La Vuelta 2020 - Stage 10: Castro Urdiales > Suances - 185 km *Spoilers*

notquite6foot said:

That's 3 stage wins (out of 10 raced) for Roglič now. 10 GT stage wins in all.

There can't be many GT champions who've won more than 3 stages en-route. He could become the latest to do so if his usual third-week fade doesn't manifest.

Nibali was the last to do it with four stages at the 2014 Tour. Cunego also did four at the Giro. I don't either were considered great editions.

Pogacar and Froome have done three this century at the Tour. Also Aitor Gonzalez and Vinokourov at the Vuelta and Simoni and Basso at the Giro

Roglic is just a dull rider...

Wonder if in the end Roglic will have less GT victories than Froome, but more GT stage wins than Cavendish. 😉😂

I don't particularly like Roglic's style but feel the criticism of him is a bit unfair. Like all successful riders he uses his strongest assets to win. If race organisers are going to persist in handing out time bonuses on steep ramps at the end of less selective days he'll hoover them up as it offers the best balance of risk v reward for him. There is still a risk that he won't gain sufficient time though as the Tour showed.

That said, his win a few days ago on the longish climb was quite impressive I thought. He had a few digs, responded to counter-attacks and ultimately put in a powerful attack that no-one could hold from around 1k that he sustained to the line to open a pretty big gap.

I'm not great at remembering race details but I'm struggling to remember the last time a GT favourite won with "panache" or even tried to when they hadn't been forced into that position. You could possibly argue Bernal last year but he was arguably forced into it by JA refusing to get dropped by last climb attacks.

I'm not particularly enjoying Roglic's racing style, and as pointed out above, it's going to be reasonably successful until they stop giving seconds out for walls, but I don't hold it against him. Bloke's doing a job with the tools available to him.

I think I've come full circle on bonus seconds though, used to hate them, then thought maybe they encourage a bit more attacking instead of just rolling in together, now think that attacks come later as they exaggerate any time gaps and they should be done away with.

bobmcstuff said:

Pross said:

I don't particularly like Roglic's style but feel the criticism of him is a bit unfair. Like all successful riders he uses his strongest assets to win. If race organisers are going to persist in handing out time bonuses on steep ramps at the end of less selective days he'll hoover them up as it offers the best balance of risk v reward for him. There is still a risk that he won't gain sufficient time though as the Tour showed.

That said, his win a few days ago on the longish climb was quite impressive I thought. He had a few digs, responded to counter-attacks and ultimately put in a powerful attack that no-one could hold from around 1k that he sustained to the line to open a pretty big gap.

I'm not great at remembering race details but I'm struggling to remember the last time a GT favourite won with "panache" or even tried to when they hadn't been forced into that position. You could possibly argue Bernal last year but he was arguably forced into it by JA refusing to get dropped by last climb attacks.

I'm not criticising him personally, like you say he is trying to win the best way for him and you can't blame him for that.

I just think "the best way for him" makes him quite boring to watch...

I blame the others for just sitting there and playing into his hands (I know they are probably at their limits and when they did try to attack a few days ago they got smashed by the counter). It just feels like they are racing for the podium or the hope that Roglic will drop time to them in the TT which just isn't going to happen with this opposition.