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Itzulia Basque Country

Yeah... great race. None of those pesky sprints to bother about...  

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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24 comments

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Condor Andy | 2 years ago
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Today is one of those days I just hope the scoring is accurate. Let me know if you spot anything wayward.

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Dr Winston replied to Condor Andy | 2 years ago
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The whole tour was "one of those days". Fantastic. 
Back to my earlier comments about Evenepoel. He only lost by 21 seconds in the end... had he fought for bonus seconds instead of playing super domestique he could have won it... food for thought for him. 
Any news on Yates?... what happened to him... I've seen the DNF, but why?
 

 

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11waterloo replied to Dr Winston | 2 years ago
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Fantastic racing again but you also have to question Formolo's tactics. If he'd just gone over the penultimate climb first he would have won the mountains jersey. As it was, the front group (of which he was the only non GC rider) just rolled through  leaving him 2 points shy. Nobody would have batted an eyelid if he had gone to the front to get the 3 points on offer. As it was he then tried a last hurrah up the final climb and blew up completely. In a final insult he wasn't even awarded the Combativity prize for the day! 

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Condor Andy replied to 11waterloo | 2 years ago
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Made this exact comment on Reddit, baffling decision. My only thought is that the car told him the stage win was more important or their maths was off. In any case, the stage win from a GC group was alsmot impossible for him. Someone in the UAE car dropped the ball in my opinion.

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Dr Winston replied to Condor Andy | 2 years ago
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Is that R/Peleton?.... I go on there occasionally. Good site. I like reading the comments during the races, but some of the comments can be a bit naive sometimes. 

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Condor Andy replied to Dr Winston | 2 years ago
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To be expected on a forum of that size.

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Dr Winston replied to Condor Andy | 2 years ago
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Does it have a lot of members?... I've never looked... in fact I wouldn't know how to.
Do you go on any other social media sites of a similar ilk? 

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Condor Andy replied to Dr Winston | 2 years ago
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r/peloton has nearly 90,000 members, but engagement is often lower in the off season and spikes massively for the Tour de France. I found it in 2015 when I was looking for race information and trackers because some sites were woefully inadequate for that kind of thing. I've become much better at finding results and race websites, but some still have crap information. Pro-cycling media is a bit of a mess in my opinion. So many resources spread all over the place and none of them are perfect. I get most of my updates through Twitter, Reddit, or Discord forums.

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11waterloo replied to Dr Winston | 2 years ago
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Regarding the Yates DNF, I think by the time the race was on the final climb, a lot of riders with nothing further to compete for decided to hop into the team busses in Eibar rather than go up the final climb! 

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Dr Winston replied to 11waterloo | 2 years ago
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Ah... right... coward. I had Mas and Yates... but then again I think a lot would have had that combo. It was a shame because it could have been a 300pt stage for a lot of folk.... 

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11waterloo replied to Dr Winston | 2 years ago
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That's the second time Mas has crashed out on me this season (Tirreno-Adriatico was previous one) -  at  least he doesn't seem too badly hurt this time. I badly underestimated Evenepoel & took him out for last two days. 

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Dr Winston replied to 11waterloo | 2 years ago
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He did well for certain. He won't face many harder climbs this season. The very highest climbs in the grand tours might still be an issue though... but if the % gradient is less, but longer, he may surprise us again. 

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stevemarks | 2 years ago
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Oh dear! When you have the choice of taking out Latour or Martinez to facilitate your transfer......

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Dr Winston | 2 years ago
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Anybody know what happened to Geraint Thomas yesterday? The last I saw he was doing a fantastic ride for Yates and Martinez at the front of the peleton and then ended up finishing seven minutes behind. Did he have a problem?

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Condor Andy replied to Dr Winston | 2 years ago
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Did his turn and clocked out for the day. Job done.

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Dr Winston replied to Condor Andy | 2 years ago
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Good. Can't argue with a plan.... he did a great ride. 

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Dr Winston | 2 years ago
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Seems to have been quite a while since we've seen a full on Alaphilippe.. good to have him back in full flow.

Having said that. I don't understand Evenepoel's race plan. He can give anybody a run for the line, absolutely anybody, and bag a 10 second bonus on stages like these last two... but he's played domestique for Ala whilst he himself is only five seconds behind Roglic. Any thoughts?

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11waterloo replied to Dr Winston | 2 years ago
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My feeling is that Evenepoel is trying to shed some of the 'selfish' reputation he has  built up. He probably can't win overall so is better served being a super domestique in this race and storing up some brownie points within the team. He's got a harder job re-building trust with his national team though after the Worlds! 

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Dr Winston replied to 11waterloo | 2 years ago
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Yeah... maybe.... It is more like they're doing one day races where QST have struggled this year, maybe it's partly to do with sorting that out for later on in the season...it is after all their bread and butter racing as a team. 

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jollygoodvelo | 2 years ago
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Lack of live coverage (unless I'm missing something) always makes it harder - can't see how people are going from a results list.  Should be some good fun later in the week though!

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Condor Andy replied to jollygoodvelo | 2 years ago
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It's on Eurosport and GCN, at least it is in the UK.

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Dr Winston replied to jollygoodvelo | 2 years ago
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Where are you based?

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Condor Andy | 2 years ago
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Going to be so hard to call these stages. Might keep it safe with the GC types and a few outside bets for good stage results.

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Dr Winston replied to Condor Andy | 2 years ago
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Roglic has a habit of turning stages like these into GC battles...it's damned near becoming his trademark. 

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