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2012 Stage Races

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Pais Vasco finished last night, and damn you Eurosport for not covering it. Sounded like a good race, and featured lots of my favourites including Samu and Purito. Gora Euska!
 
Definitely, they are one of the most entertaining teams in sport. I respect a cycling team making a roster exclusively of people who have no bike handling skills.
 
with all the road works in Perth atm bike handling skills req a shite load of mountain bike exp
 

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I was flicking channels about 11 last night and noticed that Eurosport had the team time trial of the Giro del Trentino on. Was not advertised.

BMC too good but a lot of teams just seemed to be going through the motions and not a lot of strong teams there. Greenedge a non-starter. It was a bit of a shame as I enjoy a team time trial.
 
Quigley said:
I was flicking channels about 11 last night and noticed that Eurosport had the team time trial of the Giro del Trentino on. Was not advertised.

BMC too good but a lot of teams just seemed to be going through the motions and not a lot of strong teams there. Greenedge a non-starter. It was a bit of a shame as I enjoy a team time trial.
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Good man, flicked over before Fleche-Wallonne and they had it again, Cunego with the uphill win. Sounds like tonight is a brute of a climb, have a look people.
 
blue gunslinger said:
eurosport losing plot with coverage of Turkey tour - OK-will watch
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But Pais Vasco is snubbed.

Will also watch.

Just watched a climb in Trentino that makes the Zoncolan look like a descent. Watch the replay on Eurosport if you have the option tomorrow people. I need to sleep on it to process it, will report back tomorrow with a review.
 
Definately worth watching the highlights tonight on last night's stage. Narrow, winding very steep ascent that was hit at pace. People went back but fought on. The elastic stretched mightily but never really snapped and we are left with a really tight top couple. Really entertaining.
 
Two really entertaining stages booted home the 4 stage, unadvertised Giro del Trentino. I am getting greedy when I am pissed at Eurosport for not advertising the first two stages in the guide, despite the fact that about two months ago my cycling viewing was restricted to free-to-air Phil Liggett commentated GT's.

The race started with a TTT, dominated by BMC. Then 3 mountain finishes, which included the brutal Punta Veleno, a climb that needs to be seen to be believed. It is the steepest long climb I have seen. It is so steep that attacking really isn't an option, it is just a grind at your own pace, hoping your pace is quicker than everyone else's. The road surface is abhorrent, the actual road narrow, although the trees are pleasing to the eye. On to the actual racing, and on hitting the slopes Di Luca and Basso promptly took a wrong turn. Their day was done, and it couldn't have happened to two better advertisements for cycling #sarcasm. The positive out of this was it gave Sylvester Szmyd the unquestionable leadership of Liquigas, and the great domestique lifted to the occasion with a fantastic ride for second place. The Little Prince had a terrific ride for third place, and Kreuziger was the other household name with a strong day. But the day belonged to conti team Colnago and their dimunitive mountain goat Pozzovivo, who absolutely dominated the stage to rocket to first overall.

The finale was up the Passo Pordoi in snow. So it wasn't getting any easier for the weary riders after Stage 3. Liquigas tried to turn the screws to give Szmyd a chance against Pozzovivo, but Pozz was too strong. He let Liquigas work itself into the ground, and then went to the front to pound out the final few km at a pace that was too quick to allow an attack from the Pole or Cunego to shake up the GC. Kreuziger suffered for his great Stage 3 ride, dropping from fourth in GC. Strangely Seeldrayers didn't help him out when Kreuziger cracked. The day was won by Colombian Darwin Atapuma, which is a contender for best name ever. Darwin + Puma = sound orgasm when read aloud. It was great to see some big success for very small teams being televised.

It was a terrific course for people watching, not so much for the cyclists! I really enjoyed the two and a bit stages that I got to watch on this short but sharp stage race.

1. TA (Interesting, varied course, 3 possible winners going into the final ITT.)
2. GdT (TTT + 3 mountain stages. Not bothering with flat stages FTW or wasting mountains.)
3. PN (Technically tight until the finish, though Wiggo always looked the winner. Bit of a dull course.)
4. TC (Queen stage snowed out, overall race over very early. Still had a strong field with some fun attacks.)
 
Good to see Cam Meyer taking some big turns on the front of the peleton to bring back the break away last night. He will be building his legs but he can certainly be a good domestique in this type of race.

Pretty disorganised sprint with none of the teams really getting a train together. Goss got probably the best lead out but let Greipel go a fair way from home and Greipel just was too strong and held on riding away from the others. Goss came in comfortably in second to retain the overall lead and the sprint jersey. Renshaw was right in the mix as well but spent his tickets too early and cruised across the line in 4th.

I thought Greenedge rode the day very well and controlled it like an experienced team. Goss is finally showing a bit of form which is great for the big tours coming up. Greipel though looked bloody awesome though and is a strong man who should get quite a few grand tour stage wins this year.

Things start to get a bit lumpy for stage 3 with a cat 1 and 2 climb amongst others. It looks like Greenedge sent a team aiming for the sprint wins so I think they might be a bit invisible for a few days now.
 
Good man Quigley.

Amazing move by Eurosport showing the Tour of Turkey ahead of Romandie, but we get what we get. They are going through a beautiful part of the world, along the Aegean coast of Turkey. Most of the stages start or finish in cities I have been lucky enough to see first hand, and the pictures on Eurosport are certainly doing it justice so far.

On the road, and welcome to cycling post-HTC. There are no dominant road trains, making the last ten km more interesting, especially from the helicopter shots. It is easy to spot small trains moving up and down the peloton, which I am personally enjoying. Renshaw is Rabobank's lead-out king, but on this day went to early to safely launch Bos in Alanya following a devastating crash. Bos was good enough to tag onto GreenEDGE's work and delivered for Rabobank, who haven't had great success yet this season.

Stage 2 and Vino was in a breakaway while Astana dominated Europe, and again GreenEDGE and Goss were involved to the end. But as Quigley alluded to, the win was emphatic and dominant by big Andre Greipel. No doubt even Mark Cavendish would have taken note of the sheer impact of Greipel's sprint. He made the other sprinters look second rate.

Last night we hit a spectacular mountain-top finish, with terrain you don't really see in European climbs. Watching the peloton race through gorges was brilliant. The day was won by another dominant assault, this time by the best of athletes: one without a Wikipedia page. Ivalo Gabrovski had what I assume is his career highlight, considering nothing else he has done is worthy of Wikipedia. Hopefully this result gets him some recognition. It was just a huge attack from the Bulgarian, he attacked and never looked back on a difficult climb. Bardet had a couple of cracks at reeling back the barnstorming Bulgarian, but got bubkis for his exertions.

Gabrovski has a very handy lead, but he also has a very weak team. Whether they can ride their skins off for the rest of the race to control break aways and keep their man in turquoise to guarantee him of a Wikipedia page to be proud of remains to be seen.
 
Well tonight it was a smart move as Renshaw edged out Goss :D - An Aussie 1-2 in Turkey on Anzac day is pretty neat :)

Gossy is the sprinters leader at the moment :D
 

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Good lord. I just devoured the final four stages in one hit, and it is fair to say there is one stage that sticks out.

ANZAC Day hosted Stage 4, and the Aussies were up and about. First we had Greipel trying to slingshot Hansen off the front of the peloton, but Hansen didn't have the legs to ride away. It ended up with an Australian quinella, Renshaw pipped Goss by about 2 cm. Seriously, it was that close. Spectacular finish on a very strange road surface, there was plenty of dust kicked up by the charging peloton.

Stage 5 was a breakaway win, half of the top ten don't rate a Wikipedia page. Nothing to see here.

Stage 6 was another sprint, Gabrovski had a fantastic defensive day here. He road hard to chase back many breaks. Greipel clearly had been given licence to **** around after his stage 2 domination, he made a very speculative long range attack that did not work for him at all. Team Colnago had a good win in Trentino and backed it up here with Modolo getting the biscuits ahead of Goss and Renshaw. He got a beautiful lead out up the inside line to get the jump on the Australians. Goss locked up the points jersey here and looks good for the Giro.

Now, Stage 7. My word. I will try to do it justice here, but check WF's youtube video for it in all of it's glory. I challenge you not to get out of your seat and/or pump your fist. Keisse put on a performance worthy of a Kaiser, and so did Kirby in the commentary box. Keisse was part of a break, and when they stopped working he put the hammer down and jumped off the front. Looked set for a nice victory, before managing to stack it on the final turn. Then, cool as ice, Keisse doesn't crack the shits. He doesn't chuck his bike. He gets up, and LIKE A FREAKING BOSS, gets on the bike. Now he sees he has dropped his chain, so once again, LIKE A FREAKING BOSS, he puts the chain back on and makes like stink. Meanwhile, Kirby is having a aneurism and everyone watching at home is losing their shit. The peloton powers along and looks certain to ride him down in the final 100m before Keisse turns, sees he is in strife and puts in ONE FINAL DIG for the line before pumping both fists in recognition of a ridiculous victory. Kirby is currently on another planet, he is screaming his head off and is possibly in tears. Someone came second but who cares? If this happened in Le Tour Keisse would be this year's Hoogerland after this great effort. Who cares that he is a convicted doper?

The final stage ended with an Istanbul circuit. Bos rode like a boss to give Rabobank their second win, Renshaw showing he still knows how to lead out a win. Goss crashed toward the end, but he had done enough to claims the green jersey. Gabrovski got the turquoise and a Wikipedia page to boot. Looking at his results, he has been Bulgaria's best cyclist for most of his career, so congratulations to him for getting a result like this.

Overall the race was a good one. Fantastic, epic setting along the Aegean coast, especially stage 3. Turkey is a massive country, so transfers would be difficult if they planned to spread the stages out into other areas. No TTT or ITT meant this race was won from the one stage, so I am unsure if they may want to look at that for next year's event. It is traditionally a flat Tour, and attracts the big sprinters. Highlights were Stage 3 and of course Stage 7.

In other news, Romandie wrapped up and Wiggo took it on the back of a strong ITT. Just to show off he also won a bunch sprint. He is still my pick for le Tour. Giro in a week!

1. TA (Interesting, varied course, 3 possible winners going into the final ITT.)
2. GdT (TTT + 3 mountain stages. Not bothering with flat stages FTW or wasting mountains.)
3. PN (Technically tight until the finish, though Wiggo always looked the winner. Bit of a dull course.)
4. TT (Keisse's win and the epic scenery, including gorges.)
5. TC (Queen stage snowed out, overall race over very early. Still had a strong field with some fun attacks.)
 

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The other TdF warm-up, the Tour de Suisse started last night with the 7k TT around Lugano. Goes up, then a crazy technical descent. My main man Peter Sagan dominated it, winning BSB a tidy sum after paying $7. Thank you Peter! It is a good, quick course and the descent is a great watch. Spartacus came second with a great time, but Sagan had the better descent because he is a beast. This was his ninth win for the year. Spartacus looks like he is almost back to his best. Eurosport had two commentators I hadn't heard before, there was a French (?) guy who was pretty good, and an English bloke who sucked. Needed more Carlton. This race should be a good one, with a pretty decent course and names like Gesink, Fulgslang, Valverde, Anton and Kloden.
 
That was the first time I think I've seen an exciting ITT (Yes last years ITT in the Tour was exciting, but because of the circumstances, not the race).

Sagan had an amazing descent. I can really see him and EBH battling it out over the next 10 years.

My tip for the overall is Robert Gesink. He recorded a pretty good time for someone who isnt a noted TT'er and has the team behind him to really break other riders in the mountains.
 
Good stage last night. Really disappointed to see Sagan as one of the first dropped on the climb. He is much better than that, but I guess he isnt going for the GC, otherwise he would have put in more of an effort.

Surprised to see Rabobank put under pressure. Mollema was dropped early, Ten Dam tried his absolute guts out, but when Gadret attacked that was the end of Rabobank. Gesink fought right to the end and minimised any time lost, but he would have been hoping not to lose any time. Felt really sorry for Frank Schleck went away early only to be caught by Rui Costa with 150m to go. Hope the rest of the race is as good as this stage was.
 
Sagan saving his powder for tonight, he has to be close to a lock and a very good chance for the next four in a row. Really poor result for Gesink, he was the clear favourite before last night. Well done to Frank, it was a good attack. As you say it was a very exciting stage, it is always good to see a finish on the Verbier. Costa timed his run perfectly, and nice to see some Giro boys still in form in Gadret and Nieve to follow on from Moreno's work in the Dauphine. Has to be a good sign for Tour riders in the Olympics.
 
Farcical scenes last night. For those that missed it, the breakaway was @6.30 (roughly) with about 60 km to go. The peleton gets cut in half due to having to wait at a level crossing. Movistar and most of Green Edge got through along with a couple of other riders. They were told to sit up and wait while the breakaway were allowed to continue at race pace. The result: very angry peleton that had to chase down 8'45" in 45km. Luckily they did it with 1km to go, otherwise there would be huge backlash.

Good win by Sagan. Overtook Cooke with a few meters to go after Cooke led out with about 250m to go.
 

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