Cadel's remaining schedule till the tour:
-Volta Catalunya (7 days)
- Pais Vasco + 3 ardennes (10 days)
- Dauphine Libere (7 days)
So he will enter the tour de france with aprox 32 days of racing. Last year he started the tour with 39 or 40 days, so It doesnt look a lighter programme. Maybe he will skip pais-vasco, although its the best prep for the ardennes. Anyway, I think he has lost it on the longer climbs, but that is to see him at Andorra Villanord next week.
Edited by lup_andrei on 15-03-2011 19:34
lup_andrei wrote:
Cadel's remaining schedule till the tour:
-Volta Catalunya (7 days)
- Pais Vasco + 3 ardennes (10 days)
- Dauphine Libere (7 days)
So he will enter the tour de france with aprox 32 days of racing. Last year he started the tour with 39 or 40 days, so It doesnt look a lighter programme. Maybe he will skip pais-vasco, although its the best prep for the ardennes. Anyway, I think he has lost it on the longer climbs, but that is to see him at Andorra Villanord next week.
I think he changed his mind about the whole lighter season thing. With the new World Tour rules, BMC needs points in order to keep the status and that can't be achieved just with some nice GC at the Tour. Because to be fair, BMC won't likely score a lot more in the season. But perhaps after his great Tirreno-Adriatico, he will reverse to the original plan.
Disclaimer: The above post reflects just the personal opinion of the author and not a fact. But if you read it, you must accept it as the ultimate truth.
well, i think the big difference in that is the whole giro thing that is more stressfull and 3 weeks in a row preforming, so from that aspect this is a bit lighter, i guess.
Also, i hope Ballan could do good at the cobbles, he looks great last week
So he will enter the tour de france with aprox 32 days of racing. Last year he started the tour with 39 or 40 days, so It doesnt look a lighter programme. Maybe he will skip pais-vasco, although its the best prep for the ardennes. Anyway, I think he has lost it on the longer climbs, but that is to see him at Andorra Villanord next week.
But given that 3 weeks of that was in the Giro, you have to take into account just how tired that made him beyond simply the number of days he rode. This is a much lighter schedule.
And yeah I would hold off on judging him in the longer climbs - there really weren't any big climbs at Tirreno, and Cadel just isn't punchy enough for the short ones.
Yeah, he doesn't have the acceleration, he's like a turbo diesel, but when the turbo activates he really can perform in hilly races (world, fleche, liege, chieti, macerata, etc). I think he's starting to like short but tough climbs (gradients over 10%) just like the Mur the Huy, when acceleration doesnt count too much; he's pretty much aero than lactic. Anyway, he is one of the most complete cyclists in the peloton, he rides well even o strade bianche, mud or cobbles. Congrats to him again!
After wrapping up the overall win in Italy, Evans reflected on the final time trial on his personal web page, www.cadelevans.co... noting the improvement of Rabobank's Robert Gesink, who climbed to second overall and went four seconds quicker over the 9.3km course.
"Gesink seems to have improved his time trialing to another level this year, and today he proved it again. I was ok, took me 2-3km to get into my rhythm, having eight months since my last 'crono', not surprising, but a bit of a worry when you only have 6km to make for lost time. My TT legs eventually got into gear, enough to hold onto my GC position, and happily get one of pitch fork trophies."
that is more stressfull and 3 weeks in a row preforming, so from that aspect this is a bit lighter, i guess.
