Paris-Nice *spoiler*

Turnbull2000

Rick Chasey wrote:

cuts through jingoistic support for Brit riders,

What on earth is that supposed to mean?

inkyfingers

Rick Chasey wrote:

How did he do in the Annecy TT anyone?

I seem to remember him not riding quite as well as i'd expected, but I'd be careful making assumptions on one TT.

I prefer this year format of P-N to last years, the long TT was simply too influential. The dissapointment for me was that the two stages with supposedly uphill finishes weren't really tough enough so it all came down to Mende and the 2 ITTs.

graeme_s-2

Rick Chasey wrote:

How did he do in the Annecy TT anyone?

He finished 6th, 43 seconds behind Contador. Only riders who finished ahead of him were Contador, Cancellara, Ignatiev, Larsson and Millar.

afx237vi

iainf72 wrote:

Bad Paris - Nice anyway. I give it 3/10

Worst Paris-Nice since... erm... Tony Martin winning last year.

rick_chasey

inkyfingers wrote:

Rick Chasey wrote:

How did he do in the Annecy TT anyone?

I seem to remember him not riding quite as well as i'd expected, but I'd be careful making assumptions on one TT.

I prefer this year format of P-N to last years, the long TT was simply too influential. The dissapointment for me was that the two stages with supposedly uphill finishes weren't really tough enough so it all came down to Mende and the 2 ITTs.

Yeah. That's what I mean by not having much evidence. You'd hope even in a 3rd week TT he'd be able to beat Contador.

If he's going to win the Tour he's going to have to win stage 19, or at least be the #1 rider of GC contenders - especially since I think Evans on top form can climb better than he can.

You wonder if he has that in him after 3 weeks. He should do, but like I said, we don't really know since we don't have much to go on.

52km for the penulimate stage is long. Feels like the late '90s again.

rick_chasey

afx237vi wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Bad Paris - Nice anyway. I give it 3/10

Worst Paris-Nice since... erm... Tony Martin winning last year.

Ha. Exactly.

inkyfingers

afx237vi wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Bad Paris - Nice anyway. I give it 3/10

Worst Paris-Nice since... erm... Tony Martin winning last year.

I'd say this years was better than last years, simply because the GC was decided over 3 stages as opposed to one last year.

greasedscotsman

Rick Chasey wrote:

52km for the penulimate stage is long. Feels like the late '90s again.

53.5km!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/2012-to ... ime-trials

RichN95.

Rick Chasey wrote:

Yeah. That's what I mean by not having much evidence. You'd hope even in a 3rd week TT he'd be able to beat Contador.

If he's going to win the Tour he's going to have to win stage 19, or at least be the #1 rider of GC contenders - especially since I think Evans on top form can climb better than he can.

You wonder if he has that in him after 3 weeks. He should do, but like I said, we don't really know since we don't have much to go on.

52km for the penulimate stage is long. Feels like the late '90s again.

He was very good in the final TT in 2010. The only rider in the top 50 on GC to crack the top 10 after the weather changed. Obviously, he may not have gone as hard as could in the later stages, but he also seemingly wasn;t in great form either.

afx237vi

inkyfingers wrote:

afx237vi wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Bad Paris - Nice anyway. I give it 3/10

Worst Paris-Nice since... erm... Tony Martin winning last year.

I'd say this years was better than last years, simply because the GC was decided over 3 stages as opposed to one last year.

Yeah, this year at least had the first road stage with the big peloton split. I'm not a fan of stage-races that end with a TT, though.

No_Ta_Doctor

afx237vi wrote:

inkyfingers wrote:

afx237vi wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Bad Paris - Nice anyway. I give it 3/10

Worst Paris-Nice since... erm... Tony Martin winning last year.

I'd say this years was better than last years, simply because the GC was decided over 3 stages as opposed to one last year.

Yeah, this year at least had the first road stage with the big peloton split. I'm not a fan of stage-races that end with a TT, though.

Normally I'd agree with you, but a mountain TT is different.

RichN95.

afx237vi wrote:

Yeah, this year at least had the first road stage with the big peloton split. I'm not a fan of stage-races that end with a TT, though.

I'm not so sure. In these days of WT points meaning so much, a deciding mountain stage can often see riders protecting a top 5 position rather than attacking for the win. At least with a final TT they have little choice but to go full out.

TV coverage could be more innovative though.

rick_chasey

RichN95 wrote:

afx237vi wrote:

Yeah, this year at least had the first road stage with the big peloton split. I'm not a fan of stage-races that end with a TT, though.

I'm not so sure. In these days of WT points meaning so much, a deciding mountain stage can often see riders protecting a top 5 position rather than attacking for the win. At least with a final TT they have little choice but to go full out.

TV coverage could be more innovative though.

Yes!

If the UCI are going to bang on about being more like F1, that's the one thing they could take a idea or two from.

The Ronde in-car footage was brilliant - some of the more memorable bits were those bits.

Can't imagine it's that much harder to do for other races.

'Ghost' riders for TTs would be great too..

Certainly some on-bike cameras would be great too.

I can see why people are not so keen on giving out the wattage stuff, and to be honest, I'm less fussed about those.

inkyfingers

Forgive my ignorance, but what's a "Ghost Rider" Rick?

afx237vi

RichN95 wrote:

afx237vi wrote:

Yeah, this year at least had the first road stage with the big peloton split. I'm not a fan of stage-races that end with a TT, though.

I'm not so sure. In these days of WT points meaning so much, a deciding mountain stage can often see riders protecting a top 5 position rather than attacking for the win. At least with a final TT they have little choice but to go full out.

TV coverage could be more innovative though.

Yeah, fair enough, my complaint about final day TTs stems largely from the fact I find any TT boring to watch.

RichN95.

inkyfingers wrote:

Forgive my ignorance, but what's a "Ghost Rider" Rick?

These two videos show the possibilities from motor racing:

Using a fixed camera (hard to do in cycling): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocbhXLq72ho

Or onboard cameras: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6xs8Ch_r0k

It really only works if the competitors are pretty close, like Wiggins and Westra today

No_Ta_Doctor

RichN95 wrote:

inkyfingers wrote:

Forgive my ignorance, but what's a "Ghost Rider" Rick?

These two videos show the possibilities from motor racing:

Using a fixed camera (hard to do in cycling): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocbhXLq72ho

Or onboard cameras: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6xs8Ch_r0k

It really only works if the competitors are pretty close, like Wiggins and Westra today

They could probably knock up a GPS based graphic of relative position on the course quite easily though. A couple of different coloured dots and a map of the parcours. Would give a much better realtime impression of a TT as head-to-head.

rick_chasey

RichN95 wrote:

inkyfingers wrote:

Forgive my ignorance, but what's a "Ghost Rider" Rick?

These two videos show the possibilities from motor racing:

Using a fixed camera (hard to do in cycling): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocbhXLq72ho

Or onboard cameras: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6xs8Ch_r0k

It really only works if the competitors are pretty close, like Wiggins and Westra today

For sure.

Prologues?

On board cameras on bikes are already being done a bit.

Have 10, pick the riders each day to fix them onto, and have all the other riders carry a dud camera / dead weight of same size, like F1 did in the '90s when they didn't have enough cameras for everyone.

Oor, even helmet cams :O. Same as above.

inkyfingers

Cheers. No good for a Schleck versus Evans battle, or at least they'd need a wider lense!

Its a bit like the sort of thing you can use on a Garmin GPS or a posh turbo trainer, can be quite motivating, or quite depressing!

frenchfighter

Didnt realise Roche was in the race.

alanjay

afx237vi wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

afx237vi wrote:

Yeah, this year at least had the first road stage with the big peloton split. I'm not a fan of stage-races that end with a TT, though.

I'm not so sure. In these days of WT points meaning so much, a deciding mountain stage can often see riders protecting a top 5 position rather than attacking for the win. At least with a final TT they have little choice but to go full out.

TV coverage could be more innovative though.

Yeah, fair enough, my complaint about final day TTs stems largely from the fact I find any TT boring to watch.

seconded

Benjamin Hall

Interesting, thanks frenchie.

ddraver

No tA Doctor wrote:

They could probably knock up a GPS based graphic of relative position on the course quite easily though. A couple of different coloured dots and a map of the parcours. Would give a much better realtime impression of a TT as head-to-head.

Sporza do this for the break v peloton on the online coverage, they lay it over a Google Map.

Anyway - Come on Misery Guts' - Who would have thought we'd have a British winner of anything 5 years ago. OK, there were a lot of big names missing but it was a solid performance from Bradley Wiggins and Sky (save one lapse letting some Dutch guy go :? ).

It was a good performance and they deserve significant credit for it.

thegibdog

Good to see Roche getting the full benefit out of those aero bars! :shock:

golfergmc

Can anyone explain why Wiggins had no tape on the drops?

Benjamin Hall

I would imagine for the slight aero advantage. I doubt he used the drops at all, just the hoods and the aero bars.

jibberjim

Tape significantly increases the area of the bars, so probably makes some difference to the aerodynamics. I didn't get to watch as I was out helping race oganise today, but did he actually use them? Surprised he wasn't on a TT frame, rather than his road frame given the position he actually rode in for all the pictures I've seen.

ratsbeyfus

He was in the drops off the start ramp, and for the last few hundred metres. I did worry that his hands would slip off the bars when he pulled away at the start. Surely the removal of the tape was more for psychological benefit than any actual aero benefit? Shaving off those sideburns would probably be more aero-effective.

sonny73

Chuffed for Wiggins, great win for stage and GC. Chapeau that man. Top race control from Sky too.

Turfle

Decent looking palmarès developing for Wiggins now.