Charly_Gaul said:
Valv.Piti said:
Getting very educated here, would otherwise know jackshit about the U23-scene. Thanks guys! So who is the favourite in l'Avenir - Mas, Bernal, Frankiny...?
Time Trial will be key before the Alps, and the best Time Trialists are
Geoghegan Hart and Mas who for me are alongside Bernal the main favourites.
Between the other contenders Frankiny really lacks on the TT, also i think the swiss is a bit overrated sice he's far from the inspiration days of Mas and Ravasi who for me are the best pure climbers right now on the category. On the french side Vincent is good but not Top climber, Gaudun is a Warren Barguil rider type so the mountains are too long for him. Ravasi is more than a bit irregular but has super engine that can perform great on those long alpine climbs so he'll be a tough competitor for stage wins and maybe podium threat. Lambrecht and Costa still very young for aiming overall i think not really prepared yet.
Yeah, it's probably going to be a fight beetween those 3 guys for the overall win.
Frankiny can have bad days in the mountains (he cracked on the final stage of Aosta and was lucky that Mas had lost a minute because of a mechanical), but Ravasi is also a rider who can be brilliant in the mountains, but often has one bad day in those races.
Giovanni Carboni is a young Italian rider (one year younger than Ravasi) whou could surprise people, he's strong allrounder who's good at climbing and good in time trials. I don't expect him to fight for the win, but top 10 is a realistic goal for him, maybe even top 5.
No idea what to expect from the Germans, Schachmann should be tired and while I had really high hopes for Kämna his season has been rather unimpressive so far, but at the start of the season he said that he wants to peak for this race, so it's hard to say.