mse326 Posted July 18, 2019 Share Posted July 18, 2019 On another note how disappointing has Porte's Tours been these last 3 years. I know crashes are bad luck sometimes but still. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempus Posted July 18, 2019 Author Share Posted July 18, 2019 9 hours ago, mse326 said: On another note how disappointing has Porte's Tours been these last 3 years. I know crashes are bad luck sometimes but still. He just isn't good enough. Great support rider, but not a lead GT man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempus Posted July 20, 2019 Author Share Posted July 20, 2019 What on earth is Alaphilippe doing? How has he pulled off that TT run haha. Todays stage is going to test if he is a legitimate contender to win or not. I think Ineos allow Bernal to attack on the Tourmalet, he lost time and they have to use the two pronged attack to their advantage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Bad Example Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 (edited) 14 hours ago, kempus said: What on earth is Alaphilippe doing? How has he pulled off that TT run haha. Todays stage is going to test if he is a legitimate contender to win or not. One of the podcasts I listen to are referring to it as a "Tommy Voeckler run," where an unlikely rider gets the yellow and manages to hold onto it in even unlikelier circumstances. Although they never fail to point out that they feel Alaphillipe is a FAR superior rider to Voeckler - which is probably true, but Voeckler was always one of my favourites. Edited July 20, 2019 by Mr Bad Example Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempus Posted July 20, 2019 Author Share Posted July 20, 2019 After watching that stage, I'm beginning to question the legitimacy of Alaphilippes TDF. Beats a collection of the best TTers in the world then finishes 2nd vs rhe worlds best climbers the next day. He's never shown a great ability at either, but now is dominating both. Suspicious. Anyway, great ride for Pinot. If Alaphilippe comes back to earth (or stops taking whatever he is), then he is possibly the favourite in my eyes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mse326 Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 26 minutes ago, kempus said: After watching that stage, I'm beginning to question the legitimacy of Alaphilippes TDF. Beats a collection of the best TTers in the world then finishes 2nd vs rhe worlds best climbers the next day. He's never shown a great ability at either, but now is dominating both. Suspicious. Anyway, great ride for Pinot. If Alaphilippe comes back to earth (or stops taking whatever he is), then he is possibly the favourite in my eyes. At this point I think adrenaline is kicking in more than usual for him as he sees the possibility. His tactics today were spot on, just stay on Thomas's wheel unless/until he struggled. Beating the rest of those in the pack (which was admittedly small) was more a function of his being the best sprinter in the group. The TT shocked me more than this stage did. But even that a lot of the top guys aren't actually here this year and it was a shorter than normal course. He's also just entering the prime of his career turning 27 a month ago. EDIT: Also just checked. Certainly isn't the best, but did win the TT stage at Paris-Nice in 2016 and was only a few seconds behind Geraint Thomas in a TT stage in that years TDF (although they were both 2+ minutes of the lead). I wonder how much of his TT success, or lack thereof, in the GT is about him holding back to go for stages he is more likely to win. That is, he isn't the best, but not quite as bad as his results suggest either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TedLavie Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 5 hours ago, kempus said: After watching that stage, I'm beginning to question the legitimacy of Alaphilippes TDF. Beats a collection of the best TTers in the world then finishes 2nd vs rhe worlds best climbers the next day. He's never shown a great ability at either, but now is dominating both. Suspicious. Anyway, great ride for Pinot. If Alaphilippe comes back to earth (or stops taking whatever he is), then he is possibly the favourite in my eyes. I agree. I've doubted the performance of Sky riders (Wiggins, Thomas and Froome) for those very reasons, I have to wonder the same things about Alaf. The TT didn't shock me. It was an up and down TT, where he's had some success before (he won one last year in Paris-Nice if I'm right). And he's obviously in great shape. The Tourmalet though ... We've had in recent memories 4 instances of a surprise yellow jersey doing much better than planned. Peireiro in 06, Rasmussen in 07 and Voeckler in 11. We all know how the Rasmussen thing turned out, but what Alaf is doing isn't unprecedented either. I think it will end up like Voeckler, where he finishes maybe 4th or 5th after falling down a bit in the Alps. We'll see. How devastating is that stage 10 for Pinot... Without those 100 seconds he lost then, he'd be 2nd and the overwhelming favourite to win the Tour. He looks like the strongest rider on the Tour, which was what I guessed before. Hopefully he avoids his classic meltdown on one stage where he loses 3 minutes on everyone. I wish he would have attacked earlier to gain more time on Thomas, as he still needs another minute on him, which will be hard to get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kempus Posted July 21, 2019 Author Share Posted July 21, 2019 I've seen a few mentions of the 'Voeckler effect'. To an extent, I agree. However, Tommy V always cracked in the high mountains and never dominated a TT like that. Ala has just ridden off the best climbers in the world (with the exception of Froom, Dumoulin and Roglic), making it look easy and with no teammates to boot. If he drops at some point then fair play, he's just had the ride of his life. If he sustains it then there's no way it's legitimate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TedLavie Posted July 21, 2019 Share Posted July 21, 2019 8 hours ago, kempus said: I've seen a few mentions of the 'Voeckler effect'. To an extent, I agree. However, Tommy V always cracked in the high mountains and never dominated a TT like that. Ala has just ridden off the best climbers in the world (with the exception of Froom, Dumoulin and Roglic), making it look easy and with no teammates to boot. If he drops at some point then fair play, he's just had the ride of his life. If he sustains it then there's no way it's legitimate. Voeckler didn't really have a TT middle of the tour so it's hard to judge. But Alaf is a far better TT than Voeckler ever was to be fair. And if I remember well, Voeckler went toe to toe with everyone in the Pyrenées. It's in the Alps that he cracked, and only because Andy Schleck and Contador attacked from 100km away on two separate stages (what a Tour the 2011 edition was btw). Also, it's fait to consider that the 2011 edition has Contador, Andy and Frank Schleck, Cunego, Basso and Evans, all GT winners (aside from F.Schleck maybe). This year, aside from Thomas, the best riders are Bernal, Pinot, Steven K, Buchmann ... Not exactly the most proven or experienced GT riders Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mse326 Posted July 21, 2019 Share Posted July 21, 2019 Todays stage was great. S. Yates, Landa and Pinot had really inspired races. And Thomas and Ala both looked gassed and dropped but dug deep to only lose a relatively minimal amount of time to what it looked like they might with a few kms left. Alaphilippe is for sure thanking the stars that tomorrow is a rest day, he looked about as bad after the finish as I've ever seen anyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyDez Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 Riders push themselves to the absolute limits. Coming up to big races they’ll have gotten their body fat percentage well down to single digits. Riders are gaunt-looking and can become sick very, very quickly. The air conditioning in a hotel will do it, a window left open at night or germs picked up from anywhere will break the body down. And you’ll go from being super-fit to barely able to turn the pedals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyDez Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 The glamour life of pro athletes. 😂 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mse326 Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 The stage isn't over yet but I think the yellow jersey challengers had terrible strategy today. The climbs are where to get away or at least hurt Alaphilippe. By not attacking they not only let him stay with them relatively easy it also sets him to take time out of them on the decent to the end where he is probably the best in the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TedLavie Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 1 hour ago, mse326 said: The stage isn't over yet but I think the yellow jersey challengers had terrible strategy today. The climbs are where to get away or at least hurt Alaphilippe. By not attacking they not only let him stay with them relatively easy it also sets him to take time out of them on the decent to the end where he is probably the best in the world. Pinot wasn't in great day. Steven K is the worst of the top 5 riders I believe. Buchmann may be happy to be here already. I think the two strongest riders were Bernal and Thomas. Bernal attacked and Thomas tried but he ended up allowing Pinot & co to gain time on Bernal so he stopped. But yeah so far so good for Alaf. Tomorrow last climb isn't hard, it's very conceivable that Alaf holds on if nobody attacks the Izeran. That would need only Val Thorens. With the cap so close between all the contenders, I don't know who will risk it all to take the yellow aside from Ineos. Buchmann and Steven K are trying to get their first GT podium, and Pinot his second. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mse326 Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 4 hours ago, TedLavie said: Bernal attacked and Thomas tried but he ended up allowing Pinot & co to gain time on Bernal so he stopped. Yeah there was some attacking after a made my comment but I still think they left it a bit too late. And tomorrows stage doesn't seem like a good one to try to make a move, it's kind of short. It seems like they are really putting all their eggs in Saturday's stage and I just think that is super dangerous. Thomas and Bernal are certainly stronger climbers than Alaphilippe, but you tell a guy he has one stage (and probably 1+ minute lead) to win the TDF and the adrenaline plus never say die guts that he has will be tough. He'll race every single ounce of energy out of his body to hold on to it if he has to. I think they should have made more of a move today to either take the lead now, bring it closer, or at least hurt him more to set up Saturday. Ultimately they just made him ride a bit harder on the decent and for him that is nothing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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