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What will said.. He let himself go after his TDF win. He definitely came out of the winter with a few kgs too much.Well, one can say he always had been in decent form this time of the year until his tour de france win.. last year the first time he had been competitive was at the tour de romandie..
But we will see the next days..
Van BaarleSo, which one of the four Ineos riders who can win the race is the one people refuse to acknowledge when referring to "the three Ineos guys"?
You mean soft enough? Win ITT don't lose time cause route ?? profit, win all the good things etc etc etcI don't know if the race is hard enough for Evenepoel to win with such strong competition actually, even with the TT, this isn't San Juan.
I'm surprised he's considered a favourite
I don't know if the race is hard enough for Evenepoel to win with such strong competition actually, even with the TT, this isn't San Juan.
I'm surprised he's considered a favourite
No. Hard enough. There will be plenty of guys that will be able to keep his wheel on such a short climb and drop him in the final 1k and grab 20 seconds or more. If that happens twice on the MTF stages, he 's looking at 40 seconds he needs to close on an (obviously) in form competitor. The ITT itself might also be a bit too technical for him to really power away. I don't think it's unlikely at all, that Dennis finishes with or ahead of him on those climbs.You mean soft enough? Win ITT don't lose time cause route ?? profit, win all the good things etc etc etc
Forgot about Dennis, but Foia suits Evenepoel better/usually has tiny gaps. Then I doubt Dennis will be in great climbing shape right nowNo. Hard enough. There will be plenty of guys that will be able to keep his wheel on such a short climb and drop him in the final 1k and grab 20 seconds or more. If that happens twice on the MTF stages, he 's looking at 40 seconds he needs to close on an (obviously) in form competitor. The ITT itself might also be a bit too technical for him to really power away. I don't think it's unlikely at all, that Dennis finishes with or ahead of him on those climbs.
Remco is a power/tempo climber, not a springy punchy git that can jump away from others. He has to drop them by grinding them to a pulp. I doubt these climbs are hard enough for that.
Forgot about Dennis, but Foia suits Evenepoel better/usually has tiny gaps. Then I doubt Dennis will be in great climbing shape right now
Also, it's funny how all Evenepoel's road stage wins have been on hilly terrain but somehow he's supposed to lose there while crushing the bigger mountains.
I don't believe he can match up with those two in a sprint unless it's a really tough finale but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.Also interested to see how and if MvdP can match up in the sprints with Jakobsen and Viviani. I hope he won't be just the lead-out for Modolo.
20 seconds in 1 km???No. Hard enough. There will be plenty of guys that will be able to keep his wheel on such a short climb and drop him in the final 1k and grab 20 seconds or more.
Evenepoel lost 4 seconds to Florez in 150 meters in San Juan. Someone with a real punch could take up to 20 seconds in the final 1k even without him blowing up, imho. Even if it's only 10 or 15 seconds, it could still be enough of a problem considering some of those riders being good ITT'ers as well (Kwiat, Thomas...)20 seconds in 1 km???
I understand he's got no kick but that's too much, unless he blows up.
You can't really extrapolate that linearly. If somebody would attack him earlier that anaerbic/explosvie advantage would run out really fast. Malhao is not Mur de Huy, and the opponents aren't the greatest puncheurs in the world, unless Van der Poel somehow beats EvenepoelEvenepoel lost 4 seconds to Florez in 150 meters in San Juan. Someone with a real punch could take up to 20 seconds in the final 1k even without him blowing up, imho. Even if it's only 10 or 15 seconds, it could still be enough of a problem considering some of those riders being good ITT'ers as well (Kwiat, Thomas...)
Baloise Belgium Tour or Adriatica Ionica wasn't exactly against Thomas, Lopez etc. San Sebastian was him vs domestiques. And once he has a gap, it's hard for anyone to bridge, especially when domestiques are burnt by then. If he's in full ITT mode once he's got a gap, that's when it becomes a problem. I doubt worldclass climbers will get dropped on a 6k climb.Forgot about Dennis, but Foia suits Evenepoel better/usually has tiny gaps. Then I doubt Dennis will be in great climbing shape right now
Also, it's funny how all Evenepoel's road stage wins have been on hilly terrain but somehow he's supposed to lose there while crushing the bigger mountains.
I wasn't extrapolating that, or i'd be talking about 25-30 seconds. I remember a few late attacks by Thomas in 2018, where he took more than 10 seconds on rivals in the final 1k. Those rivals in turn were already more punchy than Evenepoel and could in turn easily take up to 10s on him. Now, these climbs may not see such gaps, i don't know. I'm not talking in absolutes, but guys like Thomas, Kwiatkowski who could still be there on the top of the climb, could do enough damage to become a big problem in the ITT.You can't really extrapolate that linearly. If somebody would attack him earlier that anaerbic/explosvie advantage would run out really fast. Malhao is not Mur de Huy, and the opponents aren't the greatest puncheurs in the world, unless Van der Poel somehow beats Evenepoel
Yes. If Dennis climbs as well as in TDU he'll be a huge problem for anyone. On the other hand, like you said, the question would be how his ITT form is (or is it the bike?!).Dennis climbed quite well Down Under.
His TT is probably not as good as last year, seeing that he again managed to lose to Durbridge in the Australian Nationals.
Damn, you all were right about G. face palm"I want to get stuck into a good five days of racing," Thomas said via Team Ineos.
"There are a lot of guys in our team who have already done at least a week of racing - Rohan, Dylan, Kwiato - and they’re targeting early races and going really well. I’ll be there to give them a hand and should still be up there but I won’t be going for the win.
More: https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ge...n-dennis-lead-team-ineos-at-volta-ao-algarve/
This is what I like about riders like Roglic, Pogacar, Remco, etc. They enter races to win them, not to softpedal for training. For Ineos it's just Tour de France, everything else can just be training.
* * * * * | Remco Evenepoel |
* * * * | Geraint Thomas, Maximilian Schachmann |
* * * | Rohan Dennis, Tim Wellens, Bauke Mollema, Michal Kwiatkowski, Lennard Kämna |
* * | Dylan van Baarle, Rui Costa, Simon Geschke, Felix Grossschartner, Patrick Bevin, Miguel Angel Lopez, Dan Martin, Jan Polanc, Vincenzo Nibali, Mathieu van der Poel, Andreas Leknessund, Ilan van Wilder, Amaro Antunes, Joao Rodrigues, Vicente Garcia de Mateos |
* | Edgar Pinto, Philippe Gilbert, Greg van Avermaet, Xandro Meurisse, Simone Petilli, Kevin Geniets, Rodrigo Contreras, Joao Almeida, Markus Hoelgaard, Raul Alarcon, Ricardo Mestre, David Rodrigues, Joao Benta, Joaquim Silva |
* * * * * | Remco Evenepoel |
* * * * | Geraint Thomas, Maximilian Schachmann |
* * * | Rohan Dennis, Tim Wellens, Matteo Trentin |
Interesting, that the bora riders are pretty high ranked. Because it´s his first race I don´t see Thomas with 4 stars. I think MAL, Nibali and Dan Martin have only two stars because of the time trial...Another preview:
Optakt: Volta ao Algarve
Det er tid til en af de vigtigste uger i forberedelsen frem mod cykelsæsonens første højdepunkter. Den tredje uge i februar er traditionelt rammen om hele fire etapeløb, der skal gøre det muligt for klassiker- og etapeløbsryttere at nå topformen i marts og april. En af mulighederne for...www.feltet.dk
Optakt: Volta ao Algarve
Det er tid til en af de vigtigste uger i forberedelsen frem mod cykelsæsonens første højdepunkter. Den tredje uge i februar er traditionelt rammen om hele fire etapeløb, der skal gøre det muligt for klassiker- og etapeløbsryttere at nå topformen i marts og april. En af mulighederne for...translate.google.com
Feltet stars:
* * * * * Remco Evenepoel * * * * Geraint Thomas, Maximilian Schachmann * * * Rohan Dennis, Tim Wellens, Bauke Mollema, Michal Kwiatkowski, Lennard Kämna * * Dylan van Baarle, Rui Costa, Simon Geschke, Felix Grossschartner, Patrick Bevin, Miguel Angel Lopez, Dan Martin, Jan Polanc,
Vincenzo Nibali, Mathieu van der Poel, Andreas Leknessund, Ilan van Wilder, Amaro Antunes, Joao Rodrigues, Vicente Garcia de Mateos* Edgar Pinto, Philippe Gilbert, Greg van Avermaet, Xandro Meurisse, Simone Petilli, Kevin Geniets, Rodrigo Contreras,
Joao Almeida, Markus Hoelgaard, Raul Alarcon, Ricardo Mestre, David Rodrigues, Joao Benta, Joaquim Silva
Feltet readers stars:
* * * * * Remco Evenepoel * * * * Geraint Thomas, Maximilian Schachmann * * * Rohan Dennis, Tim Wellens, Matteo Trentin
This sort of comment always baffles me. Even if you hadn't watched the race or couldn't recall the detail, finding a race report in this day and age takes less time than writing this post (or for me to write this reply )Thomas only lost Algarve in 2018 because for some strange reason the peleton allowed Kwiatkovski who was second in GC to Thomas to get into the break.
I reckon they released this well before Thomas' press statement. 0 stars would be too many, unless he's sandbagging (which I really doubt)Interesting, that the bora riders are pretty high ranked. Because it´s his first race I don´t see Thomas with 4 stars. I think MAL, Nibali and Dan Martin have only two stars because of the time trial...