Tour of Qatar

blazing_saddles

That was awesome racing.
Riders all over the shop.
Boonan takes grip of the GC.
Given Cav came home in the big group, just 50 seconds back, one has to say Sky
got today all wrong.

Boonan
Farrar @ 31"
Flecha @ 34"
Steegmans @ 36"
Eisel @ 45"
Veelers @ 50"
Canc @ 1'-06"

rick_chasey

OK, just let me do this:

That was a proper Boonen win.

Proper racing, with a nice little sprint from a small group.

r0bh

Couldn't you also say that EVERY team bar that of the winner "got today all wrong"? :?

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Given Cav came home in the big group, just 50 seconds back, one has to say Sky
got today all wrong.

frenchfighter

Just caught the final sprint. Highlights should be decent.

andyp

I never understand the "Qatar is boring comments" when you have stages like today's every year. Most of the big name classic riders duking it out for the win in the crosswinds. Fecking awesome stuff.

rick_chasey

r0bh wrote:

Couldn't you also say that EVERY team bar that of the winner "got today all wrong"? :?

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Given Cav came home in the big group, just 50 seconds back, one has to say Sky
got today all wrong.

There's not winning and there's losing 50 seconds on a flat stage.

Tusher

Boonen was glorious

frenchfighter

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2DSvriw5rA

Wonder why Cancellara tries to split it. Maybe for fun. Either way looks like he is going 65km/h :shock:

frenchfighter

Av speed for that stage is pretty damn good.

mroli

Are we having a go at Sky on that? They had Flecha up there at the end - obviously a missed opportunity for Cav - but you've got to say fair play to OPL - they bossed that. Great (unlucky) riding by Blythe too - Canc obv isn't on tip top form, but to sit on his wheel like that....

ilm_zero7

Rick Chasey wrote:

OK, just let me do this:

That was a proper Boonen win.

Proper racing, with a nice little sprint from a small group.

to all the knockers of the TofQ - yesterday was great racing - today was superb

avoidingmyphd

can you explain what sky did wrong? i know cav says from time to time that one day he'd like to contend in Paris-Roubaix, but he certainly can't yet. And being at the front today was a pretty good indicator that you're in position to contend in paris-roubaix this year. if the result of a race ridden at an average 48kph features boonen, cancellara and flecha in a 4 man sprint, then what happened was that they were too strong. the only thing everyone else did wrong was not be strong enough.
great stage today . the race is still boring though because the whole country is the same colour, and it's not a nice colour like belgium.

rick_chasey

avoidingmyphd wrote:

can you explain what sky did wrong? i know cav says from time to time that one day he'd like to contend in Paris-Roubaix, but he certainly can't yet. And being at the front today was a pretty good indicator that you're in position to contend in paris-roubaix this year. if the result of a race ridden at an average 48kph features boonen, cancellara and flecha in a 4 man sprint, then what happened was that they were too strong. the only thing everyone else did wrong was not be strong enough.
great stage today . the race is still boring though because the whole country is the same colour, and it's not a nice colour like belgium.

It's more that, if you have as strong rouleur team as Sky do, then the only reason why you wouldn't be in the front group is poor positioning when the split happens.

avoidingmyphd

Rick Chasey wrote:

avoidingmyphd wrote:

can you explain what sky did wrong? i know cav says from time to time that one day he'd like to contend in Paris-Roubaix, but he certainly can't yet. And being at the front today was a pretty good indicator that you're in position to contend in paris-roubaix this year. if the result of a race ridden at an average 48kph features boonen, cancellara and flecha in a 4 man sprint, then what happened was that they were too strong. the only thing everyone else did wrong was not be strong enough.
great stage today . the race is still boring though because the whole country is the same colour, and it's not a nice colour like belgium.

It's more that, if you have as strong rouleur team as Sky do, then the only reason why you wouldn't be in the front group is poor positioning when the split happens.

I still don't buy it. Noone else was in the front group en masse defending their sprinter. It was the strong men. Flecha contested the stage. It was a stage for riders like Flecha. It's weird to say Sky made some kind of mistake, unless you think their mission is to deliver cav to a bunch finish even when the race doesn't suit.

Pross

Was Cav really going to be a serious GC contender? Sky have two in the top 5 don't they? Others were bigger losers.

Tom Dean

Farrar's not happy :shock:

http://cyclismas.com/2012/02/farrar-blasts-garmin-barracuda-signings-and-team-tactics/

edit: this site seems to be a mixture of serious articles and made-up 'joke' news stories. hilarious...

jonginge

https://twitter.com/#!/Vaughters/status ... 1274456064

Vaughters wrote:

Apparently not so many cycling fans on twitter are familiar with The Onion, or parody, in general.

avoidingmyphd

That article includes a reference to Vaughters' mind control technology. What features does a spoof need before people spot it?
On the other hand, I just noticed that Vaughters clarificatory tweet hasn't corrected that bit.

jonginge

ahem

ddraver

frenchfighter wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2DSvriw5rA

Wonder why Cancellara tries to split it. Maybe for fun. Either way looks like he is going 65km/h :shock:

Hah!! Harmon's loving it!!!

frenchfighter

Getty

frenchfighter

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMzUwNDQwODgw.html

40 mins of stage 4

ilm_zero7

live here:

http://sports-livez.com/channel/ch-13.php

ilm_zero7

Michael Barry's non-start with a broken elbow is bad news for Cav, and will sideline him for quite while

ilm_zero7

2 with a 1 minute lead and 15km to go - they will get caught

ilm_zero7

Sky have had enough of the breakaway - its closed off

durhamwasp

whats the latest?

avoidingmyphd

cav won

blazing_saddles

Tooooooooo easy.
The rest of the "big" sprinters didn't even make the top 4 or 5.

TMR

<Rolf Aldag's accent>Cav-en-dish!</Rolf Aldag's accent>