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Tour de Suisse 2017 (10/06 > 18/06/2017)

Page 30 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Re: Re:

BullsFan22 said:
Irondan said:
Mayomaniac said:
Recently Pozzovivo said that he didn't work on his TT skills for the Giro, the main focus was getting his climbing back on track, but that he'll focus on it for the Vuelta.
Rohan dominated the TTs, great wins for him.
Happy for Spilak, he's one of my favourite riders and when he's just an awesome rider.
He certainly is one of the best stage racers out there, too bad he hasn't been able to ride GT's the way he rides week long stage races. It would be great to see more riders like him able to compete ftw in Grand Tours.


Yeah I co-sign on that. It's a real pity he's hardly raced the GT's. I don't know if it's mental and physical or just mental, but if he can win big stage races like the TDS (twice), Romandie, win the Miguel Indurain GP, stages at the Dauphine, and plenty of other good races/stages, why shouldn't he be able to translate this to the GT's? Interestingly his best ever GT placing was 48th, in his first ever GT, at the 2008 Giro, when he was 21.

I don't know if he still has time to develop into a contender for the GT's in the future, but anyway, he rode well the whole week and deserves the win.

He probably thinks it is just too hot in France and Spain. I always thought it was physical, but this week he even managed to perform well with higher temperatures. So maybe it is also mental after all.

For sure the Giro recently had some years with loads of bad weather and snowy days, but Giro would also mean he cannot do his normal race schedule in march and april. Not easy to decide.
 
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I also feared that Spilak was past his prime, but that was a great TdS.
I think that he dislikes the pressure and the attention that you get when you ride a gt and the factor that you have to perform every day for 3 weeks.
Stagehunting/being a 2nd option for gc at the Giro could work for him, but he probably prefers riding his usual one week races and in the end he always scores a lot of points and decent placings for the team in one week races, so they probably just let him do his thing.
The perfect gt for him was probably the 2013 Giro, but I think that he just had enough of riding gts after the 2011 Giro.
Spilak is a rather unique rider, as a neopro he also finished 5th on gc in De Panne and 9th in the RVV.
Tour and Vuelta aren't an option for him, we're talking about a riders who prefers riding a technical descent with low temperatures and really bad weather instead of climbing in the heat, he just can't cope with the heat and dislikes it.
 
Re: Re:

liamito said:
BullsFan22 said:
Irondan said:
Mayomaniac said:
Recently Pozzovivo said that he didn't work on his TT skills for the Giro, the main focus was getting his climbing back on track, but that he'll focus on it for the Vuelta.
Rohan dominated the TTs, great wins for him.
Happy for Spilak, he's one of my favourite riders and when he's just an awesome rider.
He certainly is one of the best stage racers out there, too bad he hasn't been able to ride GT's the way he rides week long stage races. It would be great to see more riders like him able to compete ftw in Grand Tours.


Yeah I co-sign on that. It's a real pity he's hardly raced the GT's. I don't know if it's mental and physical or just mental, but if he can win big stage races like the TDS (twice), Romandie, win the Miguel Indurain GP, stages at the Dauphine, and plenty of other good races/stages, why shouldn't he be able to translate this to the GT's? Interestingly his best ever GT placing was 48th, in his first ever GT, at the 2008 Giro, when he was 21.

I don't know if he still has time to develop into a contender for the GT's in the future, but anyway, he rode well the whole week and deserves the win.

He probably thinks it is just too hot in France and Spain. I always thought it was physical, but this week he even managed to perform well with higher temperatures. So maybe it is also mental after all.

For sure the Giro recently had some years with loads of bad weather and snowy days, but Giro would also mean he cannot do his normal race schedule in march and april. Not easy to decide.

This is pretty spot on. He doesn't function at all in the heat, which excludes the Tour and the Vuelta. Also, he has never ever been in any sort of shape past the month of June. Which of course might be heat related as well.

And as you say, why go for a top 5 in the Giro (if he's lucky enough with the weather) when he can win WT stage races that suit him down to a T? I like Spilak, and I like the fact that he's doing his own thing, specialising in Swiss stage races. Great to see him come out of his slump.
 
Re:

Mayomaniac said:
Tour and Vuelta aren't an option for him, we're talking about a riders who prefers riding a technical descent with low temperatures and really bad weather instead of climbing in the heat, he just can't cope with the heat and dislikes it.

This week he could. :D I might be wrong, but I guess this was one of the most sunny and hot editions of TDS in years. I mean last year it was raining almost every day and Spilak hardly made top-10.
 
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Re: Re:

liamito said:
Mayomaniac said:
Tour and Vuelta aren't an option for him, we're talking about a riders who prefers riding a technical descent with low temperatures and really bad weather instead of climbing in the heat, he just can't cope with the heat and dislikes it.

This week he could. :D I might be wrong, but I guess this was one of the most sunny and hot editions of TDS in years. I mean last year it was raining almost every day and Spilak hardly made top-10.
I think he actually had an icepack on his back durning the TT. :D
Yes, he was able to do better than expected with the warm weather, that was a bit of a surprise.
 
Maybe he saw Van Garderen still struggling to make things happen in the GT's, and figured, 'well, I'll stick to short stage races and one-day races and make sure I get the maximum results there, rather than going for the GT's and my name hardly being mentioned...'

There are plenty of specialists out there: sprinters, TT'ers, climbers (those that can do the GC and those that simply go for the mtn points and stages and finish well down in the GC), etc, and there are those like Spilak who perform well in short stage races and one day races.

Be interested to see what he focuses on the rest of the year. The Tour of Austria is in two weeks time, a 7 stage race (including the prologue), there are the Tour of Poland, the San Sebastian, the one day race in Hamburg, Tour of Alberta, Tour of Utah, Tour of Britain, The Benelux Tour....

I suppose if he were to race the GT's in the future and still feel like it's not in his powers to contend, he could always go for stages. I think he's more than capable of doing at least that. I do remember him being in a breakaway at the 2009 TDF in the stage to Verbier.
 
Re:

Mayomaniac said:
Durning the post race press conference he said that his next race is going to be the Tour of Poland.

His next goal he even said, but like Squire also mentioned Spilak isn't the same rider post june. It might be interesting to see if he again will sign a new contract half way the season like in 2015.
 
Jun 30, 2014
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Re:

Zinoviev Letter said:
If the temperature is the problem, why doesn't Spilak have a secondary late-season focus after the Summer heat?
I don't really know, but until last year the team had Purito as the undisputed leader for the autumn classics (and before 2016 there was also his trusted 2nd in command Dani Moreno), but usually his form seems to be much worse in the 2nd half of the season.
Anyway, I really respect him for doing his thing, he's world class in one week stage races and has built a career raound that instead of going for an anonymous top 10 on gc in a gt like so many other riders.
 
Re:

Mayomaniac said:
I also feared that Spilak was past his prime, but that was a great TdS.
I think that he dislikes the pressure and the attention that you get when you ride a gt and the factor that you have to perform every day for 3 weeks.
Stagehunting/being a 2nd option for gc at the Giro could work for him, but he probably prefers riding his usual one week races and in the end he always scores a lot of points and decent placings for the team in one week races, so they probably just let him do his thing.
The perfect gt for him was probably the 2013 Giro, but I think that he just had enough of riding gts after the 2011 Giro.
Spilak is a rather unique rider, as a neopro he also finished 5th on gc in De Panne and 9th in the RVV.
Tour and Vuelta aren't an option for him, we're talking about a riders who prefers riding a technical descent with low temperatures and really bad weather instead of climbing in the heat, he just can't cope with the heat and dislikes it.

interesting that Spilak stays away from the GC in grand tours when most riders who can do well over a week do go on and do the GTs. Maybe he learned his lesson like Costa. But the TDS is a perfect race for Spilak.
 
Re: Re:

BullsFan22 said:
Mayomaniac said:
Durning the post race press conference he said that his next race is going to be the Tour of Poland.


Wouldn't be shocked if he wins that too.
Shocked: no, but this year Tour of Poland doesn't have an ITT and that limits Spilak's chances. I think there are riders out there who are better suited for those not so hard climbs in Poland. And based on history, Simon doesn't tend to prepare a good form for this part of the year.
 
Re: Re:

Irondan said:
Mayomaniac said:
Recently Pozzovivo said that he didn't work on his TT skills for the Giro, the main focus was getting his climbing back on track, but that he'll focus on it for the Vuelta.
Rohan dominated the TTs, great wins for him.
Happy for Spilak, he's one of my favourite riders and when he's just an awesome rider.
He certainly is one of the best stage racers out there, too bad he hasn't been able to ride GT's the way he rides week long stage races. It would be great to see more riders like him able to compete ftw in Grand Tours.

A little bit of a shame, but it's part of the charm of cycling that riders excel in different formats and I really do think it adds to the season to have riders like Spilak who focus on a small number of weekly races and who can
always be counted on to liven them up with their presence. It also gives a good measuring stick for the GC contenders at the GT's when they have a strong rider in good form up against them.

Anyway, absolutely thrilled to see Spilak win here. His battling back on his bad day up the climb and on the descent after getting dropped quite early was excellent and he made the most of it with the big effort on the final climbing stage and TT.
 
Really was a great win for him. I think when he was almost, almost dropped on Stage 7's Albulapass climb to La Punt, but managed to just scrape his way back to only finish 12 seconds down, I found myself cheering for him there.
 
Re:

Alpe d'Huez said:
Really was a great win for him. I think when he was almost, almost dropped on Stage 7's Albulapass climb to La Punt, but managed to just scrape his way back to only finish 12 seconds down, I found myself cheering for him there.

Yes! This was beautiful, the shots of him chasing back so hard he didn't feel he had time to do up his jersey until he made contact. Then finally taking that blissful moment when he caught the group to do up his jersey before trying to attack the descent to catch Costa and co. It's the wonderfully unique sort of moment cycling delivers imo
 
Re: Re:

liamito said:
Mayomaniac said:
Durning the post race press conference he said that his next race is going to be the Tour of Poland.

His next goal he even said, but like Squire also mentioned Spilak isn't the same rider post june. It might be interesting to see if he again will sign a new contract half way the season like in 2015.

Oops!...I Did It Again :D