Tour de la Provence 2021, France, February 11 - February 14

[tobydawq]

Looks like they did away with that Egan Arley Ousin guy.

Did they kill him?

 

[tobydawq]

For anyone ready to jump on the Matteo Jorgenson bandwagon there's a lovely dedicated thread filled with silly posts and (no longer?) unjustified hype.

Very impressed with his performance today. But no way he's 65 kg as PCS suggests.

It's a great thread with only great posts apart from that one post by someone who says it's a crap thread.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Very impressed with his performance today. But no way he's 65 kg as PCS suggests.

PCS has Carthy at 69kg, so he should be in that category as well. But not now, that's for peak form.

 

[Lequack]

What happened to Enric Mas?

 

[Bolder]

Sosa the obvious winner here. Bernal looked decent, but I'm impressed by Alaphilippe being able to climb like this, especially at this time of year. Also really impressed by Vansevenant and Jorgenson. Vansevenant took a big lead and still finished strongly, and Jorgenson I thought was too big for this kind of climb. Lutsenko was never gonna win this race, but I'm still disappointed by him. Vlasov should have been much better as well.

This could be Sosa's breakout season. I've been wondering if he hasn't been something of a disappointment, but today he looked very sharp. Vlasov...don't know if he was targeting this race or not, so I'll reserve judgment.

Alaphilippe is an amazing rider. On any given day, he can climb with the best, and win just about any one-day race. He's blown a few chances to win here and there but he is always at the sharp end. He covered that late dig by Bernal and basically, literally, laughed in his face.

Jorgenson is riding like he has something to prove. Love to see that.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Apparently Sosa was 1:23 slower than Quintana last year. I know that the temperatures were really low, but still, shows you how good Quintana was at the start of the last season when he destroyed Carthy, Vlasov and Kuss.

 

[RedheadDane]

Did they kill him?

They fused him with the much more well known Egan Arley Bernal Gomez.

 

[pastronef]

This clearly shows rim brakes are better, and since Ineos are the only team still on rim brakes they will just win everything.
Great ride by Sosa today.

tbf some riders at Gazprom might still be with rim brakes. Delko has rim brakes, StMichel-Auber93 has rim brakes, I am curious about Pogacar in the mountain stages this season

 

[Ranagazoo]

If Sosa can bring his 2.1/2.HC legs into the grand tours this year then Ineos go from scary to terrifying

 

[Escarabajo]

Sosa always does these things on these type of short races with hard single mountains. He is unbeatable. However, put some wind, Time Trials, Multi climbs and longer races and he is gone sadly. Hope he progresses from previous years.

 

[hayneplane]

Yeah bit of a one trick pony at the moment. In his ideal circumstances he is up there with the best in the world but will need to develop the endurance to cope with stages ridden hard from a long way out if he is to go on to win bigger races.

 

[davidsonduke]

Does Sosa have the skinniest arms in the worldtour?

 

[Faserr]

Does Sosa have the skinniest arms in the worldtour?

I thought about said, too. I think his arms are skinnier then Buchmanns arms at the Dauphiné 2020.

 

[wheresmybrakes]

Did they kill him?

...and cut him up and froze him ready for another day.

 

[armchairclimber]

So, do the wolfpack go on the attack today to put Sosa and bernal under pressure? Stybar and Alaphilippe hitting out on a descent? In his current mood, I can't see Alaphilippe sitting on 3rd without having a go.

 

[RedheadDane]

...and cut him up and froze him ready for another day.

What is it with you, and wanting to freeze people/goats/whatever?

 

[wheresmybrakes]

This could be Sosa's breakout season. I've been wondering if he hasn't been something of a disappointment, but today he looked very sharp. Vlasov...don't know if he was targeting this race or not, so I'll reserve judgment.

Alaphilippe is an amazing rider. On any given day, he can climb with the best, and win just about any one-day race. He's blown a few chances to win here and there but he is always at the sharp end. He covered that late dig by Bernal and basically, literally, laughed in his face.

Jorgenson is riding like he has something to prove. Love to see that.

Taking nothing away from Ala, he had a good race yesterday, but I think Bernal was just testing Ala to see how he was then eased off so as not to drag him up to Sosa when Ala reacted. I think this could be the problem with Remco when he eventually takes on a GT. He won't have much of a team left in the high mountains to help him take on the big guns and relying on ITT's I think won't be good enough. Someone mentioned that Ala would be a good dom for Remco, that I would like to see, world champion domming for a rider not long out of nappies. I think today, DQS will go on the attack to take on INEOS for the win.

 

[tobydawq]

Maybe he recently watched Frozen?

Spending his time like that instead of training is exactly why he will never be as good a bike rider as his mother.

 

[RedheadDane]

Maybe he recently watched Frozen?

There is no cutting people/goats/whatever up involved in Frozen!

 

[wheresmybrakes]

Maybe he recently watched Frozen?

Spending his time like that instead of training is exactly why he will never be as good a bike rider as his mother.

Actually, if you knew where my mother was........

 

[Roku]

Like Escarabajo said, Sosa is unable to replicate this kind of performances on multi-mountain or tough stages. He lacks endurance and I would bet he will be out of INEOS next year.

I was impressed by Carlos Rodriguez, he blew De Plus and pulled for 3/4 KMs.

I'm a bit concerned with Alaphilippe's performance, hope he doesn't show his super-saiyajin form once again

 

[Lequack]

Trek are ready

https://twitter.com/x/status/1360885827795091458

View: https://twitter.com/TrekSegafredo/status/1360885827795091458?s=20

 

[wheresmybrakes]

I find it annoying when these riders get their food bags, only to bin half of it at the side of the road. Can't they just go back to the car and get what they want or maybe just take what they want out the bag then bin the rest to one of their helpers further up the road. Suppose if you're in the right place as a spectator, you will be in for a treat with all the freebies getting thrown about.

 

[titan31]

Taking nothing away from Ala, he had a good race yesterday, but I think Bernal was just testing Ala to see how he was then eased off so as not to drag him up to Sosa when Ala reacted. I think this could be the problem with Remco when he eventually takes on a GT. He won't have much of a team left in the high mountains to help him take on the big guns and relying on ITT's I think won't be good enough. Someone mentioned that Ala would be a good dom for Remco, that I would like to see, world champion domming for a rider not long out of nappies. I think today, DQS will go on the attack to take on INEOS for the win.

Tbf if DQS go all in on Remco in a GT, they can bring the likes of Alaphillippe, Almeida, Knox, Cavagna, Asgreen, Serry and Cattaneo as an example which would be very strong. It won't be Jumbo or Ineos level if you bring that to the Tour but that would likely be a stronger lineup in the Giro or Vuelta.

 

[Bonimenier]

Taking nothing away from Ala, he had a good race yesterday, but I think Bernal was just testing Ala to see how he was then eased off so as not to drag him up to Sosa when Ala reacted. I think this could be the problem with Remco when he eventually takes on a GT. He won't have much of a team left in the high mountains to help him take on the big guns and relying on ITT's I think won't be good enough. Someone mentioned that Ala would be a good dom for Remco, that I would like to see, world champion domming for a rider not long out of nappies. I think today, DQS will go on the attack to take on INEOS for the win.

Why would Remco care about an attack from Bernal 5 minutes behind him?