[Spoilers] Tour Down Under Stage 6
What are your predictions for today?
Andre looked wasted after yesterday's stage - struggling to walk after getting off the bike! I reckon he suffered a lot more than the Sky boys, who weren't dragging insanely bulky legs up that hill or doing monster pulls on the front in the last kms so he's obviously going to be more fatigued. I don't know if he has enough energy to win the stage...
Then again, he's been winning by 1/2 bike lengths, so he could still be very competetive. I really can't call it, but I hope Sky can get that train going again. It's the final stage so we could see everyone emptying the tank in an attempt to get their particular sprinter a victory. I hope we get a silly ammount of trains going like earlier on in the week!
Andre looked wasted after yesterday's stage - struggling to walk after getting off the bike! I reckon he suffered a lot more than the Sky boys, who weren't dragging insanely bulky legs up that hill or doing monster pulls on the front in the last kms so he's obviously going to be more fatigued. I don't know if he has enough energy to win the stage...
Then again, he's been winning by 1/2 bike lengths, so he could still be very competetive. I really can't call it, but I hope Sky can get that train going again. It's the final stage so we could see everyone emptying the tank in an attempt to get their particular sprinter a victory. I hope we get a silly ammount of trains going like earlier on in the week!
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Gosh. This looks hard. Breakaways trying to form all the time but nobody has been successful yet.0
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Henderson gets the 1st intermediate sprint with an immense burst! 3 seconds for him.0
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McEwen gets the next sprint, putting him in 3rd place overall.
Gripping racing. Jens Voigt absolutely destroying every breakaway by pulling the bunch at ridiculous speeds. Epic suffering on his face!0 -
The original one-two victory from last Sunday has been reversed - Sutton wins, with Henderson 2nd. Absolutely amazing adrenaline-filled last lap. Awesome.0
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Train worked very well. Great work from Downing earlier on and an excellent finish from Sutton, and Henderson grabbed second on the line.
Good race. Sky get their money's-worth, so the highlights will be back on the sport's news tonight. Head Hands Heart Lungs Legs0 -
pottssteve wrote:Great work from Downing earlier on
Yes yes, indeed! That close camera shot of him going all-out was fantastic!0 -
Oh my... Look at the ariel shot of the sprint. Sutton kicks at the same time as Griepel, not only matching his speed but managing to go for longer too, despite them both being in the wind. Griepel just dies while Sutton keeps going! :shock:0
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Henderson was saying that the way to take Greipel on and beat him is to go for it a lot earlier, about 300m from the finish. Seems to have worked! A great win for Sky and a deserved overall victor in Andre Greipel.
1. Christopher Sutton (AUS) Team Sky 1hr 53min 20sec,
2. Greg Henderson (NZL) Sky,
3. Graeme Brown (AUS) Rabobank,
4. Robbie McEwen (AUS) Katusha,
5. Andre Greipel (GER) HTC-Columbia,
6. Allan Davis (AUS) Astana,
7. Matthew Goss (AUS) HTC-Columbia,
8. Yauheni Hutarovich (BLR) Francaise Des Jeux,
9. Gert Steegmans (BEL) RadioShack,
10. Jose Rojas (ESP) Caisse D'Epargne, all same time
Selected: 18. Cadel Evans (AUS) BMC s.t., 44. Alejandro Valverde (ESP) Caisse D'Epargne s.t., 47. Luis Leon Sanchez (ESP) Caisse D'Epargne s.t., 77. Lance Armstrong (USA) RadioShack at 16sec
Overall
1. Andre Greipel (GER) HTC-Columbia 18hr 47min 05sec,
2. Luis Leon Sanchez (ESP) Caisse D'Epargne at 11sec,
3. Greg Henderson (NZL) Sky 15,
4. Robbie McEwen (AUS) Katusha 17,
5. Luke Roberts (AUS) Milram s.t.,
6. Cadel Evans (AUS) BMC 21,
7. Eduard Vorganov (RUS) Katusha 25,
8. Jurgen Roelandts (BEL) Omega Pharma-Lotto 26,
9. Robbie Hunter (RSA) Garmin-Transitions s.t.,
10. Markus Fothen (GER) Milram 27
Selected: 19. Alejandro Valverde (ESP) Caisse D'Epargne 32, 25. Lance Armstrong (USA) RadioShack 1:03
http://player.sbs.com.au/cycling#/cycli ... aide-City/Let's close our eyes and see what happens0 -
Another criterium, another 1-2. Sky seems to have found their niche!"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0
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Harsh! It's a long season so let's wait and see0
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Blazing Saddles wrote:Another criterium, another 1-2. Sky seems to have found their niche!
Something to do with going round in circles i wonder? :roll:Note: the above post is an opinion and not fact. It might be a lie.0 -
hee hee - just found this quote from Henderson on the team sky website - doesn't seem like he's entirely happy about the way the win came off...
Henderson admitted there had been some confusion at the end, when Greipel jumped and Sutton pounced after him. "I just wasn't too sure what Sutton was doing there at the finish. He sort of waited and waited and I got swamped to about fifth wheel and I thought, Christ, he hasn't gone, so I moved out in the wind to go and [Graeme] Brown came straight in and took [Sutton's] wheel, and then accelerated, so I missed the lead out. I was just lucky that I had the speed to get back round three or four guys and accelerate up.
"It wasn't the plan, but I'm happy that he won - absolutely stoked. Again we demonstrated, once we took over, that we could take control. No one could challenge us, and for a brand new team it's a tremendous outcome."point your handlebars towards the heavens and sweat like you're in hell0 -
It was a bit messy from the aerial shot - think Sutton lost the wheel of his Sky lead out (Swift?) and that caused the delay + confusion. The line almost seemed to come up on them too soon.0
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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" ???0
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I think Sutton is quicker than Henderson, I think they'll get a lot more wins if they put there effort in for Sutton. He's a young fast improving rider, if Henderson was going to win big, he would have done so already I feel.
I suppose the team is all about sharing leadership and responsibility, i'm sure he'll get his chances.0 -
Pocket Rocket wrote:I think Sutton is quicker than Henderson, I think they'll get a lot more wins if they put there effort in for Sutton. He's a young fast improving rider, if Henderson was going to win big, he would have done so already I feel.
I suppose the team is all about sharing leadership and responsibility, i'm sure he'll get his chances.
Depending on your definition of "big" I suppose:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfysSjnCzMk0 -
Yeah, that was a great stage, I remember watching that one last year.
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ten mins inc finish on http://player.sbs.com.au/cycling#/cycli ... aide-City/0
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Nope, Sutton said in interview he let Swift go so he could have a run at the sprint.stagehopper wrote:It was a bit messy from the aerial shot - think Sutton lost the wheel of his Sky lead out (Swift?) and that caused the delay + confusion. The line almost seemed to come up on them too soon.
Good work by Downing and Swift, will be even better with Wiggo and Thomas leading out 0 -
ten min highlights inc finish on http://player.sbs.com.au/cycling#/cycli ... aide-City/0
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Disappointed again - any support for team sky I had is quickly ebbing away. It's quite boring watching a team that never attacks. I'll wait and see how they ride on a more demanding race first before passing final judgement, but it doesn't look good. :?
I don't know whether I'm the only person that find mass-sprints a borefest ?
Amazing attack on stage 5 though - no team sky riders there however.The British Empire never died, it just moved to the Velodrome0 -
No, it's not just you. Personally, I love watching them. I think it was only the Tour of Qatar last year that was a real struggle. Flat, loads of sand and no spectators. Sky did exactly what they needed - they had strong sprinters and channeled their efforts towards that. The breaks in the TdU (other than Stage 5) were there for Team Uni SA to show their colours.fastercyclist wrote:I don't know whether I'm the only person that find mass-sprints a borefest ?
Milram did a great job with the KOM. Could this be their year 0 -
These are training races. It's great to win for morale but no one will remember them. The first serious races are the GP Etruschi and the Tour of the Med.
From the perspective of Sky, I can't help thinking they've got a lead out train in search of a sprinter. The likes of Sutton and Henderson are very quick... but as lead out men. Making the step up will be hard once the likes of Boonen, Cav, Bennati and Farrar arrive.0 -
Kléber wrote:From the perspective of Sky, I can't help thinking they've got a lead out train in search of a sprinter. The likes of Sutton and Henderson are very quick... but as lead out men. Making the step up will be hard once the likes of Boonen, Cav, Bennati and Farrar arrive.
Though thought they made the best of what they had out there - not sure they'll be looking to set up too many sprint lead outs in the big races when the very best sprinters are all there.0 -
Pocket Rocket wrote:I think Sutton is quicker than Henderson, I think they'll get a lot more wins if they put there effort in for Sutton. He's a young fast improving rider, if Henderson was going to win big, he would have done so already I feel.
I suppose the team is all about sharing leadership and responsibility, i'm sure he'll get his chances.
I'd agree with that. In the Crit the week before Sutton could have easily held on to beat Henderson but Henderson was obviously the designated winner for Sky. Henderson only got past when Sutton celebrated the win a few metres out.0
