Bertie changes schedule

iainf72

No Catalunya or Pais Vasco, but Crit intl and Fleche / Liege instead

http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/03/ ... um=twitter

Oh, and Castilla y Leon.

blazing_saddles

Isn't that old guy raising awareness in Corsica?
Bet he now decides to ride Catalunya!

Good to see FF junior doing the classics pair. Who would bet against him, in the Fleche, for instance?

Kléber

It'll be the first time AC meets Armstrong in a race. One has just taken the GC in a prestigious week long stage race, the other has done a 70 mile cyclosportive in Cape Town.

The Criterium International promises to be a good race given the stunning backdrop in Corsica.

csp

It's going to be Armstrong vs Contador, with Jens Voigt winning.

iainf72

csp wrote:

It's going to be Armstrong vs Contador, with Jens Voigt winning.

Pity he's not taking part, eh?

csp

iainf72 wrote:

csp wrote:

It's going to be Armstrong vs Contador, with Jens Voigt winning.

Pity he's not taking part, eh?

Jens can win Criterium International even without taking part.

gabriel959

so bertie is doing some 1 day races in the end? interesting!

he might even increase his palmares with some of them!

fastercyclist

I would love to see AC decide to do LA events at the last moment just to psych him out. If he pulls out he should go for LA's next event That'll be mindfuck for the Texan

afx237vi

Stage 1 of the Criterium International:

iainf72

I shall boldly predicit Bertie will win. Evans 2nd.

blazing_saddles

Mind you. Working it out. I reckon Berties on for about 54 days racing for the year.
Half as season is better than none, I suppose.

afx237vi

Better than Leif Hoste, innit. By my calculations his number of racing days for an entire season is, errr, two.

Bakunin

Why would he change?

I think it is great, but why? I doubt the Hog would agree with this change of plans.

The stuff about how tough P-N was doesn't seem real -- it looked like he was playing with the field on stage 7. He attacked for the hell of it. LL and Valverde had no answer, and they knew it.

Arkibal

Bakunin wrote:

Why would he change?

I think it is great, but why? I doubt the Hog would agree with this change of plans.

The stuff about how tough P-N was doesn't seem real -- it looked like he was playing with the field on stage 7. He attacked for the hell of it. LL and Valverde had no answer, and they knew it.

why wouldn't he?
Takes some pressure of his team, and himself.
Think it's great he's riding the Ardennes!

I guess you watched a different P-N than I did...

frenchfighter

afx237vi wrote:

Stage 1 of the Criterium International:

That climb is pretty long...anyone got gradient stats?

Should be another race he could clean up on, especially given the TT as well.

Good to see he has changed his plan. I guess he knows that he would just smoke his rivals in the others so there is no challenge there. Gives him a good opportunity to work on some other skills.

Lets see how he performs.

csp

frenchfighter wrote:

afx237vi wrote:

Stage 1 of the Criterium International:

That climb is pretty long...anyone got gradient stats?

Should be another race he could clean up on, especially given the TT as well.

Good to see he has changed his plan. I guess he knows that he would just smoke his rivals in the others so there is no challenge there. Gives him a good opportunity to work on some other skills.
Lets see how he performs.

Which could be the reason why he's doing the one day races as well. The 2nd and 3rd stages of this year's Tour could be a real threat to him. He has had problems with similar kinds of stages before.

Cumulonimbus

Was wondering myself what the final climb is like because Millar has it as an aim for this season. The official Criterium International site is here

http://www.letour.fr/2010/CRI/COURSE/us ... etape.html

Fiddling about with the options gives the ospedale* with a gradient of 6.2% over 14.2km. No breakdown on that - for what its worth it looks reasonably constant on the profile but i couldnt find a profile on climbbybike.

*This seems to be the name although the profile spells it opspedale :?

frenchfighter

Excellent, should be a good stage.

frenchfighter

"This year's date change for the classics has been good for me - it gives me the opportunity to get some experience. I'm excited to ride there, because they have a special charm, but I realize that there will be riders more skilled than I to fight for victory."

avoidingmyphd

Here's the stats for all the climbs on stage one off the official website:
Km 56.0 - Côte de Roccapina (SARTENE) - 3.0 km de montée à 4 %
Km 92.5 - VIGGIANELLO - 4.6 km de montée à 5.5 %
Km 115.0 - Col de Mela - 10.1 km de montée à 6 %
Km 134.5 - Col de Bacinu - 10.0 km de montée à 4.5 %
Km 175.5 - PORTO-VECCHIO (Col de l'Ospedale) - 14.2 km de montée à 6.2 %

It's a nice stage, and will presumably make for a totally different race to last year. The col de Mela will be a nice softener before the finish.

Surely Contador is favourite by miles for this race now?

Slapshot

That's a belter of a stage!!

Maybe Berto wants to give the old guy a taste of what's to come in July, it also puts the CI right up there with the seasons big "media draw" races, wonder if we'll see Eurosport alter their schedules to cover the "Showdown"

micron

Since ES are happy to shove a camera up Armstrong's a*se at the drop of a hat, you would imagine they would cover the 'Big Showdown' (though how, in all honesty, AC v LA can be posited as a credible rivalry when one is on such a different level to the other is beyond me)

afx237vi

It's not listed on the TV guide on the ES website. I don't think they showed it last year, either.

blazing_saddles

afx237vi wrote:

It's not listed on the TV guide on the ES website. I don't think they showed it last year, either.

No, you are right. They ditched it from their schedules.
Our only and best chance is France 2/3, probably just France 3 regional, if we are tres lucky.
Don't want to miss this:
14.2 km climb to 6.2 %

micron

According to Graham Watson, this is all so AC can cosy up to ASO because Astana need a TdF invite - WTF?? Drinking too much of the Radioshack KoolAid it seems

Kléber

micron wrote:

According to Graham Watson, this is all so AC can cosy up to ASO because Astana need a TdF invite - WTF?? Drinking too much of the Radioshack KoolAid it seems

Watson was mentioning rumours of unpaid wages at Astana. I've not heard anything about from any other sources.

micron

All part of the Radioshack misinformation campaign one assumes

moray_gub

micron wrote:

All part of the Radioshack misinformation campaign one assumes

what evidence do you have to claim this with any kind of authority ? and i am talking about real evidence not the kind of pathetic nonsense you were coming out with last week regarding a facial expressions and the like.

deal

Blazing Saddles wrote:

afx237vi wrote:

It's not listed on the TV guide on the ES website. I don't think they showed it last year, either.

No, you are right. They ditched it from their schedules.
Our only and best chance is France 2/3, probably just France 3 regional, if we are tres lucky.
Don't want to miss this:
14.2 km climb to 6.2 %

I rode up there in September, stunning scenery and almost got knocked off my bike by a wild pig!

micron

MG you clearly haven't seen the Graham Watson tweet where he claims that Astana need an invite to the next TdF.

We'll agree to disagree on giving 'the look' to under 5s - having just refreshed my DCPC training (child protection) you'd be surprised just how far from 'pathetic nonsense' that would be considered in a social services assessment. But that's OT - here's the GW tweet in question:

"no, I don't think Alberto has the ruthlessness in him to try that (ride Crit Int to intiimidate Armstrong), nor the right entourage to guide him. His motivation might be a lack of start money in Catalunya, and a wish to embed him and Astana with ASO prior to the Tour; Astana needs an invite as well. There are already rumours that salaries are unpaid, that Contador might need to play up to ASO to get into the Tour...on another team"

So he accuses AC's brother of being incompetent (his entourage), of taking appearance money (unlike Armstrong's 3 mill in Australia?), Astana needing a TdF invite (thought that was Radioshack?) and then these 'rumours' about supposed unpaid salaries. None of these accusations are far from the party line now, are they?

But I apologise from taking this OT again -on topic, I'm pleased to see Contador examining a different model of TdF preparation to the one that has become de rigeur since 1999[/i]

moray_gub

micron wrote:

MG you clearly haven't seen the Graham Watson tweet where he claims that Astana need an invite to the next TdF.

We'll agree to disagree on giving 'the look' to under 5s - having just refreshed my DCPC training (child protection) you'd be surprised just how far from 'pathetic nonsense' that would be considered in a social services assessment. But that's OT - here's the GW tweet in question:

"no, I don't think Alberto has the ruthlessness in him to try that (ride Crit Int to intiimidate Armstrong), nor the right entourage to guide him. His motivation might be a lack of start money in Catalunya, and a wish to embed him and Astana with ASO prior to the Tour; Astana needs an invite as well. There are already rumours that salaries are unpaid, that Contador might need to play up to ASO to get into the Tour...on another team"

So he accuses AC's brother of being incompetent (his entourage), of taking appearance money (unlike Armstrong's 3 mill in Australia?), Astana needing a TdF invite (thought that was Radioshack?) and then these 'rumours' about supposed unpaid salaries. None of these accusations are far from the party line now, are they?

But I apologise from taking this OT again -on topic, I'm pleased to see Contador examining a different model of TdF preparation to the one that has become de rigeur since 1999[/i]

OT : Too many issues like Baby P recently for me to take social services seriously in this country so i wouldnt use DCPC as some kind of yardstick regarding competence to determine a look.


Back on topic So in essence no evidence to say it is a RS misinformation issue then, ok np we move on.