54th Tirreno-Adriatico 13th-19th March 2019 *Spoilers*

blazing_saddles

Right, got caught out the other day with access issues, so nice and early for the other chipper race of the week..



The 2019 route of the Tirreno-Adriatico is full of short, sharp climbs, but features no high altitude finish. So the race is tweaked to Classics type of riders instead of traditional grand tour contenders In other words, "The Race of the Two Seas" is going to be decided on steep ramps, while time trialing skills and a strong team is essential to those targeting to win the GC.



Favourites 2019 Tirreno-Adriatico

***** Julian Alaphilippe, Primoz Roglic
**** Adam Yates, Geraint Thomas, Tim Wellens, Tom Dumoulin
*** Alexey Lutsenko, Rohan Dennis, Wout Poels, Jakob Fuglsang
** Vincenzo Nibali, Tiesj Benoot, Greg Van Avermaet, Peter Sagan
* Gianni Moscon, Thibaut Pinot, Sam Oomen, Anthony Roux

Stage 1: Wednesday, 13th March. Lido di Camaiore 21.5kms TTT



Rain and showers forecast for the morning and early afternoon, drying up from then on, so start times may be crucial to a good start.



And no race thread would be complete without............

blazing_saddles

Eurosport are live and the race is underway.
Really mucky weather for the TTT. Not sure there will be that much advantage for the late starters.
Could be a bit of a lottery out there.

blazing_saddles

Incredible incident has happened.
That's all I will say, not to spoil the drama.
Shocking.

carbonclem

Majka and Gatto down. Hideous.

blazing_saddles

The incident has already been tweeted.

https://twitter.com/inrng/status/1105821721146343426

Alejandrosdog

ooooft good job the bloke was a fatty, alll that padding will have helped.

m.r.m.

Wow hope everyone is ok. Even the pedestrian who took a massive hit for his stupidity and carelessness.

Bit of a deja vu for Sagan. Didn't an old lady stroll in front of him in an ITT with her dog like 2-3 years ago? Luckily, he managed to avoid her.

Pross

So many people's lack of awareness of their surroundings amazes me every day and this is a prime example. Luckily, in most cases, they get away with it. Hopefully this idiot hasn't done too much damage to himself or anyone else and will be more aware in future.

blazing_saddles

It almost happened again, in the final km of the final team, Michleton Scott and a women walking her little doggie. ffs.

dave milne

Looks like the policeman who should have been stopping the man walking over was looking the other way talking to someone.

blazing_saddles

The near miss.

https://twitter.com/P_Knott/status/1105849653470343169

One rider finished OTT and unfortunately, it was the guy who has had so many team issues: Nacer Bouhanni.

red.rider

red.rider

Credit to @romhelbach59

blazing_saddles

Stage 2: Thursday 14th March Camaiore – Pomarance 195kms hills

The 2nd stage of the Tirreno-Adriatico is a hilly race of 195 kilometres to Pomarance. Zdenek Stybar and Geraint Thomas are previous victors in Pomerance, respectively in 2016 and 2017.
The finale is a copy of two years ago, which means the race concludes with a moderate climb of 12 kilometres. The uphill begins with a section at 4.5% before an intermediate false flat continues to the last 2 kilometres at 4.7%.

cyclingsheep

Red.Rider wrote:

Credit to @romhelbach59

That is a great shot. Says it all. It’s pretty obvious what’s going through his mind in that moment.

Lanterne_Rogue

Red.Rider wrote:

Credit to @romhelbach59

As an aside, cheers for giving credit - always interesting (and right) to know who took the shot.

Let's hope tomorrow's notable for the right reasons though.

Dorset_Boy

Seems like Bouhanni sat up after 5 kms of the TTT.
It would appear that he doesn't really want to be a pro cyclist, but is a pro in the art of CBA!.

blazing_saddles

Dorset Boy wrote:

Seems like Bouhanni sat up after 5 kms of the TTT.
It would appear that he doesn't really want to be a pro cyclist, but is a pro in the art of CBA!.

Team mate, Roberto Damiani was not happy about it...

"It's even more incomprehensible because when we came to recognize the course with the chrono bikes, everything was going well. Nacer was eager to compete with Viviani and Gaviria, and then, today (yesterday), he did two stints at the front, and just dropped. When I went to tell him, 'Attention, the time cut is very short in this kind of exercise', he told me not to worry ... "

m.r.m.

He will be out of pro cycling when his contract runs out. Best he can hope for is a continental team and a greatly reduced salary. Wasted talent. Shame.

inseine

M.R.M. wrote:

He will be out of pro cycling when his contract runs out. Best he can hope for is a continental team and a greatly reduced salary. Wasted talent. Shame.

He says the problem is in his legs whereas it appears to be in his head. He needs as much care if not more than if it were physical.

m.r.m.

Don't have any ill will towards him, but a penchant for self sabotage isn't always down to some sickness or chemical imbalance. Some (most) people just never figure it out.

blazing_saddles

Some nice action in today's finale, with the big boys coming out to play for a bit, before the compulsory DQS, Alaphillipe winning the uphill sprint from GVA and Alberto Bettiol.

blazing_saddles

A sprinter's stage today, not that there are many of them at the race.

inseine

Blazing Saddles wrote:

A sprinter's stage today, not that there are many of them at the race.]

Especially now Bouhanni's gone That Viviani bloke is quite handy and Gaviria hasn't got the lead out.

rick_chasey

Blazing Saddles wrote:

A sprinter's stage today, not that there are many of them at the race.

The obligatory "prep for MSR" stage.

Long and largely flat.

Gone are the days journos kept an eye out for which riders would add on an extra 50km training to days like this - a shame.

alanparsons

Kirby has just been called out by a Local on twitter for "making it up as he goes along" regarding road surface.
Typical idiotic response from the moron.

rick_chasey

alanparsons wrote:

Kirby has just been called out by a Local on twitter for "making it up as he goes along" regarding road surface.
Typical idiotic response from the moron.

Link? can't find it.

blazing_saddles

alanparsons wrote:

Kirby has just been called out by a Local on twitter for "making it up as he goes along" regarding road surface.
Typical idiotic response from the moron.

At least he's consistent. He makes everything up as he goes along.

alanparsons

He mentioned it in commentary, I am watching live on Eurosport2.
Thought he said it was via twitter, might of been a direct email to him.
Basically said the road surface was badly cracked by frost and snow plough damage, local guy told him that was rubbish and accused him of making stuff up. Kirby response was to call him a lair and suggested he needs an eye test!!!

blazing_saddles

alanparsons wrote:

He mentioned it in commentary, I am watching live on Eurosport2.
Thought he said it was via twitter, might of been a direct email to him.
Basically said the road surface was badly cracked by frost and snow plough damage, local guy told him that was rubbish and accused him of making stuff up. Kirby response was to call him a lair and suggested he needs an eye test!!!

He didn't let it go either, for the entire, endless coverage.
Road surface sarcasm and the same old re-cycled stuff he uses for every commentary.
A completely forgettable stage, but for the fact that Sagan decided to get in the mix and split the Viviani/Gaviria battle.
One GC casualty of the day: Tiesj Benoot, caught behind a second split, shipped 34 seconds and 14 places.

cruff

Blazing Saddles wrote:

alanparsons wrote:

He mentioned it in commentary, I am watching live on Eurosport2.
Thought he said it was via twitter, might of been a direct email to him.
Basically said the road surface was badly cracked by frost and snow plough damage, local guy told him that was rubbish and accused him of making stuff up. Kirby response was to call him a lair and suggested he needs an eye test!!!

He didn't let it go either, for the entire, endless coverage.
Road surface sarcasm and the same old re-cycled stuff he uses for every commentary.
A completely forgettable stage, but for the fact that Sagan decided to get in the mix and split the Viviani/Gaviria battle.
One GC casualty of the day: Tiesj Benoot, caught behind a second split, shipped 34 seconds and 14 places.

At this point, the pillock has become a parody of himself. He knows there's a huge group of people out there that not only don't like him, but actually find him offensive - he now plays up to that. Eurosport won't pull him from commentary because there aren't that many commentators willing to work for the pittance they pay, and when there are two stage races on simultaneously they don't really have a choice if Hatch or the Irish bloke whose name escapes me isn't able to do one of them. Kirby knows he has free reign to talk as much b0llocks as he wants with impunity, and uses that to amuse himself