#76
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One other thing about van der Poel is that he has a lot of power, but he doesn't tend to do well in fast sprints. At low speed, such as a slight uphill or the start of a cyclocross race, he's probably got the best Sprint in the world. At higher speeds, despite his power, he doesn't seem to be able to keep up. This is in contrast to a rider like Mark Cavendish, who has notoriously low power for a sprinter, but through aerodynamics, positioning, and good cadence, he tends to do better the faster the Sprint is. So it's possible van der Poel thought that Girmay would beat him in a Sprint no matter what--after all, Girmay has finished in front of him on every Sprint except the uphill stage 1. So maybe he thought his best chance was to go early. It didn't work, and the final Sprint was close enough that it might have gone the other way, but it wasn't necessarily a poor decision.
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Instagram - DannAdore Bicycles |
#77
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#78
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Looking at MVDP’s Strava ride profile for today’s stage he wrote “No power after bikechange” (sic) and then the shrugging emoji. Don’t know what that means — did he have a mechanical and need to change bikes at some point? Backup bike have different gearing? No idea.
His peak power was 1,083 watts, maybe a little low for a guy who has thrown down 1,500+ watts at the end of one-day races before. But I think this may also be the furthest he’s ever gone into a grand tour, and he had that earlier effort noted above. Even MVDP must get tired. ETA: after Sunday’s stage he wrote that he would “fix the power” on his rest day. I’m guessing that he’s having an issue with the power meter on the bike he’s riding (not that he can’t generate power). And the peak power figure above, which seems low for someone like him, is just the Strava estimate and not accurate. Regardless, I’m really excited to see Girmay take such a standout stage win, head to head like that against one of the best. Last edited by Xrslug; 05-17-2022 at 12:43 PM. |
#79
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#80
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Yeah, I think you’re right — I was adding to my comment above when you responded. Those must be Strava guesstimate power numbers.
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#81
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#82
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In my opinion it was one of two cards that the team had to play. Alpecin-Fenix did a great job protecting him the entire stage. When the race came down to the last 10k he was exactly where he needed to be. One option was to try to get a gap and make it stick. If anyone could do something like that given the course profile it is MvDP. If that didn't work (it didn't) he would have to sprint for it. He beat Girmay in stage one but I bet he realized how strong he was and questioned his ability to beat him in a sprint a second time. We now know how that played out.
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#83
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Fair point. lol
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#84
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That was an amazing finale. They raced it like a one day classic, so intense! Hope Bini is ok.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk |
#85
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This photo is awesome!!!!
Gives me chills |
#86
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I can’t even fathom putting out 1100w+ at 154lbs for 20s after 3-4hrs of racing, after 1 week+ of a grand tour. What a talent!
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#87
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Great ride and lead out by Pozzovivo.
Bravo for Girmay. |
#88
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Well this totally sucks:
https://cyclingtips.com/2022/05/bini...to-eye-injury/ How heartbreaking for him to go out because of such a silly thing. I'm sure he's devastated and his team must be as well. And selfishly, he's on my Velogames team so that's three riders I've lost. VG aside, I was really hoping to see Bini finish the Giro and shake things up wherever he could. dammit! |
#89
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#90
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