LifeTri wrote:
Can someone please explain to me why GvA can't win? Is it that he cannot climb with everyone else?
In cycling the same guys take part in multiple types of races but they serve different roles and have different targets depending on their strengths, weaknesses, what else they're doing that season, their team strategy, etc.....
It's not just a bunch of guys trying to do the same thing.
Who is the best road cyclist in the world? I assume most people would say either Chris Froome or Peter Sagan. But they can't really be compared. Froome races grand tours for general classification. Sagan does one day races like the monuments and the world championships and he also rides for stage wins and the points jersey in the grand tours. You won't see Sagan winning time trials or mountain top finishes, and you won't see Froome contesting many flat bunch sprints. Their skills overlap, but they're only occasionally in direct competition.
Victory in the grand tours is dependent first and foremost on ability to climb. The lightweight climbers may give up a little in terms of power to drag, but not too much and they can survive very well on fast flat stages by drafting. The really fast guys on flatter terrain can't do the same on the mountains where they lack a little in terms of power to weight and drafting is massively less useful. So GVA, will not be able to keep up with the real climbers for long. If the climbers play it safe for a while he might manage to keep up, but if they go for it, he'll be out the back in short order.