Tdf Stage 2 *Spoiler*

Abdoujaparov

Great riding by Cav there, but I think he'd have lost that on another day - bit of luck in being able to follow the right wheels, strong headwind (he's aero), greipel was dropped off a touch early and gave Cav a big tow at the crucial kick.

But Cav won and that's 100 per cent of what counts and 0 per cent of what doesn't.

Turfle

That's the thing with Cav though, he seems to always always always do that one thing that needs to be done. At a certain point you just have to say he can read a finish like nobody's business.

Two road stages done now, and two excellent finishes. Tomorrow should be good too.

timoid.

This is another great result for Wiggins. Cav has delivered a stage and so the pressure is off. No need to be the ones to chase down breaks now. Leave that to Greenedge.

Its all coming up Millhous for Bradley

rc856

The Mad Rapper wrote:

Yellow Peril wrote:

Busted by the Rapper!

Signals Det Commander - Recognise

But what trade??!

alwaystoohot

Cav the poacher. Good lad.

One more and he's equal with that other clean TdF Monster stage winner, Lance 'I'M SO FAST MY TYRES ARE ON FIRE BUT I DON'T KNOW WHY' Armstrong.

alwaystoohot

Yellow Peril wrote:

ellerslierd wrote:

I think that Sky's chances of doing(/being expected to do) no work on the sprint stages have now been greatly reduced. Argos and Lotto bought the hype, and got beaten on the sly, and fair play to Sky for pulling it off. I expect they will look to Sky to do their fair share now.

I am half expecting one of the stages later in the week to have a breakaway that everyone refuses to chase if Sky don't come to the front.

It was like a full team/stage scale of what Sagan did yesterday.

I think you are right in principle but Sky are making it clear through Cav interviews that yellow is the sole priority. As long as Wiggo is a genuine GC contender, unless his position is under threatfrom a breakaway, they will sit back and Cav will mosquito off whoever is in front of him.

SKY are playing a canny game via the media, should keep the others guessing for a while. I suspect SKY have every day planned out with who/where and when to share the load. Kinda just an extension of their forward thinking approach to racing. HTC Highroad on the otherhand just added more lads to the train.

TMR

RC856 wrote:

But what trade??!

PM'd.

frenchfighter

Sagan. Tourminator.

jerry3571

DavidCr wrote:

Timoid. wrote:

and Cavendish grabbed Henderson's wheel, who kindly led him from about 15th to 5th.

Did he?

Hello,
If you see at 21 seconds; Cav gets on the back wheel of the Greenedge guy (someone mentioned Henderson) and then gets taxied to the back of Greipel's wheel. You couldn't plan it any better. Happy days!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPTbzGaiE1A

lostboysaint

frenchfighter wrote:

Sagan. Tourminator.

Oh dear. A bit early in the career to be putting that kind of shit on the bike!

knedlicky

Here's the head tube:

TMR

LOL @ Sagan's ego. He's walking the walk though...

Pross

There's absolutely no reason why Sky should chase. If other teams try to force them to then they can just call their bluff. There are teams there looking for sprint stage wins and there aren't many opportunities for pure sprinters. Sky now have a stage win to go with a 2nd and 3rd place finish in 3 stages, a lot of other teams would be chuffed with that at the end of the race. To be honest Cav looks happier doing what he did yesterday than having the pressure of working with a train, it shows his talent as a bike rider as well as a pure finisher.

ddraver

It s very eastern European isn't it...

It's interesting that Cav looks happier, he has hinted before that he doesn't like the htc way, "its not how I rode when I was a kid" so maybe he s enjoying being a kid again.....

knedlicky

I see that yesterday a Tour car knocked a rider down (like the Hoogerland episode last year, except this time the rider was less injured)
The car ran into Astana rider Bozic, throwing him into a ditch, while his bike ended up jammed underneath the car. He had an elbow injury but was able to carry on with a replacement bike (and even managed to finish 17th).
The irony is that the car was that of one of the race commissars, thus one of those responsible for rider safety.

oldwelshman

plectrum wrote:

What a total balls up by Greenedge and Goss in particular. How did Goss's lead out man get detached and thus allow Cav to replace Goss and be led all the way to the wheel of Greipel!

Hilarious Nice from Cav and great interview where for once he didn't have to praise his team over and over and could basically say I'm a bonus rider but heh I'm brilliant so ..... 'Kick Ass!'

I dont think green edge messed up henderson did right thing but Goss was cooked and grappled with Sagan to get on Cavs wheel, he was just fooked. At that speed the lead out man assumes his sprinter is on his wheel.

frenchfighter

knedlicky wrote:

I see that yesterday a Tour car knocked a rider down (like the Hoogerland episode last year, except this time the rider was less injured)
The car ran into Astana rider Bozic, throwing him into a ditch, while his bike ended up jammed underneath the car. He had an elbow injury but was able to carry on with a replacement bike (and even managed to finish 17th).
The irony is that the car was that of one of the race commissars, thus one of those responsible for rider safety.

Thats pretty ridiculous. Not surprised that one hasnt got much coverage...

TMR

knedlicky wrote:

I see that yesterday a Tour car knocked a rider down (like the Hoogerland episode last year, except this time the rider was less injured)
The car ran into Astana rider Bozic, throwing him into a ditch, while his bike ended up jammed underneath the car. He had an elbow injury but was able to carry on with a replacement bike (and even managed to finish 17th).
The irony is that the car was that of one of the race commissars, thus one of those responsible for rider safety.

During the Tour of Wales recently a safety motorbike ran into the back of one of the guys from my Club. He was thrown off his bike into the air. Thankfully he is OK, but it illustrates that such collisions are sadly more frequent then one would hope.

frenchfighter

okgo

All the power info etc has been released by SRM for Sagans stage wins. If you look at them in the correct context (as on their own, they're not that amazing) i.e. after 120 miles of racing and what not they're pretty mad. It also says that he averaged 205 watts for the whole stage vs Jens Voigts 280 or so? Massive difference in efforts there (no surprisingly given Jens is a domestique).

https://twitter.com/#!/Scienceofsport - check the last few tweets etc.