Tirreno - Adriatico 2021 ***Spoilers***

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Comments

  • yorkshireraw
    yorkshireraw Posts: 1,632

    Do you think JA would be a better mountain domestique than WvA if needed?

    Don't think his pacing / patience (lack of) would suit it. Plus WvA is a bigger unit to sit behind.
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 22,025

    Do you think JA would be a better mountain domestique than WvA if needed?

    I really wish neither of them were used in such a way.
  • blazing_saddles
    blazing_saddles Posts: 22,730
    MvDP is bored so attacking 100 kms from the finish.
    Caleb Ewan about to abandon
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • blazing_saddles
    blazing_saddles Posts: 22,730
    Ewan has called it a day and Pinot might as well.
    One of a small group dropped
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • kingstongraham
    kingstongraham Posts: 28,227
    5 minutes gap, 50km to go.

    They'll get this back with two teams pulling.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,660

    MvDP is bored so attacking 100 kms from the finish.
    Caleb Ewan about to abandon

    Training in a WT stage race so baller
  • kingstongraham
    kingstongraham Posts: 28,227
    MvdP from WvA.

    Alaphillippe trying to set up Stybar
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,717
    edited March 2021
    Absolutely beautiful from JA to just let Stybar go. Shame it didn't work... 😏

    Slightly weird from WvA. Not sure why he needed to chase Stybar. Unless he thought he could get a gap...?!?
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • kingstongraham
    kingstongraham Posts: 28,227
    Ballerini 3rd
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,717
    Higuita's all yellow (shoulders at least) yellow jersey is confusing when you've switched from ASO races...
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,593
    ddraver said:

    Higuita's all yellow (shoulders at least) yellow jersey is confusing when you've switched from ASO races...

    Yeah, I kept thinking it was WVA too.

    Bizarre by JA, I assume he just didn't have it rather than deliberately trying to tee it up for Stybar. It would have been good for the latter if it had been a bit closer to the line but was never going to work that far out with the firepower behind.
  • kingstongraham
    kingstongraham Posts: 28,227
    edited March 2021
    Pross said:

    ddraver said:

    Higuita's all yellow (shoulders at least) yellow jersey is confusing when you've switched from ASO races...

    Yeah, I kept thinking it was WVA too.

    Bizarre by JA, I assume he just didn't have it rather than deliberately trying to tee it up for Stybar. It would have been good for the latter if it had been a bit closer to the line but was never going to work that far out with the firepower behind.
    He stopped trying to hold his wheel - looked very deliberate. Would only have taken a bit of hesitation and it would have worked. van Aert going so quickly meant it didn't work, but also meant he wasn't going to win.

    Pretty sure JA would not win an outright sprint against van Aert and van de Poel, so was a cheeky idea.
  • blazing_saddles
    blazing_saddles Posts: 22,730
    edited March 2021
    Ineos copped a packet with all of them caught out behind the crash.
    Happened at 3.4kms left
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • kingstongraham
    kingstongraham Posts: 28,227

    Ineos copped a packet with all of them caught out behind the crash.
    Happened at 3.4kms left

    Bernal, Thomas, Sivakov losing 18 - 20 seconds. That's not a bad result considering.
  • blazing_saddles
    blazing_saddles Posts: 22,730

    Ineos copped a packet with all of them caught out behind the crash.
    Happened at 3.4kms left

    Bernal, Thomas, Sivakov losing 18 - 20 seconds. That's not a bad result considering.
    Well perhaps not, but hardly ideal and they didn't appear to actually crash.
    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • kingstongraham
    kingstongraham Posts: 28,227

    Ineos copped a packet with all of them caught out behind the crash.
    Happened at 3.4kms left

    Bernal, Thomas, Sivakov losing 18 - 20 seconds. That's not a bad result considering.
    Well perhaps not, but hardly ideal and they didn't appear to actually crash.
    Yes, a mistake to be so far back, but once they'd been caught out, not too bad. 20 seconds feels a lot to get back on Pogacar.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,593

    Ineos copped a packet with all of them caught out behind the crash.
    Happened at 3.4kms left

    Bernal, Thomas, Sivakov losing 18 - 20 seconds. That's not a bad result considering.
    Well perhaps not, but hardly ideal and they didn't appear to actually crash.
    Yes, a mistake to be so far back, but once they'd been caught out, not too bad. 20 seconds feels a lot to get back on Pogacar.
    Crash was near the front though I thought. Bernal looked a long way back but it seemed to be more a case that riders on the left of the peloton were affected worse than others.
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,575

    Ineos copped a packet with all of them caught out behind the crash.
    Happened at 3.4kms left

    Bernal, Thomas, Sivakov losing 18 - 20 seconds. That's not a bad result considering.
    Well perhaps not, but hardly ideal and they didn't appear to actually crash.
    Yes, a mistake to be so far back, but once they'd been caught out, not too bad. 20 seconds feels a lot to get back on Pogacar.
    As @Pross says, the crash was right at the front. Asgreen went down in it, and he had been second wheel just before. It was bad luck, rather than bad positioning.
  • kingstongraham
    kingstongraham Posts: 28,227
    Fair dos, just bad luck. They done well to only lose those seconds with the speed of the front group.
  • blazing_saddles
    blazing_saddles Posts: 22,730
    Tomorrow we have what may, or may not be the Queen stage, but for sure it's the stage where the pure climbers come out to play. (+WvA and/or Alaphilippe?)


    "Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.
  • kingstongraham
    kingstongraham Posts: 28,227
    Ineos and uae have teams to make that climb hard - it's fascinating to see how good van Aert is up 14km of climb when he doesn't have to do all the work.
  • gsk82
    gsk82 Posts: 3,620

    Ineos and uae have teams to make that climb hard - it's fascinating to see how good van Aert is up 14km of climb when he doesn't have to do all the work.

    Hopefully he won't be allowed to ride at his own pace up it
    "Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago
  • DeadCalm
    DeadCalm Posts: 4,249

    Tomorrow we have what may, or may not be the Queen stage, but for sure it's the stage where the pure climbers come out to play. (+WvA and/or Alaphilippe?)


    Really looking forward to this stage. Going to be watching it at my local bar with some cycling friends. It's a recipe for a snooze fest.
  • TheBigBean
    TheBigBean Posts: 22,025
    DeadCalm said:

    Tomorrow we have what may, or may not be the Queen stage, but for sure it's the stage where the pure climbers come out to play. (+WvA and/or Alaphilippe?)


    Really looking forward to this stage. Going to be watching it at my local bar with some cycling friends. It's a recipe for a snooze fest.
    To most posters on here, your plan is the thing of wild dreams at the moment.
  • tailwindhome
    tailwindhome Posts: 19,459

    Pross said:

    ddraver said:

    Higuita's all yellow (shoulders at least) yellow jersey is confusing when you've switched from ASO races...

    Yeah, I kept thinking it was WVA too.

    Bizarre by JA, I assume he just didn't have it rather than deliberately trying to tee it up for Stybar. It would have been good for the latter if it had been a bit closer to the line but was never going to work that far out with the firepower behind.
    He stopped trying to hold his wheel - looked very deliberate. Would only have taken a bit of hesitation and it would have worked. van Aert going so quickly meant it didn't work, but also meant he wasn't going to win.

    Pretty sure JA would not win an outright sprint against van Aert and van de Poel, so was a cheeky idea.
    Would he not have been better staying on the wheel and not leaving Ballerini so much to do?


    “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!
  • DeadCalm
    DeadCalm Posts: 4,249

    DeadCalm said:

    Tomorrow we have what may, or may not be the Queen stage, but for sure it's the stage where the pure climbers come out to play. (+WvA and/or Alaphilippe?)


    Really looking forward to this stage. Going to be watching it at my local bar with some cycling friends. It's a recipe for a snooze fest.
    To most posters on here, your plan is the thing of wild dreams at the moment.
    Ah, sorry. Didn't mean to rub it in.
  • ddraver
    ddraver Posts: 26,717
    Kinda hoping Gee takes DB at his word on ' the new style of Grenadiers racing' and YOLO's the last climb to disrupt the Big 3...
    We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
    - @ddraver
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,575
    edited March 2021
    I think Sivakov will be the sacrificial Ineos lamb today, Thomas is a better TT rider than Bernal so will try and sit tight with the likes of Pogacar et al. If Sivakov gets brought back then Bernal goes.

    If they want to win the overall then they've got to make up time on the group sat 20 seconds back on GC, so making it hard and open has to be the tactic.
  • m.r.m.
    m.r.m. Posts: 3,486
    edited March 2021

    Pross said:

    ddraver said:

    Higuita's all yellow (shoulders at least) yellow jersey is confusing when you've switched from ASO races...

    Yeah, I kept thinking it was WVA too.

    Bizarre by JA, I assume he just didn't have it rather than deliberately trying to tee it up for Stybar. It would have been good for the latter if it had been a bit closer to the line but was never going to work that far out with the firepower behind.
    He stopped trying to hold his wheel - looked very deliberate. Would only have taken a bit of hesitation and it would have worked. van Aert going so quickly meant it didn't work, but also meant he wasn't going to win.

    Pretty sure JA would not win an outright sprint against van Aert and van de Poel, so was a cheeky idea.
    Would he not have been better staying on the wheel and not leaving Ballerini so much to do?


    Comes down to whether you think Ballerini will always beat WVA & MvdP in a sprint. Since that isn't guaranteed it's worth being creative. WVA closed the gap and still came second. MvdP won comfortably.
    Ballerini should have been on MvdP's wheel when WVA closed to Stybar. That is his responsibility. He could have maintained his winning opportunity.
    PTP Champion 2019, 2022 & 2023
  • phreak
    phreak Posts: 2,953
    Crikey, Kirby just doesn't shut up.