Tirreno-Adriatico 2014 *SPOILERS*

Coach H

mroli wrote:

I think the pros can get up pretty much anything on a bike - a 32 is just going to make the experience a little less horrific. If they've got it, they can use it. It's not necessarily because they NEED it...

Some didn't make it in T-A last year though

frenchfighter

Delete.

mroli

Inseine - it is marked at 40%, I think that received wisdom it is at worst 33% - you can see it on my 100 hills blog if you're interested in ropey footage!

Coach H - you also see a lot of pros walking up the Belgian cobbled hills - but I think that is far more to do with what has happened ahead of them, rather than their own ability to get up the hill...

On today's TT - anyone else quite excited by this? I know its a TT - but Martin/Cancellera/Wiggins all going, with other top contenders like Contador/Kwia/Dowsett/Malori who did well at the Volta all going too....

frenchfighter

mroli wrote:

On today's TT - anyone else quite excited by this? I know its a TT - but Martin/Cancellera/Wiggins all going, with other top contenders like Contador/Kwia/Dowsett/Malori who did well at the Volta all going too....

Yeah agreed, a lot of TT talent in that field. Wiggins is well rested and hard targeted today but is under-performing so hard to judge. Cancellara is on fine form - crested the climb just ahead of Kwiatek on Sunday. Martin had to do a lot of work for Kwiatek but nothing that should trouble him today.

Top 25 from last year (same course):
Stage 7 Results
GER 1 MARTIN, Tony (OMEGA PHARMA - QUICK-STEP) 10:25
ITA 2 MALORI, Adriano (LAMPRE-MERIDA) + 6
CRC 3 AMADOR BAKKAZAKOVA, Andrey (MOVISTAR TEAM) + 10
SUI 4 CANCELLARA, Fabian (RADIOSHACK LEOPARD) + 12
ESP 5 CASTROVIEJO NICOLAS, Jonathan (MOVISTAR TEAM) + 14
GBR 6 FROOME, Christopher (SKY PROCYCLING) + 15
NZL 7 ROULSTON, Hayden (RADIOSHACK LEOPARD) + 20
POL 8 KWIATKOWSKI, Michal (OMEGA PHARMA - QUICK-STEP) + 21
ITA 9 CATALDO, Dario (SKY PROCYCLING) + 23
GBR 10 DOWSETT, Alex (MOVISTAR TEAM)
NED 11 DUMOULIN, Tom (ARGOS-SHIMANO) + 24
ITA 12 NIBALI, Vincenzo (ASTANA) + 26
NED 13 MOURIS, Jens (ORICA GREENEDGE) + 27
BEL 14 DEVOLDER, Stijn (RADIOSHACK LEOPARD) + 29
SLO 15 KOREN, Kristijan (CANNONDALE)
AUS 16 DENNIS, Rohan (GARMIN SHARP) + 30
ESP 17 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (SAXO-TINKOFF)
CZE 18 BARTA, Jan (NETAPP - ENDURA) + 31
ESP 19 INTXAUSTI ELORRIAGA, Benat (MOVISTAR TEAM)
ITA 20 QUINZIATO, Manuel (BMC RACING) + 32
SVK 21 SAGAN, Peter (CANNONDALE) + 33
GER 22 GESCHKE, Simon (ARGOS-SHIMANO) + 36
USA 23 FARRAR, Tyler (GARMIN SHARP) + 39
GER 24 HONDO, Danilo (RADIOSHACK LEOPARD)
ITA 25 RABOTTINI, Matteo (VINI FANTINI - SELLE ITALIA)

Cancellara:
"I will try to get the best out of myself but I haven't been thinking about the time trial all week during the other stages,' he admitted.

"Time trials don’t interest me as much as they once did. I don’t get the same feeling of happiness and satisfaction that I once did. I'm not ashamed to say that because it’s the truth."

Wiggins:
"I had a good team time trial and a lot of my training has been about making short, intense efforts for making efforts at Paris-Roubaix, so that's good for time trialing too," he told Cyclingnews.

"I'd like to win but lots of other riders are thinking the same thing. Tony Martin is the world champion and beat me in Florence. Cancellara is an excellent time trialist too. There's incredibly high level here. I can only promise that I'll give 100 per cent to try and win."

Interesting to hear from Wiggins that he is targeting PR which would go a way to explaining his poor stage racing form.

Coach H

mroli wrote:

Coach H - you also see a lot of pros walking up the Belgian cobbled hills - but I think that is far more to do with what has happened ahead of them, rather than their own ability to get up the hill..

You are absolutely right on the first bit which is why I didn't put any number of images of Pro's walking the Koppenberg in last years Flanders. However I think they just could not do it in the pic shown, although to be fair that was the last time up of multiple ascents!

inseine

mroli wrote:

Inseine - it is marked at 40%, I think that received wisdom it is at worst 33% - you can see it on my 100 hills blog if you're interested in ropey footage!

Coach H - you also see a lot of pros walking up the Belgian cobbled hills - but I think that is far more to do with what has happened ahead of them, rather than their own ability to get up the hill...

On today's TT - anyone else quite excited by this? I know its a TT - but Martin/Cancellera/Wiggins all going, with other top contenders like Contador/Kwia/Dowsett/Malori who did well at the Volta all going too....

Great blog and well done! It's a shame that photos never capture the gradient well enough. I'm going to check out if you've done any in Devon that i can try out on holiday!

Macaloon

Should be a cracker. The upside of epilogues is wafer thin marginals.

Edit: After a look at last year, Martin put oceans into Kwiato and Dowsett. Nothing marginal about it. Alberto 2013 conceded 30s to Martin. We could do with that gap closing a bit this year.

rayjay

I would like to see Contador really go for it. Not just do enough to assure victory.

Wiggins is going to be an interesting one.

If he rips it up then IMO it shows he had a lazy race. I wonder how that will go down with his teammates?
A bit selfish?

Mad_Malx

Isn't the TT too short for the usual top 3 ?

Paulie W

Mad_Malx wrote:

Isn't the TT too short for the usual top 3 ?

All 3 have done pretty well in prologues esp. Canc. Martin probably the least strong of the trio but has placed in top three at the Tour for example.

TheBigBean

inseine wrote:

mroli wrote:

Inseine - it is marked at 40%, I think that received wisdom it is at worst 33% - you can see it on my 100 hills blog if you're interested in ropey footage!

Coach H - you also see a lot of pros walking up the Belgian cobbled hills - but I think that is far more to do with what has happened ahead of them, rather than their own ability to get up the hill...

On today's TT - anyone else quite excited by this? I know its a TT - but Martin/Cancellera/Wiggins all going, with other top contenders like Contador/Kwia/Dowsett/Malori who did well at the Volta all going too....

Great blog and well done!

Seconded. I've just donated to your charity.

r0bh

Daniel Lloyd ‏@daniellloyd1 6m
.@alexdowsett quickest so far here in #tirreno 10:33, 51.75kph so 0.65kph faster than he went last year. Hepburn lying in 2nd, 13s down.

frenchfighter

Evans is a non-starter:
"It's obvious from the results that I'm not where I want to be. My performance at Tirreno is nowhere near where my intentions were but I have to continue working for my goals for the rest of the year."

rayjay

frenchfighter wrote:

Evans is a non-starter:
"It's obvious from the results that I'm not where I want to be. My performance at Tirreno is nowhere near where my intentions were but I have to continue working for my goals for the rest of the year."

Sad to see that. A great champion that I hope will get back on track before he quits.

Mind you, if Horner is an example he still has time

Paulie W

Evans looked to be going pretty well at TDU but I suppose that goes to show how poor a guide of form it is.

frenchfighter

I don't believe in drawing strong conclusions on ascent times based on everything I have read unless it is a complete outlier.

I like this chart though. Can't vouch for its accuracy.


I would add this at the same time:

TOUR MEDITERRANEEN

MONT FARON (5.43 km, 8.73 %, 474 m) | Dr. Ferrari's formula


2013

Jean-Christophe Peraud FRA / AG2R

---

| 15:43, 20.73 Kph, VAM 1810 m/h, 6.30 W/kg
Francesco Reda

---

ITA / Androni

---

| 16:02, 20.32 Kph, VAM 1774 m/h, 6.17 W/kg
Bauke Mollema

---

NED / Blanco

---

| 16:07, 20.22 Kph, VAM 1765 m/h, 6.14 W/kg
Alexandre Geniez

---

FRA / FDJ

---

| 16:10, 20.15 Kph, VAM 1759 m/h, 6.12 W/kg
Matteo Montaguti

---

ITA / AG2R

---

| 16:14, 20.07 Kph, VAM 1752 m/h, 6.10 W/kg
Thomas Lövkvist

---

SWE / IAM Cycling -- | 16:18, 19.99 Kph, VAM 1745 m/h, 6.07 W/kg
Ivan Santaromita

---

ITA / BMC

---

| 16:22, 19.91 Kph, VAM 1738 m/h, 6.05 W/kg
Davide Rebellin

---

ITA / CCC Polsat --- | 16:24, 19.87 Kph, VAM 1734 m/h, 6.04 W/kg
Nicolas Roche

---

IRL / Saxo-Tinkoff - | 16:27, 19.81 Kph, VAM 1729 m/h, 6.02 W/kg
Jon Izagirre

---

ESP / Euskaltel ---- | 16:27, 19.81 Kph, VAM 1729 m/h, 6.02 W/kg

2014

Jean-Christophe Peraud FRA / AG2R

---

| 15:40, 20.80 Kph, VAM 1815 m/h, 6.32 W/kg
Eduardo Sepulveda ---- ARG / Bretagne-Seche | 15:45, 20.69 Kph, VAM 1806 m/h, 6.29 W/kg
Stefan Denifl

---

AUT / IAM Cycling -- | 15:51, 20.56 Kph, VAM 1794 m/h, 6.25 W/kg
Steven Cummings

---

GBR / BMC

---

| 15:51, 20.56 Kph, VAM 1794 m/h, 6.25 W/kg
Egor Silin

---

RUS / Katusha

---

| 15:57, 20.43 Kph, VAM 1783 m/h, 6.21 W/kg
Riccardo Zoidl

---

AUT / Trek

---

| 15:57, 20.43 Kph, VAM 1783 m/h, 6.21 W/kg
Thomas Degand

---

BEL / Wanty

---

| 16:01, 20.34 Kph, VAM 1776 m/h, 6.18 W/kg
Francesco Bongiorno -- ITA / Bardiani-CSF - | 16:04, 20.28 Kph, VAM 1770 m/h, 6.16 W/kg
Carlos Betancur

---

COL / AG2R

---

| 16:09, 20.17 Kph, VAM 1761 m/h, 6.13 W/kg
Franco Pellizotti ---- ITA / Androni

---

| 16:09, 20.17 Kph, VAM 1761 m/h, 6.13 W/kg

Mad_Malx

CN ticker:

13:42:36 CET
Tony Martin has just completed his effort, and it's bad news for the world champion. He put in a solid time of 10:28, but that's some 15 seconds off the best time so far, a scorching 10:13 from Adriano Malori (Movistar).

mroli

Inseine/thebigbean - thank you very much..

Rayjay - re Wiggins taking it easy - I think that Porte had been thanking him for the work he has been doing as a "domestique" - mostly in the "valleys" I think - we just haven't seen it on the telly....

Just seen yesterday's sprint - Cav wasn't taking any chances was he?! Petacchi free-wheeled from about 150m to go and only started again in the last 20m and still came second - but Cav was head down sprinting for all he was worth - showed what it means to him to get back on the board...

Mad_Malx

The full start order for the time trial is here, with Martin (14.22), Wiggins (14.47) and Cancellara (14.51)

Timings are CET

mroli

Wow - Malori is in some form this year....

mroli

Wiggins and Cancellera both out on course...

gabriel959

Wiggins still in semi-retired mode

mroli

Wiggins 11 seconds back and 4 seconds better than Martin.

mroli

Dan Martin being caught by Cancellara!

mroli

Cancellara down by 6 seconds.

nic_77

My goodness, that's some position from Castroviejo...


Old picture. Today's position is even more pronounced with the saddle thrown forward another few inches!

inseine

Shame they are not all in good shape or going for it, cos it's a great field.

inseine

nic_77 wrote:

My goodness, that's some position from Castroviejo...


Old picture. Today's position is even more pronounced with the saddle thrown forward another few inches!

The whole team has had some proper wind tunnel time with someone who knows what he's doing.

curium

mroli wrote:

Wow - Malori is in some form this year....

I'm a bit disappointed with Alex Dowsett. Expected him to be top Movistar at least. Perhaps he should move to Spain for training over winter?

Macaloon

14:31:55 CET

Adriano Malori's face creases into a smile - Michal Kwiatkowski is 14 seconds down at the midway point.

Ticker