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2012 Stage Races

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Bond.ShaneBond

Bond.ShaneBond

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This board is too good to only have race threads for Grand Tours. If you have Foxtel they are currently showing Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico back to back.

Jizz.

In Paris-Nice so far it looks to be between Wiggo and Levi with Valverde an outsider. Schleck did his standard performance of not giving a shit outsde of LBL and July, before actually getting the shits and he pulled out of the race. Tony Martin the big disappointment, could this year be a bad one for the German?

Stage winners so far have been Larsson (ITT), Boonen (in terrific form), Valverde in a photo over Gerrans, and Meersman (who?).

Tirreno-Adriatico started last night with a short TTT, and our GreenEdge team smashed it. Goss given the leaders jersey.

Favourites for TA arre Nibal, Cadel, Horner, Scarponi and Kreuziger.
 
Last couple of days PN and TA have rolled on. PN had it's only mountain top finish and it was an exciting stage with Valconseil's Westra breaking away from the pack, and into contention. He is now second behind Wiggo, who took some long pulls at the front and looked exhausted at the end of the stage. Levi sat on his wheel, and so did Valverde (surprisingly). Last night LLS beat Big Jens Voigt, who seemingly forgot how to sprint. Seventh breakaway win from seven stages into Sisteron. Two stages left, into Nice tonight and then the decisive ITT up the Col d'Eze. Wiggo looking very tough to beat, though his lead is slim.

Down in Italy Sky is having a party, with back to back sprint wins. Cav absolutely smashed the first, with Sagan showing some form. Cav was nowhere to be seen last night so the mighty EBH took the cobbled sprint ahead of Greipel and Sagan. This sprint was an example of life after HTC, it was a mess with no team either willing or able to take control. EBH held off his challengers from the 250m mark, with Sagan a bit stiff in having his passing moved blocked. But that is probably it for the sprinters in TA this year. All eyes are on Gilbert, waiting for some sign of form before MSR.
 
Eurosport flipped it last night with the more interesting TA stage getting top-billing. It lasted 7.5 hours, which seems a bit unnecessary. It ended with a very steep climb before a flat sprint. Liquigas showed excellent form with Nibali and Sagan, the latter sprinting for the winner. Love that Slovakian, it was a damn good stage for him. He has been good all race. Di Luca, Horner, Kreuziger all finished in the final group. Cadel was looking decent and then he faded once the heat went up. Goss surrended the blue jersey today to Horner. Apparently his name is Matthew Harley Goss?

A big breakaway in PN, with Valconseil continuing their excellent race. De Gendt smashed it with a lazy 9 minute win, Taaramare came 5 minutes down in second place. The big story ahead of yesterday's final ITT was Levi putting in an epic fail, which means that Wiggo is a lock now. Westra the only man who can make him sweat now.
 
Wiggo with a well-deserved win in PN, and he took the final ITT to cap off a dominant week. Fantastic early season form from him, and he probably deserves to be favourite for the TdF now. He also looks like he could be in a British band. Westra had a great ITT which made for an exciting 20 minutes of racing. Piti rounded out the podium. TM disappointed again, he has minimal form this year. It could be that he is saving himself for the Olympics. Spilak and the Little Prince also had a good day. Matty Keenan commentated again, they rotated between him and Dan/Sean. Not sure why they did this, I like matt but you need a conversation going in cycling commentary. One person on there own is a tough gig.

Down in TA Nibali jagged a fun stage. He also gave Sagan another smack for yesterday. The race finished on a damn big mountain, it was a tough course today. Luckily no overnight snow so the route wasn't altered. The Old Beetroot Juice Man kept the azzuri, with Kreuziger and Nibali both within twelve seconds. This promises to be a really top race for the rest of it. Astana decided to give Horner a lot of help for some reason, common sense would have let Horner chase for a couple of km before attacking him in the last km. But they have always been a bit of a baffling team. Strong performances from Mr Barbed wire and Scarponi. Velits disappointed and Cadel crashed on a downhill, coming in ten minutes down.
 

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TA produced another fun stage last night. The course has been brilliant, so much variety in one week. Today had a tricky circuit finish, with a tough climb at the end of each circuit. Purito was the man, timing his attack perfectly. Nibali crucially nabbed second, and the bonus seconds which puts the standing at Horner, Kreuziger +5, Nibali +6 before tonight final, short ITT. This race is opened wider than a pr0n stars snatch. Sagan with another great ride today, he chased down about 5 attacks in the last few km to keep Nibali in touch for bonus time. Great ride that got some praise from the Shark. I am in love with Sagan, great cyclist.

It is going to be a great finale tonight, in terms of ITT ability I would have it as Nibali<Kreuziger<Horner, so I can't wait to see the result. After PN's exciting ITT it looks like we are going to be spoiled with yet another tight one. The short course gives Horner a hope, he has to drink a lot of beetroot juice, put his head down and sweat purple. I can't write off any of these three, but previous results tell me that Nibali will overtake Kreuziger. So it SHOULD be between Horner and Nibali, and my love for Nibali has me picking him.

1 Nibali, 2 Kreuziger, 3 Horner

PS Also looking forward to seeing Spartacus' form and if he can carry on from his strong Strada Bianche showing.
 
Another exciting finish to a stage race. First up, Spartacus is definitely in great form and is looking good for the start of the season, he absolutely smashed it. Meyer also did a fine stage, Cadel looks like he may have soft-pedaled a bit. After winning TA last year, Cadel is not in the same shape in 2012. Yes, his crash would have dented his motivation, but he got dropped on a stage before that.

To the final three, and I managed to pick The Shark yesterday, but Kreuziger put in a dud 10 km. Horner and Kreuziger looked troubled almost straight away, but Nibali was cool as ice and it is a good sign for his 2012 after having a disappointing year last year.

This was a great week of racing in TA, and personally I enjoyed it more than PN. The course was more interesting, and the field was stronger. During PN Wiggo was never troubled, he was clearly the top rider. Nibali and Sagan were both the best cyclists in TA, but the poor TTT for Liquigas made it more interesting as we got to see Nibali fight from behind to get a special win for him.

Up next we have MSR, which will be in the One Day races thread.
 
Tonight we have got Volta a Catalunya in NE Spain. Checking the profile on cyclingnews it looks like it is going to be a fun race to watch. There are sharp climbs on each stage, and the list of past winners proves this is one for the mountain goats. My favourite cyclist Sammy Sanchez is kitted up for this one, so I am looking forward to watching him. Valverde will be a danger man, and possibly Gesink as well. JVDB is suiting up so he is another whose early season form will be good to watch. Schleck will do nothing, but Dan Martin could give something from Ireland. Wiggo is also racing, but with no ITT he may struggle to make a break to win the race. Basso showed nothing in PN, but VC may be more to his liking. Strongly recommend IQing this, or look for the highlights at a better hour tomorrow.
 
Cheers, WF. I will keep them up for as long as I keep enjoying writing them!

Well foreshadowed, GreenEdge continued it's stunning debut season last night, putting Leopard Trek and Sky to shame considering their first up efforts. The triumphant individual was Australia's third favourite Swissman, Michael Albasini. It was a strong ride from him, he broke away from the five man group at the top of the final climb, then put in a strong descent and hit TT mode for the remaining 15k. The others couldn't touch him and he has a very nice gap that he will hopefully be able to hang on to for a coupe more days. Not much else to report, the favourites kept it close, their big rides will be coming up soon. Tomorrow they are riding out and back in to Girona, which according to the commentators is home for many of the cyclists like Mr Wheel Suck Levi Leipheimer and Wiggo. It is a prestigious race, the third oldest professional stage race and it has a very impressive list of winners.
 
Yup, he did it again and GreenEdge's early season dominance continues. It was just a really strong ride from Albasini, nothing fancy, and he was the best finisher in the end. Speaking of nothing fancy, the coverage was horrible last night. Despite David telling us yesterday and for the first 40 minutes today that the coverage for this race is excellent because it is a prestigious race, all of the motorcycles seemingly ran out of gas at once and we had to cop the helicopter and one motorbike at the back of the peloton for the last 15 km. It was woeful stuff, and left the commentators to guessing which three cyclists were off the front on the descent. They got the Little Prince, Cunego straight away, but Martin and Carrara were not identified until they were eaten by the peloton.

The big loser was Valverde, who fell during the feed zone and lost two minutes to the peloton. His race is now over and he will be hoping for a stage win. It isn't July or LBL, so naturally Schleck finished with him for some reason. Basso continued his poor PN form and was even worse. It isn't clear yet who is favourite, tonight is the Queen Stage, but unfortunately snow may stop it from being decisive. Cyclists are too soft nowadays.

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Hopefully the snow hold off so we get an epic stage. The big names of Samu, Wiggo, Porte, Martin, JVDB, Gesink, Levi, Menchov all sit 90 seconds behind our Swiss Aussie.
 
Stage was ruined by the snow last night. Apparently Brajkovic won. Now, I hear his name mentioned a lot during commentaries, but I don't think I have actually ever seen him and he certainly has never gotten a result when I have been watching. All of a sudden we have a stage that is not broadcast and he wins it? Not bloody likely. I would like to officially declare that Janez Brajkovic is not a real person and is just invented for days like this so the actual, real-life cyclists don't have to race. Naturally, to make the stage appear real some cyclists had to fake injuries and withdraw. Julian Dean, Valverde and Schleck all pulled the short straw, though I am sure that in Schleck's case he actually drew a long straw and then snapped it in half so he could put his feet up for the rest of the week.

The Greatest Swiss Person Ever is still the leader.
 
After the disappointment of two nights ago, last night made up for it with interest. It was a fantastic stage of racing.

But first, the fall out from the arctic stage previous, it accounted for about a third of the field. These guys were given the chance to resume last night, but only three took up the offer. Chapeau to those three. There was also a fair share of hypothermia handed out to the poor bastards.

Today the Albatross knew he would be up against it, with a difficult final 5km including a cat 2 that would be tackled twice. I nearly dropped my microwavable lamb-and-3-veg for one when I saw Levi out of the saddle and driving the peloton on the first ascent. The Albatross survived, but no teammates were with him. On the second ascent, there were a flurry of attacks. Jessica Alba brought many back, but something had to give. It was Szmyd, with Levi locked on that proved too much to handle. Approaching the summit and we had a few more names join up. They were fairly recognisable: Sanchez (of the golden variety), Menchov, Uran. Moncoutie decided to join on the descent. So we had a group the likes of which are rarely seen during a stage race going hell for leather to keep the peloton at bay. They never got more than about 20 seconds, but managed to stay away until the last 300m. Plenty of fantastic helicopter shots showing the small gap between the uber-breakaway and the peloton and just how quickly they were going. So eventually they were caught... but it was too late. They studs up front were already trying to sprint. Being all climbers, it wasn't exactly convincing but Uran got the chocolates from old man Menchov. JVDB managed to worm his way into the top 4 from the peloton.

But most importantly, the Alabaster stays in front and is looking a damn good chance to pinch the most unlikely and unexpected of overall victories!
 

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A disappointing stage last nights, none of the big names were able to really trouble Albie Morkel. Highlights for me were Samu attacking on the downhill, he is certainly in great form going by the last two days. But because Levi is a dick, he shut it down. Samu has to think smarter, he is burying himself before sprints he could win. But that is why we love him, he just attacks. Speaking of form, JVDB turned the screws on the climb, giving his legs a good shake. Other highlight was the winner, Julien Simon, celebrating straight into the podium and ending up on the deck. This was only his second victory, so he is still getting that right.
 
Samu with a beautiful win last night. Unlike the previous two stages, he timed his attack perfectly last night, he didn't go too early but waited for the perfect moment and the peloton had no answer. Great win for the Golden Boy and he moved himself up to second overall to boot. Allan Davis won the bunch sprint behind him, tonight is the final stage. The Royal Albert Hall is going to win this race for GreenEdge and he will be remembered forever by all Australians. What? Anyway, he has won the race because the favourites let his break get away on the first stage. No doubt those favourites are looking ruefully at the snow affected Queen Stage, where they would have expected to slash that deficit. Albasini rode some strong defence in the next two stages and that was all she wrote. Into Barcelona tonight, fortunately the cyclists don't have pockets but they will have to be wary of what they keep in their number pouches as Barcelona is the pick-pocket capital of Europe.
 
Simon got his second stage win, and Albasini won what was ultimately an underwhelming week. Disappointingly, the Queen Stage was snowed out, and with the gap given in the first stage that was all she wrote. The Big Boys had a crack in the middle of the week, but ultimately couldn't put it together when they had a sniff and a break on the isolated Swissman.
 
Damn right WF, one day thread will hopefully get buzzing.

BSB's ranking of stage races 2012:

1. TA (Interesting, varied course, 3 possible winners going into the final ITT.)
2. PN (Technically tight until the finish, though Wiggo always looked the winner. Bit of a dull course.)
3. TC (Queen stage snowed out, overall race over very early. Still had a strong field with some fun attacks.)
 

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Yup, it is called Pais Vasco this year. For some reason it is not being televised on Eurosport so I'm not going to be writing reviews for this one.
 
Cheers mate!

ANOTHER GreenEdge win last night, they are on an amazing early season run. If they snag a GT stage win it will almost be the perfect debut season. They were being criticised hard when they squad was released, but the critics have no leg to stand on now, especially considering recent debuts of high profile, high spending teams such as Leopard Trek and Sky.
 
GreenEdge have really set themselves up to be a powerhouse of the future with the young talent they have but the older guys they have bought are certainly doing the job right now. They didn't get the big names but it looks like they did some very smart shopping in the guys they did buy.
 
went form heros is chumps last night the hole greenedge team were 21mins behind... really hope goss is just fine tuneing for the le tour cose atm his form is dreadful...
 

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