Giro D’Italia 2020
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valverde321 |
Posted on 24-10-2020 20:03
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Ollfardh wrote:
deek12345 wrote:
I think they call it marginal gains ,or you know what everyone else calls it .
To be fair if the podium is going to be Hart-Hindley-Almeida, I think the Sky rider is actually the most credible of the 3.
Almeida is a pretty big cycling talent though, is he not? Maybe its a little soon, his first season in the ProTour but I think we've been seeing a lot more younger cyclists getting top results very early on in their careers the last few seasons, where before it took a few seasons sometimes for those results to come. He was vital in setting up Evenepoel at Algarve earlier this season, pre-COVID.
Also, kind of related to the other part of my post, but Pogacar is maybe the biggest stage racing talent cycling has had in the past few years, I dont get why so many people call his performance crazy, when to me its just him fulfilling his potential. Lets not forget he beat Roglic at the Slovenia Nats TT. Also, I think his bike switch was very important in him winning that day. I seem to remember Pogacar got a much better change than Roglic.
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Forever the Best |
Posted on 24-10-2020 20:03
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df_Trek wrote:
Kelderman needs a mechanical or even a crash for both Hindley and Hart to win this Giro
Yeah, basically they both need to pull a Rasmussen 2005 for Kelderman to win.
The user formerly known as 'The Schleck Fan'
Gracias Alberto.
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Strydz |
Posted on 25-10-2020 06:10
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deek12345 wrote:
I think they call it marginal gains ,or you know what everyone else calls it .
The one that gets me is Ben Swift who is sitting @18th in the GC going into the final stage of a GT. Now that's some marginal freaking gains!
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Posted on 24-11-2024 21:14
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Strydz |
Posted on 25-10-2020 06:34
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tsmoha wrote:
Haven't see a minute of this Giro.. But.. I've been dreaming of an Australian GT winner since the early Lachlan Morton, the very early Robert Power and of course still dreaming of Jack Haig taking it one day..
Jai Hindley.. I know him of course. But that doesn't feel exactly right, if you know what I mean. It's more kinda 2020ish..
Leaving the doping discussion aside for the moment, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise Jai Hindley was the next Australian climbing talent to come through, he came along with a talented crop of Aus riders along with Power (health issues have hurt his career), Storer, Stannard (think this guy will be the best of the bunch), L. Hamilton, C. Hamilton, C.Stcotson, also raced against/with C.Harper and B. O'Conner as a U23/Junior. That's a good group and outside of Power I'd say Hindley was the best. He had some good results last season and this season he won a very competitive Sun Tour, did well in Polonge and T.A, also good to remember this Giro lacks GC depth (Warbasse 17th & Swift in 18th), COVID has produced some funny results and we are seeing a generational change this season. I don't think Hindley is a superstar but he has talent and could end up being best pure climber to come out of Australia so far.
It must be a crazy season if we end up having 2 GT's completed and an Oz rider on the podium of both
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cio93 |
Posted on 25-10-2020 15:25
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Fuck Sky. No exceptions.
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Shonak |
Posted on 25-10-2020 15:29
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quoted for truth
lets make it happen Hindley
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
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FreitasPCM |
Posted on 25-10-2020 15:29
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Next goal: win the Giro with Ganna. |
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Shonak |
Posted on 25-10-2020 15:34
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Its completely appalling how Sky can win the Giro and 7(?) stages with their B-team at the aecond largest race of the year. We urgently need a budget cap!!
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
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FreitasPCM |
Posted on 25-10-2020 15:39
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Great effort from João Almeida to snatch 4th place. That’s the best result from a Portuguese rider in a GT sinde Jose Azevedo sometime in 2001 or 2002. Amazing, chapeau! |
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weirdskyfan64 |
Posted on 25-10-2020 15:49
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Whatever Jim Ratcliffe is paying it's not enough. Brailsford there implying they won the Giro because of the Grenadiers name change
Disclaimer- Most of my posts are me thinking aloud. And most of what I think is rubbish.
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"... Because he (me) has a sound tactical mind in general..." jandal7, at 9:30 am GMT on 12th May 2016
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baseballlover312 |
Posted on 25-10-2020 15:56
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Welp, dominating by Sky despite having the winner be like their 5th best GC guy. Carapaz looking set in the Vuelta too.
Bernal might be in shambles right now, he became the weak link this year and may not get a full Skytrain support again.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
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Ollfardh |
Posted on 25-10-2020 16:21
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Not sure why the Sky hate is back, this is just a mediocre rider winning in an even weaker field. In normal circumstances we would say "cheer up Hindley/Kelderman, you'll get more chances", except they won't. This was their only shot at winning a GT and they didn't win. Tao Hart will never win another GT either, but he got this one.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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df_Trek |
Posted on 25-10-2020 16:42
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they rode Stelvio in 1h11' crazy stuff, this was all but a mediocre level.
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baseballlover312 |
Posted on 25-10-2020 17:10
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Ollfardh wrote:
Not sure why the Sky hate is back, this is just a mediocre rider winning in an even weaker field. In normal circumstances we would say "cheer up Hindley/Kelderman, you'll get more chances", except they won't. This was their only shot at winning a GT and they didn't win. Tao Hart will never win another GT either, but he got this one.
If it was just a weak field, shouldn't they be climbing slower than top tier favorites have?
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
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Ollfardh |
Posted on 25-10-2020 18:05
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baseballlover312 wrote:
Ollfardh wrote:
Not sure why the Sky hate is back, this is just a mediocre rider winning in an even weaker field. In normal circumstances we would say "cheer up Hindley/Kelderman, you'll get more chances", except they won't. This was their only shot at winning a GT and they didn't win. Tao Hart will never win another GT either, but he got this one.
If it was just a weak field, shouldn't they be climbing slower than top tier favorites have?
You mean Yates/Thomas/Kruiswijck?
Almeida in the future maybe, Bilbao I don't see it in him, age caught up with Nibali, Fuglsang will never be a stage racer and should have gone to the Ardennes and then it's guys like Konrad, Masnada and Pernsteiner.
Let's see that Giro podium race against Pogacar, Bernal (2019) and Evenepoel for the next 10 years, I don't see them repeating this again.
Changed my sig, this was getting absurd.
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baseballlover312 |
Posted on 25-10-2020 18:10
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Ollfardh wrote:
baseballlover312 wrote:
Ollfardh wrote:
Not sure why the Sky hate is back, this is just a mediocre rider winning in an even weaker field. In normal circumstances we would say "cheer up Hindley/Kelderman, you'll get more chances", except they won't. This was their only shot at winning a GT and they didn't win. Tao Hart will never win another GT either, but he got this one.
If it was just a weak field, shouldn't they be climbing slower than top tier favorites have?
You mean Yates/Thomas/Kruiswijck?
Almeida in the future maybe, Bilbao I don't see it in him, age caught up with Nibali, Fuglsang will never be a stage racer and should have gone to the Ardennes and then it's guys like Konrad, Masnada and Pernsteiner.
Let's see that Giro podium race against Pogacar, Bernal (2019) and Evenepoel for the next 10 years, I don't see them repeating this again.
I mean against the previous times up all of these mountains from previous years.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
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ivaneurope |
Posted on 25-10-2020 18:33
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So many Dutch fans are now crying foul on Sunweb from "screwing" Kelderman of his win. I'll play the devil's advocate here- do they really think that Sunweb will support a rider, who's been confirmed to leave elsewhere anyway?
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Forever the Best |
Posted on 25-10-2020 18:45
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Shonak wrote:
Its completely appalling how Sky can win the Giro and 7(?) stages with their B-team at the aecond largest race of the year. We urgently need a budget cap!!
More like C-team, after Thomas' departure.
And I'm not sure what budget cap will change, because they are not only signing world class climbers ( Bernal, Carapaz ), they are randomly making average riders world class climbers ( Froome, Thomas for examples ). I mean, Dennis was an excellent time trialist, and he was a decent climber, but his performances on stage 18 and stage 20 were far above what he managed before Sky. Tao Geoghegan Hart suddenly became a great climber. ( yes, I know he had talent, but still )
Whatever Sky lacked at the Tour, they have now, they also took the lead at Vuelta today.
And lastly, the climbing numbers (W/Kg) were very high in this Giro, Nibali was similar/slightly below his 2016/2017 and he was spat out the back on the mountains like a 3rd grade climber. Actually the climbing times have been extremely high all season, even before the lockdown but especially after it.
Edited by Forever the Best on 25-10-2020 20:10
The user formerly known as 'The Schleck Fan'
Gracias Alberto.
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Miguel98 |
Posted on 26-10-2020 09:34
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Ollfardh wrote:
baseballlover312 wrote:
Ollfardh wrote:
Not sure why the Sky hate is back, this is just a mediocre rider winning in an even weaker field. In normal circumstances we would say "cheer up Hindley/Kelderman, you'll get more chances", except they won't. This was their only shot at winning a GT and they didn't win. Tao Hart will never win another GT either, but he got this one.
If it was just a weak field, shouldn't they be climbing slower than top tier favorites have?
You mean Yates/Thomas/Kruiswijck?
Almeida in the future maybe, Bilbao I don't see it in him, age caught up with Nibali, Fuglsang will never be a stage racer and should have gone to the Ardennes and then it's guys like Konrad, Masnada and Pernsteiner.
Let's see that Giro podium race against Pogacar, Bernal (2019) and Evenepoel for the next 10 years, I don't see them repeating this again.
The major problem here is that, on paper, this Giro startlist was the weakest GT startlist since the Giro when Amador got a podium a few years ago, we all agreed on this in the the first page of this topic.
The problem has been that the numbers that were put out completelly says otherwise: it says that this was one of the strongest Giro's ever. We had Rohan Dennis, Hindley and Hart beat the Stelvio record and go faster than the 05 thermonuclear levels. That's the problem here. It's, of course sad that it's 2020 and we're still discussing doping, but the problem is that, while in the mid 2010's there was one team that was so far above the rest it became obvious, we now have 2-3 teams that are pulling ridicolous performance and numbers every year, and this year with the covid-19 testing restrictions, it's just been a whole new level of ridicolous.
Are they doped? Probably. Can we prove it? No. Was the last week performance by Dennis one of the most surreal things I was able to see? Yes, it was ridicolous on whole new levels, even for INEOS/Sky levels. Nibali was pulling numbers on pair with his 2017 performance and he got completelly destroyed by... Rohan Dennis. And the weird performances all came after a rest day. We all know what's up there, sadly (Ben O'Connor was also a rider that pulled some performances out of his arse in the final week, when he, like Dennis, also didn't have a contract for 2021).
I still enjoyed this Giro, it was a really entertaining show and it was uncertainty to the end, one of the best GT's of the last few years, loaded with attacks on all stages. |
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TheManxMissile |
Posted on 26-10-2020 11:56
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Strong focus on the anti-Ineos vibes, when Jai Hindley matched Tao & Rohan on those final climbs and only lost in the ITT which was ridden about as we all expected and with pretty ordinary numbers.
And Bilbao's times were not a million miles away at times with two GT's in his legs.
Hey, i think they are all doped and it makes the sport far more fun to watch. I can only be surprised and rewarded, my idols never damaged! (damn you Lance, you made me a cynical and depressive bastard!)
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