Did Bradley have a low enough gear today?

Pross

Apparently setting a consistent, hard pace (that no-one can attack against) up mountains with gradients of up to 13% isn't climbing. It is only climbing if you get out of the saddle and make an explosive effort on a climb of around 20%

Rule74Please

It's the vuelta. The big boys are missing he is beating the domestiques of the real climbers a bunch of has beens and a couple of classics riders.

The Vuelta has always been the consolation race and makes the careers of those not really good enough.

Leiphiemer for example?

rickyrider

Rule74Please wrote:

It's the vuelta. The big boys are missing he is beating the domestiques of the real climbers a bunch of has beens and a couple of classics riders.

The Vuelta has always been the consolation race and makes the careers of those not really good enough.

Leiphiemer for example?

jeez - it's a cynical world you inhabit Rule74. Life must be fun

z0rT10ok

inkyfingers wrote:

If anyone had said 3 years ago that Wiggins would finish 5th on the Angliru I would have called the men in white coats. It was an incredible ride, Cobo just rode better.

Wise words mate

avoidingmyphd

Rule74Please wrote:

The Vuelta has always been the consolation race and makes the careers of those not really good enough.

Leiphiemer for example?

He came 3rd in the TDF. So either you're wrong about the relative merits of the tour and the vuelta or he can't be your example.

dahemingway

Watching the Spanish coverage when they interviewed Cobo he said he was riding 30-32.

That is a massive difference to Wiggins, all those who have posted that they can get up in 39-25 etc are talking nonsense, even Nibali was on 34-29 and struggled.

For god sake the motor bike fell over it would have been quicker to get off the bike and run as a few of the fans proved.

Sky got it wrong or in fairness Cobo got it right, he unlike the Sky duo apparently has ridden the climb before.

Anonymous

Rule74Please wrote:

Face it he can't CLIMB.

TT up a mountain yes but when it gets steep he gets found out.

For one not surprised and watched waiting for him to crack as predicted

Even time I've ridden up a categorised climb (cat 2, 1 or HC), I've had to get off for a few rests.
I can't CLIMB. People predict I will crack, and aren't suprised when I always do.

I am glad to hear my No1 fan Rule74Please thinks I am as good as Brad Wiggins! Get that man a beer (and a straitjacket)

oldwelshman

dahemingway wrote:

Watching the Spanish coverage when they interviewed Cobo he said he was riding 30-32.

That is a massive difference to Wiggins, all those who have posted that they can get up in 39-25 etc are talking nonsense, even Nibali was on 34-29 and struggled.

For god sake the motor bike fell over it would have been quicker to get off the bike and run as a few of the fans proved.

Sky got it wrong or in fairness Cobo got it right, he unlike the Sky duo apparently has ridden the climb before.

Why is it rubbish to claim ability to get up it on a 39 x 25 ? I dont think anyone has claimed to have got up it fast or at race pace on such a gear but it is certainly possible to get up on it, all beit on a much lower cadence and much slower time.
How do you think riders managed in the 70's and 80's when the gears tended to be 5 or 6 speed with 42/52 chain rings and 13/23 rear? The climbing styles were more crunching style than spinning then.

Le Commentateur

I think he means it was an irrelevance to claim it – amateur's hubris, and all that – since Cobo and Wiggins both proved Sky were overgeared.

oldwelshman

Le Commentateur wrote:

I think he means it was an irrelevance to claim it – amateur's hubris, and all that – since Cobo and Wiggins both proved Sky were overgeared.

Over geared or over juiced ?
Still not convince wiggo was overgeared, he was just cooked and well into the read. Does not matter what gear you have if your in the red, no energy left to push any gear.

Monty Dog

I was discussing this today with a mate, we both reckoned that because Sky were running Di2 they we'ren't prepared to fit smaller chainrings than 38 and probably lost themselves the race. For a team that present themselves as being 'very' prepared, someone surely got this very wrong, particularly as Brad has never showed an inclination to climb out the saddle - even Contador rode this on a 36.

Rodrego Hernandez

they stuck compacts on in the giro, just bad planning this time around. And it cost them the race possibly.

calvjones

Monty Dog wrote:

I was discussing this today with a mate, we both reckoned that because Sky were running Di2 they we'ren't prepared to fit smaller chainrings than 38 and probably lost themselves the race. For a team that present themselves as being 'very' prepared, someone surely got this very wrong, particularly as Brad has never showed an inclination to climb out the saddle - even Contador rode this on a 36.

This would be ironic if true. Di2 has probably saved Sky, ooh, zero seconds over the 3 weeks.

Given his experience at the Worlds TT I'm amazed Wiggo even rides Di2, let alone lets it choose his gear ratios for him (although if his Wolrds mechanical was somat else, and his 38 is determined by his bioracer chainset I'm happy to stand corrected)

oldwelshman

Monty Dog wrote:

I was discussing this today with a mate, we both reckoned that because Sky were running Di2 they we'ren't prepared to fit smaller chainrings than 38 and probably lost themselves the race. For a team that present themselves as being 'very' prepared, someone surely got this very wrong, particularly as Brad has never showed an inclination to climb out the saddle - even Contador rode this on a 36.

They could have used a larger rear sprocket of two teeth more and got a better ratio that than using a 36 instead of 38 chain ring but I dont think it would have made any difference, this did not loose them the race they would have needed an engine or epo to catch Cobo, there was a gulf in their difference in performance, performance, you can see this is one of the pother threads some one posted here.
Just found the link ianf posted:
http://www.53x12.com/do/show?page=indepth.view&id=125

Rich K47

That is a massive difference to Wiggins, all those who have posted that they can get up in 39-25 etc are talking nonsense, even Nibali was on 34-29 and struggled.

For god sake the motor bike fell over it would have been quicker to get off the bike and run as a few of the fans proved.


Everybody at the Vuelta could easily get up that climb on 39/ 25 or higher, the only thing stopping them is the racing they've done to get there. At the Fred Whitton every year the really fast guys like Jebb and Dobbin are all on 53/39 and not necessarily in the lowest gear on the back on the steepest parts of Hardknott, it's fair to say that they're nowhere near the same class as Grand Tour riders!