• The Cycling News forum is still looking to add volunteer moderators with. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

  • We hope all of you have a great holiday season and an incredible New Year. Thanks so much for being part of the Cycling News community!

Volta ao Algarve May 5-9 2021

Page 6 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Next Geraint Thomas confirmed.

I can't work out what kind of rider he is. A punchy sprinter who can TT?
I was asking the same question during Coppi e Bartali. I mentioned Van Aert as a possible comparison. He looked impressive today. When every climber was suffering and looked on their limit, he was cool as a cucumber and looking fairly easy. It reminded me of that Tour de Suisse mountain stage (I can't remember exactly which year was it, I think 2012 or 2013 or 2014) which Sagan won. He was riding on the climbs with the top 10 climbers and was looking around, he looked bored.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan and PlanZ
Hayter is very, very impressive.

Are we somehow entering into a new era of the generalist? Specialisation and greater depth of professionalisation meant that Sean Kelly more or less marked the end of the era of the dominant generalist. You got the odd throwback like Jalabert or Valverde, but basically the best have been specialists for decades now. Yet suddenly there are all these guys at the very top or looking to get there who you just can’t pigeon hole.

It seems like a very fundamental and sudden reversion.
 
Hayter finished 15th in the Giro Baby, with some top10s in mountain stages.
He won Giro dell'Appennino last year.
Even the stage he won in l'Avenir 2 years ago had 3 GPMs and finished on a steep hill.
He could always climb to some degree and he's just on a different level compared to the competition here (would be probably different with Kamna in top shape and Rui Costa not crashing).
 
Hayter was very good yesterday, but let's not overestimate what he did here shall we. When he became a Pro he was already one of the better talents of the previous year, and so far he has not really lived up to the expectations. Yesterday was very good, but also the sort of terrain that should suit him very well. The Climbs were not too steep, the competition was quite poor, and he also had two team mates settings the pace so high that his competitors could not attack. All in All it was about time that Hayter would do well in these kind of stages.

If he can also do this at a higher level and at a tougher mountain we might call him the next Geraint Thomas. ;)
 
Hayter finished 15th in the Giro Baby, with some top10s in mountain stages.
He won Giro dell'Appennino last year.
Even the stage he won in l'Avenir 2 years ago had 3 GPMs and finished on a steep hill.
He could always climb to some degree and he's just on a different level compared to the competition here (would be probably different with Kamna in top shape and Rui Costa not crashing).
And if Asgreen hadn't inexplicably decided to burn all his matches 30 k from the finish he could have been there too...
 
  • Like
Reactions: RedheadDane
Hayter finished 15th in the Giro Baby, with some top10s in mountain stages.
He won Giro dell'Appennino last year.
Even the stage he won in l'Avenir 2 years ago had 3 GPMs and finished on a steep hill.
He could always climb to some degree and he's just on a different level compared to the competition here (would be probably different with Kamna in top shape and Rui Costa not crashing).
I've compared him to Ben Swift before, a sprinter who can climb really well.
 
Hayter was very good yesterday, but let's not overestimate what he did here shall we. When he became a Pro he was already one of the better talents of the previous year, and so far he has not really lived up to the expectations. Yesterday was very good, but also the sort of terrain that should suit him very well. The Climbs were not too steep, the competition was quite poor, and he also had two team mates settings the pace so high that his competitors could not attack. All in All it was about time that Hayter would do well in these kind of stages.

If he can also do this at a higher level and at a tougher mountain we might call him the next Geraint Thomas. ;)

Not lived up to expectations? He's had just 34 race days as a pro, and had 3 wins already. What were you expecting?
 
Not lived up to expectations? He's had just 34 race days as a pro, and had 3 wins already. What were you expecting?

Fair point. I guess with the way some other guys have entered the professional level i would have expected him to also race well in World Tour races. Instead for now he is doing well in smaller races mostly. I wouldn't have thought that the levels of Pidcock and Hayter would be so different, but it is probably my own expectations on the both of them. ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: King Of The Wolds
Hard to see how this ends other than in a bunch sprint. Can someone get Bennett’s scalp while he’s not in form yet? It’ll be tricky with that leadout train, but Van Poppel was very strong in the first sprint and Ackermann had a good excuse. For the 12th successive time, I’m going to pig headedly go for an Ackermann win...
 
Hm, Kämna finished almost 10 minutes down, a good deal behind Nils Politt. What was that, slow build-up to racing again after he was ill? Was his illness that bad?

Ya, Kämna obviously already lost his position on the descent and then pulled out:

“I tried, but unfortunately I lost a few days of training and I am only just building up again. It was not possible today to be at the front in the final" (...) I lost my position after Costa crashed and couldn't come back. The tour is certainly an important part of getting back into shape. Let's see what is still possible in the next few days"

 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
The problem is always comparing any young talent with the few monsters we've seen coming out of the u23 rank (or even the juniors) in the past 3-4 years.
Hayter's development has been perfectly fine. He's actually a much better road rider than Thomas was at his age .

True, my first posting was not well formulated. I think Hayter does very well. However i still feel that his performance yesterday is not impressive enough to call him a future GC contender in Grand Tours.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
Hayter is very, very impressive.

Are we somehow entering into a new era of the generalist? Specialisation and greater depth of professionalisation meant that Sean Kelly more or less marked the end of the era of the dominant generalist. You got the odd throwback like Jalabert or Valverde, but basically the best have been specialists for decades now. Yet suddenly there are all these guys at the very top or looking to get there who you just can’t pigeon hole.

It seems like a very fundamental and sudden reversion.

That's what I've always thought, that probably the ultra specialisation era is not the end of it all. I don't think the reversion is that sudden though, it just cause the earthquake in the past 2-3 years.