Egan Bernal

specialgueststar

So Egan Bernal in his first grand tour at 21 can seemingly do what he wants on the last mountain stage at the end of the third week including chasing Landa, Bardet and Zakarin down then doing domestique duties for a the Giro winner and having done all his domestique duties finishes 15th overall

How many Tours is he actually going to win ??

andyp

Every few years this happens - remember when Ullrich finished second aged 22, then won the following year? Everyone predicted he'd win 7 or 8 Tours. Similar claims were made about Quintana when he finished second in 2013.

Bernal clearly has talent but it's not a given that he can translate that talent into the skills required to win a Tour, never mind multiple Tours. Give him the time and room to develop.

inseine

He does seem like an incredibly nice and intelligent guy. I’ll becinterested to see how he goes today since he was superb in California, esoeciallyvthe tt.

blazing_saddles

His transformation at Sky is just not normal. I mean he's a Colombian rider for goodness sake.
He didn't get his first six pro wins in a season and three general classifications until he was twenty.

Rather:
Bottom line, he was winning quality races, aged 19 in his first season. Outstanding palmares in 2 years at Androni.
He excels in stage races and can time trial.
I'd say he is on course to win several, at least.

milton50

Unbelievably talented climber but you have to have a decent time trial in you if you are going to dominate GTs in the way Contador or Froome have.

I'll play devils advocate here and say Tao Geoghegan Hart will end up with more Grand Tour wins.

inseine

Milton50 wrote:

Unbelievably talented climber but you have to have a decent time trial in you if you are going to dominate GTs in the way Contador or Froome have.

I'll play devils advocate here and say Tao Geoghegan Hart will end up with more Grand Tour wins.

Would love to see them both at the Tour next year. They were a great double act at California

Pross

As Andy points out we see riders regularly come along who we think will dominate. However, I do think Bernal looks the real deal and whether you like Sky or not I think they are the one team that will give him time to develop. Some won’t like him being ‘wasted’ in a mountain train but it will help him learn and keep him relatively fresh for a season or two with maybe a crack at the Vuelta first.

DeVlaeminck

If he's good enough he's old enough, if he can ride the Tour this year I think he could be a leader next year if not at the Tour then at the Vuelta or Giro.

Pross

DeVlaeminck wrote:

If he's good enough he's old enough, if he can ride the Tour this year I think he could be a leader next year if not at the Tour then at the Vuelta or Giro.

It comes down to the pressure of leadership though. How many young French (in particular) riders have come along with the talent and looked the next big thing, been thrown in at the deep end after a promising debut and then cracked under the pressure? Bernal looks to have the temperament as well as the talent but whilst the team has a few proven GT riders they may as well blood him a bit. Maybe he can do what Thomas has done and sneak in under the radar. He has potentially a decade at the top ahead of him so taking in slowly makes sense to me.

No_Ta_Doctor

Brailsford is certainly convinced that Bernal is the future. And while I'm certainly not going to buy everything Brailsford says (I'd probably check for myself if he said the sky was blue) he's on the verge of putting a third rider on the top step at the Champs Elysees in his 9th season as a team manager, so he probably knows what he's talking about. I've not seen how he TTs yet really, I know he's Colombian champ but I'm not sure how much that says. I'm sure Sky will have him out on his TT bike regularly when the time comes for him to make a step up.

As for My Man™ Tao, he's a wonderful rider, got his head screwed on right and is making steady progress, but he could end up playing Hincapie to Bernal's Armstrong (no doping insinuations intended) if Bernal is as good as he looks like he might be.

Quintana? I think he's been poorly managed at Movistar. 2016-2017 he raced Tour-Vuelta-Giro-Tour, which was probably a bit much (ask Froome). He also seems to be riding with a team that don't put all their eggs in one basket (not necessarily a bad thing), with riders that have their own ambitions, not to mention being overly interested in the team competition. His support just isn't anywhere near as strong as Sky's. I'm reasonably confident that if he'd ridden for Sky they could have won him more.

No_Ta_Doctor

Pross wrote:

DeVlaeminck wrote:

If he's good enough he's old enough, if he can ride the Tour this year I think he could be a leader next year if not at the Tour then at the Vuelta or Giro.

It comes down to the pressure of leadership though. How many young French (in particular) riders have come along with the talent and looked the next big thing, been thrown in at the deep end after a promising debut and then cracked under the pressure? Bernal looks to have the temperament as well as the talent but whilst the team has a few proven GT riders they may as well blood him a bit. Maybe he can do what Thomas has done and sneak in under the radar. He has potentially a decade at the top ahead of him so taking in slowly makes sense to me.

The French suffer from panache, imo. They'd all rather be Poulidor than Anquetil.

RonB

orraloon

How's Esteban Chaves these days? Time and life will tell how good Bernal will be.

inseine

orraloon wrote:

How's Esteban Chaves these days? Time and life will tell how good Bernal will be.

The forum would be a lot less interesting if we always discussed how good riders were, rather than how they might be.

above_the_cows

orraloon wrote:

How's Esteban Chaves these days?

Carlos Betancur ate him.

No_Ta_Doctor

Above The Cows wrote:

orraloon wrote:

How's Esteban Chaves these days?

Carlos Betancur ate him.

What did he have for his main course?

above_the_cows

No tA Doctor wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

orraloon wrote:

How's Esteban Chaves these days?

Carlos Betancur ate him.

What did he have for his main course?

Jan Ullrich.

No_Ta_Doctor

Above The Cows wrote:

No tA Doctor wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

orraloon wrote:

How's Esteban Chaves these days?

Carlos Betancur ate him.

What did he have for his main course?

Jan Ullrich.

:shock:

Young riders with high cheekbones and nice facial structure stop posting on social media in case somebody says they look sweet. Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise rider Milan Menten gets straight down to the gym just so that nobody describes him as wafer thin Menten.

m.r.m.

SpecialGuestStar wrote:

So Egan Bernal in his first grand tour at 21 can seemingly do what he wants on the last mountain stage at the end of the third week including chasing Landa, Bardet and Zakarin down then doing domestique duties for a the Giro winner and having done all his domestique duties finishes 15th overall

How many Tours is he actually going to win ??

5

DeadCalm

Isn't Sosa (who is a year younger) supposed to be as good a prospect, if not a better one, than Bernal?

blazing_saddles

DeadCalm wrote:

Isn't Sosa (who is a year younger) supposed to be as good a prospect, if not a better one, than Bernal?

Definitely one to watch and of course, with both having been under Savio's wing, have raced much the same race programmes, albeit a year apart.
I'd say Bernal's results were slightly better up to this point, but it'll be interesting to see how he goes in L'Avenir in a few weeks, as Sosa has been on a hot streak, recently.

DeadCalm

Blazing Saddles wrote:

DeadCalm wrote:

Isn't Sosa (who is a year younger) supposed to be as good a prospect, if not a better one, than Bernal?

Definitely one to watch and of course, with both having been under Savio's wing, have raced much the same race programmes, albeit a year apart.
I'd say Bernal's results were slightly better up to this point, but it'll be interesting to see how he goes in L'Avenir in a few weeks, as Sosa has been on a hot streak, recently.

Does L'Avenir get TV coverage? Given the list of recent winners, it's obviously worth paying more attention to it than I have in the past.

blazing_saddles

DeadCalm wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

DeadCalm wrote:

Isn't Sosa (who is a year younger) supposed to be as good a prospect, if not a better one, than Bernal?

Definitely one to watch and of course, with both having been under Savio's wing, have raced much the same race programmes, albeit a year apart.
I'd say Bernal's results were slightly better up to this point, but it'll be interesting to see how he goes in L'Avenir in a few weeks, as Sosa has been on a hot streak, recently.

Does L'Avenir get TV coverage? Given the list of recent winners, it's obviously worth paying more attention to it than I have in the past.

Yes.
Eurosport had it live last year.
Bernal completely dominated the race.

No_Ta_Doctor

Jørgen Leth (the filmmaker who made "A Sunday In Hell" and who has commentated very Tour in the last few million years) thinks Bernal won't be allowed to win the Tour as he's not British. But Leth is a bit mad and getting on a bit.

DeadCalm

Blazing Saddles wrote:

DeadCalm wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

DeadCalm wrote:

Isn't Sosa (who is a year younger) supposed to be as good a prospect, if not a better one, than Bernal?

Definitely one to watch and of course, with both having been under Savio's wing, have raced much the same race programmes, albeit a year apart.
I'd say Bernal's results were slightly better up to this point, but it'll be interesting to see how he goes in L'Avenir in a few weeks, as Sosa has been on a hot streak, recently.

Does L'Avenir get TV coverage? Given the list of recent winners, it's obviously worth paying more attention to it than I have in the past.

Yes.
Eurosport had it live last year.
Bernal completely dominated the race.

Awesome. Something to look forward to. Thanks.