Women's Tour *spoiler*
Just started.
Deserves a topic thread?
http://www.womenstour.co.uk/stages/index.php
Route:
tage One Wednesday 7 May Oundle to Northampton
Stage Two Thursday 8 May Hinckley to Bedford
Stage Three Friday 9 May Felixstowe to Clacton
Stage Four Saturday 10 May Cheshunt to Welwyn Garden City
Stage Five Sunday 11 May Harwich to Bury St Edmunds
Ticker: http://www.womenstour.co.uk/live/index.php#.U2oGj6w0h8E
Highlights on ITV4 at 9pm tonight.
Deserves a topic thread?
http://www.womenstour.co.uk/stages/index.php
Route:
tage One Wednesday 7 May Oundle to Northampton
Stage Two Thursday 8 May Hinckley to Bedford
Stage Three Friday 9 May Felixstowe to Clacton
Stage Four Saturday 10 May Cheshunt to Welwyn Garden City
Stage Five Sunday 11 May Harwich to Bury St Edmunds
Ticker: http://www.womenstour.co.uk/live/index.php#.U2oGj6w0h8E
Highlights on ITV4 at 9pm tonight.
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Comments
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My Dad was at the start. Says it was very busy with a large crowd and lots of gorgeous bike gear on show. Needed a cafe stop to recover (not sure if that is due to the crowds or the lycra)....0
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I thought we had live coverage from someone?0
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Live Coverage here...
http://www.womenstour.co.uk/live/#.U2ob7oFdXzh
ITV 4 I think have highlights each night.0 -
I wish there was live coverage of this...http://www.georgesfoundation.org
http://100hillsforgeorge.blogspot.com/
http://www.12on12in12.blogspot.co.uk/0 -
2nd sprint: Elise Delzenne winning the points for Specialized-lululemon
Struggling to maintain enthusiasm too from the feed - think I'll avoid it now and catch the highlights later on (assuming they are actually on..).0 -
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Emma Johannsson according to the live ticker.0
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It was close....... think Johannsson timed it perfectly for the stage, but Armitsead has placing in intermediate sprints so if those have time bonuses she may get the GC.Slim Boy Fat wrote:Emma Johannsson according to the live feed
Edit: Looking back Armitstead got 2nd in the latter intermediate sprint but Johannsson also got 2nd in opening sprint. Vos got 3rd in both sprints plus 2nd on the finish line.0 -
Le Commentateur wrote:
It was close....... think Johannsson timed it perfectly.Slim Boy Fat wrote:Emma Johannsson according to the live feed
Looking forward to the highlights now. Sounds like it's been a successful day with lots of support roadside.0 -
Large and enthusiastic crowd in Oundle and a fairly positive piece on the local tv news. Weather looking pretty grim for tomorrow, it will be good to see some crowds out then despite the rain. Highlights on ITV4 and Eurosport I think.0
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Great day. I watched it by boughton house first, then the dreaded pork pie climb in Spratton.
A shame they didn't pass through the welland valley tomorrow or today. I would have liked to see the race take in the Neville holt climbs from either direction or the stockerston hills. Would have been great to watch.0 -
tom3 wrote:Great day. I watched it by boughton house first, then the dreaded pork pie climb in Spratton.
A shame they didn't pass through the welland valley tomorrow or today. I would have liked to see the race take in the Neville holt climbs from either direction or the stockerston hills. Would have been great to watch.
unfortunately if they went up a hill half the field would be timed out."Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago0 -
gsk82 wrote:tom3 wrote:Great day. I watched it by boughton house first, then the dreaded pork pie climb in Spratton.
A shame they didn't pass through the welland valley tomorrow or today. I would have liked to see the race take in the Neville holt climbs from either direction or the stockerston hills. Would have been great to watch.
unfortunately if they went up a hill half the field would be timed out.
I did think that as I watched the field spread out and riders dropped on a 200m 3 percent ramp.0 -
Not the best of roads at times today, through what appeared to be a housing estate, loads of traffic calming and a narrow path through a country park. I'm sure they wouldn't put the men on something similar. Good support on the road though. Would a women's race really get that badly destroyed by a proper hill? Surely their ability in relation to others shouldn't be hugely different than in a men's race. The race is certainly a step in the right direction though and nice to see a former club mate riding.0
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Just watched the highlights on ITV4. To my untrained eyes that was really really dull, really poor racing.
For the first 2/3rds of the highlights Armistead always seemed to be on the front or second wheel. Why was she not sheltering in the bunch?
Well done to Hannah Barnes. Great result for her.0 -
Alan A wrote:Just watched the highlights on ITV4. To my untrained eyes that was really really dull, really poor racing.
For the first 2/3rds of the highlights Armistead always seemed to be on the front or second wheel. Why was she not sheltering in the bunch?
Well done to Hannah Barnes. Great result for her.
Presume with the size of some of those roads, Armitstead may have wanted to avoid being too far back - but agree that you can have too much of a good thing. She may have seemed more ubiquitous because of the commentary, which tended towards the school of 'Look! Person I've heard of!' rather than actual useful insight.
The actual racing wasn't any more or less exciting than any other sprint stage in tours the world over though - calling it poor is a bit of an overstatement.
Good result for Barnes, but I got the impression she got herself out of position and had to come from too far back. She's got enough pace to worry anyone if she's close to them at the finish though.0 -
Pross wrote:Not the best of roads at times today, through what appeared to be a housing estate, loads of traffic calming and a narrow path through a country park. I'm sure they wouldn't put the men on something similar. Good support on the road though. Would a women's race really get that badly destroyed by a proper hill? Surely their ability in relation to others shouldn't be hugely different than in a men's race. The race is certainly a step in the right direction though and nice to see a former club mate riding.
The road through Althrop isn't really too narrow, certainly no narrower than most of the pave at P-R. Would be no different to using some of the country estates that they go through for the men's TOB race either.
These pros should be able to negotiate a housing estate/traffic furniture in a stage race when they race a fair number of town centre crits in a season (certainly the Brit/US based ones anyway).0 -
Pross wrote:Not the best of roads at times today, through what appeared to be a housing estate, loads of traffic calming and a narrow path through a country park. I'm sure they wouldn't put the men on something similar. Good support on the road though. Would a women's race really get that badly destroyed by a proper hill? Surely their ability in relation to others shouldn't be hugely different than in a men's race. The race is certainly a step in the right direction though and nice to see a former club mate riding.
theres a road on Stage 3, I actually missed the turning when out trying the course, because I couldnt believe theyd be using it, and even when my Garmin insisted it was the right road I thought its got to be a wrong it was only the advance warning cycle event signs that convinced me they are going to be using it, but its about the width of a Fiat 500,and it actually has grass growing up out the middle of the road :shock: and the corners are so dusty and full of stones too if someone doesnt fall off or puncture there Ill be surprised.
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid= ... 7,0.010568
but there are proper hills its not flat terrain at all, and part of the reason for them routing such odd roads is because it links the hills together in a way the wider roads in that area dont, its definitely a step in the right direction though.0 -
underlayunderlay wrote:Alan A wrote:Just watched the highlights on ITV4. To my untrained eyes that was really really dull, really poor racing.
For the first 2/3rds of the highlights Armistead always seemed to be on the front or second wheel. Why was she not sheltering in the bunch?
Well done to Hannah Barnes. Great result for her.
Presume with the size of some of those roads, Armitstead may have wanted to avoid being too far back - but agree that you can have too much of a good thing. She may have seemed more ubiquitous because of the commentary, which tended towards the school of 'Look! Person I've heard of!' rather than actual useful insight.
thats always going to be difficult though for any commentator covering a stage thats nearly 3 times as long as the highlights you are covering, given the time they have to package the whole thing up for transmission that night. As you have to decide what bits you are showing and then commentate to it, or commentate the whole race and hope they can piece bits together in an edit suite so it makes some sense. but either way its inevitably going to be them often just calling out names of people or places they see they think the viewers (most of whom arent dyed in the wool road cyclist fans) will recognise.
I thought it was good effort, thats probably the longest program devoted to womens road racing outside of the olympics thats ever been shown on UK tv.0 -
awavey wrote:underlayunderlay wrote:Alan A wrote:Just watched the highlights on ITV4. To my untrained eyes that was really really dull, really poor racing.
For the first 2/3rds of the highlights Armistead always seemed to be on the front or second wheel. Why was she not sheltering in the bunch?
Well done to Hannah Barnes. Great result for her.
Presume with the size of some of those roads, Armitstead may have wanted to avoid being too far back - but agree that you can have too much of a good thing. She may have seemed more ubiquitous because of the commentary, which tended towards the school of 'Look! Person I've heard of!' rather than actual useful insight.
thats always going to be difficult though for any commentator covering a stage thats nearly 3 times as long as the highlights you are covering, given the time they have to package the whole thing up for transmission that night. As you have to decide what bits you are showing and then commentate to it, or commentate the whole race and hope they can piece bits together in an edit suite so it makes some sense. but either way its inevitably going to be them often just calling out names of people or places they see they think the viewers (most of whom arent dyed in the wool road cyclist fans) will recognise.
I thought it was good effort, thats probably the longest program devoted to womens road racing outside of the olympics thats ever been shown on UK tv.
I am not complaining about the quality of the coverage. Chapeau Sweetspot & ITV4.
The racing was hardly that. 2 solo efforts getting 15secs or so ahead of a peleton riding not much faster than tempo is dull.
In the pre race interview with Ned & Vos, Lizzie said she wanted an attacking race with lots of breaks... it most certainly was not that.0 -
Alan A wrote:
I am not complaining about the quality of the coverage. Chapeau Sweetspot & ITV4.
The racing was hardly that. 2 solo efforts getting 15secs or so ahead of a peloton riding not much faster than tempo is dull.
In the pre race interview with Ned & Vos, Lizzie said she wanted an attacking race with lots of breaks... it most certainly was not that.
This is the problem with highlights. How many TV viewers know how many attacks and how hard the race was early on, or at certain points unless it's shown in the highlights? It might be that everything was chased down so a lot of riders decided not to try.
Although I'm guessing it's more likely a case of a number of riders who aren't used to racing the likes of Vos and just sat in trying to gauge the level. In which case let's hope a few more have a bit more confidence and go for it.
(playing Devil's Advocate!)0 -
I’d only complain about those zig-zag sections in housing estates which had several junctions quickly one after another, each with little islands and illuminated bollards like this:Pross wrote:Not the best of roads at times today, through what appeared to be a housing estate, loads of traffic calming and a narrow path through a country park. I'm sure they wouldn't put the men on something similar.
Far too many motorbikes unnecessarily mixed in amongst the riders, though.Pross wrote:Good support on the road though.awavey wrote:I thought it was good effort, thats probably the longest program devoted to womens road racing outside of the olympics thats ever been shown on UK tv.
I thought it a good TV effort too, but if there were any tactics going on, the film didn’t catch them, apart from the little hovering towards the end – in that way it seemed rather like some (men’s) amateur races - which might partly explain why Armitstead (or others) couldn’t attempt much in the way of forming breaks.Alan A wrote:In the pre race interview, Lizzie said she wanted an attacking race with lots of breaks... it most certainly was not that.
Anyone know what happened to Siri Minge, or to her team mate Audrey Cordon – both DNF so the Hitec team is already down to just 4 riders.0 -
Don't know about Siri, but her teammate Audrey Cordon abandoned due to illness according to @Hitec_Products.0
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The Giro Donne goes over the Mortirolo and such.... I think they can deal with a little hill in Northamptongsk82 wrote:tom3 wrote:Great day. I watched it by boughton house first, then the dreaded pork pie climb in Spratton.
A shame they didn't pass through the welland valley tomorrow or today. I would have liked to see the race take in the Neville holt climbs from either direction or the stockerston hills. Would have been great to watch.
unfortunately if they went up a hill half the field would be timed out.0 -
knedlicky wrote:
I’d only complain about those zig-zag sections in housing estates which had several junctions quickly one after another, each with little islands and illuminated bollards like this:Pross wrote:Not the best of roads at times today, through what appeared to be a housing estate, loads of traffic calming and a narrow path through a country park. I'm sure they wouldn't put the men on something similar.
That was the bit that made me comment, they had to come to more or less a stop just to get around.0 -
RonB wrote:Don't know about Siri, but her teammate Audrey Cordon abandoned due to illness according to @Hitec_Products.
What about the one who face planted? That looked nasty.0 -
awavey wrote:theres a road on Stage 3, I actually missed the turning when out trying the course, because I couldnt believe theyd be using it, and even when my Garmin insisted it was the right road I thought its got to be a wrong it was only the advance warning cycle event signs that convinced me they are going to be using it, but its about the width of a Fiat 500,and it actually has grass growing up out the middle of the road :shock: and the corners are so dusty and full of stones too if someone doesnt fall off or puncture there Ill be surprised.
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msid= ... 7,0.010568
but there are proper hills its not flat terrain at all, and part of the reason for them routing such odd roads is because it links the hills together in a way the wider roads in that area dont, its definitely a step in the right direction though.
No there aren't any proper hills on Stage 3 - I know the area pretty well, there may be a few little bumps, but no more, the max elevation is less than 50m! Any short steep ramps they'll be able to power over - I doubt they'll need to change from the big ring all day. I think you need to get out more if you think there are proper hills between Felixstowe and Clacton! However, strong winds will be the real test on this stage - crosswinds might just spilt the peloton into pieces.0
