Today's Stage what a Bore zzzzz

kellys_heroes

well so much for all out attacking,,,,,will never understand the Tour organisers for downhill finishes.....god stevie wonder could have seen what was going to happen today..it looked like a glamorous club run in the Alps....was watching the 1983 1984 Tours on video the other night...now thats what i call great mountain stages on at least 4 out of the 5 stages were finishes at altitude...you can bet it will be schlek trying to attack in the last 500 yards tomo....i hope Christian Prudhoome and his cronies realise their mistakes with so many more downhill finishes creeping into the tour......whats the point of a climber attacking and gaining 2 mins and somebody like Paolo Savoldelli catching them and riding into the finish together.

sing_for_absolution

ah stop your whinging. the big stage is tomorrow, so they're watching each other and waiting for that?

kellys_heroes

i was not whinging i was trying to point out downhill finishes are a bit of a damp squib...altitude finishes encourage more attacking....like Stepen Roche said today...Frank Schleck sitting at home and finishes 2nd saying why didnt i attack Evans....who was clearly struggling on the Prato nevoso.

deal

why not do away with time trials and flat stages too :idea:

claudb

I don't think it was a bore, there was lots of incident and 2 of the top 6 on GC lost time.
OK, there was one battle which didn't happen, but it will tomorrow. The route has been good it can't always finish at the top of a mountain (although maybe Denis Menchov would have preferred that). There have been many climbers who have won mountain stages ending in descents. I can remember both Virenque and Pantani doing it. Oh yes, Floyd Landis too... Yes, stop whinging from me too !!!!

kellys_heroes

claud from the land of goat shaggers

donrhummy

I don't think it was a bore, however, I agree that stages with such large descents at the end really discourage all-out attacks on the mountains. The mountain finishes are much more exciting and less of a "waste" of the mountains.

Kléber

There are only so many ski resorts to visit, sometimes the race visits other places and a summit finish at the Bonnette, with its 2800m, would be way too tough, if not logistically possible.

If the GC favourites couldn't attack each other much, it was the monster headwind that neutralised the race, not the course.

Besides, it was a good day's racing with Schumacher up front, then Cunego launching his move, and finally Dessel winning from four.

CM92S4E

I thought today was fairly good... we had many many riders up the road in numerous attacks and we had some action with Augustyn of course!!! Scenery was great as well...

On the discussion with downhill finishes being bad > you need to be an all rounder to win the tour de france and if you never have a downhill when riders are going full pelt to beat each other and get time then you might get a winner that couldn't descend off a pony

Of course, downhill time doesn't count for as much as Mountain Top Finishes and TTs, but it needs to be included as a finish on about 1:2 (downhill:mountain-top) ratio just so the decent descenders have a chance. Menchov wouldn't have lost time if it wasn't for the descent. Surely that was interesting?

ricadus

Ok so the racing wasn't decisive but great weather, awesome landscape and a couple of crashes on the descents to ponder over.

SteveR_100Milers

Give them all drugs its so much more exciting isn't it? Test match vs 20/20? I know which one I prefer to watch.

muggomagic

I thought it was great. That last decent was a cracker. Seeing the riders having to crank it down to the finish line was really good to see. I wonder what happened to the Barloworld riders bike that tumbled down the mountain side. He must've shit his pants as he realised he'd messed that corner up and was heading towards the edge.

Menchov managed to lose 30 secs on the decent, or did I miss hear the commentry?

Birillo

Phenomenal scenery . . . kamikaze descent . . . stage leader goes flying over the edge . . . his bike disappears for good . . . others loose their nerve . . . two leading contenders get dropped . . . yes, dead boring.

Courage Monsieur

While far from boring, ease up on Kelly as I think he has a point. Despite the whopping climbs the downhill finish sapped a lot of potential drama and used up another precious mountain stage. It was a stark contrast to the action of the day before, with the hardcore elite battling it out, and what will hopefully happen today on the Alpe.

Still Menchov and VVelde lost a bit of time so at least something happened.

Hudster

The downhills are harder to follow on the TV because the motorbikes have more problems keeping up and things happen quicker. Evans tried to push Schlek and make time, but didn't in the end. But Menchov lost out big time. Descents are just a different skill to climbing and it's just as important to the tour as climbing. When you say it was boring, why? What do you want? People attacked and pushed themselves despite the danger and time was made up.

dulldave

claudb wrote:

There have been many climbers who have won mountain stages ending in descents. I can remember both Virenque and Pantani doing it. Oh yes, Floyd Landis too... Yes, stop whinging from me too !!!!

Not forgetting Millar in 83.

Eurostar

Descending is a vital skill because it's the only thing I was any good at. And yesterday's descent may have decided the Tour because Menchov lost 33 secs.

knedlicky

Many flat stages are far more boring, with less decisive results and less technique required.
The speed downhill is thrilling and it's something you can also remember (or imagine) yourself doing (almost) as fast.