Men's Worlds Road Race **Spoilers**

ratsbeyfus

frenchfighter wrote:

ratsbeyfus wrote:

I'm delighted for Thor... I had him in the PTP... if no one else chose him do I get to put the rainbow bands on my avatar for a year?

And a very nice avatar!

Thanks FF... I'm not sure if I'll be able to hold on to the bands on my avatar though as Timoid beat me on the overall PTP for the Worlds. I'm thinking of bunging AFX a few quid so he rules in my favour - but he's gotta spend it on a PTP anti-doping device-o-gizmo-machine.

shakey88

frenchfighter wrote:

Nice kit Thor has. Now Garmin have a WC

yeah he'll look good in his stained rainbow jersey.It will suit him

Moomaloid

Will they Argyle-up the bands?

frenchfighter

A few words from the riders:

Hushovd:
“It is hard to understand that I have won the worlds,” said Hushovd, clearly very proud. “It is a dream, and sometimes I felt it was an unreal dram. Now I have won it in Geelong, Australia…it is amazing, I am speechless.”

“For a while, it was only Spain riding with one or two guys, and I was afraid it was over at that moment. Then Russia and some other teams came along and we finally came back. And we had Edvald Boasson Hagen in front, so I could just sit easy in the bunch. For us it was perfect.”

“There is one goal, and it is Paris-Roubaix,” he said. “It would be the biggest dream ever [to enter the velodrome as winner with the rainbow jersey]. Now I will just enjoy this, I will try to enjoy every day of this winter. I will just look at the jersey and just enjoy this, as I have this chance and maybe it will not happen again.”

Freire:
“The peloton split many times and I was always going forward,” he said. “It was a pity that on one of the laps, I went back to see who was there, and the group split. It was the only time throughout the race that I relaxed, and that caught me out.”

More from Freire:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/philipp ... us-attacks

Vaughters:
“Rainbow/Argyle,” he said on Twitter soon after the race. “Oh man.... The imagination runs wild...”

Leukemans:
"After my attack in the penultimate lap, we had six at the front. Why would Filippo Pozzato not work in it? Had he done so, we were gone. Now he has nothing."

I agree on this one. It was a good, strong break and Pozzato was just messing around opening up gaps. Loser.

"In the final lap, when Gilbert attacked, I had cramps."

"In the final lap, I think it would have been better for Philippe to wait until the final hill to attack, but it's no use crying over spilled milk."

"We raced like we had said beforehand. We wanted to race the course hard and not wait for the final lap."

Trepstra:
"I thought: all or nothing," said Terpstra to De Telegraaf following his Hail Mary effort. "It was a bit of an against all odds thing, but if I had dropped back, I had no chance. I was counting down - 300 meters, 250 meters, and then they passed me at high speed."

"It was a big effort to go in the last kilometer,"

This was a really powerful attack and for a moment I thought he may have just had it. The side shots were great.

Gilbert:
"I tried on the penultimate climb, but at the end, I came up a bit short. I want to thank the team, because they rode a great race. We have done everything. I have raced to win, but to no avail, though I tried everything,"

should he have waited for the final climb?
"No, because there was the wind. I don't know, it's always hard to tell."

"We made the race as a Belgian team. In the early going, we had a strange situation, because the early break were 23 minutes ahead, and if we didn't start moving, we would have been a lap down. Too bad we did not get help from the other countries."

"In the last kilometers, alone, there was just too much wind. In the sprint, I came up short, I had given everything in the escape and was hobbled by cramps. Was I the strongest? It's not important, only the World Championship win counts," said a tired Gilbert.
"I'm disappointed, but now I will focus mainly on Paris-Tours and the Giro di Lombardia," said the former winner of both races.

"Paris-Tours might not be ideal from the jet lag, but the Giro di Lombardia will be ok."

More from Gilbert:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/philipp ... us-attacks

frenchfighter

I wonder if Cancellara knew he was only 39 secs back when he crossed that time, there being no radios and all? Had he known and had the legs I am sure he could have bridged then he would have been in the mix.

Also I wonder what happened to Sammy Sanchez or LLS. Did they drop off pretty early?

USA didn't do well either.

Kind of ridiculous that Morrocco had 6riders (all DNF).

calvjones

frenchfighter wrote:

Luckao wrote:

In all fairness to FF, I doubt his implication was that Cadel hadn't rode well in the Rainbow jersey. Seems he's simply looking at what it means to have Thor wearing it.

Absolutely. I always liked Evans and, like every one else, even more so after this year. A top quality rider who can and does perform all season. I should post up a ton of the photos I have of him...

Always liked Evans? Really? Pre-2010 he was exactly the sort of rider you don't like.

But I'm sure you were shouting for him in the Dauphine as AC neutralised all his attacks for his mate Valv

More seriously, I think its the general lowering of standards/doping that has allowed Evans to appear more swashbuckling recently, and I'm all for it.

Has there ever been 2 successive years of the WRR when the winner has had absolutely zero doping issues/rumour? Fantastic.

iainf72

A worthy winner to an exciting race.

Pip / Evans et al did what they had to do to try and win.

Great course, it really was like a semi-classic with well paved roads.

Philip S

Absolutely delighted to see Thor win.

Gilbert and Evans were the men of the race for me - attacking riding from Gilbert, but with the long wide roads after the last climb, it was always going to be difficult for a solo attack or small group to stay away over the last 10kms. And Evans just never gives up - what a fighter.

As is so often the case though, the strongest men don't necessarily win. Thor did what he had to do - which was not negligible: it's quite a feat for a guy of his size to haul himself over those 20%+ climbs with the lead group and still have that sprint at the end.

dave_1

didn't the UCI make a good choice in letting Australia run the worlds? I hope they take the worlds to different countries outside Europe...it also deters doping a bit too as the Euro based guys can't get it together as easily

dave_1

calvjones wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Luckao wrote:

In all fairness to FF, I doubt his implication was that Cadel hadn't rode well in the Rainbow jersey. Seems he's simply looking at what it means to have Thor wearing it.

Absolutely. I always liked Evans and, like every one else, even more so after this year. A top quality rider who can and does perform all season. I should post up a ton of the photos I have of him...

Always liked Evans? Really? Pre-2010 he was exactly the sort of rider you don't like.

But I'm sure you were shouting for him in the Dauphine as AC neutralised all his attacks for his mate Valv

More seriously, I think its the general lowering of standards/doping that has allowed Evans to appear more swashbuckling recently, and I'm all for it.

Has there ever been 2 successive years of the WRR when the winner has had absolutely zero doping issues/rumour? Fantastic.

I thinks so too, Evans has shown total respect to the jersey and the races by putting in race appearances from January to now. If Contador is gone, Evans will hopefully get another crack at the TDF win he deserves!

which was Evans best performance of the year? The cobbled stage of the TDF?

LJAR

I would go or the Giro or the Fleche just for how hard they are, plus he was more successful in them than the TDF.

Or maybe his mountain stage in yellow with a broken arm - what a legend.

frenchfighter

calvjones wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Luckao wrote:

In all fairness to FF, I doubt his implication was that Cadel hadn't rode well in the Rainbow jersey. Seems he's simply looking at what it means to have Thor wearing it.

Absolutely. I always liked Evans and, like every one else, even more so after this year. A top quality rider who can and does perform all season. I should post up a ton of the photos I have of him...

Always liked Evans? Really? Pre-2010 he was exactly the sort of rider you don't like.

But I'm sure you were shouting for him in the Dauphine as AC neutralised all his attacks for his mate Valv

More seriously, I think its the general lowering of standards/doping that has allowed Evans to appear more swashbuckling recently, and I'm all for it.

Has there ever been 2 successive years of the WRR when the winner has had absolutely zero doping issues/rumour? Fantastic.

Yes I know how he rode and I was one of those sticking up for him. There is a post somewhere from far back to prove it but I cannot be bothered to trall through and find it. Like you say, and Aldo Sassi, the levelling of the playing field and not Evans improving massively is why he is so much more prominent.

Re Dauphine. You can bet your bottom dollar I was watching that stage with great interest and it remains in my memory for sure. Evans was amazing as was Contador, even if he was 'working' for Valverde (which was clever because he needed and got support from them in the Tour).

calvjones

Wonder if Evans would have won it without Bertie there?

Dave, the cobbles of the Tour were bettered by the Strada Bianchi(sp?) of the Giro IMHO

Bronzie

Dave_1 wrote:

which was Evans best performance of the year?

Got to be this one..............

afx237vi

Definitely the strade bianchi.

SeadooXP

I think Gilbert was the strongest rider of the race but burned the gas to much leading up to the final lap. He was constantly attacking on the hills and burning his legs more than anyone else. I think if he had played conservative like Thor, he may have had enough power to stay in front of the peleton on his final breakaway.

sherer

SeadooXP wrote:

I think Gilbert was the strongest rider of the race but burned the gas to much leading up to the final lap. He was constantly attacking on the hills and burning his legs more than anyone else. I think if he had played conservative like Thor, he may have had enough power to stay in front of the peloton on his final breakaway.

A bit like Cancellara last year, he was on such great form and far stronger than everyone else but ended up doing too much work and showed his hand too much and lost

rick_chasey

sherer wrote:

SeadooXP wrote:

I think Gilbert was the strongest rider of the race but burned the gas to much leading up to the final lap. He was constantly attacking on the hills and burning his legs more than anyone else. I think if he had played conservative like Thor, he may have had enough power to stay in front of the peloton on his final breakaway.

A bit like Cancellara last year, he was on such great form and far stronger than everyone else but ended up doing too much work and showed his hand too much and lost

Disagree - what Gilbert has is a very big one day tank, who can go very fast up hills.

He needs very selective courses and racing to make the most of that tank. When Hushovd wins the race, you know it wasn't that selective.

top_bhoy

Hushovd - first over the line. Endof!!

He played it to perfection, his and his teams strengths/weaknesses. You can't ask any more than that of a professional sportsperson. That the Italians, Spanish et al with their numerical superiority couldn't cut the mustard says more of their inadequacies than that of Hushovd.

Hushovd will be another good World Champion for the sport next year I think.

SeadooXP

Rick Chasey wrote:

sherer wrote:

SeadooXP wrote:

I think Gilbert was the strongest rider of the race but burned the gas to much leading up to the final lap. He was constantly attacking on the hills and burning his legs more than anyone else. I think if he had played conservative like Thor, he may have had enough power to stay in front of the peloton on his final breakaway.

A bit like Cancellara last year, he was on such great form and far stronger than everyone else but ended up doing too much work and showed his hand too much and lost

Disagree - what Gilbert has is a very big one day tank, who can go very fast up hills.

He needs very selective courses and racing to make the most of that tank. When Hushovd wins the race, you know it wasn't that selective.

We'll Im sure you'll agree that controlling breakaways throughout and being in the first 5-10 riders at the top of the hill for most of the 12 laps is going to take some thing out of the gas tank for your final breakaway, thats all Im getting at.

frenchfighter

Scroll for Fabian!