13th Tour Down Under 2011, (809 kms) WT Jan 16-23

[Reuell]

Yes but I thought they would be looking for some results early in the season and having a gy like Pozzato or paolini would be a good choice for katusha.


Again you make some very silly assumptions which make you look stupid. I personally thought that vacansoleil being in their first ever World Tour race would want to do well and send a squad with a guy like Bozic. That is why I said that. Felliu is known a bit but over than that they are a bunch of no names. They are that for a reason.

Dear ASF,

It is every teams first World Tour race, so you are mistaken there.
And if you mean ProTour race instead, they have raced many of those already over the last two years. So you are mistaken there as well.
Again, I might add

Bye

 

[auscyclefan94]

Dear ACF,

It is every teams first World Tour race, so you are mistaken there.
And if you mean ProTour race instead, they have raced many of those already over the last two years. So you are mistaken there as well.
Again, I might add

Bye

Yes but the world tour is just a change of name from the pro tour with some changes. It is the same principle. It is their first race being officially in the top level of teams.

 

[rxgqgxnyfz]

Ah.

This this just what i wanted for this boring sunday afternoon.

A view of ASF splitting hairs and madly wriggling himself out of word pit he dug himself into.
________
Hawaii marijuana dispensaries

 

[auscyclefan94]

Ah.

This this just what i wanted for this boring sunday afternoon.

A view of ASF splitting hairs and madly wriggling himself out of word pit he dug himself into.

Actually prove it then...

 

[Reuell]

And you understand that despite the presence of Lance for the last couple of years, and Farar and Cavendish this year, this race is still not that prestigious.
Mainly due to it's location, all the way around the globe; it's date, so early in the season; and it's course, the ENECO Tour, as another sprinters race do not attract the first echelon riders, escpecially the classic and GT ones, as well.

Most riders start their season later-on, cause their objectives lie in April, May or July

 

[auscyclefan94]

And you understand that despite the presence of Lance for the last couple of years, and Farar and Cavendish this year, this race is still not that prestigious.
Mainly due to it's location, all the way around the globe; it's date, so early in the season; and it's course, the ENECO Tour, as another sprinters race do not attract the first echelon riders, escpecially the classic and GT ones, as well.

Most riders start their season later-on, cause their objectives lie in April, May or July

Yes but it is the first race of the season and you may argue this but a lot of big riders go to the race. The riders do make the race. Last year it attracted many big riders that weren't sprinters also. Evans, valverde, LL Sanchez, etc.

 

[Reuell]

It did and still does, true.
But that just doesn't change the fact that not all teams sent their best Down Under, just cause of those arguments in my previous post.

I mean; why are you complaining at teams such as Vacansoleil....

BMC Racing Team
Alessandro Ballan;
Alexander Kristoff
John Murphy
Simon Zahner
Thimothy Roe
Martin Kohler
Amaël Moinard


Come-on, really?????

 

[auscyclefan94]

It did and still does, true.
But that just doesn't change the fact that not all teams sent their best Down Under, just cause of those arguments in my previous post.

I mean; why are you complaining at teams such as Vacansoleil....

BMC Racing Team
Alessandro Ballan;
Alexander Kristoff
John Murphy
Simon Zahner
Thimothy Roe
Martin Kohler
Amaël Moinard


Come-on, really?????

Never said they had to send their best. Personally think BMC have sent a solid team. Hopefully Kristoff can get some good support in the sprints and he may pop up for a few big results.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Vacansoleil will probably have an eye on races like the GP Marseillaise and Étoile de Besseges in the early season. Maybe the Giro di Calabria too, as they have a fair few Italians on the team. Because of jetlag, this then rules out most of the riders doing these races from being in their TDU team.

Rojas enjoys the TDU, he was 3rd in 2009. Rojas and Ventoso are both useful sprinters who can climb and can maybe get in on the act in the 3rd stage (the one Cardoso won last year). Here's hoping for The Amazing Madrazo to attack on Willunga Hill too.

All in all though, this race will be about as exciting as it usually is. Last year's was a freakishly entertaining edition because it had one stage where three of the world's best cyclists and a neo-pro phenomenon decided to try to escape... and in the end only just held off the sprinters anyway, thus completing the race in less time but still losing thanks to sprinters' bonus seconds.

 

[craig1985]

Will 2011 be Madrazo's last chance to prove that he can do anything at PT level?

 

[Dutchsmurf]

Yes but it is the first race of the season

Indeed, it is. Which is why many big names are missing. They are still on their holidays. Last year you had Evans, who as world champion wanted to make a show in his home country, but as the rest of his season showed, might have better stayed away. Valverde knew he was going to get banned sooner or later and was trying to win as many races as possible before that happened. Armstrong only shows up for the money.
Teams don't join the World Tour ranks to get access to the TDU. They want the Tour, Giro and classics. The TDU and many similar races are some of those inconvenient things that come with it. Rules say you have to show up. But since your big stars will be needed later, you send some lesser known names.

Then you take a look at the race and realize it is a sprinters race. If you get Cavendish and Farrar to start, it means the level of the race is quite high. You have the best sprinters showing up in a sprinters race. But it really won't encourage the non sprinters to show up. They rather spend time with family a little longer.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Again I never said that. I said they were no names but I never said they were bad riders but I just expected a sprinter in that team like Bozic to go to the tour down under.

Again because you do not know these guys, doesn't mean they are no names. You claim these teams are bring no names and have weak squads and then post this...

Never said they had to send their best. Personally think BMC have sent a solid team. Hopefully Kristoff can get some good support in the sprints and he may pop up for a few big results.

you are ridiculous. Most of bmc's rider going to the tdu are lesser known then the teams you criticized. Vasc's team alone (the tdu selection i mean) pretty much had more victories then the entirety of bmc last year. And yeah.. felliu > 'TGAK'
Your double standards are a joke, BMC's team is just as dismal, don't try and say otherwise. None of them other then ballan are household names, and have a lot to prove despite you hyping them up like no tomorrow.

And yeah, world tour race.. pt race.. same thing. Vasc. have road many races. The TDU is pretty much a compulsory race, I doubt that they give a hoot about this race, that is nothing more then a glorified warm up.

Again, weather riders like pozzato find success at the tdu is irrelevant. I doubt they care about this warm up race, and would rather be good and base their season around the real events of the cycling calendar... MSR, Giro, Tour etc.

And yeah, my PT point wasn't about vasc. But that just because the UCI label some races as PT (i.e TDU) and others not (i.e Het Volk) means nothing to a lot of fans, teams and riders; myself included. If the UCI tells you to jump of a cliff will you?

Again, yours posts illustrate you know nothing about this sport outside of cadel and his team and maybe some of the aussie riders out there. You have proven this all year long.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Will 2011 be Madrazo's last chance to prove that he can do anything at PT level?

Nah, he's still only 22, and he has been handled with kid gloves thus far, he's not raced a GT. The biggest races he's done are Tirreno-Adriatico 2009 and the Giro di Lombardia 2010. He has done the likes of Paris-Roubaix, but as we know, Abarcá Sports more or less sends makeweights to those races. He's been mostly doing stage races like Poland and Eneco, which are not exactly suited to his characteristics.

 

[theyoungest]

Nah, he's still only 22, and he has been handled with kid gloves thus far, he's not raced a GT. The biggest races he's done are Tirreno-Adriatico 2009 and the Giro di Lombardia 2010. He has done the likes of Paris-Roubaix, but as we know, Abarcá Sports more or less sends makeweights to those races. He's been mostly doing stage races like Poland and Eneco, which are not exactly suited to his characteristics.

This year's Tour de Pologne should have suited him, no?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yea, it should have done, and he did do alright - he finished 33rd overall, 8 minutes back, but he lost 4 minutes on the final sprint stage and another minute in a split in the péloton in a sprint stage. He hasn't exactly shown blistering skills in the race, but he's done alright considering the main reason he was being sent to races then was to get used to recovery (most of the races he's done to date have been single day or short stage races) and Poland is always an afterthought for Caisse as it's coterminous with Burgos, the Vuelta's main warmup race (ok, Dani Moreno was 2nd in 2009 but that was out of choice of which break to be in and he didn't seem like a threat to Ballan in the overall).

He hasn't exactly shown much to date, but then he hasn't been given much rope to play with either, or perhaps he's been a bit too tentative and unwilling to try to go out there and force people to notice him - he seems to be the quiet, even introverted, type. He could easily develop into a useful rider with a good career ahead of him without ever exploding and developing into the rider we thought he could be, and unless he shows something this year, that could be the direction we're headed. So I don't think it's last chance saloon for Ángel Madrazo, ProTour rider, but it might be that the time is nigh for Ángel Madrazo, potential phenom and major race winner, to put up or shut up.

 

[maltiv]

Never said they had to send their best. Personally think BMC have sent a solid team. Hopefully Kristoff can get some good support in the sprints and he may pop up for a few big results.

For Kristoff to get any results here he would need a leadout, considering the fact that he can't really position himself properly without one yet. To me it doesn't exactly look like a team that can do that job for him.

 

[DAOTEC]

Bizar culture

Gee, No Kidding an Aussie felon taking on the TDU ...

Daily Telegraph: Australian Chris Jongewaard, who left prison not so long ago, is to compete in the Tour Down Under in the team colors "national", Uni SA Team.
He explained: "I would like to thank many people for their support and faith in me going back on a bike," he told the Daily Telegraph. He added: "I did not intend to leave [prison] as a bad person."
Good sprinter, Jongewaard has already shone in the Tour Down Under in 2006 (ninth overall) and 2007 (2nd behind Baden Cooke).
Aged 31, he also specializes in mountain biking, four-time Australian champion and three times in Oceania in the discipline.
Chris served a prison sentence for almost killing another cyclist in 2007, Matthew Rex a Herald Sun Tour stage winner in 2004.

 

[Ferminal]

Gee, No Kidding an Aussie felon taking on the TDU ...

Daily Telegraph: Australian Chris Jongewaard, who left prison not so long ago, is to compete in the Tour Down Under in the team colors "national", Uni SA Team.
He explained: "I would like to thank many people for their support and faith in me going back on a bike," he told the Daily Telegraph. He added: "I did not intend to leave [prison] as a bad person."
Good sprinter, Jongewaard has already shone in the Tour Down Under in 2006 (ninth overall) and 2007 (2nd behind Baden Cooke).
Aged 31, he also specializes in mountain biking, four-time Australian champion and three times in Oceania in the discipline.
Chris served a prison sentence for almost killing another cyclist in 2007, Matthew Rex a Herald Sun Tour stage winner in 2004.

Yes, anyone convicted of a crime should be alienated from society permanently.

Stick to posting on what you know.

 

[BroDeal]

Gee, No Kidding an Aussie felon taking on the TDU ...

Daily Telegraph: Australian Chris Jongewaard, who left prison not so long ago, is to compete in the Tour Down Under in the team colors "national", Uni SA Team.

What is so surprising about this? I thought being a criminal was a TDU entry requirement.

 

[Sasquatch]

What is so surprising about this? I thought being a criminal was a TDU entry requirement.

Nah. It's a requirement for living in Adelaide.

 

[Hoop Dogg]

Nah. It's a requirement for living in Adelaide.

Zing! Should have a stage going past snowtown!

 

[craig1985]

Zing! Should have a stage going past snowtown!

For those playing at home:

Snowtown murders

 

[DAOTEC]

ex-con's shirt

Team UniSA-Australia 2011 Santos Tour Down Under jersey

Team UniSA-Australia 2011 Santos Tour Down Under Pro-Knicks

 

[badboyberty]

Movistar is the only team listed there that actually put in a half decent team.

what... Vaconsoleil have sent Romain Feillu, he is a half decent team all by himself. Perfect rider to try to upset the established order on Stage 3 or 5, good attacking opportunist with a fast finish. Hopefully he's been working hard this Winter/Summer and comes into the race keen.

 

[Tuarts]

Team UniSA-Australia 2011 Santos Tour Down Under jersey

Team UniSA-Australia 2011 Santos Tour Down Under Pro-Knicks

Wow, 3 days since they were released. All that christmas turkey slowing you down?