Tour of Catalunya - *Spoilers*

ddraver

Grantmk wrote:

In that case surely you shouldn't be complaining about the Sky train. Shouldn't you should be complaining that other riders aren't racing like racers to disrupt the Sky train?

Grant, you are clearly new here so just to let you know, Frenchie has no interest in facts or reality. He runs purely on emotions, the more erratic, the better!

frenchfighter

So pleased for Dan Martin. He has raced this race in nearly all of his years as a pro. Done very well almost everytime. He has come 2nd twice.

The three stages to come do not look easy. I hope he can hold on.

Go go Quintana.

frenchfighter

6 hour stage. HEAVYWEIGHT win.

Stage 4:
1. Daniel Martin 6:02:40
2. Joaquim Rodriguez
3. Nairo Quintana
4. Jurgen Van den Broeck
5. Robert Gesink
6. Bradley Wiggins

danlikesbikes

Martin has 10's over JRod so still all to play for

Lightning

Amazing ride by Daniel Martin. Hope he wins the whole thing after this effort.

blazing_saddles

Katusha certainly made a bit of a pig's ear of that. 3 domestiques wasted, expect Uran to pull back 2 ninutes on his own. Purito fail. Epic Dan Dare.

dab_32

Sky have no plan b, when the train fails the GC boys can't determine or haven't the form to go on their own. Froome couldn't do it in Tirreno and Wiggo didn't or couldn't today. You assume if he had the legs he'd have gone with Quintana and if he missed that then Rodriguez. Tactically naive.

alihisgreat

Richmond Racer wrote:

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

hmm... I think Jrod would be in the leaders jersey had katusha not been determined to let the sky train burn out.

Hmmm....not really the smartest move in KAT's part, perhaps

I'm not so sure.. he's still where I'd put my money for the GC win given he's only 10 seconds back -> maybe its a really smart move since it put more time into Wiggins et al.

jonginge

Did they have radios? Good info on time gaps?

LeicesterLad

ddraver wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

Jonathan Vaughters ‏@Vaughters 2m
Bzzzzzt.... alert, alert.... SkyBoy cannot compute!!!!! Bzzzzt....




*think he means SkyBot

Cos he'd be doing something different if he was a Sky DS I suppose :roll:

LOL. Hate on everyone that has anything to say about anything to do with Sky. :roll:

Pretty sure Vaughters was joking and making light of the recent moaning about Sky's tempo riding

How predictable DD.

nweststeyn

Yeah, Katusha could've had the leaders jersey today if they had taken charge of the peloton. Letting Sky do all the work when they clearly have a weak(er than usual) team meant the gap was too big when Jrod jumped. Will make the rest of the race exciting though, lots of possible winners! Hope Dan keeps it...

danlikesbikes

LeicesterLad wrote:

ddraver wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

Jonathan Vaughters ‏@Vaughters 2m
Bzzzzzt.... alert, alert.... SkyBoy cannot compute!!!!! Bzzzzt....




*think he means SkyBot

Cos he'd be doing something different if he was a Sky DS I suppose :roll:

LOL. Hate on everyone that has anything to say about anything to do with Sky. :roll:

Pretty sure Vaughters was joking and making light of the recent moaning about Sky's tempo riding

How predictable DD.

Think he was as he was making a few similar funny comments last week regarding SRM's too

frenchfighter

I wonder where Pinot came in.

Nieve and Anton also.

Rujano also.

frenchfighter

Love it when a big break goes then one by one they falter and one rider is triumphant.

ddraver

LeicesterLad wrote:

ddraver wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

Jonathan Vaughters ‏@Vaughters 2m
Bzzzzzt.... alert, alert.... SkyBoy cannot compute!!!!! Bzzzzt....




*think he means SkyBot

Cos he'd be doing something different if he was a Sky DS I suppose :roll:

LOL. Hate on everyone that has anything to say about anything to do with Sky. :roll:

Pretty sure Vaughters was joking and making light of the recent moaning about Sky's tempo riding

How predictable DD.

You re in a particularly stinking mood today arntcha LL? Do you need a hug or something?

Lightning

frenchfighter wrote:

I wonder where Pinot came in.

Nieve and Anton also.

Rujano also.

Think I saw Nieve at like 1'30". Didn't see the others.

LeicesterLad

ddraver wrote:

LeicesterLad wrote:

ddraver wrote:

TailWindHome wrote:

Jonathan Vaughters ‏@Vaughters 2m
Bzzzzzt.... alert, alert.... SkyBoy cannot compute!!!!! Bzzzzt....




*think he means SkyBot

Cos he'd be doing something different if he was a Sky DS I suppose :roll:

LOL. Hate on everyone that has anything to say about anything to do with Sky. :roll:

Pretty sure Vaughters was joking and making light of the recent moaning about Sky's tempo riding

How predictable DD.

You re in a particularly stinking mood today arntcha LL? Do you need a hug or something?

Will admit, I'm in a foul mood today - work stuff.

Paulie W

dab_32 wrote:

Sky have no plan b, when the train fails the GC boys can't determine or haven't the form to go on their own. Froome couldn't do it in Tirreno and Wiggo didn't or couldn't today. You assume if he had the legs he'd have gone with Quintana and if he missed that then Rodriguez. Tactically naive.

Hilarious!

Lightning

JonGinge wrote:

Did they have radios? Good info on time gaps?

They seemed to have good info. Lots of bikes with the correct gaps and Lotto tweeted some gaps as well.

DeadCalm

frenchfighter wrote:

I wonder where Pinot came in.

Nieve and Anton also.

Rujano also.

Pinot was 10th at 1:08

frenchfighter

blazing_saddles

Rodriguez must have his hopes on winning the Montjuic stage and Martin finishing outside the bonuses.
Not a gimmee, given Dan is a pretty good one day racer on those type of parcour.

danlikesbikes

Possibly, think they were hopping that Sky would work the train harder to close the gap? Possibly left it too late

DeadCalm

Well chuffed for Dan Martin. Also pleased to see Peter Stetina putting in a good ride.

jonginge

Lightning wrote:

JonGinge wrote:

Did they have radios? Good info on time gaps?

They seemed to have good info. Lots of bikes with the correct gaps and Lotto tweeted some gaps as well.

Cheers.

DeadCalm

Hang on a sec, didn't they say on the commentary that Dan Martin took the intermediate sprint for 3 seconds?

smithy21

Set up quite nicely for the next few days. Still opportunities for this all to change I think.

DeadCalm

DeadCalm wrote:

Hang on a sec, didn't they say on the commentary that Dan Martin took the intermediate sprint for 3 seconds?

To answer my own question, according to the live commentary on biciciclismo.com, Martin did indeed win the sprint which, if there are 3 seconds on offer, by my calculation, would give him a 13 second lead on GC.

LeicesterLad

smithy21 wrote:

Set up quite nicely for the next few days. Still opportunities for this all to change I think.

The next three days are all still extremely hard, theres chances in each to shake the GC up again.





Finish on stage 6 looks like a J-Rod special.

danlikesbikes

DeadCalm wrote:

DeadCalm wrote:

Hang on a sec, didn't they say on the commentary that Dan Martin took the intermediate sprint for 3 seconds?

To answer my own question, according to the live commentary on biciciclismo.com, Martin did indeed win the sprint which, if there are 3 seconds on offer, by my calculation, would give him a 13 second lead on GC.

Sounds about right, however you never know as the info re time bonus allocation seems sketchy at best. I'm sure it will all sort itself out soon as it took them ages to update the GC board so they might change it in time for tomorrows stage.