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Climbing said:Pretty sure that if somebody asked to chase that would be Valverde, cause TBM had Visconti up the road.
Anyway their "duel" would be Saturday, that is if Nibali has decent form.
Uran, Woods and Pinot all look amazing.
I guess Roglic and Bardet might have their say.
Rollthedice said:Climbing said:Pretty sure that if somebody asked to chase that would be Valverde, cause TBM had Visconti up the road.
Anyway their "duel" would be Saturday, that is if Nibali has decent form.
Uran, Woods and Pinot all look amazing.
I guess Roglic and Bardet might have their say.
Uran lacks the winner instinct, Woods will get dropped by half a dozen riders on Civiglio if he makes it in the important group, Pinot went a bit too fast this week and he'll also do Milano Torino, don't think it's too wise and if necessary he can be dropped on descent. Bardet looks a bit past his peak and Roglic has no pedigree whatsoever in these big one day races. Of course all these and a few more can get to the line together with one Alejandro Valverde who needs just to cover and follow the right wheel.
None of the above matters much if Nibali's peak will be at Taiwan KOM challenge.
Max Rockatansky said:Is he really doing the Chrono des Nations? It's over 1.000 kilometers from Como to go there and he will get mauled there by a lot of riders. Not that it is important, but why to do this?
..GuyIncognito said:Surely that's the strongest lineup in the race, no?
Climbing said:Plus the other brothers not riding uselessly for themselves as usual.
Maybe they will have have some loyalty after Nibali worked for Ion in the Vuelta?
Pozzovivo could be pivotal.
But most of all Vincenzo needs his legs...
This will probably be the best strategy for FDJ as well. Pinot is likely the best climber at the moment and I would imagine that his plan is to ride Civiglio full gas and go solo. This would best be prepared by going fast already on Ghisallo/Sormano, however, after Gaudu and Reichenbach their team isn't very strong. What I am trying to say is that Nibali and Pinot have shared interests in making the race hard early and I could see them combine together until the bottom of Civiglio.Red Rick said:I think ideally the pace is high all day but that's gonna be a pretty hard thing to do, so I think TBM is best off not doing much until Ghisallo and then ripping that and the Muro.
Can't let Valverde softpedal all day until the Civiglio.
I agree with this. I would add Preidler to the FDJ. El Jorge and Tibo worked very well together in Poland. He can be the setup guy: better climber than most think, pretty big engine.Sestriere said:This will probably be the best strategy for FDJ as well. Pinot is likely the best climber at the moment and I would imagine that his plan is to ride Civiglio full gas and go solo. This would best be prepared by going fast already on Ghisallo/Sormano, however, after Gaudu and Reichenbach their team isn't very strong. What I am trying to say is that Nibali and Pinot have shared interests in making the race hard early and I could see them combine together until the bottom of Civiglio.Red Rick said:I think ideally the pace is high all day but that's gonna be a pretty hard thing to do, so I think TBM is best off not doing much until Ghisallo and then ripping that and the Muro.
Can't let Valverde softpedal all day until the Civiglio.
Agree 1000%, and that's why I made the Muraut di Sormanot joke a few days back. It's not a murito, but a hell of a climb, and with this route, somewhat close to the finish, it's the place to attack, hurt everybody, skim the field to 20 riders max, and finish a wounded opponent on the Civi if need be.Red Rick said:I think the route is hard enough to make attacking on Sormano possible with a small group.
It's just that there never is the occasion where it's preferable over waiting on the Civiglio
Climbing said:The problem is that there is around 20 km "flat" after the descent, which makes it a bit difficult to attack from afar.
That is where usually the early attackers lose all their advantage.
With the conservative racing of last years, I don't see anybody attacking from that far.
I hope to be wrong.