Tdu 2012

[Freakie]

Down under classic on now http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/cycling/

I'm heading over for the day next Saturday.

 

[Arsene Wenger]

awesome crowd again. Great race... cant wait for the Saturday stage at Willunga !!

 

[EnglishKangaFan]

Wish I booked my flight tickets now :/

Anyways

Predictions?

I think that Ryder Hesjedal may walk away with a GC win by getting up on Saturday. The hilly finish on Saturday will create gaps so I think we should be looking at a punchy type of rider.

 

[swuzzlebubble]

Depends if a sprinter can get enough seconds in the sprints or the results get spread around.
If they are spread out then a climber could do enough stage 5.

 

[Bond.ShaneBond]

EBH or Gerrans are my picks. EBH has the talent, Gerrans has the exposed form.

 

[Freakie]

Haas can climb, I'm all aboard.

 

[EnglishKangaFan]

Yeah I looked at EBH but he has said that the team is set to work for Matty Haymen for the GC, if it's true I can't see him picking up many bonus seconds

And I would never rule out Gerrans. His win in the NC was pretty impressive, but I don't think GreenEDGE will try to force the pace on Sat

Going to be interesting tho... looking forward to it

 

[mattys123]

Andre Greipel wins the first stage.

Pettachi a close second.

Thank you Channel Nine for buying the rights then showing us only the last 2 stages.

 

[Freakie]

Yep piss poor. They are streaming highlights online from 7pm (link in OP) whilst they show re-runs of Magyver and 2 1/2 men

 

[mattys123]

Now this is cool;

Close finish indeed.

 

[Arsene Wenger]

What a great win today by William Clarke in a breakaway and then on his own... Super effort

 

[Slax]

Thank you Channel Nine for buying the rights then showing us only the last 2 stages.

Unfortunately Cycling is another sport who has sold rights to the highest bidder and failed to take into account how much exposure they will actually get.

This is the whole reason why SBS keep getting the World Cup rights from FIFA, they don't offer the most money, but they demand that all games must be shown live on the main channel and none of the commercial networks are willing to do this.

Cycling has received a massive boost with GreenEdge and its a shame that we don't have SBS who would be giving TDU proper coverage.

 

[Freakie]

Too true unfortunately, I'm off to radelaide tomorrow to watch!

 

[blackcat]

Greipel is in the secpnd group, Bling'a'Matthews 4 redemption.

 

[Timmy from Thomastown]

Thank you Channel Nine for buying the rights then showing us only the last 2 stages.

We're not even seeing that. Just show us the bike race, Nine, we dont care about talking heads at at desk crapping on about nothing!

 

[mattys123]

Great finish, shame for Gerrans and Rogers that they couldn't hold Valverde off, but that was a world class finish, if you'd just turned it on you would have though it would be a mountain top finish in Europe.

The tour will get massive coverage out of Valverde winning on his return, every cycling publication worldwide will be running the news right now.

Gerrans was brave, maybe went a touch early, but at least he tried to win.

Reports that Gerrans has the leaders jersey, no idea why.

Great stuff though.

 

[Freakie]

What an awesome day, just sat down on the plane to fly home, I was the guy in the blue tshirt running beside the leaders up willunga!!

 

[mattys123]

What an awesome day, just sat down on the plane to fly home, I was the guy in the blue tshirt running beside the leaders up willunga!!

As long as you weren't the guy running along side the peleton in an adult diaper, all's good.

 

[Freakie]

As long as you weren't the guy running along side the peleton in an adult diaper, all's good.

I was running next to him, he was a pisser (Drunk as well)!! One of the katusha riders that had been dropped grabbed a beer from him and sculled half of it on the way up!

 

[mattys123]

I was running next to him, he was a pisser (Drunk as well)!! One of the katusha riders that had been dropped grabbed a beer from him and sculled half of it on the way up!

Now if that doesn't say "Tour Down Under" I don't know what does.

Stage has started, Greipel for the stage win and Gerrans for the overall my tips.

 

[Bond.ShaneBond]

Nice tips mattys123!

Sounds great Freakie. I would love to go next year. What are the logistics like of getting up the Hill?

Great result for GreenEDGE. They were on a but of a hiding to nothing if they didn't pull it off, but Gerrans delivered big time. Takes a lot of pressure off the team for the rest of the year. It was also good seeing Valverde back and in form. He is an exciting rider.

 

[Freakie]

Its pretty easy, we just hired a car and drove to the start (about 45km from Adelaide) then headed to the base of the climb about 7km away and just walked up with about 30,000 other people!

 

[Arsene Wenger]

Willunga Hill is an awesome spot to watch. We rode up about 800 metres from the top and got in a good spot to watch them fly up !! I still cant belieive how quickly these top guys climb hills...

On the ride back we managed to latch on to Saxo Bank and Astana teams riding back and sat with them all the way home... was pretty sweet.