Tour of Britain 2014

dsoutar

TheFog wrote:

Still a shame to see teams who have competed in ToB in recent years not return - Orica, Trek, Europcar, Cannondale and even Katusha and Ag2r who competed years ago.

Still, should be a good field.

Yes, I thought the elevation in race status would have encouraged teams rather than had the reverse effect. Any obvious reasons ?

inseine

RichN95 wrote:

inseine wrote:

Genuine question, has he had any wins against other top sprinters since last year’s Tour ?

Cavendish?

Second & Third in his wins this year are:

Demare & Coquard
Petacchi & Sagan
Viviani & Bos
Chicchi & Bonifazio
Richeze & Renshaw
Degenkolb & Hofland
Degenkolb & Sagan
Lobato & Sagan
Daniel & Jans
Sanz & Manzin

So no Greipel or Bouhanni, but he's not lost to them either - he's not been in a single race with Bouhanni and not been in a race with Greipel where they were both in the top ten.

Riders who have won sprint stages where Cavendish was top three are: Viviani (twice) and Nicola Ruffoni

Thanks, impressively comprehensive answer! I can't really see him beating Kittel or Bouhanni at the moment (in an important event). Just feel like he's lost his edge.

hamish_mctavish

Local knowledge as requested:

Just looking at Stage 7 in Sussex and noticed that rather than going along the main road through Ditchling Village, the route goes along Underhill Lane before turning directly on to the bottom of the climb. Underhill Lane is a slightly improved cart track and often has grass growing down the middle; it is so insignificant that the part that the Tour goes along is not yet on Google Streetmap but this is the view of the end of the road from the bottom of Ditchling Beacon.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.908345,-0.115344,3a,75y,102.98h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sgzSsp8ZIZtECkuXnyXaXIA!2e0

The road is no more than six feet wide at several points and the surface is not great (especially when covered with flint after rain) so the peloton will be very stretched even before the climb up The Beacon.

Should be great!

phil s

RichN95 wrote:

They've only sprinted against each other twice all season. In Harrogate, when Cavendish crashed and at Vattefall where neither made the podium.

They were also both at Dubai, where Kittel was imperious... you may write it off as an early season chipper. They were also both at Tirreno, but Kittel crashed on the first road stage and famously threw his bike in a strop.

phil s

RichN95 wrote:

... he's not been in a single race with Bouhanni and not been in a race with Greipel where they were both in the top ten.

Hang on, are you still talking about Kittel? He and Bouhanni were both in the Giro this year, Kittel with a clean sweep of sprints before he got sick and left, then Bouhanni took over. As for Greipel they were both top ten in Lille and Paris (Kittel winning both times). Have I got the wrong end of the stick?

RichN95.

phil s wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

They've only sprinted against each other twice all season. In Harrogate, when Cavendish crashed and at Vattefall where neither made the podium.

They were also both at Dubai, where Kittel was imperious... you may write it off as an early season chipper. They were also both at Tirreno, but Kittel crashed on the first road stage and famously threw his bike in a strop.

Yeah, they were both in the race, but they didn't both sprint. In Dubai, Cavendish came 30th, 36th and 105th on the stages Kittel won. Same as T-A - Kittel never in the top 100.

phil s wrote:

[
Hang on, are you still talking about Kittel?

No. I was never talking about Kittel. I was talking about Cavendish. The 'Cavendish?' at the begining meant 'Are you referring to Cavendish?'

phil s

Sorry, Rich! Therein lies the danger of reading a thread backwards :oops:

joelsim

Hamish McTavish wrote:

Local knowledge as requested:

Just looking at Stage 7 in Sussex and noticed that rather than going along the main road through Ditchling Village, the route goes along Underhill Lane before turning directly on to the bottom of the climb. Underhill Lane is a slightly improved cart track and often has grass growing down the middle; it is so insignificant that the part that the Tour goes along is not yet on Google Streetmap but this is the view of the end of the road from the bottom of Ditchling Beacon.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.908345,-0.115344,3a,75y,102.98h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sgzSsp8ZIZtECkuXnyXaXIA!2e0

The road is no more than six feet wide at several points and the surface is not great (especially when covered with flint after rain) so the peloton will be very stretched even before the climb up The Beacon.

Should be great!

Luckily it doesn't rain very often in the UK.

Pross

I was in Bristol today. I had assumed the race was going down the Portway then up Bridge Valkey Road to the finish on the Downs but there were signs up for road closures on Sylvan Way. I can't work out if they are going down there to join the Portway or up there then up to the Downs via Parrys Lane :?

Edit

Route map confirms it's doing Bridge Valley Road.

joelsim

Who's going to win it then? Kwia, or possibly Konig?

SteveDoe

Went up Chinnor Hill last night (stage 6), just to say I'd been up a 2nd category climb (I think they must be graded differently to the TdF though) The main bit was 364ft in 3/4 mile. Is that 8.3% average or is my maths wrong? Either way, I was going up at 5mph. Tempted to watch there to see how fast the pros go up. Probably little more than a small hump for them. Reckon I will be both inspired and disheartened by the difference in pace. Going to try Kop Hill on Monday with is the other 2nd cat on stage 6.

Pross

SteveDoe wrote:

Went up Chinnor Hill last night (stage 6), just to say I'd been up a 2nd category climb (I think they must be graded differently to the TdF though) The main bit was 364ft in 3/4 mile. Is that 8.3% average or is my maths wrong? Either way, I was going up at 5mph. Tempted to watch there to see how fast the pros go up. Probably little more than a small hump for them. Reckon I will be both inspired and disheartened by the difference in pace. Going to try Kop Hill on Monday with is the other 2nd cat on stage 6.

More like 9.2% by my reckoning (3/4 mile would be 3960 feet distance). Yes, they are graded differently to Tour de France climbs. They make a few into 1st cat climbs and then everything else is relative due to the lack of big climbs in the UK. The Tumble is a 1st cat climb but if it were in the TdF it might scrape 2nd cat as Holme Moss did this year. Somewhere like Caerphilly Mountain which has been rated as a 1st cat climb would be a 3rd in the TdF and Bridge Valley Road in this year's Bristol stage is rated as a 2nd cat but would probably be a 4th cat in the Tour. Even then it would depend on the stage - on a stage through the Vosges or Ardennes were it is up and down all day a climb like Bridge Valley Road might not even get rated (much like some of the smaller climbs on Stage 2 of this year's Tour).

SteveDoe

Thanks Pross for the info - interesting stuff. Will see what Kop Hill is like - looks steeper if anything on the profile. Certainly wouldn't fancy doing them one after the other after 100 miles of racing.

SCR Pedro

It's not a bad field. I like that there are more smaller teams this year, hopefully they will use the opportunity to take the fight to the Pro-Tour teams. After all, isn't that how Net-App worked their way up?
It should also be interesting to see how R.Zabel fairs against the 1st class sprinters. I don't believe I have ever seen a race with him in it. A couple of top 10 finishes, maybe?

Pross

Having had a closer look at the routes there seem to be some fairly decent climbs not categorised including on Stage 3 the Talgarth to Pengenffordd climb which is 3 miles long and over 600' of ascent which I thought would have been at least a 2nd cat plus some short, sharp ramps on the Abergavenny to Monmouth road that I thought would have got categorised. There also seems to be a lack of categorised hills on the Dartmoor stage (one just outside Tavistock looks quite big) although the route seem to take them mainly around the edges and doesn't make the most of the area IMHO.

Pross

It just dawned on me that I have a meeting near Worcester on Wednesday morning at 10 so I thought I'd look to see if there was any chance of catching the race on my way back. Turns out my meeting is about 1km from the first KoM of the day which the race is due to pass at around 11am - talk about good timing

wallace_and_gromit

inseine wrote:

I can't really see him beating Kittel or Bouhanni at the moment (in an important event). Just feel like he's lost his edge.

Tricky to call this as last year, Cav caned himself through the Giro (winning all 5 sprint stages) and was potentially tired against Kittel in the Tour. This year, he was aiming specifically to peak for the Tour and the MJ in Harrogate. So it's Giro 2013 since we saw Cav in top form.

That said, I think Kittel is "The Man" now.

coopster_the_1st

SteveDoe wrote:

Went up Chinnor Hill last night (stage 6), just to say I'd been up a 2nd category climb (I think they must be graded differently to the TdF though) The main bit was 364ft in 3/4 mile. Is that 8.3% average or is my maths wrong? Either way, I was going up at 5mph. Tempted to watch there to see how fast the pros go up. Probably little more than a small hump for them. Reckon I will be both inspired and disheartened by the difference in pace. Going to try Kop Hill on Monday with is the other 2nd cat on stage 6.

Kop Hill is a lot steeper than Chinnor Hill but shorter and would be my choice of the two places to watch as it is a straight road so you can see them on most of the climb and they will be climbing it slower. I expect a thinned out peleton by the top of the climb especially if someone tries to use it as springboard to go for it a long way out from the finish

It will be the busier of the two climbs though as this is where everyone I know who is watching it will be watching it

mroli

Chinnor has that nice little left turn on it though - which will be a great spot if not swamped...

The Cycling Podcast had an interview with the guy who runs the TOB and he said they are deliberately trying to keep the field a mixture of WT, Pro Conti and Conti teams to ensure that it is something a bit different and so the UK Conti teams can have a crack at lighting it up...

blazing_saddles

The ToB joins the big boys.
Velogames have set up an edition of their game for the race.

http://www.velogames.com/tour-of-britain/2014/

roger_merriman

My folks live close by to the finish of stage 3 and as luck has it I have start of next week off, so I'll park myself somewhere around Keepers pond. Top of the Tumble climb, though not the Blorange proper which is a MTB/CX job.

With luck the ice cream van will be there!

iainf72

Bren Gallagher (I know, I know) spoke to Wiggins last night who said this will be his last stage race as a GC guy.

No_Ta_Doctor

iainf72 wrote:

Bren Gallagher (I know, I know) spoke to Wiggins last night who said this will be his last stage race as a GC guy.

"Bren"?

No real surprise otherwise.

BlueDynamo

I'm thinking of going to watch Stage 1 today. Any suggestions for good spots to go and watch from? I've been told that Parliament Street next to the KOM finish and cathedral will probably less busy than the Albert Dock area.

mfin

Result!! ...better not say who as there's no *spoiler* in the title.

dabber

What a yawnfest.

mfin

Dabber wrote:

What a yawnfest.

Definitely, it was only a short sprint stage though so was never going to be entertaining. Nice result though, happy for him.

Gazzetta67

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz total 1st stage FAIL for the organisers.

Pross

Hadn't realised Cav had a crash with the Rapha team car and went to hospital after the finish. Not a bad finish considering. http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/racing/tour-of-britain/mark-cavendish-taken-hospital-tour-britain-crash-135039

inseine

mroli wrote:

Chinnor has that nice little left turn on it though - which will be a great spot if not swamped...

The Cycling Podcast had an interview with the guy who runs the TOB and he said they are deliberately trying to keep the field a mixture of WT, Pro Conti and Conti teams to ensure that it is something a bit different and so the UK Conti teams can have a crack at lighting it up...

Ha, you make me feel old when you describe Mick Bennett as ' the guy who runs TOB'!