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Cycling 2012 Thread | Giro d'Italia - Tour de France - Vuelta a Espana Cycling 2012 Thread | Giro d'Italia - Tour de France - Vuelta a Espana

07-01-2012 , 11:50 AM
Also, I haven't looked at the profiles for the rest of the stages, but I've gotta pick Sagan for green. I don't think he will compete with Cav etc. on the pancake run ins, but he'll nab 2nd- 10th points almost always and then make up for it on days like today.
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07-01-2012 , 11:51 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by wutangpoker
Really happy for Sagan, and that was easily the smartest move for him, especially considering the timing of when Cancellara started asking for help, but damn... That just takes me back to when I was 16 and I was the most dominant force to ever enter a Cat. 3 race (overstated purposely). That is the most aggravating feeling in the world when no one will work. But then again, at the next level, I was almost always the guy doing that.

Yeah, Cat II here, been there a number of times,always did too mush work in breaks,but damn there was no way I would just sit in and wheel suck, plus he still would have won easily, not cool.
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07-01-2012 , 11:54 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by gusmahler
Bossen Hagen's sprint was lame. He's supposed to be Cav's lead out guy, so I expected more sprinting ability from him.
He bridged a pretty big gap on his own with Cancellara pouring on the gas not too shocked he didnt have a sprint left. Gilbert was fourth as well not Evans.
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07-01-2012 , 11:55 AM
Sagan is just incredible. Winning his first road stage ever in the Tour must be some kind of record.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gusmahler
Bossen Hagen's sprint was lame. He's supposed to be Cav's lead out guy, so I expected more sprinting ability from him.
lol, he spent all his energy closing the gap. You can't expect him to have much energy left for the sprint.

Once Sagan got Cancellara's wheel, that was basically it.
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07-01-2012 , 11:58 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by JBmadera
True, except that he was in yellow and did 100% of the work, not how it is done normally.
I'm never a fan of the guys that sit in,fake being tried and then pip the stage
Was not "faking" anything. Canc. knew exactly what was going on, hence the super wide pull offs
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07-01-2012 , 12:01 PM
Can anyone post a vid or recap the camera man incident? I only caught the last hour or so.
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07-01-2012 , 12:11 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by JBmadera
Yeah, Cat II here, been there a number of times,always did too mush work in breaks,but damn there was no way I would just sit in and wheel suck, plus he still would have won easily, not cool.
I at least faked effort most of the time but one time at Fitchburg in the Juniors race (on of the few Jr. races in the States worth going to) another kid tried to fight me after on the finish line for sitting on. But it was in a situation where he should have never expected me to help. My team had the yellow jersey up front with one other guy and I was just covering. This kid murdered himself, then started attacking from the front as hard as he could, and then he blew up and I finished 3rd and my teammate kept his yellow jersey. One of the sweetest days in my cycling career...

I don't think I'll ever have as much fun in my life as I did in cycling as a Junior.
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07-01-2012 , 12:16 PM
Froome Punctured on the run in and lost 90 seconds. Shame as he looks in great shape for a top 10 spot and if Wiggins has an accident would be the go to man for sky.
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07-01-2012 , 12:36 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by JBmadera
True, except that he was in yellow and did 100% of the work, not how it is done normally.
I'm never a fan of the guys that sit in,fake being tried and then pip the stage
He didn't fake anything.

And what do you mean "not how done normally"? You think guys from other teams should lower their chance to win a stage in order to help the yellow jersey? Sagan did what he's supposed to do. Cancellara did his best, but should never expect Sagan to pull a lick, especially when Sagan is a top sprinter and Boassen Hagen is in his shadows. Absolutely ludicrous to expect a sprinter to risk a stage win (his first ever) so a non-GC contender can gain a couple seconds on the field (on stage 1, no less).

Sagan should still give Cancellara a big thanks afterwards, though. But Fabian is a pro and knows the situation.
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07-01-2012 , 02:26 PM
What can I say, never liked wheel suckers....probably why I never won very many races.

My only point was that when both guys have something to gain there is usually cooperation....but in the end so what.

I'm sure you had a blast back in your jr cycling days!
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07-01-2012 , 03:41 PM
Pretty clear to me Cancellara was going for the stage at the end and any seconds gap would have been a bonus, imo he should have gone from further out, but after Sagan got on his wheel it was all over in terms of the stage.
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07-01-2012 , 04:30 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by JBmadera
Yeah, they are trying to enhance the visibility of the team classification. Not the best idea on how to accomplish that goal.
The team classification in bull**** and always will be.

Quote:
Originally Posted by gusmahler
Bossen Hagen's sprint was lame. He's supposed to be Cav's lead out guy, so I expected more sprinting ability from him.
EBH has been backing off the whole "Sprinter" thing for a while. I know this year specifically he has been doing a lot of domestique work for Wiggins and is most likely evolving into more of a Classics rider

Quote:
Originally Posted by gusmahler
Meh. They aren't teammates and he has no responsibility to help Cancellara. Sagan's goal was to win the stage and he positioned himself to do so.
Yeah I agree with this, he could have done what Gerrans did in Milan-San Remo and done a courtesy pull or too just to make sure Canc kept pulling to hold of the bunch, but I think Sagan wasn't worried about the bunch catching them since he is in Beast Mode.

Quote:
Originally Posted by wutangpoker
Can anyone post a vid or recap the camera man incident? I only caught the last hour or so.
Essentially a guy stepped into the road to take a photo and didn't get back when the peloton came by, causing a crash in the middle of the bunch. Of course Camera guy didn't get hit.

Quote:
Originally Posted by vedder1980
Froome Punctured on the run in and lost 90 seconds. Shame as he looks in great shape for a top 10 spot and if Wiggins has an accident would be the go to man for sky.
Amazed to see something not go Sky's way! Levi lost 17 seconds, Horner 55, and Peter Velits 1:52. Everyone else finished about where one would expect.

The highlight of the stage for me was watching Greipel pull before the final climb, love watching riders stepping out of their traditional roles. It is amazing how much faster the Tour is raced then any other race on the Calendar.

Tomorrow should be a bunch sprint, been a while since a TdF sprint seamed so wide open to me. It's like Sagan, Kittel, Greipel, and Goss all have a shot at beating The Man.
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07-01-2012 , 04:52 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by another_rack

EBH has been backing off the whole "Sprinter" thing for a while. I know this year specifically he has been doing a lot of domestique work for Wiggins and is most likely evolving into more of a Classics rider
Very much that, anyone who watched the Dauphine and the job he did on early slopes of the col de joux-plane wouldn't be shocked, EBH is going to be a pretty important member of the team in the mountains. As for sky getting bad luck, rodgers also was in the crash caused by idiot with the camera and theres some concern about his health if the team sky twitter is anything to go by. He would obv be a huge loss to Wiggins.

All in all though what an exciting stage, was riveting stuff!
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07-01-2012 , 09:04 PM
Tony Martin and Jerome Pineau may not start tomorrow either.
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07-02-2012 , 08:23 AM
Tony Martin has a broken scaphoid bone, I hope that won't affect his performance at the Olympics too much.
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07-02-2012 , 09:08 AM
Steephill.tv is reporting that Sagan wanted to help pull for Cancellara, but the team told him not to on the radio.
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07-02-2012 , 11:37 AM
Cav again, damn he's good
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07-02-2012 , 11:43 AM
So much for all the Cav doubters.
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07-02-2012 , 11:47 AM
I don't know if Cav will be as dominant in the sprints this year as in previous years though because it has to be a hell of a lot more taxing both physically and mentally to do it on your own rather than sitting on the end of a train.I guess if anyone can do it he can.
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07-02-2012 , 11:49 AM
Looking at all the stage profiles, it's not a very sprinter friendly race this year. Lots of uphill finishes, even on the stages called "flat". Tomorrow is a "medium-mountain" stage, so I don't expect too much from Cav.
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07-02-2012 , 11:53 AM
Was an awesome move just shifting into the Greenedge riders wheel and getting a free ride to 3rd wheel with 400 left. Another entertaining last 10km, roll on tomorrow!
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07-02-2012 , 12:09 PM
Tomorrow looks interesting. The last 700 metres are 7.4 %, so it looks perfect for Gilbert.

Will be interesting though. It's probably too tough for Sagan, but it will be interesting to see if Evans or other GC contenders will try something.
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07-02-2012 , 01:01 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andro
Tomorrow looks interesting. The last 700 metres are 7.4 %, so it looks perfect for Gilbert.

Will be interesting though. It's probably too tough for Sagan, but it will be interesting to see if Evans or other GC contenders will try something.
Tough finish and then all the GC teams for the 5-10km before that trying to get there men into position, its likely to be carnage again like stage 1. Should at the least make for good viewing!
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07-02-2012 , 01:35 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by gusmahler
Looking at all the stage profiles, it's not a very sprinter friendly race this year. Lots of uphill finishes, even on the stages called "flat". Tomorrow is a "medium-mountain" stage, so I don't expect too much from Cav.
Yeah, they were even saying at the start of the broadcast that this was pretty much Cav's only chance at a stage win in the first week.
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07-02-2012 , 02:22 PM
I wouldn't go that far. Yeah, there are 3 "medium-mountain" stages before the TT, but there are also 3 "flat" stages that will probably have bunch sprints at the end.

Here's Wednesday's stage 4.


Thursday's stage 5 seems reasonable for a traditional bunch sprint. Uphill finish, but not drastically so.



Stage 6 has a category 4 hill, but plenty of flat area before the finish

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