2013 Cycling Thread (Tour de France is upon us!)

[DaddyTorgo]

Thanks beIN Sport!

I get to watch a bunch of good cycling these days: the Tour of Romandie, Milan-San Remo, Tirino-Adriatico, Paris-Nice, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and now it's time for the Giro and the Dauphine before the TdF.

Giro Day 1 is on now.

[DaddyTorgo]

Nice recovery by Cav after his train splintered on the turns of Naples. I was impressed by the the speed at which Canondale and Orica took things out over the last 4-5k....they kept great groupings.

I keep hoping we'll see Cav with a train like the old HTC days, but I guess we'll never see that again - he's been doing it mostly all by himself the past couple seasons in comparison, but man that was a hell of a finish by him after being forced to close the gap on his own and to come around all the remnants of the other teams.

[bhlloy]

Cav is ridiculous right now.

I'm very interested to see how success has affected Wiggo's preparations for a grand tour. I have a feeling Nibali might leave him in the dust, but we'll see.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Cav is ridiculous right now.

I'm very interested to see how success has affected Wiggo's preparations for a grand tour. I have a feeling Nibali might leave him in the dust, but we'll see.

Cav is insane. It looked for sure like he was in trouble when his train exploded and then Steegman couldn't keep him in contact, but he just burst around him and took the wheel and then came through the traffic of guys peeling off and eeked it out. Just crazy.

Froom has been in great form too though so far this season, so that will be interesting re: Wiggins.

[bhlloy]

Yeah, Sky are kind of in a no win situation - obviously they want a Giro win but if Wiggins does win here the pressure to let him take a shot at repeating the Tour is going to be ridiculous. I think Froome is the better rider and he deserves the support after last year.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Yeah, Sky are kind of in a no win situation - obviously they want a Giro win but if Wiggins does win here the pressure to let him take a shot at repeating the Tour is going to be ridiculous. I think Froome is the better rider and he deserves the support after last year.

That pressure would make zero sense to begin with. For the Giro-Tour combo it's impossible to be a top GC contender in both races.

Sky made the right decision in throwing Bradley Wiggins in as their Giro GC rider and Chris Froome as the Tour GC man, with Richie Porte as the backup plan.

[Critch]

Worst thing that could happen for Sky is if Wiggins loses a few minutes in an early stage and drops out of contention. It would allow him to take it easy the rest of the way and save his best for the Tour.

It seems that Froome would be the best chance for Sky at the tour with this year's schedule, but surely Wiggins would deserve some support to defend his title. Even if it's just a few stages of the team waiting to see which of their leaders shows up before deciding.

And I would like to echo the three cheers for beIN sports for covering the Giro.

[DaddyTorgo]

Whoops - never posted my thoughts on Stage 2.

Sky are obviously ridiculous, there was never any question about that.

I was surprised about the crap showings put in by some of the other big teams (Garmin, I'm looking at you). RadioShack didn't really have a TTT team in the race it seems.

Serious serious props to Movistar though. Those guys rode their fucking asses off and were amazing - I especially liked that they brought extra guys home all at basically the same time, so it was a case of the whole team was basically prepped for it, rather than some of the other teams (Lampre, etc) who just brought 5 riders in to the finish line.

Watching Stage 3 now.

[DaddyTorgo]

Hesjedal looked real strong today in Stage 3. He definitely came to play. Love the big technical descents almost as much as the big climbs.

Rough break for Scarponi on the last descent...bummer.

Love seeing a native take a stage - good win for Paolini as he takes the overall lead.

[AlexB]

Still don't quite get why Sky worked to get the breakway back, other than a token effort to honour the maglia rosa.

If they let the break succeed, it would have allowed the members to eat up the bonus seconds at no cost to Wiggins, but instead they did a bit of work, and ended up costing themselves 12 seconds to Evans (probably not an issue) and 6 seconds to Hesjedal (which could be important).

[bhlloy]

If you give Cav a leadout like that he's not going to lose from the front

[DaddyTorgo]

Grr - spoiler bhlloy!!

Still been watching, just didn't have anything to say profound about the last couple days. Actually dozed off yesterday mid-race when I was watching it last night and woke up right after the end as they were recapping it.

[bhlloy]

Not the Giro, but the first two days of the Amgen tour of California have been insane - a lot of the Europeans in the field just can't handle the heat. 115 today and a brutal uphill finish, Tejay Van Garderen looking good for the GC although he lost the stage today to Acevedo. Very interesting racing.

[DaddyTorgo]

This thread is for all cycling bhlloy - feel free to talk about the Amgen tour.

I was a bit behind on the Giro, just caught up tonight. Have to watch the first 2 days of the Tour of California, and also the Tour of Turkey going on right now I guess?

[DaddyTorgo]

Man - Nibali just took the Giro by the balls in the end didn't he? He looked really good - some amazing climbing. Course I wonder if he burned too much of his energy to contend in the Tour de France now?

Tour of California - not a surprise that Teejay won, but nice to see. I missed the last couple stages for some reason - I can't remember why.

Catching up on the Dauphine right now - i have like 4 days worth to watch.

[DaddyTorgo]

Froome really put Contador on notice there in Stage 5 of the Dauphine. He let Alberto attack and waited, and then just ripped right on by him to win the stage.

That's gotta mess with Contador's head.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Man - Nibali just took the Giro by the balls in the end didn't he? He looked really good - some amazing climbing. Course I wonder if he burned too much of his energy to contend in the Tour de France now?

Actually, Nibali won't ride Le Tour de France, it wasn't on his schedule for this season.
Astana instead will look at Jakob Fuglsang for the GC. He looks in good shape in Critérium du Dauphiné.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

Actually, Nibali won't ride Le Tour de France, it wasn't on his schedule for this season.
Astana instead will look at Jakob Fuglsang for the GC. He looks in good shape in Critérium du Dauphiné.

Yeah - I hadn't heard about this...apparently I don't keep up on my cycling "news" in between races.

No Nibali for the Tour. Also, no Cancellara, and (again, unsurprisingly), no Tom Boonen.

with no Nibali and no Wiggins it does open things up a bit. The course is apparently very mountinous this year - it might open things up for one of the guys who isn't great at TT: Samuel Sanchez on Euskatel or Joaquin Rodriguez on Katusha would be cool. Or maybe Cadel will finally pack it in and let Teejay take a run at the GC for BMC?

Be interesting to see if A. Schleck and Contador can still compete. Does Hesjedal get better and get into top shape? And even if he does, is Garmin a strong enough team? They have a lot of TT guys and a pretty big dedication to Farrar.

The one thing we know is that no matter how much they try to build up Sagan/Griepal/Goss that Cavendish will be wearing the green jersey on the ride into Paris.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Yeah - I hadn't heard about this...apparently I don't keep up on my cycling "news" in between races.

No Nibali for the Tour. Also, no Cancellara, and (again, unsurprisingly), no Tom Boonen.

with no Nibali and no Wiggins it does open things up a bit. The course is apparently very mountinous this year - it might open things up for one of the guys who isn't great at TT: Samuel Sanchez on Euskatel or Joaquin Rodriguez on Katusha would be cool. Or maybe Cadel will finally pack it in and let Teejay take a run at the GC for BMC?

Be interesting to see if A. Schleck and Contador can still compete. Does Hesjedal get better and get into top shape? And even if he does, is Garmin a strong enough team? They have a lot of TT guys and a pretty big dedication to Farrar.

The one thing we know is that no matter how much they try to build up Sagan/Griepal/Goss that Cavendish will be wearing the green jersey on the ride into Paris.

It's going to be a weird Tour de France. They're skipping the Pyrenees and to me it appears as a flat Tour with many mass sprint or elite group sprint stages. Interestingly enough, the real mountain stages are all scheduled in the third week, after the second ITT.

You can cross Samuel Sanchez off that list too, he's also not going to ride.
And Andy Schleck's form is puzzlingly horrible enough that I'm skeptic about his chances to do anything. I'm mentally crossing Cadel Evans off as well, he rode too well in the Giro d'Italia to be competitive (the number of riders that rode top10 in back-to-back Giro-Tour combo's are extremely rare. Which makes Ryder Hesjedal a big question mark, he was supposed to peak in the Giro, but will be forced into rider the Tour now...

For the overall GC, it could be a weird top10, with not enough proven GC riders to even come into play. Sky will bring Froome, I'm counting out Uran and Richie Porte will get a chance to show he's better than a one-week rider. Astana will be there with Fuglsang and Brajkovic, but neither look like three-week riders to me. Lotto's Van Den Broeck has yet to show himself, getting sick in every stage race he's been in this season. BMC has Evans and Van Garderen, I'm looking at Tejay for now. RadioShack, well, Schleck is hopeless right now, it'll have to be one of the oldies Klöden and Haimar Zubeldia. SaxoBank is coming in with their guns loaded. Contador, Kreuziger, Rogers and Nicolas Roche are a foursome that can challenge the Sky train.

Other teams? Europcar has Rolland, he has shown he can do it, but is he top5 material? FDJ's Pinot will be there, he looks in shape. Katusha has Joaquim Rodriguez, but don't count out Dani' Moreno and Spilak yet. Euskaltel will look at Anton and Nieve, but I'm not sure they can do it. Movistar is switching from Valverde to Rui Costa, both can do it, and if Quintana starts, they have another ace up their sleeves. The remaining teams with GC contenders will be Blanco's Gesink and Mollema, Garmin's Hesjedal, Daniel Martin, AG2R's Peraud and Gadret and Vacansoleil's De Gendt. I'm also counting out Lampre's Cunego and possibly underestimating Cofidis' Coppel and Taaramäe.

[DaddyTorgo]

Yep - just catching up on the Dauphine and I hear Sanchez isn't going either.

Don't like them skipping the Pyrenees - I like mountain stages.

Agree with you on it going to be a weird tour.

Evans is toast - Teejay is the hope for BMC. Evans rode "well" in the Giro, but it wasn't well enough, and based on like you said, it being virtually impossible to do both, and his "best" there not being well enough to win the Giro, I don't think he's a serious threat.
Astana & Lotto aren't bringing legit podium contenders IMO.
Schleck looked horrible in the Tour of California, so we'll see, but he may be an afterthought this year, yeah. And I don't buy the "Old Guys" on RadioShack as GC contenders.
I don't like Sky.
And I don't like Contador either, so I'm not rooting for Saxo.
Maybe it opens up for Joaquin Rodriguez (if he can minimize losses in the ITT)
Is Menchov riding? He's always sneaky up-there. Doesn't look like he's retired yet...
I like the Movistar guys as dark-horses for a podium/legit contenders for stage wins.
I don't buy Gesink as a GC contender.
We'll see if Hesjedal can do it - not sure the Garmin team is strong enough to help him.

It'll be interesting, maybe a changing of the guard.

[bhlloy]

Hesjedal looks like he could be out of the TdF completely, very nasty crash in the Tour de Suisse today

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Hesjedal looks like he could be out of the TdF completely, very nasty crash in the Tour de Suisse today

Aak - that's too bad.

I finished the Dauphine yesterday - I have what...2-3 days of the TdS to catch up on tonight.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Is Menchov riding? He's always sneaky up-there. Doesn't look like he's retired yet...

Well... Menchov retired about a month and a half ago.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

Well... Menchov retired about a month and a half ago.

Aaah. I saw that he had 2 finishes listed on his wikipedia page for 2013 and no end-date on his career with Katusha, but I kinda thought it was funny I hadn't seen him in any of the preparatory races so I wondered, hence my question . Guess nobody updated his wikipedia page.

Bummer. Always a fun rider.

[DaddyTorgo]

Jelle Vanendert is out of the TdF for Lotto - intestinal parasite. Makes things harder for Jurgen Van Den Broeck.

[DaddyTorgo]

OMG - I'm jealous.

One of our clients just told me that for his brother-in-law's 70th birthday they are all going to Paris for the final stage. His sister-in-law works at CBS and apparently got them seats on one of the viewing stands like...right at the finish.

[DaddyTorgo]

Well that was a crazy day.

Silly organizers.
Crazy crashes on some of those narrow roads. I saw an unconfirmed report that Tony Martin broke his collarbone and is out - but then I saw that he finished, so I'm not sure which of those two to believe. Hopefully he's not out - that would be a big blow to Cav as there's nobody who could take him down to flame rouge than Martin.

Nice win for Kittel - not that he was competing against anybody top-class, but a win is a win, and he gets the jersey for a day.

[bhlloy]

Yes, that was chaotic. Is there precedent for just stopping the peleton until the bus was cleared? Regardless, telling the riders that the finish was at 3km when they were less than 3km out from there was nuts. If the finish had actually been there, think we'd have seen even more nasty crashes on that bend.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

I saw an unconfirmed report that Tony Martin broke his collarbone and is out - but then I saw that he finished, so I'm not sure which of those two to believe.

"Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team rider Tony Martin crashed during the final kilometers of Tour de France Stage 1 on Saturday. He finished the race, but after the finish he was transported to the General Hospital of Bastia, where he passed a few examinations. The CT scan excluded fractures.

However, he has a concussion and a contusion on his left lung. He also has soft tissue damages on his hip, chest, left knee and shoulder, and also on his back. Furthermore, he has a very deep wound 5cm wide on his left elbow that reaches his muscles, which causes a lot of pain and a problem moving his arm. Tony Martin will join the rest of the team tonight after today's examinations. Any decision on his participation at the second stage of the Tour de France will be taken after considering how the clinical situation evolves during the night.""

So still kind of in the Tour, but doesnt sound like he'll be in for long or very effective.

[AlexB]

Edited due to an apparent lack of geographical knowledge

[DaddyTorgo]

Hell of a TTT yesterday. Great ride by OGE obviously, didn't see that coming necessarily. I enjoy team time trail, even though I guess the organizer's feel that it's not that exciting, but I think it's a great exhibition and test of the team's total ability and how well they work together.

Things should get interesting now - settling in to watch today's stage.

[DaddyTorgo]

Rough crash for Brajkevic today. Will make it tough for Astana in the GC battle it sounds like, I guess they'll shoot for some stage wins now.

I'll have to go back and watch that again closer and see what happened to Quickstep's train - looked like it just fell apart in the last 5k or so, and Cav got boxed in.

Nicely done by Greipel and Lotto.

[DaddyTorgo]

This just in

Brajkovic Out Of Tour De France | Cyclingnews.com

Astana down to 6. Going to be a long tough road for Fugelsang without Brajkovic (who was a viable 2nd or even 1st option himself).

And for those who wondered (as I did) why no Quickstep riders went back to help Cav and pace him back up after his crash (until Velits dropped back late)

Originally Posted by cyclingnews.com

Holm also gave some insight into what happened when Cavendish crashed, why his teammates didn't wait for him and about the sprint. He revealed that the team's radios were not working. That is why no Omega Pharma-Quick Step riders dropped back to help Cavendish get back on after his crash.

So a bit of a comedy of errors & misfortune for Cav today. Definitely makes things more interesting though - it's fun when he's not just riding away from EVERYONE but actually has to try.

[bhlloy]

Very cool gesture by OGE and Gerrans to hand over the yellow jersey to Impey (first african rider to wear it) with the race heading into the mountains. I know in the long term it doesn't make that much of a difference but still most riders would want to wear it for the extra day and OGE would probably rather an Aussie rider wearing it for the domestic market.

[MIJB#19]

I don't think it was much of a gesture, as it was likely to happen today. Impey is a better sprinter than Gerrans, usually, and needed to finish only 8 spots ahead of Gerrans to leapfrog his teammate. But then, I actually expected it to happen yesterday.

[bhlloy]

eh, it might have happened anyway, but both team and riders have been pretty clear that it was planned.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

eh, it might have happened anyway, but both team and riders have been pretty clear that it was planned.

Sure, no disrespect meant. Just saying that as much as planning and such, it was likely to happen, but it still meant they had to survive, obviously.

[DaddyTorgo]

Jeezus Quintana - nice climbing.

Too bad Betancur isn't riding the Tour too. The Colombian revolution is awesome.

Nice tactics by Sky, but, similar to what Cannondale did yesterday that made the stage sort of boring to watch, hopefully today's results don't do the same to the next couple weeks of the tour. Valverde hung in really well - I was honestly surprised by how well he hung in, and by how poorly some of the other GC contenders did (Contador looked pretty weak, Joquim Rodriguez was disappointing, Tejay, Cadel and Schleck cracked massively early). Pulling for Movistar now!

That being the case, it is a long race, and there's plenty of time for something to change to shakeup the GC standings. Just hoping it does - it's more fun when there's more at stake then when everyone is locked in.

[AlexB]

You'll enjoy today's stage then

Never seen a TdF day like it. Amazing stuff!

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by AlexB

You'll enjoy today's stage then

Never seen a TdF day like it. Amazing stuff!

Just fired it up, thanks for giving me a heads up and not spoiling it at the same time though. Looking forward to it!

Literally just firing it up. Bob Roll "Chris Froome in trouble at the moment...no teammates in the very small group with him."

[DaddyTorgo]

(partway thru)

RIDE MOVISTAR RIDE!!!!!

[bhlloy]

That was an incredible stage.

Spoiler just in case DT hasn't finished it and I get yelled at again

Spoiler

Pretty crappy result for movistar to not put in more work on the final climb and to miss out on the stage win, with that many great climbers in the final group. I'm not sure what they were thinking but I doubt they will get another great chance to get Froome unprotected like that again.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

That was an incredible stage.

Spoiler just in case DT hasn't finished it and I get yelled at again

Spoiler

Pretty crappy result for movistar to not put in more work on the final climb and to miss out on the stage win, with that many great climbers in the final group. I'm not sure what they were thinking but I doubt they will get another great chance to get Froome unprotected like that again.

I didn't YELL at you before, did I?

And I finished it. Hell yeah I finished it.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

That was an incredible stage.

Spoiler just in case DT hasn't finished it and I get yelled at again

Spoiler

Pretty crappy result for movistar to not put in more work on the final climb and to miss out on the stage win, with that many great climbers in the final group. I'm not sure what they were thinking but I doubt they will get another great chance to get Froome unprotected like that again.

Yeah - I sort of wondered that too. It seemed the obvious play, but maybe there were all exhausted. That's all i can think of frankly. I mean Quintana took it out early, but they had others who I would have thought could have put the hammer down. Maybe none of them were feeling great, or maybe they were just all exhausted. Shame they couldn't do more, but moving their man up a spot was a good accomplishment all-in-all I guess.

[Critch]

I've been fairly digging the Tour de France daily podcast from HumansInvent.com

With Britain suddenly being TdF crazy because we win it every year there's a selection of English-language podcasts to pick from, but the HumansInvent.com one if the pick of the bunch for me.

[whomario]

from a competition standpoint i find it very tough to follow cycling anymore (even doping aside, there´s not enough time) but can´t help but watch at least a few stages of the tour this year.

Today and tomorrow will be extremely pleasing aesthetically btw, with the finish at St Malo today and right below the Mont St Michel tomorrow. Both are spots that are just stunning visuals.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Critch

I've been fairly digging the Tour de France daily podcast from HumansInvent.com

With Britain suddenly being TdF crazy because we win it every year there's a selection of English-language podcasts to pick from, but the HumansInvent.com one if the pick of the bunch for me.

Every year?

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by whomario

from a competition standpoint i find it very tough to follow cycling anymore (even doping aside, there´s not enough time) but can´t help but watch at least a few stages of the tour this year.

Today and tomorrow will be extremely pleasing aesthetically btw, with the finish at St Malo today and right below the Mont St Michel tomorrow. Both are spots that are just stunning visuals.

What do you mean from a competition standpoint - just that it takes so much time to watch it?

Yeah - these should be a couple of the more beautiful stages this year.

[MIJB#19]

Spoiler

*yawn* 3+ minutes advantage for Christopher Froome already. Unless the Sky train gets blown off track, they are at full speed heading for back-to-back victories. It does have the potential to get boring though.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

Spoiler

*yawn* 3+ minutes advantage for Christopher Froome already. Unless the Sky train gets blown off track, they are at full speed heading for back-to-back victories. It does have the potential to get boring though.

Yeah - I haven't watched today yet obviously, since I'm in the office, but from what I just read on the PCM board accidentally, it seems that

Spoiler

Froome was only 12 seconds behind Tony Martin, who was totally gassed, and Froome looked totally unaffected as he put another 2 minutes on every other favorite? Seems pretty clear to me at this point that he's doping. If the best TT rider in the world is completely gassed at the end of a TT and the guy who just put 1:30 into the other favorites on a mountain stage pulls in 12 seconds behind him totally not-gassed and 2 minutes ahead of the other GC riders then he's dirty. No question in my mind.

Wiggins last year too is probably quite likely. It'll all be straightened-out eventually of course, but it does make it boring to watch as it affects the tactics of the other teams during the race itself. Race is on for 2nd place, or "First Clean Rider."

Maybe that's why I've started to like the sprints more, and the race for the polka-dot jersey, because at least those guys are single-discipline specialists and seem to have a higher probability of being clean as a result.

I really think lifetime, sport-wide bans on first-offense for doping are the only solution with enough consequence to affect these guys and really force change.