Tour de Suisse stage 5 Unterterzen - Rettenbachferner 237 km

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Impressive ride by Miguel Ángel López.

Yes, he did not show anything so far, besides the Tour of Turkey, which barely had any serious climbers. But in this field this is really impressive indeed. Breakthrough performance at this level.

"In this field"?

Ok, it's a big step up from the Tour of Turkey, at least in years when Torku aren't going full berserker, but this is a pretty thin climbing field for an important World Tour stage race. I do take your point about Lopez's results to date, mind you.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Re: Tour de Suisse stage 5 Unterterzen - Rettenbachferner 23

lol at all the whining here about thomas. thomas is a monster talent obviously, with an incredible engine who is 183x71 in winter and now may be 3-4 kg lighter. if wiggins could improve so much, then thomas could so even more.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

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Thomas teaching the 125 lb Colombian goat rider how to climb!!

what are you talking about again do you even know lopez?? he is for a start 20 lb heavier then what you said and only 5 foot 7, if there's one rider not build like a climber at all it's lopez. still he climbs so well. suspicious?

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

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Chaves and his poor recovery arrive together!

chaves just 18 months ago was in a hospital where they said he could probably never sit on a bike again in his life. he came back from so far that just over 12 months ago he couldn't even follow the peloton in flat races. you can judge him after the vuelta, his only goal this year. as will I do

 

[Kokoso]

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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.

Why this?

 

[johnymax]

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Špilak lost the overall with the attack 8km to go IMO. If he had waited and limited the loss to Pinot to let's say 20s, he could very well be the man to beat for the GC. Today he was clearly the second strongest if not even the strongest. He did 5km completely alone. It's not over yet, but G, Dumoulin and Pinot are in better position.He is still in striking distance tho.
Fuglsang is a big negative surprise to me.

If Thomas can make up 47". why don't you think Spilak can do with 50"?

Maybe you are right. It's because I think Thomas is a little better time trialist, although Špilak beat him in Paris-Nice on Col d'Eze when G was also in superb form. Pinot is still the man to beat imo. He has a nice gap. Špilak realy didn't play it smart with the attack that far out, but it's ok. Still very nice stage for him. It' will be very interesting in the last two stages.

That's a very good point although three things to note there. Firstly he had crashed the day before (rainy Gallopin breakaway), so maybe some discomfort and a knock to the confidence too. Secondly that was a rainy time-trial, and Spilak notoriously does best in rain. And finally this race's TT is going to be much flatter which I would think favours Thomas more.

I know and I agree on all points. This is why I give the edge to Thomas, too. Still Špilak TT is underrated and I think he will be close. The Swiss (Italian language) announcers were talking how he needs 1,5min on Thomas to have a chance which is laughable. But I wouldn't be surprised if it's Pinot, Thomas, Dumoulin on the podium (in any order) in the end.

 

[Bushman]

Re: Tour de Suisse stage 5 Unterterzen - Rettenbachferner 23

lol at all the whining here about thomas. thomas is a monster talent obviously, with an incredible engine who is 183x71 in winter and now may be 3-4 kg lighter. if wiggins could improve so much, then thomas could so even more.

Agree with this. Thomas has always been a great talent and he has shown in the past that he could climb well even when he was focussing on other aspects of cycling (track, tt and classics). Last year he began to focus more on his climbing (while still aiming for the classics in the spring) and in Dauphine for example he climbed very well.

He is probably the most talented cyclist in Sky. it's a pity that he will have to slave for Froome in the Tour when he is good enough to ride his own chance in many stages.

 

[BigMac]

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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.

Why this?

I don't know what you mean, I'm just stating facts, and certainly didn't mean anything by it.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re: Re:

Thomas teaching the 125 lb Colombian goat rider how to climb!!

what are you talking about again do you even know lopez?? he is for a start 20 lb heavier then what you said and only 5 foot 7, if there's one rider not build like a climber at all it's lopez. still he climbs so well. suspicious?

I pulled the 125 lb out of the blue. There was sarcasm in my comment that you didn't pick obviously!

 

[ILovecycling]

What a stage!what a beast climb and scenery!Great Pinot ride but I was actually cheering for Denifl , more of these climbs please!


Lol at those clinic references about Thomas, way too pathetic.Its obvious he has improved in recent years climbing wise

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Re: Tour de Suisse stage 5 Unterterzen - Rettenbachferner 23

meanwhile, on the same climb

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Tour de Suisse stage 5 Unterterzen - Rettenbachferner 23

meanwhile, on the same climb

Great job by the Lotto Jumbo DS

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Tour de Suisse stage 5 Unterterzen - Rettenbachferner 23

meanwhile, on the same climb

Why didn't we see him in the live coverage

 

[jens_attacks]

plz tell me that this is aigor's work

the fat guy actually keeps up with gesink...oh boy..

 

[Billie]

Bassie

 

[ILovecycling]

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plz tell me that this is aigor's work

the fat guy actually keeps up with gesink...oh boy..

looks like it, he is crazy enough

 

[staubsauger]

Gesink paced Dumoulin for a while and probably took it easy once he was fully out of contention anyway!

 

[BigMac]

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plz tell me that this is aigor's work

the fat guy actually keeps up with gesink...oh boy..

Nop, genuine stuff.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

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What a stage!what a beast climb and scenery!Great Pinot ride but I was actually cheering for Denifl , more of these climbs please!


Lol at those clinic references about Thomas, way too pathetic.Its obvious he has improved in recent years climbing wise

Still, there's a difference between climbing well on the likes of the Alto do Malhão and La Redoute, which are steep but short, and you would think within the remit of an all-round classic guy to power over, so if he's improving his climbing from his cobbled focus he should be decent at, and this. Sure, he climbed well in Paris-Nice on Croix de Chaubouret and Col d'Èze, but their gradient is nothing like the Rettenbachferner.

This is the Mortirolo but 800m higher altitude. That's why so many eyebrows are being raised. Because even for a guy whose climbing has been improving, this is such a crazy hard climb that it's still a huge leap in level. I'm not kidding when I say that the Rettenbachferner belongs in the top 10, maybe even top 5 of hardest climbs in top level European cycling. Somebody who powers over the punchy stuff as you might expect from Thomas' build and skillset, you would expect to have run out of it long before the end of a climb where the gradient is sustained to Mur de Huy levels but over six times the length. So no matter how much Thomas has improved his climbing in the last 2-3 years, it's still a real eye-opener to see him lose so little time here.

 

[trevim]

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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!!

I mentioned Virenque because Pinot is the most consistent/successful french climber since then, as far as I remember. No need for all that agressive style

 

[Escarabajo]

+1 Libertine.
I was going to answer Ilovecycling as well but it is clearly a hot topic that will quickly get derailed into clinic discussion. So I prefer to stay out of it here.

 

[del1962]

Was Tom Dumoulin climbing was even more eye opening than G's though?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

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Was Tom Dumoulin climbing was even more eye opening than G's though?

While I agree Thomas will garner more attention than perhaps necessary because of riding for Team Sky, I don't think so, no. Dumoulin has like Thomas shown reasonable climbing chops in the past and was top 5 in the GC of this race last year, albeit not on this kind of climb (more the Saas-Fee type grinding climb which his body type would suit or the mid-length ones like Verbier that would allow him to limit losses, although like Thomas he has some good showings on punchier climbs like the Aia ITT in País Vasco), and he did lose nearly a minute more than Thomas eventually. If they'd finished together, I'd say it was equal, and if Thomas had finished at 1'37 like Dumoulin did I'd have had a reaction more like "what an impressive ride from Thomas, only a minute and a half down on Pinot on a hellslope like this!".

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

I mentioned Virenque because Pinot is the most consistent/successful french climber since then, as far as I remember. No need for all that agressive style

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.

Not a pure climber, but would have won the Giro last year if not for time bonuses and riding (sometimes unfairly) to protect Vos' lead. Won the Emakumeen Bira, women's País Vasco, last year.

 

[ILovecycling]

Re:

+1 Libertine.
I was going to answer Ilovecycling as well but it is clearly a hot topic that will quickly get derailed into clinic discussion. So I prefer to stay out of it here.

and @Libertine

I dont want anything only a bit clinic to be discussed here. I wanted to discuss his climbing improvement.
Altough I agree with Libertine post, I have a one point which he didnt mention or only briefly.My thought was that he improved not only in punchy climbs or climbs up to 10 km (w/ less percentage) but mainly on long climbs!You can see stable improvement in recent years in this attribute by him.In addition to that he has great form this year as we can see, probably best of his life.Yeah, I was a bit suprised he stayed with Pozzo etc that long but I certainly expected Top 10 result.