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Tour de Suisse 2021 (June 6-13)

Page 45 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
At least we were talking about the actual upcoming birth of an actual child! Yesterday we were talking about Conca's fictional twins, or maybe it was quadruplets, that he might have had when he was 18... if they were actually real, which I'm pretty sure they aren't...

I think weirdest thing was BlueRoads thinking he couldn't have had children before turning 18 :p
 
Good news: they are climbing San Gottardo via the Tremola cobbles after all tomorrow as per the following:

Old:
SanGottardoSW.gif


New:
SanGottardoS.gif


Main body of the climb:
SanGottardoS_.gif
 
Well it was a very special time trial with many factors coming into play so any result is probably "normal" here.
I would have thought Fuglsang with his climbing legs, descent skills and some weight for the fast downhill sections should have ruled it, but if he had bad legs today...

Nice to see Carapaz in yellow aga- no, wait. This jersey should go to the worst rider, as a punishment. Give him back a decent jersey.

I don't think Uran can take the jersey from Carapaz tomorrow, despite this performance today.
I am not sure how many attacks have Uran made in his life. But he could try at least.
 
  • Wow
Reactions: Sandisfan
The more I think about it, the more I'm starting to realise how phenomenal that Uran's performance was. Of course you have Pogačar's PdbF, but this has to be right behind that one, if we are looking at ITTs let's say in the last decade.
I'm not sure I agree. I think his win in the 2014 Giro TT was more impressive than this. Both came fairly unexpected though.
 
Am I the only one who doesn't think this was very spectacular from Uran? I mean, very, very good, surely, but it was so very special, dependent on your bike choice, on your descending skills, your pacing strategy... whether you just got everything right... I mean the climbers did well here, he's a good climber... it was a very steady climb, wasn't it? and he's a steady climber... also a very good descender... the competition is not that stiff... surely, Dumoulin, but Dumoulin only just came back to racing. Alaphilippe is quite a decent tter but not the best and he got second.
If I have the right time splits he took 12 seconds on Alaphilippe on the climb? And Ala lost most of the time on the descent which also featured a straight part (with the tunnel), where he didn't have a tt bike -?
Without guys like Roglic or van Aert here I miss the comparison to those who should be best here.
So, what I want to say, I'm not sure how much you can actually take from this stage, apart from the fact that Uran's in very good form. I expect tomorrow to be more telling?
 
  • Wow
Reactions: Sandisfan
Am I the only one who doesn't think this was very spectacular from Uran? I mean, very, very good, surely, but it was so very special, dependent on your bike choice, on your descending skills, your pacing strategy... whether you just got everything right... I mean the climbers did well here, he's a good climber... it was a very steady climb, wasn't it? and he's a steady climber... also a very good descender... the competition is not that stiff... surely, Dumoulin, but Dumoulin only just came back to racing. Alaphilippe is quite a decent tter but not the best and he got second.
If I have the right time splits he took 12 seconds on Alaphilippe on the climb? And Ala lost most of the time on the descent which also featured a straight part (with the tunnel), where he didn't have a tt bike -?
Without guys like Roglic or van Aert here I miss the comparison to those who should be best here.
So, what I want to say, I'm not sure how much you can actually take from this stage, apart from the fact that Uran's in very good form. I expect tomorrow to be more telling?
The “strength of opposition” argument is valid in pretty much any competition outside of the Tour itself, but you can only beat whoever’s on the road with you, and Rigo smashed ‘em. When we look at TT performances from GC contenders this season, it’s definitely one of the good ones.

Of course, it’s not 100% relevant to the Tour, with 2 flat TTs. And it could be a one-off, but if it is, it’s a very good one-off.
 
The “strength of opposition” argument is valid in pretty much any competition outside of the Tour itself, but you can only beat whoever’s on the road with you, and Rigo smashed ‘em. When we look at TT performances from GC contenders this season, it’s definitely one of the good ones.

Of course, it’s not 100% relevant to the Tour, with 2 flat TTs. And it could be a one-off, but if it is, it’s a very good one-off.

Yeah, with that I agree... I was just a bit astounded by words such as "phenomenal" and "outstanding".
 
I'm not sure I agree. I think his win in the 2014 Giro TT was more impressive than this. Both came fairly unexpected though.
Am I the only one who doesn't think this was very spectacular from Uran? I mean, very, very good, surely, but it was so very special, dependent on your bike choice, on your descending skills, your pacing strategy... whether you just got everything right... I mean the climbers did well here, he's a good climber... it was a very steady climb, wasn't it? and he's a steady climber... also a very good descender... the competition is not that stiff... surely, Dumoulin, but Dumoulin only just came back to racing. Alaphilippe is quite a decent tter but not the best and he got second.
If I have the right time splits he took 12 seconds on Alaphilippe on the climb? And Ala lost most of the time on the descent which also featured a straight part (with the tunnel), where he didn't have a tt bike -?
Without guys like Roglic or van Aert here I miss the comparison to those who should be best here.
So, what I want to say, I'm not sure how much you can actually take from this stage, apart from the fact that Uran's in very good form. I expect tomorrow to be more telling?
After thinking about it some more (LOL), I think I agree with both. Maybe I was exaggerating a bit there. It was obviously a stellar performance, but sure, some top contenders were missing. Van Aert, Roglič, Thomas, Porte, Remco, Pogačar, Almeida, McNulty, Foss, even Cavagna and Bernal, all should do well on this type of ITT and all were missing. Having said that, I still believe it wouldn't have been easy to beat Rigo's time for anyone of the above mentioned riders.
 
After thinking about it some more (LOL), I think I agree with both. Maybe I was exaggerating a bit there. It was obviously a stellar performance, but sure, some top contenders were missing. Van Aert, Roglič, Thomas, Porte, Remco, Pogačar, Almeida, McNulty, Foss, even Cavagna and Bernal, all should do well on this type of ITT and all were missing. Having said that, I still believe it wouldn't have been easy to beat Rigo's time for anyone of the above mentioned riders.

Also missing was Lutsenko.
 
Am I the only one who doesn't think this was very spectacular from Uran? I mean, very, very good, surely, but it was so very special, dependent on your bike choice, on your descending skills, your pacing strategy... whether you just got everything right... I mean the climbers did well here, he's a good climber... it was a very steady climb, wasn't it? and he's a steady climber... also a very good descender... the competition is not that stiff... surely, Dumoulin, but Dumoulin only just came back to racing. Alaphilippe is quite a decent tter but not the best and he got second.
If I have the right time splits he took 12 seconds on Alaphilippe on the climb? And Ala lost most of the time on the descent which also featured a straight part (with the tunnel), where he didn't have a tt bike -?
Without guys like Roglic or van Aert here I miss the comparison to those who should be best here.
So, what I want to say, I'm not sure how much you can actually take from this stage, apart from the fact that Uran's in very good form. I expect tomorrow to be more telling?

I think an issue here is that people underestimate Uran and it makes a good performance like this seem extraordinary. People forget that Uran is a very, very good cyclist who has been top-10 in seven GTs, including being second overall three times. In 2017 he was just one bad wheel change from Chris Froome from winning the whole Tour de France (that year included a win on a big mountain stage while over-geared with a broken derailleur). His TT victory in the 2014 Giro was huge, in a very difficult stage. People are prone to hyperbole in the moment and memories are short, but I remember people at the time thinking it was one of the most impressive time trial victories in recent memory.

I mean, it may be the case that he would give up his seven top-10s and three podiums for a single GT win. With that said, riders less talented than Uran have won GTs.
 
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