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jiminou's avatar

Many thanks for the article, this is a pretty good read! I don't want to sound like a Roglic fanboy but there are two points I would like to discuss and I would really love to have your opinion on those takes : 1) regarding the infamous TDF 2020 TT what do you think about the fact that Roglic crashed out of Criterium du Dauphiné and wasn't able to train on his TT bike for several weeks? He seemed really uncomfortable during the first part of the TT and lost quite a bit of time on the flat section, time he should not be losing regarding his TT history. It is really a big guess but maybe he went to the point of burning his legs before the climbing? 2) Roglic remaned highly competitive after the TDF 2020 (won LBL, sixth in WC), whereas Carapaz was freed from being Bernal super domestique quite early in the TDF and a part from several stages he cherry-picked I'm not sure he went as hard as the GC guys, so my guess is Carapaz was way fresher than Roglic during the 2020 Vuelta, and this might explain the third week slump (and the rain jacket-gate as well...). What do you think? (Please excuse my english, I may have made some mistakes, but anyway, thanks for your time, and greetings from France!)

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Send Riders to the Right Races's avatar

I agree with both yes. Roglic was very tired for 2020 Vuelta(though to be fair, while Carapaz was less fatigued he was meant to go to Giro then thrown into TDF and then did Vuelta off of that). 2020 Vuelta and 2019 Giro I am inclined to give him a full pass because of fatigue or sickness/just not having the level. 2018 TDF and 2020 TDF is a bit more mixed for me because he was climbing very well in the 3rd week, but maybe it just was the injuries that affected his TT more than his climbing.

4 TTs really isn't a big sample size, and there's definitely an argument to be made that it's all a fluke and Roglic will put in a monster TT next year. But on the other hand, well it's Roglic, and how much of a pass does he really get for crashing? It's become a habit with him. If his crashes(2018 TDF, 2020 Dauphine) affect his TT more than his climbing, is it a problem for him that the TT is at the end instead of earlier on? I'm very interested in finding out, and I do hope that he manages to stay upright on his bike.

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