Just always seems to have that kick however tired he is! Guess G needed to attack when he did as could easily have lost more time if he’d tried to just go to the line with Rog.
Well tomorrow needs a big effort for anyone to unseat G… and it looked like the bike and gearing change worked
Madd respect for all three…They all made a move 
1 Like
Despite my general distaste for SKY / Ineos, I’m hoping G pulls this off.
I thought Ineos has always kinda screwed the guy…was clearly the strongest rider on the team in 2018, but they still seemed like they deferred to Froome for most of the race. And then the next year, as defending champion, he had to take a back seat to Bernal.
Would like to seem him bag a second GT now.
9 Likes
In the GCN post race show, Robbie McEwen postulated that Roglič‘s 10-44 cassette was for a better chain line, not to use the 44.
If that is the case, I can almost guarantee he burned more watts chasing back on then he ever saved from a better chainline.
7 Likes
Yeah, Robbie’s hazarding a guess on live TV. It sounded good in the moment. Who knows what their reasoning was. Dennis said it was discussed at the team meeting that morning, and the fact that they had what they called ‘tomorrows’ bike on the rack… they had some things in mind. Was it plan A or plan B? It was planned, though.
Cycling gearing still feels very old, despite the trickle of nice innovations over the years.
1 Like
Just watched the relive 44back 40front 
That sprint at the end I think showed it was the right choice for him.
1 Like
GCN say its more about chain alignment than a really low gear 
2 Likes
Anyone know what bike Roglic was riding with the 1x? It was not an S5.
Almost certainly the R5….
1 Like
Cycling weekly say it was a R5 Here's why we think Primož Roglič used a gravel groupset on Giro d'Italia's Queen stage | Cycling Weekly
Good article. Thanks for sharing. 
2 Likes
That is a lot of words to say “he wanted a smaller gear”.
1 Like
Nothing against Buitrago, but somewhat ironic that he takes a huge win and the reaction from vast majority is likely a mix of mild disappointment and apathy. Disappointment that Gee gets 2nd yet again, and apathy in that everyone was really just waiting for the GC action behind.
Thanks for ruining the Derek Gee cinderella story Buitrago 
1 Like
Why? He wasn’t on that gear then and he could have done the same thing on another cassette. Don’t know what he had before the bike change, but he could have been on 46-33 front, 10-33 back (Red AXS). He wouldn’t have had to change bikes (time + effort) and he wouldn’t have had those huge gear jumps (I counted at least two instances in which his cadence clearly suffered, one of them when G was attacking and opened a gap because Roglič was suddenly grinding a gear).
Perhaps but in the sprint for the line the lower gears allowed him to jump up his cadence remarkably and win by 3 secs; him and his DS must have reckoned it was right for him. If he lost I think we could clearly say that it was the wrong choice but with him winning we will never know for sure. Perhaps he could have done better not changing and grinding up a closer spaced cassette, perhaps not 
I think the time gaps are too big, so going into this TT feels like the podium is locked. That said, it’s close enough that a bad day or good day could swing things, just don’t think it’ll happen
As for the bike change, we’re all guessing - but I don’t think they’d have done it only for chain line. My guess is he wanted the easier gear to keep his cadence high on the steep parts (you can see his cadence was notably higher than Thomas for long periods of the climb) and that there was some aspect of ‘SRAM 1x advertisement’ in the choice of setup he swapped to. He planned to swap for the easier gearing regardless (you wouldn’t want those ratios, even with a 2x setup for the majority of the stage) and the 1x vs 2x for the swap was influenced by SRAM
2 Likes
But in the final attack he didn’t do that and he didn’t use the extended low end. He clearly shifted up.
Agree that it was likely for a few different reasons not just one. On the chainline topic though, haven’t seen much discussion that in addition to marginal efficiency gain of chainline there’s also a marginal gain for decreased chain deflection based on running comparatively larger cog + ring. Doubt it would be much of a gain over a good 2x setup, but these are pros where every marginal gain matters.
As for the TT today, also agree that it seems very unlikely we’ll see a big upset on the podium. G looks solid, Roglic might take a few seconds but 30 seems very unlikely.