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

[yaco]

Need to see more of Remco's climbing ability - Algarve is probably not the race to see.

 

[Bonimenier]

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..

What will said.. He let himself go after his TDF win. He definitely came out of the winter with a few kgs too much.

 

[WKA311]

Jake Stewart will ride this race with FDJs WT outfit coming in from their Devo squad.

 

[Lequack]

"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.

 

[tobydawq]

So, 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"?

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

So, 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"?

Van Baarle

 

[spalco]

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

 

[Red Rick]

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

You mean soft enough? Win ITT don't lose time cause route ?? profit, win all the good things etc etc etc

 

[Boes]

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

That's just it.
It's not hard enough for pure climbers to drop him and he can finish it off in the TT.
Only Dennis might be a better TT rider, will depend on his form, but I do believe Remco is a better climber.

I'm not saying he'll win for sure. But I easily understand he's one of the favourites to win.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

You mean soft enough? Win ITT don't lose time cause route ?? profit, win all the good things etc etc etc

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.

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.

 

[Red Rick]

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.

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.

 

[tobydawq]

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.

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.

 

[jaylew]

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.

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.

 

[SafeBet]

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.

20 seconds in 1 km???
I understand he's got no kick but that's too much, unless he blows up.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

20 seconds in 1 km???
I understand he's got no kick but that's too much, unless he blows up.

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...)

 

[Lequack]

Superman Lopez will go all 2020 Quintana on the field and gain about a minute on the 3k climb.

 

[Red Rick]

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...)

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

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

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.

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.

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

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.

EDIT: Pogacar took 19s on guys like Poels & Pauwels last week, in only a few hundreds of meters (the three-way sprint with Valverde & Teuns). Knox finished at 8s and according to some people here, he climbs better than Evenepoel. I'm not saying it will definitely happen or that it will definitely be 20s, but it's also not out of the question imho.

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.

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?!).

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

"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.

Damn, you all were right about G. face palm

I thought Bernal's Tour win would have lit a fire under his a$$, like it did Quintana. Maybe not as dramatic, but still.

When G won the Tour two years ago he was the best rider in Algarve IMO (he finished 2nd after Kwiatko)

It was his first race of the season then, too. Now, 2 years later, he uses it as an excuse.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

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

 

[Earns1985]

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

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...

 

[will-10]

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.

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 )

https://www.cyclingnews.com/races/volta-ao-algarve-em-bicicleta-2018/stage-5/results/

Big group, Kwaitkowski there as a watchdog so Sky didn't have to ride.

 

[Lequack]

Some pics from today:

 

[red_flanders]

To state the obvious, Evenepoel is barely 20 with very limited racing. Given that I wouldn't be too certain of what kind of rider he is, he can, or he will be. He will certainly change and evolve. Extrapolating his sprint after what happened in San Juan seems a bit...thin to me. I'd wager his explosiveness over the next couple of years becomes a very different thing than it is now.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

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...

I reckon they released this well before Thomas' press statement. 0 stars would be too many, unless he's sandbagging (which I really doubt)