Again, this is the wrong impression. Let’s take a look at that killer performance in 2020 TdF - Col de la Loze:
The stage before he is 4th at 1:45 behind Primoz. That difference can be easily be lost in a brutal climb like that, if Primoz or Pog crack….He climbed like a god and you better believe Primoz an Pog we’re going hard as well, he took 15 and 30s respectively.
That stage put him 3rd, 1:26 to Primoz and 30s to Pog….so, no, his best days do come when he is very much a threat……
What you can say is that his lack of TT reduced his actual chances of winning a grand tour. But the claim I’m making about being the best climber at altitude is not controversial.
I would say they were definitely going hard to not give up too much time to him but they definitely were not going all out to catch him. They were eyeing eachother, knowing that with the TT coming up, no other GC guy was going to rival them. It was a calculated risk.
He might have ridden the climb to La Planche des Belles Filles quicker but he would always lose quite a bit of time on the “flat” run up towards the climb.
At some point he either compromises on $$$ or he’s out of the peloton completely. As I said before, rightly or wrongly, Quintana is a very damaged brand. So if he wants to keep racing, he’s going to have to race for very little money, ala Cav several years ago. That is, if Quintana can even find a team.
While likely deserved, It must be such a crazy experience for these guys to go from GC being paid at least 1.5mill to tiny teams on almost regular salaries.
Cycling is a very anachronistic sport, highly inefficient at managing talent and opaque unspoken rules. What old guys need to die to have some renovation? The blueprint is F1.
I’m sure having to take a massive salary hit (along with a hit to how you are treated / the services the team provides) must be a huge hit to the ego. But this is no different than “ordinary” folks who get laid off, take a hit to their self esteem, and then have to pull themselves together and find a new position.
Going from top rider to pariah used to be a lot more common, it’s nice that it’s happening fairly rarely these days!
Cycling seems to have a pretty decent handle on managing talent from what I can see. The advent of power meters, zwift and strava means that the net for identifying worldtour potential is being thrown much wider than in the days when your pretty much had to pay your dues racing in Europe to get noticed. And also means young riders are getting their chance to go for wins much earlier in their careers without having to spend years as domestiques. What do you think cycling could learn from F1? I don’t know that sport particularly well but from what I can see the drivers largely come from wealthy backgrounds with parents who were able to afford to pay for them to race on the karting circuit from a young age. And in some cases they’re hired because of the sponsors they bring as much as their driving ability.
Again, Is known his TT sucks. It’s different from cracking.
Here I was referring at the business/spectacle side of things. We should be seeing a dashboard with HR and power for all riders and listen to all team communications. Let’s see what they do with that supposed Netflix show.
In terms of finding talent, cycling is one of the worst. Take Jay Vine as an example. It took an outsider player to give him an opportunity. Old crusty Europeans want to keep it to themselves. There’s hope tho. I heard Ineos is setting something up in Africa.
