Tour of Britain Stage 4 *spoiler*

frenchfighter

No discussion or even mention on the gap back to the majority of the peloton?! You guys all just Sky fan boys.

Looks like 3.5mins back to the rest then 5mins after that. Not sure how difficult the route to come is an if anyone can make that time up. Will be hard and class if so. Esp with the stupid Sky train stamping all over any attempts at wins. Although Cav saying they want Rowe for GC...

I guess we just count on JTL.

Cav said in post race that it was thanks to Wiggins they made the break - local knowledge about roads and wind and where to attack.

Dorset_Boy

You are odd Frenchie - you go on about the evil of the Sky train, and in your next sentence talk about Sky using their knowledge to ATTACK the peleton.

You really want it every way that suits you, don't you!

Squaggles

The Mad Rapper wrote:

Kristian House has done well so far. Never really noticed him before, has a nice attacking style. Funny accent though, where's he from? Sounds Canadian/American to me.

Kristian House is always attacking , great rider to watch , very strong in British criterium racing

He is gradually losing his Texan accent I think

RichN95.

Steele Von Hoff has to be the most ludricrous name in cycling.

IanLD

IanLD wrote:

Can see Cav dropping some time to ensure he keeps the rainbow jersey, but trying to work it for Rowe. Glad I saw him in it yesterday and it seemed to mean a lot to him to win with it on in front of Dumfries crowd.

OK - got that wrong :oops: , but he didn't seem ecstatic about the win. Still reckon he'll drop time to get the rainbow jersey on again (possibly going for seconds on the egg on my face here...)

afx237vi

RichN95 wrote:

Steele Von Hoff has to be the most ludricrous name in the world.

FTFY.

Escher303

We were camped out at the finish line in the rain for three hours. Really wanted to see a bunch sprint for the first time. They were so quick I couldn't pick anyone out with the naked eye, just saw a flash of white and assumed it was Cav. Fortunately my camera did better than me!

oldwelshman

JTL will only win this if Sky let him It is like a full sky team at the moment with endura riding with them, wheres brian smith on here to comment ? Sky can use 4 of their 6 riders who could win this, only eisel and hunt could not, dont think cav or wiggo want to so up to Rowe and Knees.
Caerffili stage will be interesting, think sky will try to keep it together until top of mountain first time round then launc on the fast descent until second time up.

ocdupalais

There's only Wiggo on the Sky team who could possibly cope with JTL when he gets let off the leash: and the former hasn't exactly been riding like a man thinking of the GC.
Seriously: if JTL is on form, he'll cause absolute carnage - especially on the Devon stage on Sat which will effectively be on home turf.

compo

Escher303 wrote:

We were camped out at the finish line in the rain for three hours. Really wanted to see a bunch sprint for the first time. They were so quick I couldn't pick anyone out with the naked eye, just saw a flash of white and assumed it was Cav. Fortunately my camera did better than me!

I wouldn't call it rain, more like someone constantly pouring a full bucket

The sprint was also my first in the flesh, and they don't half go fast, didn't bother with the camera.

What amazed me more was the support though. Yes I know that its dramatically improved since July given the improvement in the public eye, however the crowd around the Sky bus blew me away. The whole prom was full - I'd say 500-700 people. Fair play to Wiggo, Cav & Eisel for coming out for the fans; they didn't have to when cold and wet after the horendous day.

I think this tour has just emphasised how big cycling is now.

nweststeyn

The only thing boring about this ToB is frenchies opinions...

le_patron

When the group suddenly seemed to be about 20 riders, I had to rewind the ITV4 highlights several times thinking I had missed the echelons and the key split...surely they showed that after showing loads of earlier duller stuff ?

No, I think they just didn't show it.

mrushton

http://www.cwherald.com/news/stories/wo ... 397263.htm

More on this on the i-net if you google it. Nice gesture after a days racing.

Richmond Racer

le patron wrote:

When the group suddenly seemed to be about 20 riders, I had to rewind the ITV4 highlights several times thinking I had missed the echelons and the key split...surely they showed that after showing loads of earlier duller stuff ?

No, I think they just didn't show it.

Couldnt believe that they didnt show it. One moment the peloton's altogether, the next they've cut to 10 mins to go with the reduced front group of 30. Massive fail.

andyp

OCDuPalais wrote:

There's only Wiggo on the Sky team who could possibly cope with JTL when he gets let off the leash: and the former hasn't exactly been riding like a man thinking of the GC.
Seriously: if JTL is on form, he'll cause absolute carnage - especially on the Devon stage on Sat which will effectively be on home turf.

Do you honestly think the Tour of Alsace winner is going to trouble a World Tour team like Sky, including the reigning Tour de France winner and World Champion?

There is some real guff written on here about the abilities of JTL.

lyn1

nweststeyn wrote:

The only thing boring about this ToB is frenchies opinions...

To date I do not find it boring but it has been very predictable. With 5 British UCI teams that have not made any real impression in UCI races and have been totally dominated by Endura in the UK this year, plus one of the weakest Academy teams for many years, it’s no surprise that they cannot contribute to making the race. A few guys holding wheels but that’s about it. The bigger teams need to be fully committed and I’m not convinced all their riders are that interested.
Maybe it’s the small team numbers, with some already down to 5 riders, but the mountains and sprints jerseys are pretty much uncontested by the stronger teams and left to the British pros who take 4 of the top 5 places in one jersey and 5 of the top 6 in the other. In that respect it was harder to pick up a jersey in the Tour Doon Hame Premier Calendar where riders like Thwaites, Rowsell and Wetterhall had to be beaten than it is in the TOB to date. Maybe the change of terrain will shake it up a bit.

inkyfingers

andyp wrote:

OCDuPalais wrote:

There's only Wiggo on the Sky team who could possibly cope with JTL when he gets let off the leash: and the former hasn't exactly been riding like a man thinking of the GC.
Seriously: if JTL is on form, he'll cause absolute carnage - especially on the Devon stage on Sat which will effectively be on home turf.

Do you honestly think the Tour of Alsace winner is going to trouble a World Tour team like Sky, including the reigning Tour de France winner and World Champion?

There is some real guff written on here about the abilities of JTL.

It certainly remains to be seen whether he can carry on his success at a higher level, but he's certainly a better climber than Cavendish and on a short, sharp climb I think he's got a good chance of dropping Wiggins, certainly seeing as Wiggins is unlikely to be in his best shape and probably isn't here to win GC whereas this is the biggest race of the season for Endura.

Hopefully we'll see somebody like Sanchez test his legs as well.

Turfle

JTL has pretty much based the entire second half of his year around this. I will be majorly surprised if he isn't very close to the the strongest climber in the race at this point. Caruso is the only non-Sky rider up in the GC that I can see challenging him at all. Huzarski is too far back.

RichN95.

andyp wrote:

OCDuPalais wrote:

There's only Wiggo on the Sky team who could possibly cope with JTL when he gets let off the leash: and the former hasn't exactly been riding like a man thinking of the GC.
Seriously: if JTL is on form, he'll cause absolute carnage - especially on the Devon stage on Sat which will effectively be on home turf.

Do you honestly think the Tour of Alsace winner is going to trouble a World Tour team like Sky, including the reigning Tour de France winner and World Champion?

There is some real guff written on here about the abilities of JTL.

This race is likely to he decided by the two ascents of Caerphilly Mountain tomorrow. Last year the first man to the top of Caerphilly Mountain was JTL, so it's quite reasonable to consider him a major contender for GC.

inkyfingers

I think JTL must have read andyp's comments today.