PTP Chat [now contains spoilers]

ContrelaMontre

Noodley you haven't joined the RWCP(Rugby World Cup Pundit) - if I'm not going to win the Pink Bananaguard contest then maybe I can salvage some pride in this!

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopi ... 0#14590090

Noodley

ContrelaMontre wrote:

Noodley you haven't joined the RWCP(Rugby World Cup Pundit) - if I'm not going to win the Pink Bananaguard contest then maybe I can salvage some pride in this!

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopi ... 0#14590090

OK then. I have nae interest in rugby, but how difficult can it be to pick 15 overweight blokes who can run a bit

If I can enter tonight I shall take some time to do so. Hopefully I can still enter.

ContrelaMontre

Noodley wrote:

ContrelaMontre wrote:

Noodley you haven't joined the RWCP(Rugby World Cup Pundit) - if I'm not going to win the Pink Bananaguard contest then maybe I can salvage some pride in this!

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopi ... 0#14590090

OK then. I have nae interest in rugby, but how difficult can it be to pick 15 overweight blokes who can run a bit

If I can enter tonight I shall take some time to do so. Hopefully I can still enter.

Superb, that gives me a chance then!!!

Mwahahaha

Noodley

ContrelaMontre wrote:

Noodley wrote:

ContrelaMontre wrote:

Superb, that gives me a chance then!!!

Mwahahaha

That's me entered.

I have not a clue who I have picked - I have heard of a few of them, but mostly potluck. But we already know it's better to be lucky than fast

afx237vi

Watching the TT of the Vuelta now - did they deliberately try to devise the most boring route possible?? Dead straight, dead flat, down a motorway through the desert :? Mind crushingly tedious, but still better than Australia v Japan...

iainf72

afx237vi wrote:

Watching the TT of the Vuelta now - did they deliberately try to devise the most boring route possible?? Dead straight, dead flat, down a motorway through the desert :? Mind crushingly tedious, but still better than Australia v Japan...

It was like drag racing. No parachutes though.

It's the 2nd time in a week I've gone "naaah" on my initial thought and they've come good. Argh.

ridgerider

What an absolutely beautiful time trial.

You can keep your hills and corners, give me a lovely autobahn every time

Bronzie

God that was dull - something tells me the local council are very pround of their brand new section of motorway and are only too pleased to share it's pure straightness with the rest of the World....................well those that didn't fall asleep, anyway.

Great call by Ridgerider to pick Grabsch for the win - even Grabsch is quoted as being surprised he won.

So, a testing stage in the Pyrenees tomorrow and more of the same on Monday..............will Sastre show his hand and try to claw some of the time he lost today back? Obviously, I'm hoping the answer is yes as I've picked him for Stage 9, along with quite a few others!

Since my GC pick of Cunego (currently residing in 118th spot) is obviously missing his mama and would rather be anywhere other than Spain at the minute, I'm changing allegiances to Sastre for the rest of The Vuelta.

LangerDan

I think Devolder will hold on to his jersey for all of about 10 minutes when the road heads uphill tomorrow - he looked absolutely wasted at the end of the TT.

On the Eurosport programme this evening, Harmon was commenting on the fact that none of the DS's wanted to talk to him from the cars as they were "very busy". Later on in the programme, Harmon unwittingly let us know how "busy" they really were as he commentated on Grabsch's start - "And Allan Peiper of T-Mobile pulling off in the team car there". I suppose you do what you can to alleviate the boredom.

andrewgturnbull

Bronzie wrote:

God that was dull - something tells me the local council are very pround of their brand new section of motorway and are only too pleased to share it's pure straightness with the rest of the World....................well those that didn't fall asleep, anyway.

HI there.

I did actually fall asleep, and had to be awoken by Mrs Agt at the end. I did finds out that the only more boring than riding a DC time trial, is watching one though!

It would have been a perfect English TT though - if the roads had been open and there was a convoy of artics charging down the road!

Cheers, Andy

weyayeman

You might be surprised as to how long Devolder holds onto the golden fleece,as he can climb finishing 3rd in the tour of switzerland being an example.
It all depends if menchov,marchante,sastre,and sanchez decide to go all out in the next 2 days.But Devolder is there on merit(wish he'd won the time trial as need the points)

LangerDan

I thought that Devolder would be in trouble, not because he can't clib but because he pushed himself too far yesterday. Most of the contenders finished the TT tired, but only Devolder ended up throwing up over the bike. You can't go that far in to the red and hope to be competitive in the mountains the next day. Unless you ride for Astana, of course

LangerDan

What the hell happened CSC in the Tour Of Poland TTT today? Did they walk?

ridgerider

Blown away be the Tea Boys who can't afford to take it easy in this race if they want a contract for next year!

iainf72

LangerDan wrote:

What the hell happened CSC in the Tour Of Poland TTT today? Did they walk?

Pretty much. They just rode it slowly smiling. Frank even took his hands off the bars and took his glasses off.

It was soaking wet and dangerous.

Possibly the wierdest TTT I've ever seen. 3 laps of a 1km circuit.

iainf72

LangerDan wrote:

I thought that Devolder would be in trouble, not because he can't clib but because he pushed himself too far yesterday. Most of the contenders finished the TT tired, but only Devolder ended up throwing up over the bike. You can't go that far in to the red and hope to be competitive in the mountains the next day. Unless you ride for Astana, of course

Ooooh, that was from his effort, not because he was on a Trek?

:P

He did look like he was in all sorts of trouble. Menchov on the other hand looks as cool as can be.

DaveyL

Ah, so this is where all the non-doping, race-related chat has gone...

Bronzie

Bronzie wrote:

..............will Sastre show his hand and try to claw some of the time he lost today back? Obviously, I'm hoping the answer is yes as I've picked him for Stage 9, along with quite a few others!

Maybe not then - Menchov looks unbeatable at the minute - unless he has a bad day at the office he looks pretty good for the overall this year.

andrewgturnbull

HI folks.

Sastre was great to watch today!

First he played dead when all his team mates had been used up - he went to the back of the group and pretended to be going backwards for the tv cameras. This had the desired effect of putting Menchov and his hired hand Piepoli on the front and destroying the rest majority of what was left of the leading group, plus swallowing up the remnants of the breakaway.

Without stopping to thank them for their good work Sastre then blasted off the front time and time again in attempt to claw back all the time he lost on Saturday. Dropping Menchov was never going to happen though - just ask Heras how hard that it.

DH on eurosport got all carried away and even suggested that Cadel was getting ready to put in an attack towards the end... I'm not sure if Cadel could attack even if trapped inside a wet paper bag...

My pick Sastre did his best to animate the race and get back to the podium, but CSC are going to have to ambush Menchov like LIberty Seguros did 2 years ago.

Cheers, Andy

ps Rabobank winning both Pro Tour races today - how often does that happen?

Stephen Sorba

andrewgturnbull wrote:

ps Rabobank winning both Pro Tour races today - how often does that happen?

The Rabobank men repeated an achievement of the Gerolsteiner from 2005 season when Fabian Wegmann won in Poland and Heinrich Haussler in Spain on the same day.(cycling news)


Every couple of years it would appear!

LangerDan

andrewgturnbull wrote:

HI folks.

Sastre was great to watch today!

First he played dead when all his team mates had been used up - he went to the back of the group and pretended to be going backwards for the tv cameras. This had the desired effect of putting Menchov and his hired hand Piepoli on the front and destroying the rest majority of what was left of the leading group, plus swallowing up the remnants of the breakaway.

Without stopping to thank them for their good work Sastre then blasted off the front time and time again in attempt to claw back all the time he lost on Saturday. Dropping Menchov was never going to happen though - just ask Heras how hard that it.

?

It would seem that Sastre was out to prove a point....

Menchov wins stage, denies collaboration
Monday, 10 September 2007 20:54
Russia's Denis Menchov strengthened his grip on the Tour of Spain with a convincing summit finish win in the 10th stage on Monday but faced an accusation that he had been helped by a rival team rider.


Menchov denied the accusation by Spaniard Carlos Sastre, fifth in the stage and fourth overall, that the Russian and stage nine winner Leonardo Piepoli of Italy had collaborated on the climb to the Arcalis summit to spike Sastre's attacks.

'It's an absolute disgrace when a rider from another team helps the leader,' Sastre said.

Menchov, who rides for the Rabobank team, was the fastest of a group of eight riders at the summit, with Australian Cadel Evans second and Spain's Samuel Sanchez third.

After the Tour of Spain's second Pyrenean stage there was no change in the overall top three, with Menchov leading second-placed fellow Russian Vladimir Efimkin by two minutes and one second and third-placed Evans by 2:27.

Sastre made four unsuccessful attacks on the climb which were closely shadowed by Saunier Duval-Prodir rider Piepoli.

'It's completely out of order. This race could have been a lot more beautiful without alliances like that. I even dropped back at one point to see what they were up to,' Sastre said.

Menchov, however, said: 'Piepoli has his own style of attacking, we didn't talk on the stage, there was no agreement.

'It's true we are friends but nothing more than that. If other riders get dropped when Leo attacks, they get dropped.'

Piepoli's team director Joxean Fernandez said on the Tour of Spain Web site: 'There is no pact between Rabobank and Saunier Duval. Saunier Duval race for Saunier Duval.'

In Sunday's ninth stage Piepoli and Menchov finished together ahead of the field, with Piepoli taking the stage and Menchov the overall race lead.

Piepoli said on Sunday it was 'natural' that he should take the day's stage honours after they had shared the final climb.

The Italian said of Monday's row: 'These comments were made by Sastre in the heat of the moment, just after finishing.

'All I did was ride my own race and try and make it difficult for everybody. The only rider who attacked up until four kilometres from the finish was me.'

Greggyr

I thought Manny Beltran was going to come up trumps for me in the PTP, but I was glad to see Cadel finish well

mangaman

I just thought I'd remind everyone that the Vuelta was where I began my sprint for last year's title and I have picked Menchov for the overall

Not counting my chickens or anything but just telling everyone to beware

I always like to wait till the last km before launching my virtual counter attack from the middle of the virtual group

andrewgturnbull

mangaman wrote:

I just thought I'd remind everyone that the Vuelta was where I began my sprint for last year's title and I have picked Menchov for the overall

Not counting my chickens or anything but just telling everyone to beware

I always like to wait till the last km before launching my virtual counter attack from the middle of the virtual group

Hi there.

Ah, and the Vuelta last year was won by whom? We can always rescind your points should Vino's doping investigation stretch back that far...

Hope you've kept that apron nice and clean!

Cheers, Andy

mangaman

If we scrub out the dodgy characters from my points last year I'd probably have got almost no points!

I seem to remember getting a load for Jan winning the Tour de Suisse

The apron is still in tip-top shape

As I said before, now the site has changed they'll probably upgrade the prize this year.
Instead of my crappy apron, this year's winner will probably win a year's job as Vicky Pendleton's personal masseur or something

andyp

mangaman wrote:

The apron is still in tip-top shape

As I said before, now the site has changed they'll probably upgrade the prize this year.
Instead of my crappy apron, this year's winner will probably win a year's job as Vicky Pendleton's personal masseur or something

I wager it'll be an apron but this year it'll be a Rapha apron.

ridgerider

Strong performances on Spanish soil...open "Operation Mangaman" I say

Scrub the Vuelta and promote the TdPoland to Grand status!