Eddie Merckx, Tiger Woods, Pele, Michael Jordan, Usain Bolt, Michael Phelps, Lionel Messi, Roger Federer and Bob Dylan can say whatever they want to say. The rest are just pretenders.
A natural climber is.. well, ... a natural climber.
A natural GC or rider must be a natural climber who can also TT but must also have the (natural) ability to lead a team, to stay focussed for 3 weeks, to handle immense pressure, have a certain tactical awareness etc. All natural climbers do not have those abilities and will therefore most likely never win a grand tour.
Pogacar and Bernal are natural GC riders who can and have won grand tours while Superman Lopez for example is only a natural climber ( based on current evidence).
The definition is my own and not scientific
I agree. Even if they focus 100% on it I still do not think they would be able to. Maybe in another era but not right now where we have super talented "natural" GC riders such as Pogacar, Bernal and Evenpoel.
I would argue that Pidcock has the best chance of the Cross riders to win a GC as he is a much more natural climber then the other 2 and wont have do the whole weight loss thing etc.
I also have no idea what is going on at Ineos.
If I was their marketing guy however I would have spun a story that they still have a rider who moved into the top 5 today and is therefore still in with a very good chance to make the podium. Further I would have added that they were badly affected by the crashes during the first 2 days and also make a long story about the bravery of Geraint.
I would not mention anything about the "salary to performance ratio" that you brought up ( although it is a good point and you are probably right). To end off (and to show I am not a bad loser) I will praise Pogacar and mentioned that he would most likely have won in any event.
The only other thing I can think of is the fact that the team could not descent so fast due to the rim brakes but maybe it would be better not to offend Pinarello so I would have kept quiet about it.
I am quite impressed by Sergio Henao who has quietly moved into position no 11. Not bad for a rider who struggled to find a team in the beginning of the season until Doug signed him for Qhubeka. I hope he can keep it up.
I think there were originally 3 who had a chance to take the fight to Pogacar but 2 were broken by crashes and the third one is still desperately hanging in for dear life.
Yip, he has been doing well.
Whenever I see Louis following the wheels in a major event I cannot help to think of the wishdom of Clint Eastwood aka Dirty Harry in one of his famous movies when he said : " Man's got to know his limitations".
Louis knows his and rides accordingly ????
haha... I was going to include him in my list but then I thought about his age and his tendency to crash.. he is becoming a bit like Geraint Thomas in that regard.
Tough luck to him though... he looked great before the mishap.
I would say of the names you listed Carapaz (1) and Uran (2) are themost legitimate challengers. I would add Geraint to the list as I think ( hope) that he is recovering and could become a thread later in the race. He is arguably also the only rider who can at least challenge Pog in the last time trial ( if he has recovered). I wont add Nibali to the list (one tour too many).
Louis Meintjes might follow the wheels to a top 20 and with some luck to a top 15.... top 10 would probably be too far fetched?
It was sad to see him struggle like he did. He certainly had a fair share of misfortune lately. He looked in super form until the crash. The sad thing is that he might never win the tour as he is no spring chicken anymore and it will become harder and harder with the younger guys becoming stronger. ( Bernal, Evenpoel, and not to even talk about Pogacar).
