Rest day 2 *SPOILER*

takethehighroad

Repos de Sean Kelly


http://twitgoo.com/19pcfk

Abdoujaparov

Wonder who will come through the rest day in better condition for tomorrow. Menchov struggled the day after the first one and said afterwards that he never reacts well to them.

Contador and Schleck tend to recover quite nicely don't they? Anyone know who's particularly good or bad after rest days?

Also, does anyone know why Menchov was so bad in the prologue? I know he's never been great at them, but almost a minute behind cancellara is pretty disgraceful.

Checked the Dauphine 2010 results when he finished in a decent 5th in the long TT and wasn't great in the prologue (35th, 24 secs behind the winner), but certainly did a lot better than in the tour prologue.

rick_chasey

Abdoujaparov wrote:

Contador and Schleck tend to recover quite nicely don't they? Anyone know who's particularly good or bad after rest days?

Also, does anyone know why Menchov was so bad in the prologue? I know he's never been great at them, but almost a minute behind cancellara is pretty disgraceful.

.

I know Boogerd always did badly after rest days.

Doobz

Some Rest day pics

Riis looks.. Lost?





Shleck keeping the speed in his legs



The hog checking for Feds/Interpol before LA comes out

afx237vi

Bit of a stupid place to have a rest day, innit? 4 days before the race ends. I'm sure the peloton would rather just get on with it.

mididoctors

all out on the tourmalet is the plan...

Doobz

haha afx your right but I want to see them fresh tomorrow rather then another snoozefst like previous days.. 4 Mountain stages in a row would have just been too epic.

on another note.. Hopefully a few will have topped up with some fresh blood so things will be a bit more exiting tomorrow!!

AidanR

Doobz, are you FF in disguise? The photos, the Astana fanboyism... it's uncanny.

Doobz

AidanR wrote:

Doobz, are you FF in disguise? The photos, the Astana fanboyism... it's uncanny.

negative

Bernardus

Abdoujaparov wrote:

Also, does anyone know why Menchov was so bad in the prologue? I know he's never been great at them, but almost a minute behind cancellara is pretty disgraceful.

Rain. When Menchov rode the course, the streets were still wet and he decided not to take any chances. Cancellara rode on a mostly dry surface.

Comparing his time with Cancellara's is pretty useless. Menchov is racing for the GC, his best performing competitor was Contador (29" ahead).

Pokerface

Contador risks being one of very few Tour winners to not win a stage. So he might be pushing it HARD tomoro to win. And then there's the final TT. He'll have no chance in the other 2 stages....


Tour winners who did not win a stage that year:

Firmin Lambot 1922
Roger Walkowiak 1956
Gastone Nencini 1960
Lucien Aimar 1966
Greg LeMond 1990
Óscar Pereiro 2006 (After Landis was DQ'd)

knedlicky

Doobz wrote:

Hopefully a few will have topped up with some fresh blood so things will be a bit more exiting tomorrow!!

Fresh blood? Nah, that's passé


Unfortunately, pretty detectable in a urine test.

ridgerider

afx237vi wrote:

Bit of a stupid place to have a rest day, innit? 4 days before the race ends. I'm sure the peloton would rather just get on with it.

I thought the same, why not split the 4 mountain stages 2 either side of the bresk. Yesterday's stage was perhaps a day too far without a break...?

takethehighroad

Pokerface wrote:

Contador risks being one of very few Tour winners to not win a stage. So he might be pushing it HARD tomoro to win. And then there's the final TT. He'll have no chance in the other 2 stages....


Tour winners who did not win a stage that year:

Firmin Lambot 1922
Roger Walkowiak 1956
Gastone Nencini 1960
Lucien Aimar 1966
Greg LeMond 1990
Óscar Pereiro 2006 (After Landis was DQ'd)

He didn't win a stage in the Giro 2008 too, the legacy's not exactly writing itself, especially with the debacle that was Monday.

Pokerface

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

Pokerface wrote:

Contador risks being one of very few Tour winners to not win a stage. So he might be pushing it HARD tomoro to win. And then there's the final TT. He'll have no chance in the other 2 stages....


Tour winners who did not win a stage that year:

Firmin Lambot 1922
Roger Walkowiak 1956
Gastone Nencini 1960
Lucien Aimar 1966
Greg LeMond 1990
Óscar Pereiro 2006 (After Landis was DQ'd)

He didn't win a stage in the Giro 2008 too, the legacy's not exactly writing itself, especially with the debacle that was Monday.

True Champion™ :roll:

rick_chasey

Could win the TT.

Can't see why not.

Canc seems to be on his knees.

avoidingmyphd

Rick Chasey wrote:

Canc seems to be on his knees.

Or chilling, and excused domestique duty, ready for the TT...

rick_chasey

avoidingmyphd wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

Canc seems to be on his knees.

Or chilling, and excused domestique duty, ready for the TT...

Given the profile of the previous days...

gabriel959

Don't see the problem with no winning a stage myself, Lemond did it. 2008 Giro was so weird, he was on the beach the week before!!!

I don't think he will win the TT, too flat and Chinny, Brajkovic and the lot must have been taking easy through the mountains, and it is too flat at the end of the day.

iainf72

I believe it's chucking it down now, and forecast to be wet tomorrow.

First Russian winner of the Tour coming up!

The Prodigy

gabriel959 wrote:

Don't see the problem with no winning a stage myself, Lemond did it. 2008 Giro was so weird, he was on the beach the week before!!!

I don't think he will win the TT, too flat and Chinny, Brajkovic and the lot must have been taking easy through the mountains, and it is too flat at the end of the day.

+1 and too flat and too many others targeting the stage. If this was''t the third week of a GT I think he would struggle to get top five in a pan flat 50K TT

Mad Roadie

Pokerface wrote:

Contador risks being one of very few Tour winners to not win a stage. So he might be pushing it HARD tomoro to win. And then there's the final TT. He'll have no chance in the other 2 stages....


Tour winners who did not win a stage that year:

Firmin Lambot 1922
Roger Walkowiak 1956
Gastone Nencini 1960
Lucien Aimar 1966
Greg LeMond 1990
Óscar Pereiro 2006 (After Landis was DQ'd)

winner Contador - no stage wins and Green Thor H - no stage wins - then there must be something wrong with the points and rating system

iainf72

Mad Roadie wrote:

winner Contador - no stage wins and Green Thor H - no stage wins - then there must be something wrong with the points and rating system

You mean aside from the epic stage over the cobbles? Or does that not count because Cavendish didn't win it?

gabriel959

iainf72 wrote:

I believe it's chucking it down now, and forecast to be wet tomorrow.

First Russian winner of the Tour coming up!

He will probably fall off, good old Menchov, he doesn't like white lines, does he?

Doobz

gabriel959 wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

I believe it's chucking it down now, and forecast to be wet tomorrow.

First Russian winner of the Tour coming up!

He will probably fall off, good old Menchov, he doesn't like white lines, does he?

Not as much as Tom Boonen :shock:

Abdoujaparov

iainf72 wrote:

Mad Roadie wrote:

winner Contador - no stage wins and Green Thor H - no stage wins - then there must be something wrong with the points and rating system

You mean aside from the epic stage over the cobbles? Or does that not count because Cavendish didn't win it?

Yep, bit of an oversight, but there's a serious point there. I imagine this has been discussed plenty of times on this forum, but is it a notable achievement to finish 21st in a sprint? I know the green jersey is not 'the sprinters jersey', but surely the points system should be tweaked to provider greater reward to those that do something remarkable (like win a stage!).

Intermediate sprints certainly have their place and should be rewarded (possibly even more than now), but finishing 25th in a bunch gallop? FFS

iainf72

Abdoujaparov wrote:

I know the green jersey is not 'the sprinters jersey', but surely the points system should be tweaked to provider greater reward to those that do something remarkable (like win a stage!).

Is winning a stage not enough of a reward? If they're trying to reward consistency then you can't have a situation where 1 first place is worth more than 3 second or third places. Otherwise you may as well just award the green jersey based on great number of stage wins.

I think they should add in mountain primes too, just to make it even more challenging to win

Doobz

iainf72 wrote:

Abdoujaparov wrote:

I know the green jersey is not 'the sprinters jersey', but surely the points system should be tweaked to provider greater reward to those that do something remarkable (like win a stage!).

Is winning a stage not enough of a reward? If they're trying to reward consistency then you can't have a situation where 1 first place is worth more than 3 second or third places. Otherwise you may as well just award the green jersey based on great number of stage wins.

I think they should add in mountain primes too, just to make it even more challenging to win

The Giro had primes didn't it? I know they weren't for points but something to do with prizes from the TV broadcaster iirc

RichN95.

iainf72 wrote:

Abdoujaparov wrote:

I know the green jersey is not 'the sprinters jersey', but surely the points system should be tweaked to provider greater reward to those that do something remarkable (like win a stage!).

Is winning a stage not enough of a reward? If they're trying to reward consistency then you can't have a situation where 1 first place is worth more than 3 second or third places. Otherwise you may as well just award the green jersey based on great number of stage wins.

But at the moment you get as many points for coming 8th and 9th on two stages as you do for winning one and a nowhere (e.g. crashing, puncturing). The points system rewards cautious, no risk sprinting. In essence it's a prize for staying out of trouble. The 'no bad luck prize' if you will

Abdoujaparov

RichN95 wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Abdoujaparov wrote:

I know the green jersey is not 'the sprinters jersey', but surely the points system should be tweaked to provider greater reward to those that do something remarkable (like win a stage!).

Is winning a stage not enough of a reward? If they're trying to reward consistency then you can't have a situation where 1 first place is worth more than 3 second or third places. Otherwise you may as well just award the green jersey based on great number of stage wins.

But at the moment you get as many points for coming 8th and 9th on two stages as you do for winning one and a nowhere (e.g. crashing, puncturing). The points system rewards cautious, no risk sprinting. In essence it's a prize for staying out of trouble. The 'no bad luck prize' if you will

Yep, I'm not saying that consistency shouldn't be a very important of the competition, but at the moment it rewards people who are consistently alright rather than (slightly less) consistently excellent.

No need for a major overhaul, but I’d argue that the points should be distributed a little differently and you shouldn’t get sh*t for finishing 20th.

iainf72

RichN95 wrote:

But at the moment you get as many points for coming 8th and 9th on two stages as you do for winning one and a nowhere (e.g. crashing, puncturing). The points system rewards cautious, no risk sprinting. In essence it's a prize for staying out of trouble. The 'no bad luck prize' if you will

Perfect for the Tour then, the home of no risks, defend that 8'th place and you'll have a good contract next year "racing".