Tour of the Alps 2021 (April 19th-23rd)

[ice&fire]

The improvement continues: Froome 73rd
He is absolutely ready for the Tour du Rwanda

He is working overtime for the critics who say he is overpaid

 

[Mayomaniac]

Wasnt very impressed by Ineos ..I know Moscon is going well but the others are neither here nor there

Sosa what is up with him ? He si never the same two days in a row
Martinez looks good but not that good and Shivakov cant stay on his bike
And we hear Bernal still has back problems

I know that they official reason is that one of his legs is shoter than the other one and that he got a muscular imbalace over the years, but I guess that the rather extreme position with a really hunched lower back that he adopted at Ineos (since 2019) when climbing nearly always seated and grinding a big gear wasn't beneficial either.

 

[Red Rick]

I know that they official reason is that one of his legs is shoter than the other one and that he got a muscular imbalace over the years, but I guess that the rather extreme position with a really hunched lower back that he adopted at Ineos (since 2019) when climbing nearly always seated and grinding a big gear wasn't beneficial either.

They really dropped the ball on marginal gains in the last few years.

 

[WKA311]

Is there any logical reason why De Marchi rode against Dan Martin? It looks to me like Israel have no idea what the hell they're doing.

The way Martin descended today he never would've won that stage.

 

[WKA311]

Cepeda's 4th place on the gc ahead of riders like Sivakov, Carthy, Quintana and Bardet (just to name a few) is a big deal for Androni.
I hope to see him and Sepulveda in the breakaway on the mountain stages of the Giro.

Let's hope he isn't already peaking because they thought they'll miss the Giro.

 

[RedheadDane]

The way Martin descended today he never would've won that stage.

Was his descending today different from his usual descending?

 

[Ricco']

The improvement continues: Froome 73rd
He is absolutely ready for the Tour du Rwanda

Froome's last stage results:

Catalunya Stage 6 - 130th to 139th position
Catalunya Stage 7 - 120th to 129th
Alps Stage 1 - 110th to 119th
Alps Stage 2 - 100th to 109th
Alps Stage 3 - 90th to 99th
Alps Stage 4 - 80th to 89th
Alps Stage 5 - 70th to 79th

Consistent progression. He will finish Romandie TT on the top-20 and will be ready to fight for the win in his next stage race.

 

[SafeBet]

He'll be -200th by the end of the Tour.

 

[Sciatic]

Riva is a nice place, but waaay to many German, Austrian (and Dutch) tourists. The food and even the beverages in the restaurants are catering to them (Deutscher Kaffee & Deutsche Küche written at the entrance, no thanks!).
I have to say that the commentary on the PMG livestream isn't bad.

Were they also commenting on the restaurants?

 

[Rackham]

Froome's last stage results:

Catalunya Stage 6 - 130th to 139th position
Catalunya Stage 7 - 120th to 129th
Alps Stage 1 - 110th to 119th
Alps Stage 2 - 100th to 109th
Alps Stage 3 - 90th to 99th
Alps Stage 4 - 80th to 89th
Alps Stage 5 - 70th to 79th

Consistent progression. He will finish Romandie TT on the top-20 and will be ready to fight for the win in his next stage race.

Joke post? Yes? No?

In stage 5 he actually finished 10:13 behind in a small group of 15 riders who placed between the the 71st & 85th positions. So Froome essentially did the same time as the guy who finished 85th on the day: Standings - Tour of the Alps

He's terrible.

The way Martin descended today he never would've won that stage.

Imagine you're the team leader, leading all your teammates in GC & making up time on the final stage... & you see your teammate pulling/twiddling his thumbs in the breakaway when you're alone a few seconds behind. Ouch. That was Dan Martin staring at De Marchi's backside up the road today.

 

[WKA311]

Was his descending today different from his usual descending?

It was dropping himself from his group back to the peloton. On a descent that wasn't overly technical. He was probably still holding a bit back after yesterday.

 

[AlfaLum]

TBH, Martinez looked solid. I guess that's the hierarchy of the team. Second stage he soft pedaled to the finish. Fourth stage you know what happened. I guess he understands what his position is at Ineos but I am sure he could have done a lot better.

I take it that this was his role for this tour after being ruled out of pretty much the whole pre-season so far due to falling on his knee. After this Tour of the Alps i assume that he will start at least in the same role as Sivakov in the Giro. Ineos would be smart to keep Martinez high up in the GC in the Giro in my opinion.

 

[Bolder]

Were they also commenting on the restaurants?

I like Riva, just in the off-season, i.e. not summer. It's great in April/May. I think the reason there's a lot of Germanic stuff is that it's just below the German-Italian region, so you get some overlap.

Regarding the race, Yates was head and shoulders (well, even though he's shorter) than the rest. Sivakov was a disappointment to me. I still don't know what Ineos will do with Martinez -- he sure didn't look like a domestique, more like a GC man -- and poor Froome/Pinot are not looking good. I also think that Bardet and Quintana have passed their primes and won't get back to that level again.

 

[Sciatic]

You may be right about Quintana (though I hope not), but remember he doesn’t have to be sharp until July, and I hope is purposefully doing a gradual build back from surgeries.

 

[search]

so, does Osorio finish his personal little "Grand Tour" now (16 race days over the past three weeks: Indurain, Itzulia, Valencia + Alps) or will Caja Rural manage to get a late call for Liege and Romandie?

 

[CyclistAbi]

Nice to see both brothers still winning stage races.

 

[T-Nielsen]

Imagine you're the team leader, leading all your teammates in GC & making up time on the final stage... & you see your teammate pulling/twiddling his thumbs in the breakaway when you're alone a few seconds behind. Ouch. That was Dan Martin staring at De Marchi's backside up the road today.

The GC was over with already. This stage was all about chasing the stagewin and it would make no sense to have De Marchi sacrifice the chance of winning in order to help Dan Martin.