Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta 2020, Portugal, February 19 - February 23

[Red Rick]

Disappointing to be a World Champion tbh.

 

[Salvarani]

Regarding Kwiatkowski.

I guess the worrying part is that he is usually in great form early in the season and through most of the spring. Then switching to a domestic role in the Tour. A couple of seasons he has also been able to also make some results in the fall.

Now he has to chase form though, it seems like...

He really hit the wall last year and he sounded optimistic in an interview before the season that he had taken some time off etc. That he was now motivated and felt better... but if you know people that has hit the wall or been burned out etc. It takes a lot more time than maybe a few months.

He still at a high level and maybe it is as simple as that he just need some races to get into shape, since he hasnt raced the Tour. Valenciana and Algarve are his first races back from that. Then again, these are the first races for most riders this season.

Maybe my point is that it is still early to say if he will have a season similar to last, but if he doesnt get any results this spring that will be noteworthy, maybe it will be worse.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Van de Poel nowhere to be found.

No he was struggling on the first Malhao ascend and then told his teammates it was too heavy for him. He got dropped in the part soon after when QS was pacing.

 

[Akuryo]

Disappointing to be a World Champion tbh.

How so? He won races like San Remo, Tirreno, Strade (twice), Amstel, E3, San Sebastian, ...

Certainly more than Rui Costa, Ballan, Astarloa, Vainsteins or Brochard and is probably already equal to Camenzind in terms of big wins. But lets not forget current World Champion Mads Pedersen who won the mighty Tour of Denmark as his biggest accomplishment so far. Are all of these not worthy enough either?

 

[Salvarani]

How so? He won races like San Remo, Tirreno, Strade (twice), Amstel, E3, San Sebastian, ...

Certainly more than Rui Costa, Ballan, Astarloa, Vainsteins or Brochard and is probably already equal to Camenzind in terms of big wins. But lets not forget current World Champion Mads Pedersen who won the mighty Tour of Denmark as his biggest accomplishment so far. Are all of these not worthy enough either?

I think he was being sarcastic with that comment towards the poster that said he hasnt been impressed by MK, since he joined this forum. When in fact he has won all those things you mentioned, while being a former WC.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Could Leknessund and Van Wilder get into the top 20 with the ITT?
Both finished in the top 10 of the ECC U23 in Alkmaar.

Overall standings:

01	-	Remco Evenepoel	2000	Deceuninck-Quick Step	18:59:35​
02	1	Daniel Martin	1986	Israel Start-Up Nation	+ 00​
03	1	Maximilian Schachmann	1994	Bora-Hansgrohe	+ 00​
04	2	Miguel Angel Lopez	1994	Astana Pro Team	+ 01​
05	1	Rui Costa	1986	UAE Team Emirates	+ 03​
06	1	Amaro Antunes	1990	W52 - FC Porto	+ 18​
07	2	Bauke Mollema	1986	Trek-Segafredo	+ 18​
08	3	Tim Wellens	1991	Lotto Soudal	+ 19​
09	3	Simon Geschke	1986	CCC Team	+ 24​
10	-	Frederico Figueiredo	1991	Atum General-Tavira	+ 31​
11	-	Lennard Kämna	1996	Bora-Hansgrohe	+ 32​
12	1	Joao Almeida	1998	Deceuninck-Quick Step	+ 37​
13	2	Greg Van Avermaet	1985	CCC Team	+ 56​
14	6	Vincenzo Nibali	1984	Trek-Segafredo	+ 56​
15	2	Jan Polanc	1992	UAE Team Emirates	+ 01:06​
16	2	Vicente Garcia de Mateos	1988	Aviludo-Louletano	+ 01:20​
17	3	Michal Kwiatkowski	1990	Team Ineos	+ 01:30​
18	1	Ben Swift	1987	Team Ineos	+ 02:05​
19	3	Olivier Le Gac	1993	Groupama-FDJ	+ 02:07​
20	1	Xandro Meurisse	1992	Circus-Wanty Gobert	+ 02:08​
21	3	Alejandro Marque	1981	Atum General-Tavira	+ 02:31​
22	6	Ilan Van Wilder	2000	Team Sunweb	+ 02:34​
23	-	Harold Tejada	1997	Astana Pro Team	+ 02:35​
24	1	Kevin Geniets	1997	Groupama-FDJ	+ 02:38​
25	1	Andreas Leknessund	1999	Uno-X Norwegian DT	+ 02:49​

 

[Joelsim]

Interesting that Lopez showed a bit more punch than usual today, maybe he’s been working on it as it is one of his weaknesses, along with his ITT. He often loses a few seconds on this type of finish, but out-punching Martin and Schachmann was quite impressive.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

@Joelsim that Lopez loses seconds on punchy finishes is mostly because of god awful positioning or other funky stuff. He doesn't really lack punch, as proven by his prologue up the climb in Emilia in the Giro last year.
This time the field was already pretty thinned out so no issues positioning.

 

[Bonimenier]

Do you guys expect anything of the Ineos-riders tomorrow in the ITT? Pretty much the only riders who are able to beat Remco in a time trial in this field , I would think.

 

[tobydawq]

Do you guys expect anything of the Ineos-riders tomorrow in the ITT? Pretty much the only riders who are able to beat Remco in a time trial in this field , I would think.

No, they seem to be too far from top shape to threaten him.

I think Remco and Schachmann will be 1 and 2 in that order tomorrow.

 

[LesDiablesRouges]

Do you guys expect anything of the Ineos-riders tomorrow in the ITT? Pretty much the only riders who are able to beat Remco in a time trial in this field , I would think.

outside of mechanicals/crashes the only capable of beating Remco tomorrow is Dennis and I do not think he’s in form.

 

[Big Doopie]

Remco to catch Martin.

 

[Joelsim]

@Joelsim that Lopez loses seconds on punchy finishes is mostly because of god awful positioning or other funky stuff. He doesn't really lack punch, as proven by his prologue up the climb in Emilia in the Giro last year.
This time the field was already pretty thinned out so no issues positioning.

I’ll have to disagree with you on this one. Whenever there’s a small group of 4 or 5 top riders at the end of a stage, MAL pretty much finishes last of the bunch on every occasion. He can pull away and keep a lead at tempo, but he has no sprint at all.

 

[WKA311]

No, they seem to be too far from top shape to threaten him.

I think Remco and Schachmann will be 1 and 2 in that order tomorrow.

Lampaert and Küng could be up there, at least in front of Schachmanm I think.

 

[Faserr]

I think Dennis wants to show that he is the better time trial rider then Evenepoel. I would be surprised if he doesn't get second or first.

 

[cobblesandstones]

If Almeida can ride like this abroad as well, he's going to be one of the best new signings for DQS.

He caught my eye two years ago already. He had several great performances outside of Portugal. Utah, LBL etc

 

[Salvarani]

It is not an automatic win for Remco, but he should have a really good chance. Since he also riding for the overall.

Lampaert, Ludvigsson, Dennis, Mullen, Bjerg and Leknessund if they have a good day.

Schachmann will be good too I think.

You never know with a guy like Wellens either. He 20 seconds back on the overall but he can do well in ITTs. He won two last year tbf.

Wouldnt be surprised if Costa does really well either. He has a chance of a great result in his home race and seems to be in great form.

 

[Joelsim]

Schachmann says he has hardly been on his TT bike over the winter, so isn’t expecting much.

Remco looked absolutely done after the stage yesterday, so I suspect we’ll see his powers of recovery today.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

It is not an automatic win for Remco, but he should have a really good chance. Since he also riding for the overall.

Lampaert, Ludvigsson, Dennis, Mullen, Bjerg and Leknessund if they have a good day.

Schachmann will be good too I think.

You never know with a guy like Wellens either. He 20 seconds back on the overall but he can do well in ITTs. He won two last year tbf.

Wouldnt be surprised if Costa does really well either. He has a chance of a great result in his home race and seems to be in great form.

Bjerg and Leknessund are among the best U23 ITT'ers, but so fare have not shown anything to indicate they could come close. Bjerg only seems to be able to peak one time per year (towards the WCC) and has been stacking subpar performances for the past two years, outside of that time of the year. Leknessund lost a minute and a half to Evenepoel in Alkmaar over 20km. I can see them in the top 10, but i can't imagine either of them coming close enough to Evenepoel or whoever beats him. I did read somewhere (maybe on this forum) that Leknessund was focusing on the ITT here, so he'll likely finish closer though.

 

[Salvarani]

Bjerg and Leknessund are among the best U23 ITT'ers, but so fare have not shown anything to indicate they could come close. Bjerg only seems to be able to peak one time per year (towards the WCC) and has been stacking subpar performances for the past two years, outside of that time of the year. Leknessund lost a minute and a half to Evenepoel in Alkmaar over 20km. I can see them in the top 10, but i can't imagine either of them coming close enough to Evenepoel or whoever beats him. I did read somewhere (maybe on this forum) that Leknessund was focusing on the ITT here, so he'll likely finish closer though.

OK. Yes, they might not come close today. But they was among the names, when I looked through the startlist, that at least have potential to rival Remco. Unless Remco just win as most expect, me included. And thats all I said, happy? Good.

 

[DNP-Old]

Bjerg and Leknessund are among the best U23 ITT'ers, but so fare have not shown anything to indicate they could come close. Bjerg only seems to be able to peak one time per year (towards the WCC) and has been stacking subpar performances for the past two years, outside of that time of the year. Leknessund lost a minute and a half to Evenepoel in Alkmaar over 20km. I can see them in the top 10, but i can't imagine either of them coming close enough to Evenepoel or whoever beats him. I did read somewhere (maybe on this forum) that Leknessund was focusing on the ITT here, so he'll likely finish closer though.

Bjerg has somewhat of an alibi, not knowing what he is or what he wants. In three years he's changed his mind three times. First he wanted to be a time trialist, then he wanted to shift more towards a GC-rider, which I thought he did pretty well, and now he's let go of that idea already as well. João Almeida on the other hand isn't very good in standalone time trials, but in stage races he's proven to be a very good time trialist. He should have won the Girobio due to said time trial if not for Vlasov commending the Russian team to go berserk after a big crash.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

OK. Yes, they might not come close today. But they was among the names, when I looked through the startlist, that at least have potential to rival Remco. Unless Remco just win as most expect, me included. And thats all I said, happy? Good.

WTF is your problem? All i said is that those two will very likely not come close enough for the win because even though they are among the best U23 ITT'ers, the gap is still too large.

Bjerg has somewhat of an alibi, not knowing what he is or what he wants. In three years he's changed his mind three times. First he wanted to be a time trialist, then he wanted to shift more towards a GC-rider, which I thought he did pretty well, and now he's let go of that idea already as well. João Almeida on the other hand isn't very good in standalone time trials, but in stage races he's proven to be a very good time trialist. He should have won the Girobio due to said time trial if not for Vlasov commending the Russian team to go berserk after a big crash.

Bjerg has also announced and changed his mind a few times about attacking the World Hour Record, but he always seemed to be on form during the WCC. Almeida was also on my imaginary list to do well here. I also mentioned Van Wilder a bit higher, he'll be motivated. I think a top 20 would be good for him.

 

[Salvarani]

WTF is your problem?

Ditto.

 

[Big Doopie]

I think Dennis wants to show that he is the better time trial rider then Evenepoel. I would be surprised if he doesn't get second or first.

Also, did he rest up yesterday while Evenepoel was pushing 1100 watts trying to stay with superman? That could play into it. Going on San Juan ITT however, me thinks Remco could squeeze by even Dennis and destroy the likes of many others.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Lampaert fastest atm