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Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez
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Location: around Paris

by Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez

nathanong87 wrote:Image


"attaboy"

Image

by Weenie


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Willier
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Joined: Wed Dec 21, 2005 4:37 pm

by Willier

How about that "golden km" rule in Tour of Belgium: 3 intermediate sprints all in 1km, 25km before the finish

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Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez
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Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 6:21 pm
Location: around Paris

by Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez

yeah I read about that, organizers were complaining about the very few splits in the GC... kind of weird method to make the GC especially in Belgium with so much to play with (climbs, cobbles)

could be a good thing for breakaway riders like De Gendt but who wants to win a GC with those silly bonuses

ultyguy
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Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2010 1:35 pm
Location: Geneva

by ultyguy

Contador not missing a chance at payback....or being the bigger man in any case. I guess from now on, all mechanicals, punctures, and crashes WILL BE ATTACKED! :twisted:

edit- and oh, somewhere in far off locations, the rest of the 'big 4' are giggling their heads off that Conta is getting caught up in a b!tchfest at the Giro

edit edit- and now he drops his chain, karmatastic!

plpete
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Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2011 12:39 pm
Location: DC

by plpete

Great ride by Gilbert! He definitely felt quite confident as he was celebrating his win from about 3km out :lol:

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Liggero
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Location: Netherlands

by Liggero

Contador is nowhere near his form pre 2009


LLLLLLOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLL
Happy Trails !!!

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Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez
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Location: around Paris

by Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez

Another gutsy move but it didn't look like the flying Contador that can do 10 sprints against Rasmussen or Froome.

Hesjedal bridged a 30 sec deficit in the second part of the climb where Berto looked a bit cooked by the adrenaline rush he had at the foot of the climb. Don't tell me he's "keeping strengths for the Tour de France" :roll:

1 min behind you had a group of 12 with 2nd-tier climbers, a cooked Aru and Landa who buried himself to bridge the gap to this group and reduced his deficit from 1'45'' to 55'' regarding Contador

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kkibbler
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by kkibbler

I love payback, symbolic though it may mostly be.

I also enjoyed seeing Gilbert basically celebrating through the last 3km.

plpete
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Location: DC

by plpete

Good on BMC as a team too, especially in the light of some of the Italian teams saying that some of the World Tour teams are quite invisible in the Giro so far. I just think they are not too fond of Ochowicz. AG2R had bad luck with the crash of Pozzovivo but it feels like FDJ hasn't done much.

KB
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Location: HULL UK

by KB

Liggero wrote:Contador is nowhere near his form pre 2009

So, assume your sarcasm was directed towards my comments: As for Contador; isn't it strange that he's never rode with the same panache since he was banned. Think of 2009 when he was winning Tour TT's, but has got nowhere like that since.
My comments were based on where he was at the 2009 Tour, not before as your comment suggest (pre 2009 means 2008) and also not at the present situation. I fully expected him to win at least 5 Tours by now, but he hasn't and has not shown that dominating form until the present Giro where he looks to have re-discovered the 2009 form. I, like you, have no crystal ball, so my comments was before he started dominating this Giro.

Also, you make further comments directed at Americans when they were obviously directed my way. In fact I'm a Brit.


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Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez
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Location: around Paris

by Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez

quadzilla

KWalker
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Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2009 8:30 pm
Location: Bay Area

by KWalker

KB wrote:
Liggero wrote:Contador is nowhere near his form pre 2009

So, assume your sarcasm was directed towards my comments: As for Contador; isn't it strange that he's never rode with the same panache since he was banned. Think of 2009 when he was winning Tour TT's, but has got nowhere like that since.
My comments were based on where he was at the 2009 Tour, not before as your comment suggest (pre 2009 means 2008) and also not at the present situation. I fully expected him to win at least 5 Tours by now, but he hasn't and has not shown that dominating form until the present Giro where he looks to have re-discovered the 2009 form. I, like you, have no crystal ball, so my comments was before he started dominating this Giro.

Also, you make further comments directed at Americans when they were obviously directed my way. In fact I'm a Brit.


Post-ban:
2012 Milano-Torino
2012 Vuelta
2012 Lombardia- 9th
2012 TT Worlds- 9th
2013 Tour of Oman- 2nd
2013 Tirreno -3rd
2013 Tour- 4th
2014 Tirreno- 1st, 2 stage wins
2014 Tour of Basque Country- 1st, 1 stage win
2014 Dauphine- 2nd
2014 Volta a Catalunya- 2nd
2014 Vuelta- 1st, 2 stage wins
2014 Volta ao Algarve- 2nd with a stage win

Pretty damn good if you ask me. Misses a lot of race miles, clocks some solid top 5 results, but doesn't quite have it one stage race. Comes back in 2014 to either win or be second to Froome, crashes out of the Tour, then beats Froome handedly at the Vuelta. Slow build to form this year, but solid showings against other GC contenders in earlier races and is clearly on form now. Although the result has been voided lets not forget he won the Giro in 2011 and had good showings up until has ban.

While I agree he isn't simply riding away from everyone and his climbing speed has slowed somewhat, he is still an incredible stage race rider and one of the best tactically when it counts. I would argue that in many cases others are probably stronger than he is, but not as cagey or smart. Aru showed that pretty well and I'd say even Froome has.

One thing people forget is that after Rasmussen, Ricco, and that whole cadre of guys were busted there weren't a ton of GC contenders for a few years. Cadel w/Lotto, Menchov (who wasn't dominant even while doped), Schleck, Sastre, VdV, and Leipheimer do not compare to even a Lance 2.0, Cadel w/BMC, Sky w/Wiggins and Froome, a post-ban Valverde, Rodriguez, a mature Nibali, Quintana, Uran, etc.
Don't take me too seriously. The only person that doesn't hate Froome.
Gramz
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HillRPete
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Joined: Tue Apr 12, 2011 8:08 am
Location: Pedal Square

by HillRPete

Cannondale's drinks should be on Contador tonight. Dangling in no mans land on the climb, spending lots of energy, just to be pulled back on the way to the finish wouldn't exactly have been payback day. But the way it worked out he was rewarded for his panache again, and put more time into Landa than he lost on him the other day. Chapeau.

As someone said a number of pages back, Giro is the pure celebration of passion for cycling.

KB
Posts: 3967
Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2004 12:32 pm
Location: HULL UK

by KB

KWalker wrote:
KB wrote:
Liggero wrote:Contador is nowhere near his form pre 2009

So, assume your sarcasm was directed towards my comments: As for Contador; isn't it strange that he's never rode with the same panache since he was banned. Think of 2009 when he was winning Tour TT's, but has got nowhere like that since.
My comments were based on where he was at the 2009 Tour, not before as your comment suggest (pre 2009 means 2008) and also not at the present situation. I fully expected him to win at least 5 Tours by now, but he hasn't and has not shown that dominating form until the present Giro where he looks to have re-discovered the 2009 form. I, like you, have no crystal ball, so my comments was before he started dominating this Giro.

Also, you make further comments directed at Americans when they were obviously directed my way. In fact I'm a Brit.


... Misses a lot of race miles, clocks some solid top 5 results, but doesn't quite have it one stage race. Comes back in 2014 to either win or be second to Froome, crashes out of the Tour, then beats Froome handedly at the Vuelta. Slow build to form this year, but solid showings against other GC contenders in earlier races and is clearly on form now. Although the result has been voided lets not forget he won the Giro in 2011 and had good showings up until has ban.

While I agree he isn't simply riding away from everyone and his climbing speed has slowed somewhat, he is still an incredible stage race rider ...
One thing people forget is that after Rasmussen, Ricco, and that whole cadre of guys were busted there weren't a ton of GC contenders for a few years. ...

My point is as much disappointment because he's the most exciting rider to watch that I've seen since Merckx. Don't disagree with what you say, but after the 2009 Tour I had him winning at least 5 TdF's and other Grand Tours. In fact I had him down as the best rider in the GT's since Merckx (11 GT's) and Hinault (10 GT's). I don't discount his wins taken from him because everyone around him was doped as well (or so it seems), but it' still a little short of where I thought he would be.

I'm glad he's looking like where I thought he would be after watching him this last week. In most respects I don't think the old days were better, but I definitely think, in general that the racing nowadays is more formulaic. So, it's nice to see a rider racing in the 'grand manner'. I found the Tour's dominated by Indurain and Armstrong to be boring.

by Weenie


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