Tour of Qatar

frenchfighter

Ouch

Getty

frenchfighter

Lol

Pross

Omar Little wrote:

last few km http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX_7mWwK4RA


is it too early to be concerned about the state of the sky leadout?

Maybe the deal is that Sky will pull things back to ensure Cav gets a chance to fight out the sprint but that he has to fend for himself (looking forward to fighting on two fronts at the Tour)? He seems to be coping well enough when he is in the lead group at the finish so hopefully it is the end of the full lead out train?

cal_stewart

Why do people still go on about cav needing a lead out. He has shown he can jump wheel to wheel. He just needs a team to pull breaks back.

pottssteve

Impressive that nobody else went down with him. As Brian Smith said, a train would at least give a little protection against all the boxing and coxing....

hammerite

I'm guessing that in key races/stages Thomas, Dowsett, Eisel and EBH(?) may well be Cav's leadout. Only Eisel was in the ToQ, so maybe they just decided to let him fight it out for himself. He got 2 stages, so I'm sure apart from the fall he's pretty happy with how things have gone.

RichN95.

There's little point in Sky having a really good train in this race. If they were to really go for it and put together an HTC style domination, it's just going to demoralize the other sprint teams so that they won't do their share of the work when the big races come around. It would be like Cancelllara's counter-productive show of strength at E3 last year.

Richj

It's not that Cav needs a lead out train to win, he has shown he doesn't. But having one helps to keep you protected from 5k out. Messy sprints like today where anything will happen will just become the norm. Nothing wrong with that and Cav will still get his wins, there maybe just a few more crashes.

cogidubnus

I think Sky are deliberately not using a lead out train to set a precedent for the season ahead. To me is says "we aren't going to do all the work at the front, if you other teams want to win some races then you will need to get involved" Sky know Cav can win with a train or without, so if they can get more teams working as the season goes on all the better for the yellow/green jersey push at the tour. I have no doubt when we get to the serious stuff there will be a sky chain of:

Porte, Eiesel, Thomas and EBH

ddraver

Do you reckon the Cervelo Dynasty will stop whinging about Haussler now?! :P

And i think it's a bit harsh to criticise Sky's lead out train when they did nt seem to be bothering for that stage (although maybe that's your point...)

roypsb

Cav vs Greipel looks like it's gonna be interesting this season - both in v good early season form.