Tour de Suisse stage 5 Unterterzen - Rettenbachferner 237 km

[jens_attacks]

i think dumoulin will win this in the time trial

bravo thibaut!

 

[Inquitus]

Pinot putting that little time into Thomas on a climb like today's doesn't lead me to believe he will trouble the podium in the tour.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Who is Jan Hirt and how long till he gets his own thread ?

 

[BigMac]

Re:

Who is Jan Hirt and how long till he gets his own thread ?

Zakarin style. Their career higlight consisted of the Tour d'Azerbaïdjan before the great showings.

 

[ciranda]

Super talented as under 23 who like many others could not get contract with (or interest from) any World Tour teams because of not being from an English speaking country.

 

[Christian]

Re: Re:

Who is Jan Hirt and how long till he gets his own thread ?

Zakarin style. Their career higlight consisted of the Tour d'Azerbaïdjan before the great showings.

Hello Eyeballs out,

Not sure what BigMac means by this comment - if clinic innuendo is implied or not - but Jan Hirt has been considered a big talent for a while. I have followed his career since he was on Leopard Development Team, so around three years. It's always a little bit difficult to judge these riders just by looking at the result sheets and reading race reports, but what I gather is that Jan Hirt is a pure 100% climber. The problem for this kind of rider is that they have a pretty limited amount of races where they can really shine, so often they pass unnoticed. He started with Leopard CT as a stagiaire and got good results straight away at Giro di Padania (2.1). Then the following year his win in the Tour of Azerbaijan MTF was pretty amazing, because he put over 4 minutes into the second place rider. There should be some video of this on youtube. He also came in second in the Course de la Paix that year, only beaten by the now-famous Toms Skujins. A 4th place overall in the hard Tour d'Alsace was followed by very solid showings in the very hard Volta a Portugal (16th overall in his first season on the Continental tour).

To be honest I thought he would go professional after that, but instead signed with Etixx, who are always interested in Czech talents but then don't actually sign them on their pro team (same with the very talented Karel Hnik who signed with Cult this season). He won a stage of the Czech Cycling Tour, and repeated his strong overall finish in Tour d'Alsace.

I was happy to hear that he signed with a ProConti team this season and was excited to see how he would fare. This is his first result of the season, and what a result! But again - my understanding is that he is a pure climber who does well in hot conditions, so it seems he has a natural advantage over a lot of other riders in this kind of terrain. Definitely a very interesting and talented rider, and I hope he will be able to confirm this result during the rest of the season!

 

[BigMac]

No, nothing clinic. Thanks for the input.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Last 10km of stage 4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RWVrdEOUPc

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Re: Re:

Who is Jan Hirt and how long till he gets his own thread ?

Zakarin style. Their career higlight consisted of the Tour d'Azerbaïdjan before the great showings.

Hello Eyeballs out,

Not sure what BigMac means by this comment - if clinic innuendo is implied or not - but Jan Hirt has been considered a big talent for a while. I have followed his career since he was on Leopard Development Team, so around three years. It's always a little bit difficult to judge these riders just by looking at the result sheets and reading race reports, but what I gather is that Jan Hirt is a pure 100% climber. The problem for this kind of rider is that they have a pretty limited amount of races where they can really shine, so often they pass unnoticed. He started with Leopard CT as a stagiaire and got good results straight away at Giro di Padania (2.1). Then the following year his win in the Tour of Azerbaijan MTF was pretty amazing, because he put over 4 minutes into the second place rider. There should be some video of this on youtube. He also came in second in the Course de la Paix that year, only beaten by the now-famous Toms Skujins. A 4th place overall in the hard Tour d'Alsace was followed by very solid showings in the very hard Volta a Portugal (16th overall in his first season on the Continental tour).

To be honest I thought he would go professional after that, but instead signed with Etixx, who are always interested in Czech talents but then don't actually sign them on their pro team (same with the very talented Karel Hnik who signed with Cult this season). He won a stage of the Czech Cycling Tour, and repeated his strong overall finish in Tour d'Alsace.

I was happy to hear that he signed with a ProConti team this season and was excited to see how he would fare. This is his first result of the season, and what a result! But again - my understanding is that he is a pure climber who does well in hot conditions, so it seems he has a natural advantage over a lot of other riders in this kind of terrain. Definitely a very interesting and talented rider, and I hope he will be able to confirm this result during the rest of the season!

Thanks. The CCC website lists him at 1.81m and just 58kg which (if correct) is crazy-skinny

 

[Bushman]

Thomas is a way better tt'er than Spilak. You can't really use PN tt since it's a mountain tt. G favourite for me, dont think Dumoulin can make up enough time but it will be close. Dumoulin will probably take 2nd on gc.

Lopez is incredible.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yeah, Jan Hirt is a legit talent regardless of Clinic hinting, the guy has been a quality climber since juniors.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

Wasn't it Jan Hirt that was a feature in Rouleur 20 or something, when he was a struggling 19 year old?

 

[Christian]

Re:

Wasn't it Jan Hirt that was a feature in Rouleur 20 or something, when he was a struggling 19 year old?

Yes there was a series of articles about him in a magazine but I don't know which one

 

[TommyGun]

Re:

Pinot putting that little time into Thomas on a climb like today's doesn't lead me to believe he will trouble the podium in the tour.

There is an explanation for that, but the Clinic would be a better place to discuss it. Pinot is still one of the very best climbers out there.

 

[damian13ster]

Re: Re:

Pinot putting that little time into Thomas on a climb like today's doesn't lead me to believe he will trouble the podium in the tour.

There is an explanation for that, but the Clinic would be a better place to discuss it. Pinot is still one of the very best climbers out there.

He lost by quite a bit on a single- climb stage. I think that his stamina also played a role in limiting losses to pure climbers

 

[Tank Engine]

Re: Re:

True but the innuendo that he can only do cobbles and everthing else is suspicious is silly. He couldn't even do cobbles until he was 26-27. I repeat what I've said before - he's a second-rate Kwiatkowski with no sprint but better at cobbles. And he just cracked in the final 500m anyway.

So a winner of the Junior PR couldn't even do cobbles until he was 26-27

OK Mike Flowers is a similar (and, when on form, better) rider. He's also pretty good on the cobbles. Flanders suits him more than PR. He just concentrated on the Ardennes this year, which is unsurprising given that he rides for Etixx.

Well, apart from Birdsong, my prediction was pretty accurate and G was closer than I thought. But for a guy who has finished around the top 30 in the Tour as a dom a couple of times, it's not that surprising.

It looks like we're in for a very close finish. Dumoulin did very well limiting his losses after getting dropped pretty early on. He or any of the top 3 could still win this.

 

[trevim]

Wow Thomas just reminded me why I don't like him as a rider and Sky as a whole. It's just so strange to see a cobbles contender up there on a 2800m climb ahead of Henao, Majka...

Pinot, one of the very best climbers out there so much quality; best french climber since Virenque. Oh and he's a climber ever since he put a leg over a bike; call me weird but I like that on a rider

 

[trevim]

Re:

Chaves and his poor recovery arrive together!

He reminds me a lot of Anton: best climber in the world once in a while, average at best every other day

 

[del1962]

Just watched the race Pinot was a bit Froome like dropping of the back and then pulling himself back to the group, and a fast cadence towards the finish

 

[webvan]

Impressive win by Pinot, really showing he's got some depth now, the 2013 TDS is a distant memory !

 

[willbick]

Re:

Wow Thomas just reminded me why I don't like him as a rider and Sky as a whole. It's just so strange to see a cobbles contender up there on a 2800m climb ahead of Henao, Majka...

Pinot, one of the very best climbers out there so much quality; best french climber since Virenque. Oh and he's a climber ever since he put a leg over a bike; call me weird but I like that on a rider

lol the hypocrisy is laughable. you basically imply that Thomas' climbing is too good to be true in a clinically way and then mention Virenque in a favourable context!!

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Wow Thomas just reminded me why I don't like him as a rider and Sky as a whole. It's just so strange to see a cobbles contender up there on a 2800m climb ahead of Henao, Majka...

Pinot, one of the very best climbers out there so much quality; best french climber since Virenque. Oh and he's a climber ever since he put a leg over a bike; call me weird but I like that on a rider

The fact you criticize Sky and mention Virenque in the same comment is quite confusing. Pinot has to improve his TT if he wants to win bigger races. He has not won this one yet but he is good to watch and was impressive in the Tour last year even though convincingly beaten by Nibali. Pinot should still improve quite a lot due to his age. He is probably a couple of years away from his best performances.

 

[webvan]

Pinot seems to have improved a lot against the clock this year again. He wasn't that bad previously (not as bad as a climber like Rolland or Bardet) but he tended to start quickly and then fade.

 

[Christian]

Re:

Last 10km of stage 4.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RWVrdEOUPc

Great racing, thanks for sharing

 

[ferryman]

Very interesting rider is Pinot. I liked his comments about being exposed on the cobbles and echelons last year. He seems to have his head screwed on. The young climbing talent going for the white jersey this year (or indeed more in his and Quintana's case) is very encouraging for the future...