Tour de Romandie 2022 (April 26 - May 1)

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

Didn't Vlasov need those boni seconds?

Exactly!

The four bonus secs Vlasov lost, would have made him second in GC.

If Vlasov would have won, he would be 14 secs behind Dennis. So it‘s 18 secs now.

 

[Pinot's goat]

He won the race last year, so not sure today was age related. Ill and/or he had a pretty horrendous shoulder bone rebuild operation start of season he's only just got recovered from he said.

He was on the podium of Catalunya last year which was a much better result than anything he has this year so it's clear his form is not as progressed as last year. He will be competitive in Dauphine/Suisse.

 

[Lequack]

So can anyone beat Rohan Dennis tomorrow? The answer is no.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

It fluctuates. For a while in the 2000s and early 2010s it was a pretty weak race used mainly as a development one, as a lot of the biggest GT names were also the main contenders in the Ardennes - the likes of Valverde, Evans, Cunego, the Schleck brothers, Rodríguez, Samuel Sánchez, di Luca - but then for a few years after that it was actually a pretty strong race when the riders contesting the Ardennes ceased to be the main GT candidates and instead people like Froome, Wiggins, Quintana and their likes would go and race Romandie instead. It now seems to be swinging back the other way and more resembling what it was 10-15 years ago.

remember when Thomas Dekker won Romandie ahead of Savoldelli

Dekker-Tifosi remembers

 

[Landeirovic]

So can anyone beat Rohan Dennis tomorrow? The answer is no.

The answer is yes. In 2018 Dennis was 7e in MTT. He lost 1:30 on Bernal. on the 5km flat he will not run out for 20 seconds on Vlasov or Ayuso. there is a good chance that Ayuso and/or Vlasov will climb 20-35 seconds faster.

 

[JosefK]

The answer is yes. In 2018 Dennis was 7e in MTT. He lost 1:30 on Bernal. on the 5km flat he will not run out for 20 seconds on Vlasov or Ayuso. there is a good chance that Ayuso and/or Vlasov will climb 20-35 seconds faster.

I thought I heard that Dennis said his weight is a little bit higher now than would be best for climbing long hills. And yet his climbing in recent years has, at times, been very strong. Tomorrow's climb is long, with a challenging but steady gradient. Too steep for Rohan? ... Not sure. It could be an entertaining finale.

 

[Skijumper Roglic fan]

Imagine Ayuso wins the GC tomorrow…

Would be incredible. Which other 19-year old can win a WT stage race GC? No one, actually. He is really super strong, already…

Maybe Ayuso is the next Miguel Indurain?…

 

[glassmoon]

Pinot saying it wasnt a high mountain stage and the climb was not hard enough for him

Only 2 types of climbs in the world really: not enough hard for Pino or too hard for Pino

 

[Cookster15]

I thought I heard that Dennis said his weight is a little bit higher now than would be best for climbing long hills. And yet his climbing in recent years has, at times, been very strong. Tomorrow's climb is long, with a challenging but steady gradient. Too steep for Rohan? ... Not sure. It could be an entertaining finale.

Dennis won't have any problem at all with that climb. Has everyone forgotten the 2019 Tour de Suisse? Only a team ambush can stop him winning this race.

 

[Escarabajo]

A "celebrating too early" classic.

I don't think so. I think Vlasov knew it was Higuita and pulled off before making him and Higuita look like fools for crashing into each other.

 

[Tonton]

Pinot saying it wasnt a high mountain stage and the climb was not hard enough for him

What a joke! A Queen Stage? What? Is it Poitou-Charentes? Where is Demare? Yes Thibaut criticized the route in general, this "medium mountain stage" as he called it, but concluded by saying, basically "well, it is what it is". He had great legs today. Tibopino regreted that he messed up his sprint...looking at the vid' he stopped pedaling three times, yikes. It was in the bag. Higuita is the new Carapaz.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Just after the finish I thought Vlasov was going to hit Higuita, but he congratulated him instead.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

surprised Caruso lost that much time at the finish

Watching the replay it looked like he had a mechanical issue and had to stop at the side of the road with 350m to go

 

[Rackham]

It would be awesome if Dennis can win this (& a nice surprise). I certainly feel he's capable, especially considering his performance in the Olympics TT which was also difficult (rolling & punchy) & much longer.

Just after the finish I thought Vlasov was going to hit Higuita, but he congratulated him instead.

A Russian unleashing ultra-violence right now would be bad optics.

 

[RedheadDane]

Wait... why is Cataford the first to start, even though he's not last in GC?

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Wait... why is Cataford the first to start, even though he's not last in GC?

Perhaps he has a plane to catch?

 

[RedheadDane]

Perhaps he has a plane to catch?

I was wondering that too.

 

[Mayomaniac]

So Sobrero and Tiberi both finished over 22min down yesterday, alongside Cattaneo. I hope that they took it easy and tried to save something for today...

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Price Pejtersen is going to be interesting. Maybe he can get the fastest intermediate time and finish 5 minutes down at the top.

 

[RedheadDane]

PCS with the weird statistics:

Heaviest riders starting today.

#	RIDER	WEIGHT (KG)
1	JANSEN Amund Grøndahl	83
2	BEWLEY Sam	81
3	CAVAGNA Rémi	78
4	ROOSEN Timo	78
5	HESSMANN Michel	78
6	SCHÄR Michael	78
7	ARNDT Nikias	77.5
8	PRICE-PEJTERSEN Johan	77
9	SWEENY Harry	75
10	BEVIN Patrick	75

 

[Red Rick]

I'm very surprised at how highly rated Dennis and Plapp are for this stage.

 

[Netserk]

I'm very surprised at how highly rated Dennis and Plapp are for this stage.

In 2018 with the climb only, Dennis beat Fuglsang while the latter showed the next day that he climbed better than the former in a road stage.

 

[Rackham]

The gaps are going to be important at the finish, i.e. as things currently stand it's a long tt:

Preliminary results at finish

#	Rider	Time	Avg
1	SWEENY Harry	36.34,590	25.984
2	CHAMPION Thomas	37.50,08	25.120
3	BRUN Nils	38.49,04	24.484
4	HUYS Laurens	39.01,32	24.355
5	PRICE-PEJTERSEN Johan	39.10,62	24.259

 

[Red Rick]

In 2018 with the climb only, Dennis beat Fuglsang while the latter showed the next day that he climbed better than the former in a road stage.

Yes, because Fuglsang did a really bad MTT.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I'm very surprised at how highly rated Dennis and Plapp are for this stage.

They are/were both TT specialists who have shown impressive climbing feats in the past, so i'm not really surprised.