Tour de France 2019 stage 16: Nîmes > Nîmes

[movingtarget]

Ewan doing a McEwen........great win. Lotto having an excellent race.

 

[wirral]

Re:

Tony Martin looks like he is about to enter rhabdomyolysis. I worry for him.

He's about to enter... what?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhabdomyolysis

Symptoms include "weakness", Tony is pretty safe.

I thought it was joke about a nasty long term ailment suffered by riders who go to R(h)abobank to end their careers as domestiques

:lol:

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

So... does that mean Ewan is the sprint-king of this Tour? He's got double as many wins as the other sprinters.

There are still sprints to go and it is very tight between the big guns, but yes, so far he has been the best. I think going in, Groenewegen was most widely expected to be the most successful, but really the last year or show should have demonstrated that there’s no stable pecking order among the big top tier of fast men. It varies race by race and even stage by stage.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

So... does that mean Ewan is the sprint-king of this Tour? He's got double as many wins as the other sprinters.

There are still sprints to go and it is very tight between the big guns, but yes, so far he has been the best. I think going in, Groenewegen was most widely expected to be the most successful, but really the last year or show should have demonstrated that there’s no stable pecking order among the big top tier of fast men. It varies race by race and even stage by stage.

I think Groenewegen usually has been a touch above the rest. I wonder if he is a bit impeded by his crash on the first stage.

By the way, I expect Ewan to not reach Paris, and even if he does, I don't think the cobbles on the Champs-Élysées are for him.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Groenewegen still has the old problem of not positioning himself well. Either his team has to do it super perfect and not too early like today or in the last sprint stage, or Groenewegen himself has to do better.

Positoning is a big part of it. But no doubt Groenewegen is, for me, very disappointing this Tour. Jumbo should reconsider taking him next year, because in stead of 1 or 2 wins he takes, they can have maybe more with Van Aert + green jersey chances..

 

[Midnightfright]

Re:

Groenewegen still has the old problem of not positioning himself well. Either his team has to do it super perfect and not too early like today or in the last sprint stage, or Groenewegen himself has to do better.

Positoning is a big part of it. But no doubt Groenewegen is, for me, very disappointing this Tour. Jumbo should reconsider taking him next year, because in stead of 1 or 2 wins he takes, they can have maybe more with Van Aert + green jersey chances..

Very frustrating as I still think he is the quickest guy out there but how many times does he actually get himself in the right position? Compare himself even to how Ewan done it today? I would have no faith in Dylan managing it

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Yeah I still believe he is outright the quickest guy as well. But in the TDF, where positioning is the hardest, he always seems to fluff 5/6 times and only sprints clearly once or twice.

 

[Red Rick]

Groenewegen clearly suffers from not having a fully dedicated team imo. And I'm not sure I blame the team. But it's not getting much better with Dumoulin likely coming in next year.

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

So... does that mean Ewan is the sprint-king of this Tour? He's got double as many wins as the other sprinters.

There are still sprints to go and it is very tight between the big guns, but yes, so far he has been the best. I think going in, Groenewegen was most widely expected to be the most successful, but really the last year or show should have demonstrated that there’s no stable pecking order among the big top tier of fast men. It varies race by race and even stage by stage.

True. No one since Kittel has really earned the title of fastest sprinter in the world. A few guys have flirted with it for a couple races or months but no one has stood out enough to have truly earned it.

 

[Breh]

So few teams with any succes at all this Tour.

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

Groenewegen still has the old problem of not positioning himself well. Either his team has to do it super perfect and not too early like today or in the last sprint stage, or Groenewegen himself has to do better.

Positoning is a big part of it. But no doubt Groenewegen is, for me, very disappointing this Tour. Jumbo should reconsider taking him next year, because in stead of 1 or 2 wins he takes, they can have maybe more with Van Aert + green jersey chances..

Very frustrating as I still think he is the quickest guy out there but how many times does he actually get himself in the right position? Compare himself even to how Ewan done it today? I would have no faith in Dylan managing it

I might have thought there was a chance of that coming in, but I don't believe it now. Ewan could have had even more stages this Tour if he had positioned himself better early on. In any case, he absolutely hasn't looked even 1% slower than Groenewegen this Tour. I think it's like Zinoviev says and we just don't have that one guy that's the fastest right now even if we have a tendency to want to bestow that title.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Groenewegen did fall hard on stage 1 so that might have made him a few % less tho

 

[jaylew]

In any case, that extra % might put him equal with Ewan, who I feel has been a bit faster. Ewan does appear to have taken a step up speed-wise I have to say. I wonder if team change has anything to do with it or if it's just his natural progression.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Idk about that. Groenewegen closed in today when he hit top speed. And when he lost to Ewan before Ewan was slipstreaming Groene going into headwind.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Idk about that. Groenewegen closed in today when he hit top speed. And when he lost to Ewan before Ewan was slipstreaming Groene going into headwind.

Ewan did have to open very early so I don't think that observation says much.

 

[Samamba]

Re:

Idk about that. Groenewegen closed in today when he hit top speed. And when he lost to Ewan before Ewan was slipstreaming Groene going into headwind.

Yeah lol obviously when Ewan was already in the wind 150m before that.

I still think a 100% Groenewegen is faster than a 100% Ewan on paper, but let's not use today's last 50m as a reason to think Groenewegen was faster today.

 

[movingtarget]

Smart sprint by Ewan from the position he was in. He was in the wind for a long time and won easily.

 

[sir fly]

Ewan's really fast, but also seems to be fresher than the rest.
Only behind him the sprint was close.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re: Re:

That was impressive asf

Ewen's sprint was fantastic. DQS's lead out was impressive as well. Great drilling and fitness by those guys. Viviani though...

Yeah, Viviani is disappointing. Bennett will be brutal with this train next year.

 

[happytramp]

Re: Re:

That was impressive asf

Ewen's sprint was fantastic. DQS's lead out was impressive as well. Great drilling and fitness by those guys. Viviani though...

Yeah, Viviani is disappointing. Bennett will be brutal with this train next year.

.

Brutal good or brutal bad?

 

[Wvv]

Viviani doing all that (impressive) domestique work on stage 15 and participating at the intermediate, might've cost him his final kick for the stage win.

 

[klintE]

Trentin ftfw

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

That was impressive asf

Ewen's sprint was fantastic. DQS's lead out was impressive as well. Great drilling and fitness by those guys. Viviani though...

Yeah, Viviani is disappointing. Bennett will be brutal with this train next year.

.

Brutal good or brutal bad?

Brutal good, obviously. Hard not to take a step up as a sprinter with those guys

 

[klintE]

Re:

Trentin ftfw

Wrong thread, but a good choice. :/