Road Cycling
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George ends up 7th on the stage.
Caught by Bernal and Yates from the GC riders, and 5th of those in the break. Here's what TJV have to say....
Bennett seventh on mythical Monte Zoncolan in Giro d’Italia
George Bennett has finished in seventh place in the fourteenth stage of the Giro d’Italia. The champion of New Zealand was part of an early breakaway, but…
I guess he's been animating things, but maybe time to take it easy for a few days and get ready for one more big effort on stage 19 or 20.
Bernal again the strongest of the GC riders - he's got 90 seconds on Yates, who's moved up to 2nd. But, it's largely brutal from here.
A rolling stage tonight, then, mountain stage, rest day, mountain stage, flat stage, mountain stage, mountain stage. finale.
Be decided by who doesn't crack!
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I stayed up to watch it, and that's the lats time I'll spend an evening on the hope that George will end up showing anything (beyond being a good soldier) in a grand tour. He was in the right position and didn't even try to challenge for the win.
I understand that when you don't have the legs, you don't have them, but I don't see how he ever got so highly rated if, when in a position like that, he can't light up other riders, and he never even made an effort.
Anyway, I'm no more than a very casual cycling fan, so I'll be interested to hear what the more informed fans think, but all I know is it was so frustrating to watch him not even try to take advantage of his effort to get away.
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@gt12 said in Road Cycling:
when you don't have the legs, you don't have them
I think that's about the size of it.
I set my alarm and got up to watch the climb.
TBH I thought Mollema was the big danger and that Fortunato and Tratnik would blow up on the final section. I assume that's what those guys thought, as well. Reaction of Covi at the end certainly suggested it - he looked like he finished with gas in the tank, but ran out of road.
A couple of things working against George - 1) he's been heavily involved at the front of the race to date - that was his third time in a break, he had another day helping Foss, and in the first few stages he was riding with the Big Boys. Mollema has been similarly prominent. I guess the sponsors want their pound of flesh. I haven't previously noticed Fortunato, so I'm guessing he's targeted this one big effort.
- On the day, everyone in the break will be watching George to make sure he's doing his share of the work. A bit easier for someone like Fortunato to shirk a bit.
But, margins between these guys are small - there's no mugs in the race. Guys like Bernal and Yates able to light up the other GC contenders at the end (even though all of those guys have been protected all day) because they're really a class above.
George sits somewhere in the next tier - with some significant weaknesses. Not good in the cold - but, he also doesn't have much kick. He's really got to just grind people off his wheel a bit like Tratnik did. (That's harder for him, because the others will mark him more closely).
It's doable for him, but I'm living as much in hope as expectation.
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@crucial That's possible too, because there's going to be plenty of people ahead of him crack - so if he went back to focusing on the GC then scraping a top 10 is probably within reach.
But, I sort of hope not - I'd rather see a stage win (or a fight for one).
I guess some of the equation will be what happens with Foss - he slipped a couple of places last night and he's not ideally suited to the big mountains.
I see Groenewegen pulled the pin before last night's stage, so the whole team has a fair bit of freedom.
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@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
@crucial That's possible too, because there's going to be plenty of people ahead of him crack - so if he went back to focusing on the GC then scraping a top 10 is probably within reach.
But, I sort of hope not - I'd rather see a stage win (or a fight for one).
I guess some of the equation will be what happens with Foss - he slipped a couple of places last night and he's not ideally suited to the big mountains.
I see Groenewegen pulled the pin before last night's stage, so the whole team has a fair bit of freedom.
You have to admit that aside from the early problems George was never given the team to help with a high placing or stage win.
Compare what he had to do last night with help from one team mate to the bottom of the climb alongside Bernal. Freak that Bernal is, he also also provided every chance to show his abilities. He had no work to do at all yesterday until he used the saved energy on the climb.
George is never going to blast away. He’s not explosive enough. But on a long climb he could make a riders around him crack as long as he is fresh going into it -
@crucial They certainly haven't given George a team to dictate like Bernal.
The commentators said early on that TJV had allocated three support riders each to George and Groenewegen. I haven't quite worked out who George's third man is/was - I guess Van Emden (along with Bouwman and Foss).
Foss has been a pleasant surprise and would have been handy in support if George had remained in contention. I guess the plan would be similar to Bora - who have resources split between Buchmann and Sagan. Hang in behind the Ineos train and hope Bernal cracks.
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George picked up a couple of spots without doing anything last night. Withdrawals helping him.
Two majorly nasty stages to come yet so there's still hope for a top 10.
Tonights 5 star
We have been giving George a hard time for lost opportunities but he is doing fairly well overall sitting 3 minutes ahead of the likes of Nibali.
Mollema seems to have found his legs late in the tour. A couple of good showings have hom eating back the once 40 minute deficit. Too little too late but will it will be interesting to watch how far the top ten let him catch up before shutting him down. -
@crucial Fuck look at the scale of those climbs - the first one to warm up is a gentle 1000 metres!
My dark horse, Buchmann one of the guys who crashed out.
Mollema in the break AGAIN last night? A tiger for punishment! He's giving the sponsors some value.
On that point - breakaway specialist Thomas de Gendt briefly had a crack a couple of nights ago. I didn't realise he was even riding until that point. Amazingly invisible for Thomas!
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@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
@crucial Fuck look at the scale of those climbs - the first one to warm up is a gentle 1000 metres!
My dark horse, Buchmann one of the guys who crashed out.
Mollema in the break AGAIN last night? A tiger for punishment! He's giving the sponsors some value.
On that point - breakaway specialist Thomas de Gendt briefly had a crack a couple of nights ago. I didn't realise he was even riding until that point. Amazingly invisible for Thomas!
I'm kind of hoping that the succession of climbs there will see a few more GC riders fall back down the list.
There's a rest day after that but the following day has a couple of Cat1 kickers right at the end. Then there is a flat stage followed by two days of nasty climbs.
Hard to tell who in the top 10 has already ridden their race and may crack but we might get an indication tomorrow. No one will want to let a big gap open on the first climb and some will be feeling the effects of that by the second one. -
@crucial Caruso is the most surprising to me to be in the top five - so I've got him as a favourite to crack among the leaders - at some point. Ciccone a bit similar, a bit further down.
George's teammate Foss is riding way above he would have expected to - so that might help or hinder George 's GC position, depending on what roles he has to take on. I don't expect Foss to survive all the mountain stages.
Evenepoel has massive expectations heaped on him - but, he's riding his first grand tour. I think he has more lessons to come.
If they ride to improve their GC then George and Dan Martin should move up - Valter, Almeida and Schultx move down. The latter two will be riding for Remco (probably) and Yates.
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Giro d'Italia: Bennett rides Zoncolan for second time to thank teammate Affini
New Zealander snapped accompanying domestique having already ridden back down climb after stage 14
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@crucial That's pretty cool.
Reminds me - a few years ago I biked the Rainbow Rage - St Arnaud to Hanmer.
I was a bit knackered riding up the last hill into Hanmer, when I met Nathan Fa'avae who had evidently turned around and was on his way back.
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Well we called it. Even on a stage shortened by two climbs due to weather Remco has blown up big time and lost 25 minutes.
Didn’t see who the other tabled rider was that lost a big chunk of time but George is up another two spots from the attrition despite losing two minutes himself.EDIT: Nick Schultz was the other rider previously ahead of George that lost enough time to drop below him. Pleanty of shuffling in the order though. Valter is now within Georges sights having dropped from 11 to 13. Dan Martin also sliding.
My call on Mollema was way off though. Looks like he used himself up in those couple of stages and dropped nearly half an hour last night. -
@crucial Bouwman was in the break for TJV last night, which presumably means George was assigned to look after Foss.
Giro d'Italia: Egan Bernal wins stage 16
Colombian extends his lead, Caruso climbs GC as Yates loses ground
Reading this report, it seems Foss wasn't among the lead group as they started riding the Giau (the final climb), but remained close enough to catch Yates near the end - which suggests George probably did some pretty handy work for him on the climb and then sat up. I'm guessing that won't be on TV, because pictures were pretty limited in the bit I saw.
I think everyone from Dan Martin down will be more interested in stage wins than protecting their GC position (or helping higher placed teammates).
TJV pretty clearly assigning one of George or Bouwman to help Foss on any given day - and giving the other a license to try to win the stage - though that might change if Foss rises any higher.
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@scribe said in Road Cycling:
@crucial I actually thought George looked relatively strong today. He dragged Foss up a couple of times to the GC group on the last climb and then paced him to the finish line when Yates and Almeida took off and dropped everyone.
Those early mistakes have really come to haunt him. Would be easily in the top 10.
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@crucial said in Road Cycling:
Well that was an exciting last 15 minutes up that climb. Some shuffling of places and a blip from Bernal.
George hung in there and has picked up a couple of spots.Quite a few guys showing significant weakness on that stage. With two more mountain stages to come, if George hangs tough there should be at least a couple who blow up and let him into the top 10. Winning a stage would help that as well, George!
I think I read at the start that Yates was targeting being strong in the third week. If I were Bernal, I think he would worry me more than Caruso. George also said something about the third week at the start, which maybe bodes well for finishing strongly.
