2010 Tour of Turkey 2HC

[Susan Westemeyer]

What with Rabo breaking things up yesterday, it wasn't clear from over 40k out that Bos would win.

HTC only exist to ride boringly. They haven't animated a race in donkey's years. They ride to put a train on the front of the péloton and take it to a sprint. They're really, really good at it, which means that nobody else has a chance. Which makes it really annoying because I want somebody - ANYBODY - to beat them. My heart sinks when I see them on the startlist of races like this one. When they're racing in bigger races and ProTour races there are at least some people who can challenge them, even if they aren't usually successful. But in races like this, their presence has little function other than to rack up wins.

Isn't the goal of every team to win? Do other teams go into races hoping to lose? It may be boring to you that a team you don't like wins so much, but would you say the same thing if it was time you do like?

We have other threads where teams are criticized for not winning at all, now here is a team being criticized for winning too much!

Susan

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Isn't the goal of every team to win? Do other teams go into races hoping to lose? It may be boring to you that a team you don't like wins so much, but would you say the same thing if it was time you do like?

We have other threads where teams are criticized for not winning at all, now here is a team being criticized for winning too much!

Susan

If a team I liked won every day by strangling the life out of the race and taking it to a sprint, I wouldn't like that team anymore

I like to be entertained, hence I like to see racers entertain me. However, this isn't pro wrestling, it's a sport, and therefore Columbia aren't bound to entertain me, they're bound to try to win, no matter how boring the method. Unfortunately for people like me, who watch the sport for entertainment, they're very good at it.

Think of it like José Mourinho's coaching style, or the Italian teams of the 70s and 80s. They could win 1-0 every week in the most dour, uninspired, boring game you had ever watched. If you supported them, awesome! We're winning! If you don't support them, you hate them because not only are they impossible to beat, but they're turgid to watch, so you don't even get the awe-inspiring moments you get from the likes of Barcelona.

 

[djconnel]

HTC only exist to ride boringly. They haven't animated a race in donkey's years.

Or in a few weeks, anyway. We have a short attention span here on the CyclingNews forum, clearly.

 

[theyoungest]

Or in a few weeks, anyway. We have a short attention span here on the CyclingNews forum, clearly.

Eisel didn't animate that race. Breschel did.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Well, Graeme Brown isn't a great sprinter by any means... But he ain't horrible either. Decent opposition I would call him.

True, I'd forgotten he was there, but Fran Chicchi and Angelo Furlan were/are in Turkey, so it kind of balances.

It is fair to say, that this race is so well organised and "media friendly", that is deserves a larger, more competitive field, to do it justice.
Maybe stick an MTF in for good measure. They have plenty to choose from.

 

[Von Mises]

True, I'd forgotten he was there, but Fran Chicchi and Angelo Furlan were/are in Turkey, so it kind of balances.

It is fair to say, that this race is so well organised and "media friendly", that is deserves a larger, more competitive field, to do it justice.
Maybe stick an MTF in for good measure. They have plenty to choose from.

Was thinking about same thing. Seems to be well organized tour, good coverage, good webpage, beautiful scenery... It just lacks prestige and more competitive field.

 

[theyoungest]

Was thinking about same thing. Seems to be well organized tour, good coverage, good webpage, beautiful scenery... It just lacks prestige and more competitive field.

... although the quality of the roads leaves something to be desired. Kenny van Hummel on today's stage:

Really unbelievable today! My ass, feet, hands! Pain! What horrible roads. It's like I got to ride Paris-Roubaix after all (so to speak)

And Tejay van Garderen:

thanks to the turkish roads my hands feet and ass are f***ed. The rest of the body isn't doing too good either

 

[Mellow Velo]

Indeed. Although the roads are wide, their surface look very similar to those of Haut Provence, or Belokiland, if you like.
Very heavy and none too smooth.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Sky racing here, next year.
Something is afoot with all this extra cycling on Brit Eurosport.
3 major races returning after several years in the dark..........

 

[auscyclefan94]

Another little crappy race stage win for greipel

 

[Ferminal]

It's been an exciting race because people have challenged HTC's boredom train. Unfortunately HTC's boredom train keeps winning out. It could have been really interesting with ISD trying to manage the gap to Kern with their depleted resources. At the top of the big climb it was hopeless for Greipel but when you have flat terrain and lots of ITT specialists against tired GC candidates doing track stands with each other, of course it's going to come back. And once Columbia get a chase going? That's total predictability. They have the strongest sprinter in this race by a country mile, so as soon as they put the Train of Tedium on the front, either the break's staying (which inevitably doesn't happen, when was the last time you saw a break stay away when Columbia went full bore on the front to pull it back?) or Greipel's winning.

I thought we were in for an exciting chase when it was Kern vs ISD, but then Columbia got on the front and the result was clear.

True, I'd forgotten he was there, but Fran Chicchi and Angelo Furlan were/are in Turkey, so it kind of balances.

It is fair to say, that this race is so well organised and "media friendly", that is deserves a larger, more competitive field, to do it justice.
Maybe stick an MTF in for good measure. They have plenty to choose from.

The coverage is probably the best I've seen for a stage race this year.

 

[luckyboy]

Break of 5 riders (Skil, CarmioOro, Xacobeo, Lampre, Vorarlberg) ahead at 1:05 with 23km to go

Feed: http://www.laola1.tv/en/int/radsport/tour-of-turkey/stage-7-finike-antalya/video/167-837-21007.html


Guess how this is gonna end up?

 

[Jamsque]

The run-in looks pretty straightforward and the roads look pretty wide, so it doesn't seem likely that a late move could stay away, but here's hoping.

Woah, the gap to the break just shot up, though. It was close to 30 seconds and now it's over a minute with 12km to go. Shouldn't be too much trouble for the boys in yellow providing they get their act together. I haven't seem then chasing at all yet, it's been just ISD and Colnago.

 

[luckyboy]

Massive crash in the last corner - HTC train goes down.

Visconti/Viviani/Lampre guy win

 

[Jamsque]

Woah. Didn't see that coming, for sure. The turn just tightened towards the end and the first HTC rider locked up his rear wheel, and then it was all over. No idea who won the day, photo finish between three riders.

[edit] They are giving it to Viviani from Liquigas. Visconti was ****ed off about the sprint but he had plenty of space.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Hah! Columbia derail the whole train and half the peloton. Yet another dodgy sprint.
If Valverde had a case against Freire, this was exactly the same.
Will Visconti lodge a complaint against Viviani?
That road was about 20 metres wide!

 

[Jamsque]

Viviani went in a straight line, if Visconti had the speed there was more than enough space for him to come through, I don't know what he was complaining about.

 

[Faserr]

He went to the left and so Visconti couldn't really finish his sprint.

At the end it was clever, because he didn't get disqualified...

 

[Michele]

Did the Columbia guy smashed his face on the barriers?

And about Viviani, he acted smartly by moving that tiny on left that didn't get him sanctioned.
Visconti was acting like if he just lost the Worlds and he's currently the leader and won 2 stages or so.

 

[issoisso]

Did the Columbia guy smashed his face on the barriers?

Yup. Grabsch

And because I need to make it ten characters, here's the random useless factoid of the day about Turkey: "Turkey" in english is both the name of a country and an animal. In portuguese, "Peru" is also the name of a country and an animal

Here's the coincidence: same animal.

 

[luckyboy]

Yup. Grabsch

And because I need to make it ten characters, here's the random useless factoid of the day about Turkey: "Turkey" in english is both the name of a country and an animal. In portuguese, "Peru" is also the name of a country and an animal

Here's the coincidence: same animal.

Hehe, that was pretty interesting

 

[icefire]

Yup. Grabsch

And because I need to make it ten characters, here's the random useless factoid of the day about Turkey: "Turkey" in english is both the name of a country and an animal. In portuguese, "Peru" is also the name of a country and an animal

Here's the coincidence: same animal.

It reminds me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEP7uti0PDw



FYI. If you can't make 10 characters, you can fool the thing with blank spaces

 

[issoisso]

It reminds me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEP7uti0PDw



FYI. If you can't make 10 characters, you can fool the thing with blank spaces

Thanks for the tip

 

[PinchFlat]

At about the 2km mark I'm pretty sure I saw multiple spectators throwing objects on the road just as the peloton came past. Then someone threw what looked like a bunch of flowers into the peloton. My first time seeing coverage of this Tour and it can happen anywhere but I'm curious- is this an exception of the norm in Turkey?

 

[blaxland]

Yup. Grabsch

And because I need to make it ten characters, here's the random useless factoid of the day about Turkey: "Turkey" in english is both the name of a country and an animal. In portuguese, "Peru" is also the name of a country and an animal

Here's the coincidence: same animal.

Thanks Issoisso i learnt a new thing today....bless you..

 

[craig1985]

What a spectacular crash right at the end.