Simon Yates started the Giro with a lot of panache and he kept it up til very late. He approached the race like the great Sammy Wanjiru did in the marathon or how you would imagine Steve Prefontaine would have had he ever come to tackle 26 miles. Or maybe one could say he went out - at his first Kona - to show everyone how easy 300 Watts are and how slow a 2:40 marathon is. Like Macca did his first time on the island.
But Yates, like many, hit the wall 35 km into the marathon. He melted down in the energylab in the same way Jim Walmsley did at last years Western States when he was tough enough to go out in course record time in unfortunate conditions.
Yates is only 25 years old and he can gain a lot of experience from this years Giro. And maybe it is unfair to say that he was too cocky too long. A grand tour ain't an ironman. If it weren't for team sky. They approach the three week ordeal as one big race rather than a day-after-day accumulation of stages. Froome is like the Frodeno of the cycling world. He swims with the leaders in front of the other main contenders (Prologue) and then settles into his own rhythm. He knows what he can ride and goes hard enough to make others suffer but slow enough to be sustainable (Sky train). He doesn't jump onto the ĂĽberbiker-train right away when Sander, Kienle and Wurf blaze past (attacks in the mountains). He knows that he will reel them in again sooner or later as the other go too deep into the red. He will be right there with the front on the run or at least in striking distance and then he will put the hammer down at the end of the marathon to make the difference (time trial).
That is how Froome has been tackling the Tour for the past years and people have called it boring. But it didn't work in this years Giro. He suffered from shoulder problems in the lead up to Kona so he missed the lead group for the first time. On the bike, he didn't feel great right away but he did not panick. He rode his watts and hoped that the legs will come around. He tested himself a bit on the climb to the turnaround and made some time but he needed to back off again thereafter and go back to steady state. Only at the end of the bike leg did he start to feel good and he could speed up. Off the bike there was no time to assess the legs. It was all or nothing. So he went out hard and kept pushing. Once he caught the leader in the energy lab, he went right past. He didn't dare to look back and hung on to the finish. It wasn't his best performance but the most gutsy one. He didn't feel good at the start, but he was the one slowing down the least.
10k - 30:48 / half - 1:06:40
But Yates, like many, hit the wall 35 km into the marathon. He melted down in the energylab in the same way Jim Walmsley did at last years Western States when he was tough enough to go out in course record time in unfortunate conditions.
Yates is only 25 years old and he can gain a lot of experience from this years Giro. And maybe it is unfair to say that he was too cocky too long. A grand tour ain't an ironman. If it weren't for team sky. They approach the three week ordeal as one big race rather than a day-after-day accumulation of stages. Froome is like the Frodeno of the cycling world. He swims with the leaders in front of the other main contenders (Prologue) and then settles into his own rhythm. He knows what he can ride and goes hard enough to make others suffer but slow enough to be sustainable (Sky train). He doesn't jump onto the ĂĽberbiker-train right away when Sander, Kienle and Wurf blaze past (attacks in the mountains). He knows that he will reel them in again sooner or later as the other go too deep into the red. He will be right there with the front on the run or at least in striking distance and then he will put the hammer down at the end of the marathon to make the difference (time trial).
That is how Froome has been tackling the Tour for the past years and people have called it boring. But it didn't work in this years Giro. He suffered from shoulder problems in the lead up to Kona so he missed the lead group for the first time. On the bike, he didn't feel great right away but he did not panick. He rode his watts and hoped that the legs will come around. He tested himself a bit on the climb to the turnaround and made some time but he needed to back off again thereafter and go back to steady state. Only at the end of the bike leg did he start to feel good and he could speed up. Off the bike there was no time to assess the legs. It was all or nothing. So he went out hard and kept pushing. Once he caught the leader in the energy lab, he went right past. He didn't dare to look back and hung on to the finish. It wasn't his best performance but the most gutsy one. He didn't feel good at the start, but he was the one slowing down the least.
10k - 30:48 / half - 1:06:40