Tirreno-Adriatico 2013 *SPOILERS*

1…1617192122…27

Comments

  • milton50
    milton50 Posts: 3,856
    When elite cyclists feel they have no option but to get off and walk then it's too much.
  • Macaloon
    Macaloon Posts: 5,545
    This is shaping up to be quite the intriguing season. Hopefully this great win for Nibali will encourage the others to deploy all sorts of tactics and alliances to combat the train making for much more unpredictable GC action. Obviously this was an extreme parcours, but you could imagine Sky being pressured on the lumpy stuff if the key Saxo, Astana, Cannondale, BMC domestiques & Cancellara join forces.

    Will the TdF route planers have time to add a few lumpy circuits in final of a few stages?
    ...a rare 100% loyal Pro Race poster. A poster boy for the community.
  • alihisgreat
    alihisgreat Posts: 3,872
    Macaloon wrote:
    This is shaping up to be quite the intriguing season. Hopefully this great win for Nibali will encourage the others to deploy all sorts of tactics and alliances to combat the train making for much more unpredictable GC action. Obviously this was an extreme parcours, but you could imagine Sky being pressured on the lumpy stuff if the key Saxo, Astana, Cannondale, BMC domestiques & Cancellara join forces.

    Will the TdF route planers have time to add a few lumpy circuits in final of a few stages?

    So they only way to beat sky is to build a parcours that all the riders hate? sounds great to me. They'll have an NHL style lockout if they're not careful.
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    "To be honest, I started the season a bit slower because I got married at the end of the season, I had three weeks off for my honeymoon, joined the new team at a training camp and we went to Astana. I started slowly this year.

    "I didn't think I'm could win but I realised at the a start that the stage was going to be difficult when 18 [riders] went away. I knew it was a lot and that on a hilly stage like that, there are far less tactics involved. if you're not good, you suffer a lot."

    -Nibali
    Contador is the Greatest
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    DamianoCunego_2913307_zpsa0aeb427.jpg
    Contador is the Greatest
  • Macaloon
    Macaloon Posts: 5,545
    ALIHISGREAT wrote:
    Macaloon wrote:
    This is shaping up to be quite the intriguing season. Hopefully this great win for Nibali will encourage the others to deploy all sorts of tactics and alliances to combat the train making for much more unpredictable GC action. Obviously this was an extreme parcours, but you could imagine Sky being pressured on the lumpy stuff if the key Saxo, Astana, Cannondale, BMC domestiques & Cancellara join forces.

    Will the TdF route planers have time to add a few lumpy circuits in final of a few stages?

    So they only way to beat sky is to build a parcours that all the riders hate? sounds great to me. They'll have an NHL style lockout if they're not careful.

    Not suggesting anything as extreme as today. Just a few bumps near the finish that if ridden hard by several teams might have a similar effect.
    ...a rare 100% loyal Pro Race poster. A poster boy for the community.
  • slim_boy_fat
    slim_boy_fat Posts: 1,810
    Not a massive fan of Nibali off the bike but he's a class act on it. Has consistently taken it to the others in recent times.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,463
    Milton50 wrote:
    When elite cyclists feel they have no option but to get off and walk then it's too much.

    Others got up it fine (well relatively fine). I suspect they didn't do their homework and got the gearing wrong or just got held up by others. I don't have an issue with these sorts of hills as a one off, it appears to have helped make the race, but when races like the Vuelta cram them in day after day it becomes as dull as any form of repetition. It's also quite reassuring to see them looking like a bunch of under prepared sportive riders encountering Hardknott Pass :D
  • No_Ta_Doctor
    No_Ta_Doctor Posts: 14,651
    Pross wrote:
    Milton50 wrote:
    When elite cyclists feel they have no option but to get off and walk then it's too much.

    Others got up it fine (well relatively fine). I suspect they didn't do their homework and got the gearing wrong or just got held up by others. I don't have an issue with these sorts of hills as a one off, it appears to have helped make the race, but when races like the Vuelta cram them in day after day it becomes as dull as any form of repetition. It's also quite reassuring to see them looking like a bunch of under prepared sportive riders encountering Hardknott Pass :D

    I'm as OK with that sort of climb as I would be with an 80-100km ITT. Definitely a spectacle, definitely sorts the sheep from the lambs, but not much fun for the riders and probably over-egging the pudding.
    Warning No formatter is installed for the format
  • Turfle
    Turfle Posts: 3,762
    There were about 40 of those climbs today.
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    @f_cancellara It shows lot of class @micacquarone talks about that they went wrong with todays stage.There are not meany raceorganizer like him#thanks
    Contador is the Greatest
  • Squirrelpie
    Squirrelpie Posts: 78
    Well it all turned on its head today.

    I don't see why some think this was the best stage of the year. Maybe just because sky lost out I don't know.
    The 30% hill was really a stupid idea, its seems to be a rising trend to add a monster gradient these days and that was crap, people falling all over cos they are going slow.
    Ok it was fascinating to watch the chase but nothing happened in the end. Those that got away with 12k to go stayed away and that was it nothing else happened.

    Much more exiting racing was seen in Oman.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,463
    Turfle wrote:
    There were about 40 of those climbs today.

    Granted, just watching it now and hadn't realised there were so many but I think one stage with one or two climbs like that is fine. If the Ronde was started today no doubt riders would moan about the numerous steep, narrow, cobbled climbs and P-R would be derided as a novelty race that compromises rider safety.
  • RideOnTime
    RideOnTime Posts: 4,712
    Pross wrote:
    Milton50 wrote:
    When elite cyclists feel they have no option but to get off and walk then it's too much.

    Others got up it fine (well relatively fine). I suspect they didn't do their homework and got the gearing wrong or just got held up by others. I don't have an issue with these sorts of hills as a one off, it appears to have helped make the race, but when races like the Vuelta cram them in day after day it becomes as dull as any form of repetition. It's also quite reassuring to see them looking like a bunch of under prepared sportive riders encountering Hardknott Pass :D

    yeah, but that's really steep.
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    They should let this guy ride. I'm sure if his team asked the organiser they would let him.

    tumblr_mjiivl3Ebw1qacyk6o1_500.png

    He has shown guts on many occasions. Not my type of rider but I respect him.
    Contador is the Greatest
  • Turfle
    Turfle Posts: 3,762
    That it came after two pretty brutal days probably didn't help matters. The updates were saying how hard a day it was long before live coverage even started.

    A one-day race over that parcours would be fun.
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,463
    Agree with you Frenchie (though he may be glad to have an excuse not to have to race!). I've done (very low level) races in the past where I've dragged myself over horrible terrain for 50 or 60 miles on my own rather than quit and can identify with wanting to cry as another horrible lump looms in front of you. It makes the pros seem much more human knowing it can happen to them as well.
  • fastandfurry
    fastandfurry Posts: 138
    Anyone got a longer video of this than the final few k's? Be keen to see how the climbs panned out over the last 30-40k that led to the splits.
  • GentlemanBear
    GentlemanBear Posts: 280
    full race - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIw0sXSmRmg
  • petemadoc
    petemadoc Posts: 2,331
    WOW... What a stage, never seen anything like it. Sagan, is there anything he can't do, amazing. And Nibali, what a warrior, great racing.
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    Phinney was the only one outside the limit.

    Only 109 finished.

    And I never knew Pozzovivo was racing. He even came home in the 50secs down group.

    Rambo came in 20th.
    Contador is the Greatest
  • LutherB
    LutherB Posts: 544
    tortuous racing and hard to watch at times; hope Phinney gets a squeeze from the organisers and finishes the race
  • thegibdog
    thegibdog Posts: 2,106
    Great win for Sagan, brilliant riding by Nibali and a good show from Hushovd too. It was an interesting stage but I think in hindsight the organisers will recognise that they pushed it too far. I'm sure a lot of the riders didn't realise the stage was going to be THAT tough, I can't imagine many of them queuing up to do that one again.
    https://gibworth.mypixieset.com
  • alihisgreat
    alihisgreat Posts: 3,872
    PeteMadoc wrote:
    WOW... What a stage, never seen anything like it. Sagan, is there anything he can't do, amazing. And Nibali, what a warrior, great racing.

    I don't count it as a great stage when 50 riders are forced to abandon. (and neither does the race director who's come out and said they made it too hard).
  • petemadoc
    petemadoc Posts: 2,331
    ALIHISGREAT wrote:
    PeteMadoc wrote:
    WOW... What a stage, never seen anything like it. Sagan, is there anything he can't do, amazing. And Nibali, what a warrior, great racing.

    I don't count it as a great stage when 50 riders are forced to abandon. (and neither does the race director who's come out and said they made it too hard).

    Doesn't mean it wasn't good viewing. Yes it was hard but many riders did finish and it shook up the GC. can't believe that pro riders had to walk up some of the hills, they must have been way overgeared. How come no one spotted this stage as a killer beforehand
  • Tom Butcher
    Tom Butcher Posts: 3,830
    How is it too hard - it's entertainment and it was great entertainment. Struggling up those sort of climbs at that sort of speed is no more than thousands of us do for fun - if they didn't look at the route before the race that's their fault.
    it's a hard life if you don't weaken.
  • roypsb
    roypsb Posts: 309
    Thor Hushovd - that was an immense ride! Chapeau Sir!
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    "I kissed my biceps because the climb was so hard that I needed my arms more than my legs, they were more in pain than my legs," Sagan explained with a cheeky grin and laugh in the post-stage press conference.

    "Today was similar to a Classic in Belgium. We've raced four hard days before this, so it was a very hard day. It was difficult on the 30% climbs with the rain. If you got out of the saddle, you wheel slipped and so I had to ride sitting down and use your power."
    Contador is the Greatest
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    "This parcours was quite literally the hardest parcours of a stage in a stage race I've ever seen, much less ridden," Phinney told Cyclingnews. "[There was] no climb longer than 2km, yet over 10000 feet of climbing in total. It was like a mix between Amstel and Liege but after racing for 200km everyday for five days straight."
    Contador is the Greatest
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    So many riders saying the rain was the biggest issue:

    "In the decisive moment, Joaquim [Rodriguez] attacked, and I came off the back. I stood up over the pedals, and I almost fell off my bike. I lost a few meters there, and then it was impossible to recover," Contador said.

    "It was something amazing that we were not able to climb the hills because the wheels were slipping. Without the water on them, they would have been a little easier, but with the water, the objective was not to climb in front, but simply to climb."
    Contador is the Greatest

Categories