Tour de Suisse (2.UWT), 9-17 June 2018

[hazaran]

You guys are too funny. Geraint riding people off his wheel? He has mistimed his peak, he will be useless in the Tour, all the others are just chilling. Nairo riding 20km full gas and only getting 15 seconds out of it? He's "managing" his form. Landa terrible? He will win the Tour anyways, he was just channeling his inner domestique past.

Why watch Tour prep races if no matter what happens, you will write your favorite rider is clearly the best, all the others are hopeless

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re:

You guys are too funny. Geraint riding people off his wheel? He has mistimed his peak, he will be useless in the Tour, all the others are just chilling. Nairo riding 20km full gas and only getting 15 seconds out of it? He's "managing" his form. Landa terrible? He will win the Tour anyways, he was just channeling his inner domestique past.

Why watch Tour prep races if no matter what happens, you will write your favorite rider is clearly the best, all the others are hopeless

QFT :idea:

 

[sir fly]

Good to see Quintana in mood for long range efforts.
There's fair chance he'll need them at the Tour.

 

[Tonton]

Re:

Good to see Quintana in mood for long range efforts.
There's fair chance he'll need them at the Tour.

Yeah. he needs to assert himself as the undisputed leader in July. Big win.

 

[Koronin]

Re: Re:

Good to see Quintana in mood for long range efforts.
There's fair chance he'll need them at the Tour.

Yeah. he needs to assert himself as the undisputed leader in July. Big win.

Agreed. If he has any hope of being the undisputed race leader in July he's got no choice but to attack. We all know Landa will attack, even if it doesn't work.

 

[capuldemetal]

More
#TourDeSuisse, Stage 7. Arosa (steep I: 6.87 km, 7.90 %, 543 m)
Nairo Quintana: 18:40, 22.08 Kph, VAM 1745 m/h, 6.25 W/kg [DrF] via @ammattipyoraily


not bad at all..

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Great ride by Quintana and great to see him looking good and hungry.

 

[Robert5091]

Chapeau Nairo Q! The Three Amigos at Movistar will have to attack in all lumpy stages at the TdF as there is the TTT, ITT & cobbles where Dawg & Co would be sxpected to gain time.

 

[Koronin]

Re:

Chapeau Nairo Q! The Three Amigos at Movistar will have to attack in all lumpy stages at the TdF as there is the TTT, ITT & cobbles where Dawg & Co would be sxpected to gain time.

Not on the cobbles. If anyone is going to gain time on the cobbles it'll be Nibali and Valverde. Of the GC guys they are much better on that terrain than the others. Also how much fatigue will Froome be suffering after racing the Giro.

 

[Leinster]

Re: Re:

Chapeau Nairo Q! The Three Amigos at Movistar will have to attack in all lumpy stages at the TdF as there is the TTT, ITT & cobbles where Dawg & Co would be sxpected to gain time.

Not on the cobbles. If anyone is going to gain time on the cobbles it'll be Nibali and Valverde. Of the GC guys they are much better on that terrain than the others. Also how much fatigue will Froome be suffering after racing the Giro.

A lot will depend on the weather on the day. In 2014 it was lashing rain and Nibali made hay, and put 2-3 minutes into all the GC riders who even finished. In 2016, it was dry, and Froome had no trouble covering moves by any of the favourites and was even able to put in his own attacks.

Quality of domestiques will make a huge difference. Froome will have Thomas who has been to the Roubaix Velodrome in the first group (albeit 20s behind the winner), and Porte will have last year’s PR winner. Of the lesser contenders, Yates will have the year before last’s winner, Martin will have Kristoff, Jungels will have the whole QS team.
Quintana might have one third of Erviti?

 

[The Hegelian]

So back to this question of BMC: the plan is to have GVA as Porte's last remaining climbing dom??

What could go wrong?

 

[dusty red roads]

Re: Re:

Chapeau Nairo Q! The Three Amigos at Movistar will have to attack in all lumpy stages at the TdF as there is the TTT, ITT & cobbles where Dawg & Co would be sxpected to gain time.

Not on the cobbles. If anyone is going to gain time on the cobbles it'll be Nibali and Valverde. Of the GC guys they are much better on that terrain than the others. Also how much fatigue will Froome be suffering after racing the Giro.

A lot will depend on the weather on the day. In 2014 it was lashing rain and Nibali made hay, and put 2-3 minutes into all the GC riders who even finished. In 2016, it was dry, and Froome had no trouble covering moves by any of the favourites and was even able to put in his own attacks.

Quality of domestiques will make a huge difference. Froome will have Thomas who has been to the Roubaix Velodrome in the first group (albeit 20s behind the winner), and Porte will have last year’s PR winner. Of the lesser contenders, Yates will have the year before last’s winner, Martin will have Kristoff, Jungels will have the whole QS team.
Quintana might have one third of Erviti?

Ha! Your post just reminded me that big tour threat Majka will have this year's PR winner to protect him

 

[Escarabajo]

Re: Re:

Chapeau. This must be Quintana's longest succesful solo attack ever

Nope

Care to elaborate? I'm not familiar with much of his career as from before 2012

Besides Route du Sud 2012, Dauphine 2012, Giro 2014. Nope.
Giro 2014 he was pulling on his own all the way up the finish. The other 2 were just hanging up for dear life so for all purposes that was a solo effort.
What about that Comunidad Valenciana 2017?
Additionaly the other solo efforts that didn't come to a win like Ventoux, Pailhères, Alpe, etc.

Oh yeah, the Gavia stage. That might well be the performance I was looking for to compare with today, although ofcourse it's doubtful if his attack had succeeded without the neutralization.

Dauphine 2012, I don't recall if he was in the break of the day, or if he "just" outpaced the SKY train up Joux Plane?

As for Valenciana 2017, I assume you are referring to the stage to Denia. I would not call that a solo attack. The stage to Mas de la Costa, he attacked with, what, 4km left, as the climb itself is short?

Anyway, the point was merely, that I'm happy to see him try a daring attack and wanted to have an indicator of whether he was expanding his repertoire as a GC contender by taking a chance like this today. I mean, he could have just played it defensively and gone back to the Porte group, when the gap was 20 seconds and he had to lead over the flat sections. But he didn't. So I genuinely think what he did today was something special.

Yeah, Valenciana was short. This one was long. Dauphine was long as well taking into account that he was trying to hold the Sky train for the last 12 kilometers of descent and flat.

The thing that I like is trying hard on the false flat. Doing everything by himself. It was him against Van Avermaet.

 

[yaco]

Re:

So back to this question of BMC: the plan is to have GVA as Porte's last remaining climbing dom??

What could go wrong?

GT's have been won and continue to be won without strong support riders.

 

[The Hegelian]

Re: Re:

So back to this question of BMC: the plan is to have GVA as Porte's last remaining climbing dom??

What could go wrong?

GT's have been won and continue to be won without strong support riders.

Sure. One thinks of Dumoulin's Giro last year.

But if you have the budget that BMC do, and a genuine contender - why wouldn't you go all out to try and win with the best team possible?

 

[Robert5091]

Finally seeing the video of yesterday, it seemed LRP was charging up to Qunitana but sat up or blew up with 3km left. If LRP has problems catching Qunitana on the flat then it does n't look good for the TdF!

 

[Keram]

After today stage there could be three way tie or two way tie between Gav, Sagan, Matthews (any possible combination). What is a tie breaker? Also there is no points tommorrow, right?

 

[wheresmybrakes]

Finally seeing the video of yesterday, it seemed LRP was charging up to Qunitana but sat up or blew up with 3km left. If LRP has problems catching Qunitana on the flat then it does n't look good for the TdF!

Could it not have been that he knew he had time on Quintana and he's gonna hammer him in the TT so he didn't need to blow himself up chasing for the stage win? The overall is the aim, the stage win is just a bonus. Froome does it all regularly, manages his time for the overall aim.

 

[Yingge]

What's with TJVG then? The sight of him peeling off (or blowing up) and then GVA taking over to lead LRP was rather strange.

I do wonder where TJVG will end up if BMC is finished - who would want him?

 

[yaco]

Re:

What's with TJVG then? The sight of him peeling off (or blowing up) and then GVA taking over to lead LRP was rather strange.

I do wonder where TJVG will end up if BMC is finished - who would want him?

TVG will walk into a WT team -He just finished 2nd at TOC.

 

[Leinster]

Finally seeing the video of yesterday, it seemed LRP was charging up to Qunitana but sat up or blew up with 3km left. If LRP has problems catching Qunitana on the flat then it does n't look good for the TdF!

Could it not have been that he knew he had time on Quintana and he's gonna hammer him in the TT so he didn't need to blow himself up chasing for the stage win? The overall is the aim, the stage win is just a bonus. Froome does it all regularly, manages his time for the overall aim.

Nah, it looked like he tried to come through for Fuglsang a few times, but just wasn't strong enough and just sat on in the end and accepted 3rd on the day. He's probably quite happy to have the advantage over Quintana in the TT and still be in yellow, but I think he would've tried for more if he'd had the legs.

 

[Leinster]

Re: Re:

What's with TJVG then? The sight of him peeling off (or blowing up) and then GVA taking over to lead LRP was rather strange.

I do wonder where TJVG will end up if BMC is finished - who would want him?

TVG will walk into a WT team -He just finished 2nd at TOC.

He will get a job. He may have to reassess his goals and accept a pay cut.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

What's with TJVG then? The sight of him peeling off (or blowing up) and then GVA taking over to lead LRP was rather strange.

I do wonder where TJVG will end up if BMC is finished - who would want him?

TVG will walk into a WT team -He just finished 2nd at TOC.

He will get a job. He may have to reassess his goals and accept a pay cut.

no doubt TVG will have to take a pay cut - I am happy that he is now living in Europe which should help his racing.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Arnaud Démare (FDJ/FRA)
Fernando Gaviria (QST/COL)
Alexander Kristoff (UAD/NOR)
Peter Sagan (BOH/SVK)

GC unchanged yawn

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

what a waste of a weekend. A flat stage and a TT.

I really hate Suisse planning