UAE Tour 2023, February 20-26 (women's race February 9-12)

[Logic-is-your-friend]

So Evenepoel and Plapp in the same time in GC.

 

[Berniece]

It goes to Plapp, not necessarily a bad thing for SQ

 

[Mayomaniac]

It goes to Plapp, not necessarily a bad thing for SQ

I doubt it matters with those 2 unipuerto stages.

 

[search]

So Evenepoel and Plapp in the same time in GC.

Plapp is ranked 1st because of yesterday's result, by the way. Split seconds are only recorded in individual time trials, nor does the finishing position in a TTT count. So he leads Evenepoel 7 to 8 on countback.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

What a pointless stage. Hopefully there is bike racing tomorrow

 

[Mayomaniac]

What a pointless stage. Hopefully there is bike racing tomorrow

Well, tomorrow we have the Arabian version of a Montevergine MTF...

 

[Riek s]

So for the 3 biggest candidates for the win, nothing much changed.

Would love to have some team statistics in a TTT. #time in the front etc

 

[Anderis]

Even if Soudal beats them, EF must have a phenomenal TT set up to do so well with the lineup they have here. Outside of De bod, they don’t really have any of their big engines here.

Well, Amador in his prime was an excellent rouleur, Wiśniowski had good results in short ITTs during his Sky and Quick-Step days, Van den Berg is a strong sprinter type of a rider who usually can contribute well in shorter TTTs and besides, he was 15th in ITT in UAE Tour last year and Steinhauser was 8th in Romandie's prologue last year, so it's not like this TTT performance came completely out of nowhere, but still, based on overall strength of riders, EF couldn't have sent a much weaker squad than this so it's still remarkable they fought for the win here,

 

[Extinction]

Well, Amador in his prime was an excellent rouleur, Wiśniowski had good results in short ITTs during his Sky and Quick-Step days, Van den Berg is a strong sprinter type of a rider who usually can contribute well in shorter TTTs and besides, he was 15th in ITT in UAE Tour last year and Steinhauser was 8th in Romandie's prologue last year, so it's not like this TTT performance came completely out of nowhere, but still, based on overall strength of riders, EF couldn't have sent a much weaker squad than this so it's still remarkable they fought for the win here,

But does that not that hold true for Ineos and Soudal too? Moreover, it's the early season so not all are in top shape, whilst the negligent time gaps between the frontrunners would seem to indicate the level is pretty evenly matched. So same time on Evenepoel and Plapp, whilst Yates and Vine are done, poisoned by the desert winds.

 

[Anderis]

But does that not that hold true for Ineos and Soudal too?

What exactly?

 

[Extinction]

What exactly?

Namely that they don't have their best TTT team present. Was that so hard to understand?

 

[Anderis]

Namely that they don't have their best TTT team present. Was that so hard to understand?

It was, because you quoted my entire post that had 2 somewhat opposing points- one is that the EF roster had some TT quality in it but 2nd that it was a very weak roster overall to send to a WT race and the rest of your post didn't make it completely clear which one you were referring to.

Yes, having your absolutely best TTT team present in any race is rare. That was not the point though. Soudal brought their best rider here in Evenepoel. They also had Schmid, who was their 3rd best scorer in 2022 in terms of PCS points and Merlier, who's one of the world's top sprinters. That's completely incomparable to EF, where out of the 7 riders they brought here, only Van den Berg can make a strong case to be one of their top15(!) riders ATM (overall, not in terms of TT) and only based on what little we've seen of him this year because last year he was very average, so not established as one of the top riders, yet.

Ineos, yes, they're a much closer comparison to EF in this case. The thing is- Ineos is a big budget team with possibly the most depth out of any team in the peloton and EF is a low budget team, so EF bringing a pretty weak roster by their standards and still doing so well is more remarkable.

 

[Extinction]

It was, because you quoted my entire post that had 2 somewhat opposing points- one is that the EF roster had some TT quality in it but 2nd that it was a very weak roster overall to send to a WT race and the rest of your post didn't make it completely clear which one you were referring to.

Yes, having your absolutely best TTT team present in any race is rare. That was not the point though. Soudal brought their best rider here in Evenepoel. They also had Schmid, who was their 3rd best scorer in 2022 in terms of PCS points and Merlier, who's one of the world's top sprinters. That's completely incomparable to EF, where out of the 7 riders they brought here, only Van den Berg can make a strong case to be one of their top15(!) riders ATM (overall, not in terms of TT) and only based on what little we've seen of him this year because last year he was very average, so not established as one of the top riders, yet.

Ineos, yes, they're a much closer comparison to EF in this case. The thing is- Ineos is a big budget team with possibly the most depth out of any team in the peloton and EF is a low budget team, so EF bringing a pretty weak roster by their standards and still doing so well is more remarkable.

Sure, but all of this is relative to what each team can bring to the fore in the bigger races. Having Evenepoel for Soudal was perhaps the single-handed game changer, given that according to one rider (whose name escapes me at the moment) in the post race interviews said, he took the longest pulls and "we just tried to follow."

 

[Escarabajo]

Tomorrow's climb has Remco written all over it. 19 KM @ 5.6%. The other one that can bit him in these type of climbs is not in UAE!

 

[Samamba]

What's going on with Vine? He didn't even finish with the team today? And he looked horrible yesterday too.

 

[Extinction]

What's going on with Vine? He didn't even finish with the team today? And he looked horrible yesterday too.

Jetlag and yesterday's effective TT.

 

[search]

Jetlag and yesterday's effective TT.

Vine came to Europe three weeks ago, so that can't really be an issue

 

[MichaelTarling]

PCS lists him with 1,94m with 88 kg, so not really a climber weight...

PCS have had that weight for over a year, it was never right ;-)

 

[SafeBet]

Perhaps Vine had to spend a lot of energy in yesterday's stage (somebody reported he was dead last on the road at one point) and the team decided to use him as a pure domestique here.

 

[DNP-Old]

PCS have had that weight for over a year, it was never right ;-)

Woah, Josh's father himself on CN. Congratulations to you and your son for his 2nd place in Besseges.

 

[MichaelTarling]

Woah, Josh's father himself on CN. Congratulations to you and your son for his 2nd place in Besseges.

Thank you! Been on here for years but never posted, guess I have an excuse now Josh is loving it at the moment, whole new experiences for us all. Guess he has a jersey to protect tomorrow

 

[CHGJ2000]

PCS have had that weight for over a year, it was never right ;-)

Guessing he's quite a bit lighter? He's tall but definitely not as muscular as the big older TT'ers (Kung, Ganna etc.). He mentioned back at JTOW that he was doing 6.5 w/kg on the front during the final MTF and at that point was pretty sure his weight must be wrong Big talent but pacing for 9-10 minutes at 6.5 w/kg at 88KG would have probably already made him the most powerful rider in the pro peloton.

 

[Lequack]

Quickstep only won because of the ugly helmets.

 

[DNP-Old]

Thank you! Been on here for years but never posted, guess I have an excuse now Josh is loving it at the moment, whole new experiences for us all. Guess he has a jersey to protect tomorrow

Must be very exciting! Bit off-topic and you don't have to answer if you don't want to or don't know, but is Paris 2024 in Josh' head, specifically looking at the track? I feel like he could be the one, the wild card to put Team GB next to, if not over Italy.

 

[theyoungest]

Even if Soudal beats them, EF must have a phenomenal TT set up to do so well with the lineup they have here. Outside of De bod, they don’t really have any of their big engines here.

I remember Vaughters saying something similar after Bissegger won the TT in UAE last year, we're the best team in terms of equipment and performance blablabla. It's probably just a matter of early season form (they certainly seem to have that) and the fact that they didn't have to tow along a climber like some other teams.