Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 09/01/2019 04:25 PM |
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Good lord....Movistar is a warm bag of vomit. Yeah, it worked out OK today, but they clearly are not a harmonious team.
1) Up until 4K to go, I was thinking regardless of everything else, Quintana and Valverde were riding well together.. classic attack / counter racing.
2) They sent back the one teammate from th break, but rather than just ride tempo to bring back Lopez, Quintana and Valverde are just attacking the group. Dumb....
3) They should have sent Soler back much earlier....and he should never have attacked for the stage. But once he did, I think you gotta roll with it. Never should have been in that situation, but he was so make the best of it.
4) No idea what Valverde was doing chasing...zero.
5) The riders are clearly not fans of Quintana...Soler's actions and Valverde countering once he was clear made their feelings pretty evident.
What a dumpster fire.... |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 09/02/2019 10:35 AM |
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I disagree CK.
2. They needed to attack Roglic not just bring Lopez back. You're not going to get Roglic in trouble riding temp.
3. Agreed but hindsight is 20 20. If Soler has more gas left it would have been great timing.
4. See 2. Valverde tried to distance Roglic. They need a 2 prong approach to beat him. Valverde stopped working as soon as Roglic came back. No issue here.
5. Valverde and Quintana seem to work well together last couple stages and are pretty much using same song book vis as vis Roglic. Can't speak for Soler it may just have been disappointment of being called back. But he never have won that stage anyway. |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 09/02/2019 10:55 AM |
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Poorer tactics than Movistar yesterday:
1. Astana. Once again a long range attack from Lopez fizzles to nothing. When will they learn? Kid is not going to podium this way.
2. JV dropping Gesink and Powless back only to have them go out back right away leaving Roglic to do much of clawback himself. Kuss came back too late. |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 09/02/2019 01:00 PM |
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Roglic crash. That gravel section looked real nasty.
https://twitter.com/Packdeltoro/status/1168435634127720448?s=19 |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 09/02/2019 03:04 PM |
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Posted By Orange Crush on 09/02/2019 10:55 AM
Poorer tactics than Movistar yesterday:
1. Astana. Once again a long range attack from Lopez fizzles to nothing. When will they learn? Kid is not going to podium this way.
2. JV dropping Gesink and Powless back only to have them go out back right away leaving Roglic to do much of clawback himself. Kuss came back too late.
Hmmmm...I actually thought Astana’s team tactics were spot on....Izigarre and then Fuglsang dropped back at the right moments and helped set up Lopez. However, as you note, Lopez’s individual tactics were pretty poor. 20k attacks in this day and age rarely turn out well.
I would have liked to have seen if Lopez could have held it had he not crashed. |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 09/02/2019 03:06 PM |
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Posted By Orange Crush on 09/02/2019 01:00 PM
Roglic crash. That gravel section looked real nasty.
https://twitter.com/Packdeltoro/status/1168435634127720448?s=19
So bummed the signal / feed wS lost for that section....also too bad that a storm of that magnitude hit at the exact moment they were gonna enter the gravel. |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 09/03/2019 10:52 AM |
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Quintana failed once again when the pressure was on....no one expected him to win, but losing over 3' in less than 40K ain't good. He used to be OK against the clock....never great but could minimize the damage. Not today.
Roglic in the driver's seat (obviously)....HUGE time gains against the other favorites. Lopez is probably the biggest threat now.... |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 09/03/2019 11:41 AM |
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| Roglic' to lose for sure. But week 3 has Valverde written all over it, not Lopez. Predominantly rolling terrain with short pitchy climbs. That said, Roglic showed his mettle on this type of terrain in spring. The only opportunity to displace Roglic may be a not so hard but technical ambush stage. |
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Dale
Posts:1767
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| 09/03/2019 03:16 PM |
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Quintana and Schleck are cut of the same cloth-- they seem to expect everyone to pace them to the front on a steep climb then shoot ahead to take the win while thanking their lucky stars the day ends on a +15% not a -15% grade.
Neither are (were) aggressive other than on those very predictable stages and then only in the last couple of k's.
Boring racers who fail(ed) to live up to the hype.
The only thing they do well is flap their right elbows in an attempt to get someone to relieve them of the awful duty of being at the front for more than 15 seconds.
Valverde must be licking his chops right now.
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 09/05/2019 05:33 PM |
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| That was a damn good stage today.... |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 09/06/2019 03:00 PM |
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Another day where Astana put in a lot of work only for Lopez to cede a minute.
Brutal climb. Both Valverde and Quitana are solid top 4 but lack the extra bit to challenge for win.
Roglic should have this. Pogacar will likely pip Valverde for 2nd spot. Step 3 could still be Valverde, Quintana or Lopez. |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 09/06/2019 04:25 PM |
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| Yup....race for the top is over. Only question is how far up Pogacar goes up and who gets reshuffled below him. |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 09/08/2019 05:49 PM |
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| Big stage win for Sep Kuss....compare and contrast how Jumbo worked on today’s stage vs Movistar last week w/ Soler. Once Kuss was given his head, he was left to go for the stage win. |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 09/08/2019 06:05 PM |
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I'll note that Movistar also did far better and there was no misunderstanding Soler was there to work today.
Major kudos for Kuss on the hand ups in final km. Well done. As to his prospects while he's clearly talented it needs to be seen in context of massive talent pool that's coming to fore so I don't think he'll be a future GT winner. |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 09/08/2019 09:38 PM |
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| Were people talking about him as a GT contender? That seems like a pretty big stretch...he is an above-average climber. That doesn’t make him a GT contender.... |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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