Strydz wrote:
You know that was a pretty good stage in the end, I don't really mind that it was shortened
Yep easily the best stage of the race and I think having a short mountain stage with a descent as the last stage of a stage race (or the last mountain stage of a GT) is something that should be more widely adopted. I praised the original design of this stage when it was first announced and it panned out pretty much as I thought it would today in terms of aggressive racing both up and down the pass.
Overall I enjoyed it as a race, although there was a bit too much slugging it out on 10% MTFs. Pacing-wise, if it was something along the lines of Prologue-Flat Stage-MTF-Flat Stage-Flat-Rettenbachferner-TT-MTF-Fluela stage, it would have been excellent but the Rettenbachferner rather dampened the two preceding MTFs and having 5 GC stages in a row was never going to produce super action on all 5 of them. But much better than last year where it was just Rettenbachferner + an ITT + a bunch of flat/not great hilly stages.
Obvious agree. 3 things we can say about the route which would've made it better:
1. reshuffling of the important stages
2. more ITT miles. 5-10 km prologue, 30-40 km proper ITT.
3. one hard and steep MTF too much - a downhill like today/very hard hilly stag instead, preferably.
Riis123 wrote:
Have I totally missed the ball on Restrepo? I thought he was a sprinter/hilly specialist..
He is but he's Colombians so will always be a decent climbers. Duque fe was also not bad on mountains in Europe.
Yes, Duque is probably the best example, but in that group at 21 years old? I know the stage was shortened and all, but damn. Seems like you can't EVER go wrong in hiring Colombians these days.
On another note, still Colombian, I may be overrating and overhyping Lopez here, but he is most definitely a top-3 contender in La Vuelta. Pretty much the only big GT-contender who doesn't ride Tour before will be Chaves and he, along with Quintana, will probably be the favourites on paper. Imagine that podium.
