The Worlds Prediction thread

iainf72

Right, it's not part of the PTP, so how about some educated guesses or wishful thinking for the Worlds. Erm, I'll only mention elite mens because that's all my narrow view is concerned with :oops:

Mens TT : If Cancellera turns up and doesn't fall off no one will beat him

Mens RR : More difficult. Bettini must be a challenger to defend, but Di Luca a few of the other Italians are equally capable. If Valverde is there is must suit him too. Not sure about the Germans though.

Is anyone outside of the Italians or Spanish likely to do anything?

ContrelaMontre

As it's the Worlds it's pretty impossible to have dead-cert favourites, but I'm backing Oscarito for the RR (with Millar getting a top 10 finish)!

Not sure about TT (haven't looked at course) but I'd hope for top-5 (maybe a medal) for our Bradley. But difficult to look beyond The Big Chin Fabian to win, especially with Klödi out injured.

My two pennorth anyway.

LangerDan

Rebellin and Schumacher have both got a good chance and if Sammy Sanchez can hold his form for another week, he should be in with a shout too.

However, if it comes down to a small group of 20-30 riders, I wouldn't rule out a small, Spanish sprinter making the cut.

Bronzie

Courses
Provisional Start List


Elite Men's RR:
Favourites have got to be Freire, Bettini or Di Luca. Schumacher will be very motivated as he is a local boy but I can't see him beating the faves. Outside chance for riders like Gilbert, Maxime Monfort, Sam Sanchez, Thomas Voeckler, Sylvain Chavanel, Voigt, Pozatto, either of the Schlecks, or one of the Russians (Karpets, Efimkin or Gusev).
I'll go with Bettini to be the first rider to win back-to-back Worlds since Bugno in 1991.

Elite Men's TT:
Cancellara has got be hot favourite, but other names worth considering are Bodrogi, Popovych, Karpets, Marcus Fothen, Bert Grabsch (hot on the heels of his Vuelta win), and not forgetting Millar or Bradders. I'll go with Popovych to cause an upset!

Women's RR:
Marianne Vos is in pretty good form and high spirits no doubt. I'll go with her to do the World Cup / World Champ double.

Espoirs RR:
I'll go with Nikolai Trusov.

SteveR_100Milers

Mens RR either Bettini or Freire, I'll go for Freire.
Mens TT Cancellara must be favourite, but Karpets might just do it. Karpets for me then.
Womens RR - Has to be Vos
Womens TT - Wendy H

drenkrom

Men's RR: If his lawyers get lucky and he rides (something I'm not really hoping for), Valverde has to right up there in the faves. It would really suck if he got to ride and won, but he can't be overlooked with such a course. If my wishes are realized and Valv.Piti can't ride, I'd go for Bettini. If not him, I'm looking for a blistering late attack by Pipo with Shumacher and Pipo taking it on the line.

Men's TT: Fabian, of course. I'd never neglect Dave Z, though.

Women's RR: Vos is the boss.

Women's TT: I haven't the faintest idea.

ricadus

Womens RR: I'd go for Vos, but she is going to be watched this year. Last year she, like Friere in 1999, was underestimated, so she got the jump in the sprint. Still, having pinched the overall World Cup title this year at the last moment, the pressure for a big result would be off a little bit now. Alternatively Nicole Brändli could be a good bet for a break away over the hills in the last lap.

Womens TT: .....no idea of the contenders... so I'll support Team GB.

Mens RR: Freire can climb so I'll go for him if a bunch sprint; or Ballan in a breakaway group.

Mens TT; Cancellara (the Roger Federer of cycling TTs)

Under 23s: Not really interested; last year's was pretty dull.

timoid.

Men's RR: I think Bettini has gone off the boil and Di Luca will be the leader for the Azurri. I don't know if Valverde will race, but if he does he'll contest it with the Killer. Frank Schleck shouldn't be overlooked either. The Luxembourg team has a few top top riders in its ranks and will be able to put one of the Schlecks or Kirchen in position. So as I can't stand Di Luca and don't think Valverde will ride, I'll go with Frank Schleck.

Men's TT: I think Guttieriez will be in good form and motivated. I'll plump for him ahead of the obvious Cancellara.

laurencecp

no idea... so i'll cheer for my faves

women's tt & rr - Judith Arndt
men's tt - Fab fabien
men's rr - dunno - who's still fit?

andrewgturnbull

Hi folks.

Men's RR: Oscar "cuatro triunfos" Freire
Men's TT: Fab Cancellera

Cheers, Andy

drenkrom

Would Freire be the first to get 4 WCs? One cycling factoid that slipped my mind.

LangerDan

drenkrom wrote:

Would Freire be the first to get 4 WCs? One cycling factoid that slipped my mind.

He'd be the first to get 4 road titles. If Mick Rogers wins the TT this week, he'd have 4 titles too. Multiple titles are more common on the track and cyclocross worlds

Noodley

andrewgturnbull wrote:

Hi folks.

Men's RR: Oscar "cuatro triunfos" Freire
Men's TT: Fab Cancellera

Cheers, Andy

what agt said :roll:

andyp

I think many teams know they have to get rid of Friere if they want to win it so that may mean we see some of the major nations colluding to open the race up a bit by making it hard earlier than you'd expect.

If you look at the Italian team selection I think it's clear Ballerini feels it'll be a whittling down process and he'll need some attacking riders to go with breaks in the last 100 kms.

I'm not sure who'll win but I think it'll be one of Friere, Bettini or Schumacher. All of them can climb and sprint so are the kind of riders who should prosper on this course.

iainf72

LangerDan wrote:

He'd be the first to get 4 road titles. If Mick Rogers wins the TT this week, he'd have 4 titles too. Multiple titles are more common on the track and cyclocross worlds

If Mick won it would be a major upset - And when you factor in that he's not even one of the Australians for the TT, well the odds get even higher 8)

http://www.cycling.org.au/Content/Navig ... _Austr.htm

jocksyboy

what about wiggins though? he did win duo normand at the weekend-( and yes i know he had some help....)

CM92S4E

Freire for the road race, and a really wild punt at Wiggins for the TT

GroupOfOne MkII

The finish does look slighty uphill drag which should make the inevitable sprint more entertaining.

Watching the Women's TT today there seemed to be some pretty tight corners and narrow sections on the run in to the finish (pretty sure it was on the section of the TT course that is also used in the RR), but I guess they might move the barriers back a bit for the RR.

One of the final corners just before it starts going uphill with about 1k to go could be a good place for a last ditch dig off the front.

Men's TT - Cancellara
Men's RR - Quite fancy Ballan and with this gently rising finish it might play more into his hands than someone like Freire, though he's bound to still feature. Sanchez too could do well, though I'm sure I read recently that all the previous few world champions had abandoned the Vuelta with a few days to go, so maybe Sam's ridden a bit too much. Schumacher as people have said will be wanting to do well but not sure whether they'll be a big enough split in the pack for him.
I reckon it'll be more like Verona 04 than last year, with a group of about 20 riders reaching the finish together.

kmahony

First time for a while without Eurosport. Are there other ways to watch Sunday's race?

Predictions are hard. Surprised Dekker and Rodgers aren't riding the TT. Hard to work out what Valverde will be like and any one of about 7 Italians could win, so see if they work for a leader (Bettini?) or not.

Can't see it coming down to big sprint. Course is very hard.

TT
1) Gutierrez
2) Cancellara
3) Sanchez Gil
4) Zabriskie
5) Karpets

RR
1) Schleck
2) Bettini
3) Di Luca
4) Pozzato
5) Rebellin
(with Dekker & Gilbert as possibles to break up the Italians)

iainf72

kmahony wrote:

First time for a while without Eurosport. Are there other ways to watch Sunday's race?

The BBC are showing practically the whole thing on Sunday I believe.

kmahony

iainf72 wrote:

kmahony wrote:

First time for a while without Eurosport. Are there other ways to watch Sunday's race?

The BBC are showing practically the whole thing on Sunday I believe.

Thanks, just checked their site:

Wednesday 26 September
1200-1500, BBCi
Thursday 27 September
1130-1600, BBCi
Saturday 29 September
0800-1145, BBCi
Sunday 30 September
0930-1500, BBCi & 1630-1805, BBC TWO

That's the weekend sorted.