Tour de Romandie 2014 "spoiler"

above_the_cows

Are we looking at a possible GC win for Little Flower?

dsoutar

frenchfighter wrote:

Need to get a close up of his specs:


Last 10km:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve_Of-JJJaw

Here you go: (sorry, couldn't manage to get the image to display - maybe it's a copyright issue with how the web site displays it - maybe you can do better)

http://www.donaukurier.de/_/tools/picvi ... EM=2802783

Edit: found one that does work:

frenchfighter

Ah I see, thanks!

Pross

frenchfighter wrote:

Lopez and Porte at 57secs. No other Sky rider within 3mins.

Last time I checked 57 seconds was within a minute

Pross

Nearly picked Albasini for the GC on this race for PTP, ironically this stage was the reason I didn't!

RichN95.

Above The Cows wrote:

Are we looking at a possible GC win for Little Flower?

Only if Friday's stage is curtailed. The likes of Froome and Nibali are going to want to test themselves and MK's done a lot of racing recently. He won't lose lots but he hasn't lots to lose.

mechanism

Are those glasses Made from Sport by any chance?

frenchfighter

Elissonde only 36 secs back and not their A rider. SAXO a and b are not far back and they have another polish rider not far off. Mohoric is 1.24 back. Winner 1.28 back. Sky 3 from bottom of team classification.

RichN95.

frenchfighter wrote:

Elissonde only 36 secs back and not their A rider. SAXO a and b are not far back and they have another polish rider not far off. Mohoric is 1.24 back. Winner 1.28 back. Sky 3 from bottom of team classification.

None of those riders will win the Tour de Romandie. Sky might though.

nic_77

adr82 wrote:

inseine wrote:

What's all this obsession with SKY????

I think he just likes to criticise them no matter what they do, they obviously annoy him somehow.

Um... it might just be a deliberate ploy to provoke a response from others?!

Pretty easy to throw in a pro-Contador / con-Sky reference into most posts and someone bites every time (sometime it's me). I should imagine a smart chap like Frenchie knows exactly what he's doing. Whilst I'm sure he generally feels the way his online character appears to, it is easy enough to be intentionally contrary on a forum.

It's basically trolling, but not really in a bad way as it sometimes promotes some interesting discussion. If you don't want it, don't respond. Personally I've grown to enjoy the theatre.

blazing_saddles

Stupidly, I actually sat and watched all the tv coverage this evening.
They even managed to have their one "climb" backwards.
It wasn't a great stage when they were using Crans Montana for the sort out.
Lightweight, as Frenchie Fanboy would say.

Art Vandelay

So a few people here bemoaning today's stage. A thrilling Nibali descent, a trademark, (almost perfectly timed) Voeckler attack, interesting team dynamics with the chase in the last 10km and a top win from Albassini. What more do you want?

frenchfighter

Art Vandelay wrote:

So a few people here bemoaning today's stage. A thrilling Nibali descent, a trademark, (almost perfectly timed) Voeckler attack, interesting team dynamics with the chase in the last 10km and a top win from Albassini. What more do you want?

For Nibali to win from the only solo move with real intent? For fortune to favour the brave? Rather than someone holding wheels over a 90km stage with just a cat 2 to hurt the legs to take the win.

It was an enjoyable stage - what little of it I saw. Only because of Nibali and Uran's hair though. Otherwise it would have been a procession and bunch sprint and more than half the peloton with weak legs and hearts.

frenchfighter

frenchfighter

Nieve was there on the final climb towing his stem looking leader. Not sure why they were setting the pace - probably because Sky asked them to given they are filming so needed tv exposure.

frenchfighter

Froome styled oddly...not a surprise.

blazing_saddles

Art Vandelay wrote:

So a few people here bemoaning today's stage. A thrilling Nibali descent, a trademark, (almost perfectly timed) Voeckler attack, interesting team dynamics with the chase in the last 10km and a top win from Albassini. What more do you want?

Something to balance out 25 kms of TTing?

Sky hammered that weak drag as hard as they could and couldn't force any sort selection.
The Loop around Sion looked far more enticing in reverse: tough 9km ascent and downhill (of sorts) all the way back to town.

Nibali's futile descent, a late Voekler burst and then there was one. (GC stage left)

frenchfighter

Good to see Atapuma, BMC's 2nd man in case something happened to their leader (these things happen), was safely there at the end.

andyp

frenchfighter wrote:

Froome styled oddly...not a surprise.

At least he hasn't released his own iPhone app.

andyp

"The winner of the last Giro d’Italia is thus a leader in communication too, with an attack worthy of those we are accustomed to see during the toughest climbs on the mountain roads," the missive says. "From now on, for the fans there will be no more secret, because on the new application you can really find any kind of information: everything from his personal life to his team, from training info to the most important races."

Richmond Racer

andyp wrote:

"The winner of the last Giro d’Italia is thus a leader in communication too, with an attack worthy of those we are accustomed to see during the toughest climbs on the mountain roads," the missive says. "From now on, for the fans there will be no more secret, because on the new application you can really find any kind of information: everything from his personal life to his team, from training info to the most important races."

Oh noes! Rouleur's not a buyer

http://rouleur.cc/journal/racing/weekly ... li-wibbali

frenchfighter

Could be an interesting stage today. Could be a sprint. Depends on who brings desire and bravery to the roads of Switzerland.

RideOnTime

frenchfighter wrote:

Marmalade... I reckon.

Macaloon

frenchfighter wrote:

Art Vandelay wrote:

So a few people here bemoaning today's stage. A thrilling Nibali descent, a trademark, (almost perfectly timed) Voeckler attack, interesting team dynamics with the chase in the last 10km and a top win from Albassini. What more do you want?

For Nibali** to win from the only solo move with real intent? For fortune to favour the brave? Rather than someone holding wheels over a 90km stage with just a cat 2 to hurt the legs to take the win.

It was an enjoyable stage - what little of it I saw. Only because of Nibali and Uran's hair though. Otherwise it would have been a procession and bunch sprint and more than half the peloton with weak legs and hearts.

It's only brave because of the high risk of failure. And exceptionally good races can't be the routine.

Freed from the tyranny of the wind tunnel, Uran's mullet will be worth watching.

**AKA the Italian Voeckler

frenchfighter

Martin Kohler and Pirmin Lang attacked at the gun and have 10mins and counting.

A measly 1hr of coverage starting at 3.15.

Richmond Racer

Macaloon wrote:

frenchfighter wrote:

Art Vandelay wrote:

So a few people here bemoaning today's stage. A thrilling Nibali descent, a trademark, (almost perfectly timed) Voeckler attack, interesting team dynamics with the chase in the last 10km and a top win from Albassini. What more do you want?

For Nibali** to win from the only solo move with real intent? For fortune to favour the brave? Rather than someone holding wheels over a 90km stage with just a cat 2 to hurt the legs to take the win.

It was an enjoyable stage - what little of it I saw. Only because of Nibali and Uran's hair though. Otherwise it would have been a procession and bunch sprint and more than half the peloton with weak legs and hearts.

It's only brave because of the high risk of failure. And exceptionally good races can't be the routine.

Freed from the tyranny of the wind tunnel, Uran's mullet will be worth watching.

**AKA the Italian Voeckler

Uran's mullet blowing in the wind...one of the sights of today's peloton...my theory is that is actually disrupts the full benefit of drafting for those behind. Puts off the oppo.

frenchfighter

First two hours at 37km/h. Soft pedalling. I expect fireworks at the end.

frenchfighter

60ks, 6mins.

above_the_cows

The overall parcours is a bit bobbins. How can they not have one summit finish in the Alps?

above_the_cows

Frenchie is that Angelina Jolie and well why?