Tour Down Under Stage 5 *spoilers* (live on Sky Sports1)

deal

Horribly dull event, its just a training block for 95% of the riders. The only ones who care are a couple of sprinters and Aussies/Kiwis. Yesterday would have been another boring stage if Evans/BMC were not looking for a tour spot, and caisse d'epargne a new sponsor.

Its a shame that the tour of California has moved because it was a more interesting early season event than the bore down under. Was getting bigger every year but they get a bit of bad weather and they crap themselves and decided to compete with the Giro, idiots.

SpaceJunk

Bhima wrote:

All the organisers are going on about how it was the best they've ever seen and so there are unconfirmed rumours that they'll have more hills in next year's race because of it. I've got nothing against sprint finishes every day, but balancing it out with a few climbs is far more interesting, gives a bit of variation and means that the GC is not dominated by all-out sprinters. It just seems so obvious to me - add a climb or two and it adds drama. Can't believe it's taken them 12 years to work it out! :roll:

Mike Turtur isn't going to change things around too much for next year.

Stages 1 & 2 were pretty straightforward this year, and unless there was extreme winds / heat, meant the sprinters would contest it.

Stage 3 was great; uphill finish on a 3 or 4 % slope. The sprinters again had to hold onto dear life not to lose time.

Stage 4 - sure it ended in a sprint, but again the wind nearly ripped the peloton apart.

Stage 5 - we all know how that ended


As richard said, they might include another stage 3 type finish next year, but they aren't going to start putting huge climbs in.

BTW - Adelaide has several climbs of upwards of 10 kms with a gradient of 6-8%. They deliberately choose to not use them.

And fair enough.

SpaceJunk

deal wrote:

The only ones who care are a couple of sprinters and Aussies/Kiwis. Yesterday would have been another boring stage if Evans/BMC were not looking for a tour spot, and caisse d'epargne a new sponsor.

Thanks for the having the ability to read minds and tell us why Evans, Sanchez and Piti attacked on the hill.

Funny because Evans said afterwards that he attacked because he thought he might be able to win the race, an he wanted to show off the rainbow colours.

Caisse d'Epargne said they wanted to win the race.

And what about Greipel and HTC - Columbia. Why did they chase so hard? They have good sponsors. They have a secure TdF spot.

I guess like Evans and Sanchez, they too wanted to win the race.

deal

Yes they wanted to win, that's the best way to further the aims I mentioned. I don't think they will be telling there grand children about the day they attacked on Willunga Hill.

Columbia are working for Greipel to get him a few victories before Cavendish orders him back into his leadout train.

northernneil

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

That's why I watch cycling, absolutely incredible.

Also, I'm not his biggest fan but Cadel looks pretty good in his rainbow bands. Reminds me of LeMond

now you see I thought they made him look a bit tubby

Gazzetta67

Glad that the santos Tour "SLEEP under has finished, can now look forward to the Tour of Poland at the back end of the year. - Wallunga Hill now has its place in history alongside Mt Ventoux,Mortirolo,Angirlu,Galibier ..NOT !!! - Nice of the Aussies to provide nice weather for a week long "Training" camp that was sponsored , and i think its high time Chris Boardman got back on the bike...did anyone else notice he looked like "Death Warmed Up" ???

frenchfighter

Luis; one of my favourites. Thanks.

frenchfighter

25mins of highlights (three parts):

http://player.sbs.com.au/cycling#/cycli ... unga-Pt-1/

frenchfighter

Nice photo from 2005