Amgen Tour of California - chat and ***Spoiler***

fleshtuxedo

Great racing from Ala and Sagan! Worth staying up....

Crampeur

Sagan has absolutely killed himself there.

Chapeau to him and Alaphilippe.

LeePaton

Well that was bloody great. Ala was well amazing, love seeing the strain from the effort.

Sagan was a man possessed, that's how.you ride your own race. Don't think he has anything at all left on the tank.

richa

Classy ride from Sagan.

Any idea how many seconds time bonuses available /how deep they run tomorrow?

dolan_driver

A good win for Alaphilipe and a great ride from Sagan. He could win this in the sprints tomorrow.

Delighted to see Joe D in the mix and Philip Deignan surviving that speed wobble. :shock:

DD.

richa

“@nealrogers: For #ATOC2015 Stage 8 bonus time: There’s one intermediate sprint (3,2,1 sec) as well as finish (10,6,4 sec). Sagan needs 3sec to win GC.”

RonB

RichA wrote:

Classy ride from Sagan.
,
Any idea how many seconds time bonuses available /how deep they run tomorrow?

3, 2, 1 for the intermediate 10, 6, 4 for the finish. Sagan needs 3 for the overall.

RichN95.

In amongst all the excitement there was what is probably Boswell's best ride for Sky.

RonB

That intermediate sprint comes at the end of the first circuit, about 62km into the 105km final stage.

EQS (especially Cav) will have some work to do.

joelsim

Tinkov will have to pay some teams to grab the bonus seconds and hope Sagan can finish 2nd or 3rd in the final

frenchfighter

Oh my oh my oh my. Well, my man Alaphilippe is just golden. Golden. QuickStep have a supreme talent on their hands. Not even a sprint either - only guy to stay with Henao's stingers then goes solo from 4k out.

Really pleased Sagan dug deep and would like for him to take the lead back tomorrow if possible. Which should be given the bonis seconds.

Good to see Henao and Dombro up there.

frenchfighter

RichN95 wrote:

In amongst all the excitement there was what is probably Boswell's best ride for Sky.

Yeah he was pretty excellent.

milton50

How good is Alaphilippe? Could be the new Valverde. In a good way.

thegibdog

Good finish yesterday, sets up an interesting final stage.

frenchfighter

frenchfighter

OnYourRight wrote:

But did you see Sagan after he finished? He looked wrecked. He coughed, lay down, got up, wheezed for a while, couldn’t talk for a minute or two … I don’t think it’s a forgone conclusion that he will be able to sprint well tomorrow. Assuming a breakaway takes the intermediate sprint time bonus, he’ll need third place at the finish. Very doable, maybe even probable, but far from in the bank.

http://www.steephill.tv/players/720/vid ... 52&yr=2015

thegibdog

OnYourRight wrote:

But did you see Sagan after he finished? He looked wrecked. He coughed, lay down, got up, wheezed for a while, couldn’t talk for a minute or two …

He rode it like a true hill climber. http://traumfahrrad.com/2015/05/14/i-hu ... till-feel/

frenchfighter

PK in black on stage 5:

thegibdog

Looks like a rain jersey.

frenchfighter

Mount Baldy
2015:8,1 km@8,4%---24:42---average speed 19.68 km/h(Julian Alaphilippe)
2012:8,1 km@8,4%---25:00---average speed 19.43 km/h(Robert Gesink)
2011:8,1 km@8,4%---24:32---average speed 19.81 km/h(Leipheimer-Horner)

FJS

This isa very interesting situation tactically. Alaphillippe is quite fast too, but Etix got Cavendish, Renshaw and Trentin too to take points off Sagan in sprints. Curious to see what their plan will be

iainf72

FJS wrote:

This isa very interesting situation tactically. Alaphillippe is quite fast too, but Etix got Cavendish, Renshaw and Trentin too to take points off Sagan in sprints. Curious to see what their plan will be

It's going to be very interesting.

It would be ideal for them for a break to succeed, but Sagan's team won't let that happen. So if it get to a sprint you'll likely have Cavendish win but Sagan should pick up enough to take the GC.

As a Sagan fanboi, I hope this success will flip some kind of switch in his head and we'll see Sagan of a couple of years back

Pross

After Oleg's pay cut threat maybe Sagan will be in a Wiggins style CBA mode today!

Is Alaphillipe likely to ride the Tour? It could be an interesting green jersey battle for a few years with riders able to gain top 10 positions in sprints and then pick up points on hilly stages too with Kwia, Sagan and Alaphillipe.

germcevoy

Cav-Sagan-Alaphillipe at the intermediate sprint. Ala leads by a second but Tinkoff seem to have burnt all their candles already and Ettix won't be chasing any breaks. Interesting.

thegibdog

Looks like Cav managed to take the intermediate sprint with Sagan in 2nd and Alaphilippe 3rd, so he retains his lead with a 1 second advantage.

Edit: what he said ^

frenchfighter

Tao was 15th on that stage. Albeit 2mins back. But 15th. Talent.

frenchfighter

frenchfighter

RideOnTime

ooo this is on the internet. with good pictures

thegibdog

Just noticed that Zubeldia is sitting 6th in the GC - didn't even realise he was riding, how does he do it?! Thought he'd retired, in fact!