Tour of Ireland - will contain spoilers (eventually)

aarw

ednwireland wrote:

hey i still live in the south there's a the top left bit thats still the south (as it were)

...said the irish man..

beautiful part of the world.

ednwireland

aarw wrote:

ednwireland wrote:

hey i still live in the south there's a the top left bit thats still the south (as it were)

...said the irish man..

beautiful part of the world.

except not irish lived here 12 years though wouldnt want to live anywhere else tbh

wicked

Have tried to watch this on ITV4 as the scenery does indeed look pretty but those idiots phil and paul are so far up lance's arse they must need a torch!
Lance this lance that, If I hear one more time that "its the first time he has raced here since the year he turned pro" or "its the first time he has raced this late in the season" I will kick the fucking tv to death.

Oh well looks like half an hour of eurosport will have to suffice. Shame.

deltadawn

Cyclingfans has a tracker with live updates.

http://cyclingfans.com/node/471

LangerDan

Cavendish won todays stage. There was an earlier breakaway which got up to 15 minutes at one stage but was reeled in with 20km to go.
Despite a Cat 2 and Cat 1 climb, the bunch stayed fairly much together, with mainly non-Continental pros getting shelled. Rob Hayles looked in bad shape on Musheramore, as did Nico "Rambo" Eeckhout who retired shortly afterwards.
(Bloody freezing on Musheramore it was too, with people lying in ditches trying to get out of the wind)

Fastlad

wicked wrote:

Have tried to watch this on ITV4 as the scenery does indeed look pretty but those idiots phil and paul are so far up lance's ars* they must need a torch!
Lance this lance that, If I hear one more time that "its the first time he has raced here since the year he turned pro" or "its the first time he has raced this late in the season" I will kick the ******* tv to death.

Oh well looks like half an hour of eurosport will have to suffice. Shame.

temper... let's just let the king see out his final years with the respect and adulation befitting of a 7 time TDF champion. 8) Oh, yes, of course, i was in paisley the other day and i did shake his hand.

afx237vi

Odds for tomorrow? Current top 10:

1 Russell Downing (GBr) Candi TV - Marshalls Pasta 10:18:00
2 Alexander Kolobnev (Rus) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:05
3 Matti Breschel (Den) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:07
4 Philip Deignan (Irl) Cervélo Test Team 0:00:10
5 Marco Pinotti (Ita) Team Columbia - HTC 0:00:11
6 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Astana
7 Frederik Wilman (Nor) Joker Bianchi
8 Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:17
9 Stuart O'Grady (Aus) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:22
10 Andrey Grivko (Ukr) ISD - Neri 0:00:23

Pinotti favourite again, I'd say. Fuglsang second favourite, then Kolobnev.

jimycooper

would you not think kolobnev for first? tomorow being hilly, and him getting some top places in world champs in the past...? just a though.

capilinconnemara

Philip Deignan is the only Irish rider left with any hope.Weather is going to be Sh*t with heavy rain and strong winds. Half of them will pull out after 1 lap in Cork. The Irish Lads on the Sk and Nat teams would love an Irish Podium finisher to honour Paul Healions memory so I can see him having plenty of help

LangerDan

Its a nice thought but I think Columbia are going to go off like a bag of cheap fireworks to keep the win from Saxo. The only hope for Downing to hold onto his jersey is that with Columbia and Saxo at each other, he might be the third dog who runs off with the bone.
The shorter number of laps today will help Downing but, despite his obvious talent, there still is a big gap between his abilities and the Pro-Tour riders. His performance in Fridays sprint looked very impressive but yesterday when he was up against the big boys, the disparity in power was very obvious.

Another thing to come into play today is that some of the descents are not long but v.tricky, especially in the wet.
Also the back of the circuit is very exposed - it'll be a brave rider who goes for a solo breakaway like Pinotti did last year. I think it will end up with small breakway, driven by Columbia with Pinotti and enough Saxo riders to mark Columbia out of it.
It will probably end up Kolobnev, from Pinotti and Downing

Weather update from the finishing ciruit - absolutely foul!

emadden

Armstrong abandons on the first lap of the finishing circuit.... What a **** ... clearly St Patricks hill and the rain were too much for him.... Im sure the 10s of thousands of fans who have jammed themselves onto the finishing circuit to see him after all the hype will appreciate that ... A bit disrespectful in my opinion. But once a **** always a ****


Quitstrong

blackrockracer

Classy riding by Downing, showed the 'big guns' how to race. Great win.

iainf72

Final stage won by Lars Petter Nordhaug.

Course shortened coz of the weather

capilinconnemara

emadden wrote:

Armstrong abandons on the first lap of the finishing circuit.... What a **** ... clearly St Patricks hill and the rain were too much for him.... Im sure the 10s of thousands of fans who have jammed themselves onto the finishing circuit to see him after all the hype will appreciate that ... A bit disrespectful in my opinion. But once a **** always a ****


Quitstrong

I predicted this last nite after hearing his post race interview. He has paid back McQuaid by being here. Has complained about the roads last 2 days so add a bit of soft Irish rain and it was all he needed as an excuse.

iainf72

Yeah, but it's not like only he quit. Half the race packed it.

emadden

iainf72 wrote:

Yeah, but it's not like only he quit. Half the race packed it.

True... but I guess a very significant portion of the crowd came especially to see Quitstrong... At the start of the season was he not harping on about how he wants to raise awareness of cancer, or something along those lines, by competing in races???. :shock: :shock:

he seems to be a bit of a quitter to me

emadden

capilinconnemara wrote:

.... a bit of soft Irish rain and it was all he needed as an excuse.

small bit of drizzle and they are abandoning in their droves...

rockmount

emadden wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Yeah, but it's not like only he quit. Half the race packed it.

True... but I guess a very significant portion of the crowd came especially to see Quitstrong... At the start of the season was he not harping on about how he wants to raise awareness of cancer, or something along those lines, by competing in races???. :shock: :shock:

he seems to be a bit of a quitter to me

Well better to be an occasional quitter than a non starter eh ?

LangerDan

An astonishing final stage - torrential rain showers, flooding, the works. Don't know if it will make the TV coverage this evening, but I rounded the corner on Patricks Hill to see some guy wearing just a thong and bra - which is not normal behaviour, even by local standards - jumping out behind the riders and running up the hill after them.

Delighted to see Downing win - and so well too. Coumbia and Saxo did tend to mark each other out of it but Downing drove the break as hard as any. For all of the last lap, the announcer (Dave Towle - what a berk)) was telling us all the permutations of how Downing would have to finish third or fourth to hold ono his jersey when (not if) he was attacked by the two big squads. Downing attacking off the front after Nordhaug and going for the win itself wasn't on the script at all.

To top it all, today is Downings birthday so the crowd all sang him "Happy birthday" after he got the yellow on the podium. When interviewed on stage afterwards, he was asked about his non-selection for the GB Worlds team - he's not a happy bunny!

After all the formalities were completed and most teams were moving out, there was still a large crowd gathered around the Astana bus waiting for a glimpse.

However, I did manage to get my sons racing jersey autographed by the best cyclist ever - Sean Kelly! We also met with the Rwandan rider Adrien Niyonshuti, who has garnered quite a following and seems slightly embarassed by all the attention.



I'll try and post some rain soaked photos later.

LangerDan

Right, a few pics. Please excuse the quality - it was p!ssing down, my camera was full of water and, not to put too fine a point on it, I'll be keeping my day-job.

Monsoon season, August '09



Calm before (well, during) the storm



Break on St.Patricks Hill



Chasing Group


Downing on Podium



Downing on his non-selection


Gratuitous podium girl shot for Iainf72, who cares about these things (BTW, she just happens to be Sean Kellys daughter)

DaveyL

Blimey, you wouldn't want the big man as a prospective father-in-law. "Have her back before 10 or ye'll be gettin a fookin drillin'...."

capilinconnemara

Good to see sam Bennet stuck it out. Hopefully he can go on to bigger and better things.

frenchfighter

Only 47 finishers :shock:

Niyonshuti has style!! Check out the matching Mavic shoes. Cannot wait to see him and his team riding some Pro Tour eventually. He is only 22, won this year's Tour of Rwanda and six of his brothers were murdered in the Genocide.

frenchfighter

Great photos from Graham Watson.
http://grahamwatson.com/2009/toi/coverpage.html

The conditions look horrendous:

afx237vi

So we've found another Norwegian for the Worlds team, at least. That's 4... only another 5 to go!

cougie

Fantastic ride by Downing - any chance he will get a ride on team sky ?

inseine

Terrific ride by Downing. Great to see him go on the offence when he was all alone with two big team attacking him. Hope it's not too late in his career, but he deserves a chance on a big team.

paulcuthbert

rockmount wrote:

Well better to be an occasional quitter than a non starter eh ?

+1

moray_gub

emadden wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Yeah, but it's not like only he quit. Half the race packed it.

True... but I guess a very significant portion of the crowd came especially to see Quitstrong... At the start of the season was he not harping on about how he wants to raise awareness of cancer, or something along those lines, by competing in races???. :shock: :shock:

he seems to be a bit of a quitter to me

What was the crowds like on the hill last year ? seem to remember it was very very busy and lance wasnt riding so i wonder just how "very significant" this portion you speak of was.Oh and btw pathetic it may be but quitstrong is a slight improvement on the cringe inducing lancey pancey posts from earlier in the year, so you are going in the right direction.

LangerDan

Were there significantly more on the Hill due to Armstrong? Hard to say. Yesterday the hill seemed busier than last year, though not significantly, but there far fewer elsewhere on the circuit - even the finishing straight was quiet until the last lap.

To my mind the crowds of the late 80s / early 90s were bigger, but that's just a sign of getting old!


Patricks Hill 1991


Patricks Hill 2008


Patricks Hill 2009