1Q 2011 Surprises & Disappointments?

[Jancouver]

So the first three months of the year are in the books.

Surprises? Disappointments?

Discuss ....

 

[The Hitch]

Surprises: Australia winning so much
Dutchies winning so much

Disapointments : Australia winning so much
Dutchies winning so much

 

[Mambo95]

Surprises and disappointments aren't mutually exclusive, but:

Surprises:

Goss winning MSR
Leopard still sponsorless going into RVV
Sky looking like the best Belgian one day race squad
Meyer winning TdU
Boonen winning a bunch sprint at G-W
The Dauphine parcours


Disappointments:

Stannard being caught at G-W
Patrik Sinkewitz
The race radio row
GEOX not at the TdF
A bland Paris-Nice

 

[Mambo95]

Surprises: Australia winning so much

Disapointments : Australia winning so much

Now that is a great answer!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Surprises:
Milan-San Remo being exciting
Paris-Nice not being exciting
Ivan Basso winning a sprint
José Joaquín Rojas winning full stop
TDU being won by somebody who didn't gain every single second in bonuses at the line
Steve Cummings winning on the Alto do Malhão
Xavier Tondó busts a doping ring

Disappointments:
HTC-High Road winning Milan-San Remo and Paris-Nice
Patrik Sinkewitz tests positive again
Danilo di Luca on my TV screen
Paris-Nice (outside of the first stage)
Too few genuine challenges in the Catalunya parcours
Subida al Naranco cancelled
Rui Costa still without a team

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Suprises:
Gesinks performance in a short flat ITT (Tirreno)
Goss winning MSR
BMC actually performing well
Sutton winning Kuurne
Cummings winning on Alto do Malhao
Sky in general on cobbles, Stannard, Hayman in special

Dissapointments:
Westra not winning De Panne
Gesinks uphill performances in the Tirreno
Vinokourov, Garzelli, LL Sanchez and Rodriguez have been underperforming so far
Leopard Trek, aside from Cancellara, and F.Schlecks win in Crit Int. have been pretty underwhelming

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Wow this must be amazing. I didn't read Libertine's post and he also had the Cummings on Malhao performance on his list

 

[Anonymous]

Suprises
The tour down under actually being quite good
Sky actually doing well in GC's
How bad Leopards kit turned out to be

Dissapointments
Paris Nice being so dire
Garmins classics squad, where is it?
radioshack winning just about every time trial going

 

[luckyboy]

Surprises
Gesink's TT
Goss @ MSR
Boonen's sprint against Farrar & co. (to some extent)

Disappointments
Every member of CQ team
Garmin's dire performance at the classics apart from a few placings from Farrar + Vanmarcke

 

[Parrulo]

surprises:
australians in general
M-SR
cummings
de ghent
sky classics team
boonen sprinting

disappointments:
P-N
Rui costa still without a team
Breschel injured during the cobbles part of the season
pretty much all of garmin


thats all i can think of for now

 

[Ildabaoth]

Disappointments (but not surprising):

Ryo Hazuki
auscyclefan94

(just joking )

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Dissapointments:
Pn
Spartacus e3 - gives me little hope for Flanders and pr being good
Maaskant and terpstra injuries

Surprises:
Gesink short Tt
Cummins
Ebh on green mountain - thought he could do well, but not that well.
The fact I'm not dominating cq game

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Dissapointments:
Pn
Spartacus e3 - gives me little hope for Flanders and pr being good
Maaskant and terpstra injuries

Surprises:
Gesink short Tt
Cummins
Ebh on green mountain - thought he could do well, but not that well.
The fact I'm not dominating cq game

 

[Eric8-A]

Surprises

Disappointments
Every member of CQ team
Garmin's dire performance at the classics apart from a few placings from Farrar + Vanmarcke

I second this

 

[ansimi]

Rui Costa was showing up on the Movistar roster a few days ago? I think we'll see him racing very soon.

Gesink's timetrial improvement has been my best surprise so far.

Biggest disappointment is always injuries but Garmin's weak showing so far is also pretty bad.

 

[luckyboy]

Rui Costa 3 year Movistar deal - http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/7896/Costa-signs-three-year-contract-with-Team-Movistar.aspx

 

[canyonball]

The piece from velonation is based on a piece from the portuguese newspaper A Bola. After they spread the word out, A bola announced they were sorry and there was still no agreement. This is the link if you speak portuguese.

Will have to wait, though I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up at movistar.

Edit: anyway, apparently A Bola said the day after that the signing WILL indeed go trough. So it's all a big mess now. Because A bola doesn't receive my trust for anything in any sport, I will just wait for confirmationfrom the rider or team. If anyone have any link I would be appreciated.

 

[Ryaguas]

Disappointments:
Rui Costa still without a team

He's about to sign with Movistar

mmmmm ok here I go...

Surprises:
All Vacansoleil performing REALLY WELL after taking so much hit from UCI and Media
Scarponi and Cunego working really well and Il Principe winning again!
Nuyens winning and SBS itself doing well even after the massive exodous...
Kloden winning and Da Shack pwning every TT that They enter...
Androni early season? anyone?
Zomegman inviting more than 200 riders! and keeping every one happy!
Thor leading out Barbie...
Andy in the break in Andalucia
and
All those obvious posted before...

Disappointments:
Jens WHINING
P-N and Catalunya parcours
Too much ppl kissing the Cocky ****'s **** lately but way too much...
Too much discusion for NOTHING in the threads... childish attitudes...
Garmin...
Matti injured...
Vino and Purito underperforming...
and mmmmm let me think a bit more...

 

[auscyclefan94]

Surprises
TDU being entertaining
Cadel winning tirreno
Goss being so dominant

Dissapointments
Admitting that Gesink is a good time trialler to the arrogant dutch mafia.
PN and Catalunya
Vino not doing much
BMC, even though they have been close, some of peformances have not been up to a pass standard when you look at what they could do.
Garmin, they haven't done overly much


Still have to think of some more

 

[Ferminal]

Surprises:

The sprinters failing at the TdU
EBH finishing second on Green Mountain
Gesink destroying everyone in a time trial
Basso actually racing to win
Sutton at K-B-K
Martin winning P-N
Di Luca
A crazy M-SR
Baby Schleck getting a top10 in March

Disappointments:

My CQ team suffering great injustices
A boring P-N
Haussler at M-SR
Catalunya producing sprint stages with no top sprinters present

 

[greenedge]

Suprises
De Gendt ( should help maintain vaconsoleil as pro team )
aussies
TJVG
Guardini
matty goss
Liquigas ( racing to win at all races )
Radioshack ( establishing good riders )
Gesink
Cadel
Contador still racing and going well
O Grady still going so well
Cavendish
Lampre Cunego and Scarponi

Disapointments
Garmin ( except for aussies at tdu and Bobridge )
Euskaltel
Pegasus Sports
RICCO
Some stage races and how riders don't attack so much
Sky's management of EBH
A.Schleck
Ciolek
geox not getting invited to TDF

 

[who dat]

Hey what's up with the suprising results of the aussies haven't you heard where taking over cycling

 

[Mellow Velo]

Surprises:
Pat McQuaid making sense............for once.
Robert Gesink not having crashed or punctured at a crucial time.
Frank Schleck's new chest and (see Robert Gesink).
BMC riding at the different end of the peloton than usual.


Disappointments:
Not being able to post the Rabobus or Rabobonk wind up.
Taylor Phinney's inability to ride a bike failing to generate 3 new threads a week.
Paris-Not Nice and conservative, wait for the ITT, inspired racing.
The black and white peloton.

 

[L'arriviste]

Surprises

* Garmin-Cervélo ultrafail
* Cancellara this far in with only a couple of wins
* Gesink ownership of everything
* Androni-Giocattoli at Coppi-Bartali
* Evans winning his first race of the season
* Finding out that Alberto Volpi is a Leakygas manager

Disappointments

* Leopard-Trek PR and kit snorefest
* Stannard at G-W
* Nobody attacking Tony Martin at Paris-Nice
* Strade Bianche team selections
* Finding out that Alberto Volpi is a Leakygas manager

On the whole, 2011 so far has been a nice opening gambit though.

 

[theyoungest]

Disappointments:
Not being able to post the Rabobus or Rabobonk wind up.

I'm sure you'll get to do that a fair bit after the Ronde and Paris-Roubaix

Surprises

* Garmin-Cervélo ultrafail

Between Hushovd, Haussler, and Farrar, how many spring classics have they won the last couple of years? This predicted Garmin world dominance was all hype.