2013 Cycling Thread

[PrezdeJohnson09]

I wouldn't rule out SaxoBank yet; they have a very close split time.

Orrica GreenEDGE continues its impressive Tour by upsetting the world champions by a second. Simon Gerrans in position to be in yellow now.

BMC with a lackluster first half and they are going to lose some time.

RadioShack last to come in.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: 2013 Cycling Thread

Orrica GreenEDGE continues its impressive Tour by upsetting the world champions by a second. Simon Gerrans in position to be in yellow now.

BMC with a lackluster first half and they are going to lose some time.

RadioShack last to come in.

And RadioShack didn't even come close. Simon Gerrans takes the jersey as they head along the Mediterranean.

 

[PrezdeJohnson09]

And RadioShack didn't even come close. Simon Gerrans takes the jersey as they head along the Mediterranean.

Being the TdF front runner cyclist fan that I am I had no idea about this Orrica Green Edge squad coming in but I'm quickly becoming a fan. I thought briefly about trying to find a way to get Daryl Impey on my velogames squad and now I'm kicking myself that I didn't.

He was the top or no. 2 point man out of all 4-pointers at last year's TDF and he is well on his way to leading the way for his point group this year too.

 

[Titleist]

Re: 2013 Cycling Thread

I'm gutted for OPQS! Was really hoping that they would take it for Tony, Chava, and Kwiato. Well I hope that Chava will attack tomorrow. Its still only a second that he needs.

A great ride for STS! Conti looks like he is recovering and Kreuziger and Niko Roche are looking excellent.

G was impressive too but then I'm fairly sure that the Skyborgs don't feel pain.

 

[Titleist]

Re: 2013 Cycling Thread

Team time trial day! One of my favorite stages.

Can I ask why? I hate the TTT as it gives individuals a very unfair advantage and generally adds little real value, in my opinion. Fortunately today's was pretty short.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: 2013 Cycling Thread

Can I ask why? I hate the TTT as it gives individuals a very unfair advantage and generally adds little real value, in my opinion. Fortunately today's was pretty short.

During the sprint stages, we always see cycling teams pushing the peloton and also working to get certain members in a good position to win stages. Why not see which team does well, in that case? Sure, the individual time trial is important, and personally I'd love to see it return to the Champs-Élysées similar to when Greg Lemond won one of the closest TDFs, but if cycling is so much a team sport, why not put emphasis on it?

 

[PrezdeJohnson09]

Can I ask why? I hate the TTT as it gives individuals a very unfair advantage and generally adds little real value, in my opinion. Fortunately today's was pretty short.

I'm a big team guy and I like seeing domestiques getting rewarded for their hard work and sharing the spotlight with the team leaders that they slave for 3 weeks at a time to help them scale the overall leaderboard.

I enjoy watching the rytthym and precision they get into as well with 9 riders working together as one. For some reason there is something about that interests me and I find neat.

I agree it's nice that its shorter so it doesn't have quite as much overall affect on the race but I think it's cool to see which team can flex its collective muscles and can truly claim to the best "TEAM".

Do I like how much it has hurt guys like Rolland, no...but that's a part of his game that needs improvement anyways if he is every going to become a serious serious GC contender.

 

[Titleist]

Re: 2013 Cycling Thread

During the sprint stages, we always see cycling teams pushing the peloton and also working to get certain members in a good position to win stages. Why not see which team does well, in that case? Sure, the individual time trial is important, and personally I'd love to see it return to the Champs-Élysées similar to when Greg Lemond won one of the closest TDFs, but if cycling is so much a team sport, why not put emphasis on it?

The point is that we do see the team(s) working well in those sprints (think Saeco's Red Guard for Cipo (or HTC for Cav for the younger guys) and we see them in the mountains. I remember Festina attacking Ullrich ona medium mountain stage the year he won. They must have had 6 people up the road to assist Virenque. Plus there are times for other doms to get in the breaks. Why do I need to watch something like this when I know that one of only 3 or 4 teams can win the stage?

What winners of the Tour or any race can we look at and say wow, there team was garbage? Pantani's? The Vuelta that Ullrich accidentally won? About any classic that Cance wins? That's about it. The teams are so important that it almost never happens. Why force a team's domestiques to have multiple specialties? Isn't it enough that Arnold Jeanesson can climb, must he time trial too to support Pinot?

I'm a big team guy and I like seeing domestiques getting rewarded for their hard work and sharing the spotlight with the team leaders that they slave for 3 weeks at a time to help them scale the overall leaderboard.

I enjoy watching the rytthym and precision they get into as well with 9 riders working together as one. For some reason there is something about that interests me and I find neat.

I agree it's nice that its shorter so it doesn't have quite as much overall affect on the race but I think it's cool to see which team can flex its collective muscles and can truly claim to the best "TEAM".

Do I like how much it has hurt guys like Rolland, no...but that's a part of his game that needs improvement anyways if he is every going to become a serious serious GC contender.

I love the team aspect of cycling. It was the first reason I became a fan. I love it when a relatively unknown dom wins a stage but the TTT doesn't really accomplish that. How much did we really get to see of Michael Albasini today? How about Benjamin "Fasto" Noval's crash? What glory is there for Argos? OR Euskaltel? Wouldn't the Tour be better served if Igor Anton or Rolland or Pinot were all still within a second of the lead? What have any of them done wrong to this point and yet they now lay 1:24, 1:13, and :42 seconds adrift. Whereas Valverde (of marginal TT ability) and Cunego (even worse) are only :20 and :25 seconds back because their much better funded team can afford a Castroviejo or a Malori. Sure the team play a critical role, controlling and bringing back breaks on the flat, providing support and dishing out pain in the Mountains, but the TTT is virtually NEVER a surprise and almost NEVER goes to an underfunded team. About the "poorest" team to do well today was Saxo, and they have Contador who costs millions but brings in zero UCI points. The fact that I can look at the results and say "Yes! Pinot ONLY lost :42 over 25K" is terrible. As for Rolland, how can he improve his team time trial game? Move to Sky?

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: 2013 Cycling Thread

Also remember that the Team Trial is not when all existing riders cross the line, it's when the fifth team member crosses the line. Cav's team still has a climber, and he plays as much of a part in a sprint peloton as anyone else. If these athletes are supposedly worthless, why are they even cycling for these teams?

 

[Titleist]

Re: 2013 Cycling Thread

To add to that, the fact that Ted King got HD'd today is borderline criminal.

He missed it by 7 seconds and his on-board computer told him he was OK.

On second thought, I hope he stays out and gives his computer to Froome.

 

[XYZ]

On second thought, I hope he stays out and gives his computer to Froome.

Considering The Dawg spends 97% of a given race doing nothing but stare at his power meter...I'm in full support of this option.

As for TTTs, hasn't the option of not having the results thereof affect individual times been considered before?

Too bad OPQS didn't pull it out today. I won't gripe about currently sitting 80th in the world...but Kwiatkowski in yellow sure would have been a nice unexpected bonus.

 

[Probert]

Re: 2013 Cycling Thread

Considering The Dawg spends 97% of a given race doing nothing but stare at his power meter...I'm in full support of this option.

As for TTTs, hasn't the option of not having the results thereof affect individual times been considered before?

Too bad OPQS didn't pull it out today. I won't gripe about currently sitting 80th in the world...but Kwiatkowski in yellow sure would have been a nice unexpected bonus.

I believe in some TTT's they have set a maximum amount of time that someone can lose 30 seconds or a minute, once or twice in the past.

Count me among the non TTT fans it's basically a fast training ride, is not any fun at all to watch and it usually eliminates 1 or 2 contenders early in the race.

They couldn't give Ted King a break and change the HD time? I know they have done it in the past though that is usually when a bunch of guys or a "big name" doesn't make it.

 

[Titleist]

Re: 2013 Cycling Thread

Probert, you're right. I remember a TTT (definately at a GT) where there were max losses set. Like the most any team could lose was like 2 minutes.

As for King, I know at Le Tour last year, Cav missed the time in the mountains and the penalty was NOT being thrown out but being docked sprint points. Maybe it was the Giro.

 

[Probert]

Re: 2013 Cycling Thread

Probert, you're right. I remember a TTT (definately at a GT) where there were max losses set. Like the most any team could lose was like 2 minutes.

As for King, I know at Le Tour last year, Cav missed the time in the mountains and the penalty was NOT being thrown out but being docked sprint points. Maybe it was the Giro.

I am pretty sure the limit was at the TDF to limit Postal/Discover/Astana and Telekom's lead over the other contenders

I remember a mountain stage quite a few years ago where there was a breakaway where the rider finished a good chunk of time ahead of the contenders and the gruppetto with like 25 guys, including most of the big sprinters were well outside the time limit and they basically just chucked the HD for the stage I'm thinking it was during the Indurain years but may have been later in the 90's.

 

[XYZ]

Re: 2013 Cycling Thread

As for King, I know at Le Tour last year, Cav missed the time in the mountains and the penalty was NOT being thrown out but being docked sprint points. Maybe it was the Giro.

Paul Sherwen of all people missed the time cut by 26 minutes on a stage in 1985 and was allowed to continue. In 2011, the Modane Valfréjus to Alpe-d’Huez stage saw 83 riders finish outside of time limit. All were allowed to continue. I'm a bit torn on this as the rules are the rules and should be enforced, but at the same time the historical lack of consistency makes the King incident look pretty petty. Isn't this sort of, to borrow a NCAA term, a point of emphasis for the UCI this year and why we saw 20+ riders get the axe in An Post Rás? Either way, had it been Voeckler who was seven seconds late, would ASO have acted the same? I doubt it.

Unrelated, while I very minimally can appreciate that Bob Roll finally ditched the last bastion of human superficiality otherwise known as the "yellow wristband," for the love of all things holy can we just make him go away? Phil and Paul are bad enough, but get Roll out of there and at a minimum work in more Schlanger and Gogo. At least those two offer something resembling analysis. Roll is like a gap-toothed twitter fanboy jack-in-the-box who was somehow given a press pass.

 

[PrezdeJohnson09]

In 2011, the Modane Valfréjus to Alpe-d’Huez stage saw 83 riders finish outside of time limit. All were allowed to continue..

I was thinking that this happened recently but couldn't remember concretely when I saw King was eliminated. It's certainly one of those rules that exist with a well known gray area. I agree completely if it was Voeckler there is no way he's eliminated.

 

[Farce Poobah]

Re: 2013 Cycling Thread

I was thinking that this happened recently but couldn't remember concretely when I saw King was eliminated. It's certainly one of those rules that exist with a well known gray area. I agree completely if it was Voeckler there is no way he's eliminated.

Ahhh ... life in France. Two sets of rules - one for the elite and in power, another for the unwashed masses. Or American, in this case.

 

[PrezdeJohnson09]

Is it me or was that road awfully narrow to be finishing up a big sprint like that?

It's a shame to have a crash like that in the last km. Maybe someone was trying to play hero but to me it looked narrow.

 

[Titleist]

Re: 2013 Cycling Thread

Rumors of "the Mistral" being in play tomorrow. Winds up to 40Kph. This is the same area of France where LA tried to ambush Contador and Astana dropped most of the peloton before that.

That would make a boring stage interesting! If that does happen whose GC hope die? Mollema? Anton? Nieve? Maybe (new)VdB because he went down today but he is Belgian so he should be able to do echelons.

 

[Probert]

Re: 2013 Cycling Thread

Today's stage is a prime example why I don't think Cav will win green, Greipel had him beat if he kept going he could have finished second instead he gives up a little and let Sagan and Kittel pass him and he finishes 4th.