Tour de Romandie 2022 (April 26 - May 1)

[Dekker_Tifosi]

@Devil's Elbow

Rohan Dennis leider in Romandië: "Kijken hoe ver ik kom in het klassement"

Rohan Dennis heeft op de tweede dag van de Ronde van Romandië de leiderstrui veroverd. De Australiër van Jumbo-Visma trok in de oplopende aankomst ten aanval en werd pas vlak voor de streep ingerekend door Dylan Teuns. “Ik heb alles gegeven, maar het was net niet genoeg voor de ritzege. Ligt de...

www.wielerflits.nl

You might have to translate the article to English. But the last block (in grey) is about Zeeman telling Kruijswijk was behind the fall, as I suspected and told you. He did came back but after a great effort/chase. So was obviously gassed

 

[Devil's Elbow]

@Devil's Elbow

Rohan Dennis leider in Romandië: "Kijken hoe ver ik kom in het klassement"

Rohan Dennis heeft op de tweede dag van de Ronde van Romandië de leiderstrui veroverd. De Australiër van Jumbo-Visma trok in de oplopende aankomst ten aanval en werd pas vlak voor de streep ingerekend door Dylan Teuns. “Ik heb alles gegeven, maar het was net niet genoeg voor de ritzege. Ligt de...

www.wielerflits.nl

You might have to translate the article to English. But the last block (in grey) is about Zeeman telling Kruijswijk was behind the fall, as I suspected and told you. He did came back but after a great effort/chase. So was obviously gassed

I'm Dutch so I'll be fine

I already suspected this was the case though:

At best, he did get held up, then made it back and got dropped after that anyway, because 22 seconds to Teuns is 10-15 seconds to the back of the peloton and a small group loses more than that to the peloton in the run-in to the hill and the sprint up it.

 

[Jagartrott]

Cycling is such a brutal sport.
The Romans had it all wrong with their gladiators and lions and stuff.

 

[MartinGT]

Just watched the last 20kms. Oh dear Hayter. Why so far back? Surly just poor positioning considering his boys were on the front?

 

[Samamba]

Just watched the last 20kms. Oh dear Hayter. Why so far back? Surly just poor positioning considering his boys were on the front?

Isn't he just always at the back?
Feel like he can't ride in the peloton so he just sits at the back like De Gendt, but that's not how you win races.

 

[JosefK]

So, to summarize Stage 1, Teuns Roglic'd Roglic's teammate Dennis.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

Just watched the last 20kms. Oh dear Hayter. Why so far back? Surly just poor positioning considering his boys were on the front?

It's the Steve Cummings tactic. I wonder if he was in the Ineos car as he's an assistant DS.

 

[tobydawq]

It's possible I got the numbers mixed up...

4 is the one where you have just one of the fingers on your hand not up when you do the hand signal.

3 is the one where you have one less finger up than that.

 

[samhocking]

Isn't he just always at the back?
Feel like he can't ride in the peloton so he just sits at the back like De Gendt, but that's not how you win races.

He did say a couple of days ago he's just going for the prologue and to win stages not GC as did Thomas, so I think the plan was probably to just save energy at the back for another day, but remain within touching distance for the finale, just in case anytihng happened to Thomas going for GC. He certainly was at the front every day at Tour of Britain as a GC contender against Wout, so clearly it's a tactical decision here when not going for GC, same as Cummings, Voekler, deGent etc used to do in Tour. The science is pretty clear how much more energy you save there. Mid to rear peloton has the equivalent cycling speed of 3.2x and very back is 4.5x ie for the same energy you can ride 4.5x faster at the very rear.

 

[Roku]

I think Lotto needs to start throwing all their youngsters into GC battles and see which ones stick. A 20th spot in GC of the Giro is 40 UCI points. That's the same amount as a 2nd spot in a Giro stage. I think it's far more likely for a guy like Van Gils to manage that, than win a stage. Even 25th in GC is still 32 UCI points, where as 5th in a stage is only 4 UCI points. So as far as points go, riding for a GC is more interesting than trying to win a stage, since i think a stagewin is a lot less realistic for those guys. You maybe have 3 shots in a GT to get a stagewin, and chances to finish outside of the podium on all of them is more likely. I'm talking about Cras, Van Gils, Moniquet, Vervloesem, Kron, Holmes... Lotto needs to swamp every GC race with these guys. None of them will be able to go for a top 5, not even in a race like Baloise Belgium Tour, but they can get a few of them in the top 15 of smaller GC races and top 25 of bigger GC races.

But knowing Lotto, they will likely aim for a stagewin with those guys and miss, earning zero points instead. They can go for wins with De Lie, Campenaerts, Wellens etc.

I generally disagree with your take here.

Kron can certainly do a Top5 in lesser GC races focused on hills (Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Wallonnie, etc) while stagehunting at GT, where he will always have several stages to target due to his strengths as a rider (faster than average and good in hilly / mid mountain parcours). I think it would be pointless to make him ride for GC in GTs or even WT one week races.

Vanhoucke seems to have problems with endurance, so I can't see him riding for GC placing as well. He can start the Giro with a protected role and see how far he can get, he is still fairly young, but I think It's better to send him in doable breaks once he starts shedding time.

As for Van Gils, I would say don't put any pressure on him. He is not going to save Lotto from relegation with 20 UCI points at Giro, so let him learn the race, target a few stages.

Cras, on the other hand, seems a good bet for doing a De Greef and reach a low Top15 or high Top20 while being fairly anonymous. He seems like a diesel and reliable rider.

As for Holmes, I can't see him doing anything relevant apart from a few good breakaways.

 

[YavorD]

I just watched the stage and seeing how Teuns was on Dennis, it almost felt like some DS was screaming in his ears "Catch that ****, teach him a lesson for 2019".

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I generally disagree with your take here.

Kron can certainly do a Top5 in lesser GC races focused on hills (Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Wallonnie, etc) while stagehunting at GT, where he will always have several stages to target due to his strengths as a rider (faster than average and good in hilly / mid mountain parcours). I think it would be pointless to make him ride for GC in GTs or even WT one week races.

Vanhoucke seems to have problems with endurance, so I can't see him riding for GC placing as well. He can start the Giro with a protected role and see how far he can get, he is still fairly young, but I think It's better to send him in doable breaks once he starts shedding time.

As for Van Gils, I would say don't put any pressure on him. He is not going to save Lotto from relegation with 20 UCI points at Giro, so let him learn the race, target a few stages.

Cras, on the other hand, seems a good bet for doing a De Greef and reach a low Top15 or high Top20 while being fairly anonymous. He seems like a diesel and reliable rider.

As for Holmes, I can't see him doing anything relevant apart from a few good breakaways.

I think you misunderstood my point, maybe i wasn't clear. But i think there are some guys i don't see winning any stages easily, so i would have them focus on even minor GC placings.

Check out my last post in the Lotto thread:

When you send Cras to - say - the Dauphiné, what will he achieve there? Top 15 GC? Fourth in a stage from a break? Let's say he gets a 15th spot and 5th in a stage. What does that mean in UCI points? Only 35 Points. Now send Cras to Adriatica Ionica where he is almost guaranteed to ride top 5 or better and has a realistic shot to finish a stage in top 3. That would earn him 53 UCI points if he finishes 5th + one stage top 3. If he finishes 3rd (still very possible in that race) he goes home with 73 UCI points. Now do the same with Van Gils, Moniquet etc, and you'll see sending them to smaller races instead might be much more interesting. They can send a team for stagewins with Ewan, Wellens, De Gendt, De Lie... to other races.

 

[Samamba]

I expected a bigger and stronger break for today. Only 4 riders now. possible bunch sprint incoming? Uae should probably try to control for Gaviria.

 

[AlfaLum]

G got a 20 second penalty for taking a bottle where he wasn’t supposed to.

 

[gregrowlerson]

G got a 20 second penalty for taking a bottle where he wasn’t supposed to.

Sounds like the 2020 Giro, although that was a much harsher penalty.

 

[Mayomaniac]

I expected a bigger and stronger break for today. Only 4 riders now. possible bunch sprint incoming? Uae should probably try to control for Gaviria.

It's the only real chance for the sprinters, so the few teams who actually brought one to this race will probably keep the breakaway on a short leash.

 

[Taxus4a]

I expected a bigger and stronger break for today. Only 4 riders now. possible bunch sprint incoming? Uae should probably try to control for Gaviria.

Maybe some attacks at the end, and I hope one of the can win, but now evarything seem a more or less massive sprint...the doubt is with Gaviria in contention or not, burt it looks like with him..We will see, becouse I think some teams will try to put a hard pace to drop Gaviria and the terrain is not flat.

 

[Taxus4a]

But the attacks should start from this point, other way it will be sprint...When I was a child, I remember days like this very good for Ekimov. Today we have riders similar for that, but I think it is not so easy to see. But here we dont have veru striong teams to work at the end

 

[search]

Maybe some attacks at the end, and I hope one of the can win, but now evarything seem a more or less massive sprint...the doubt is with Gaviria in contention or not, burt it looks like with him..We will see, becouse I think some teams will try to put a hard pace to drop Gaviria and the terrain is not flat.

I'd say there's always doubt about Gaviria, no matter if in contention or not. Even if he's there, and quickest on paper, he may still start his sprint with 500m to go and finish 8th.

Now coming back from injury, I'd even tend to rate Vernon higher than him. But as he has only raced on track recently, of course his shape is pretty much of an unknown as well.

 

[Taxus4a]

Israel now trying to make hard the race for Bevin

 

[Devil's Elbow]

I thought that hill was a bit easy for a substantial number of riders to have to let go, then I remembered the Jumbo-Gewissma show in Paris-Nice happened on a similar hill.

 

[Tim Cahill]

ISN might want to give Dan Martin a call, they're in a bit of trouble here.

 

[Devil's Elbow]

Ineos really needed to go all-out when the peloton was lined out after the descent, Gaviria should survive this now.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

ISN might want to give Dan Martin a call, they're in a bit of trouble here.

Too young for their recruiting policies

 

[search]

Ineos really needed to go all-out when the peloton was lined out after the descent, Gaviria should survive this now.

if anyone hasn't worked yet (Sheffield?) there's still a chance for a successful attack in the end as well. UAE is very short on domestiques