Romandie when he made everyone else look like a MAMIL on a Sunday club ride
•I must say some of Gaviria's sprints raised an eyebrow- like that Giro stage where he came from miles back and stormed past the bunch with seemingly little trouble.
•Contador for suddenly returning to form after 2 very lacklustre years.
• Dumoulin for Worlds TT, and the nuclear Giro of course.