2011 Volta a Catalunya

[The Hitch]

Good to see Uran doing so well in the sprint. Also Daaaaan Martin in there.

TGBM beats Contador yet again!

(might as well make the joke to spoil it for the Dutch maffiosi )

What a sprinting field haha, even Contador made it into the top 10.

lol. Very good thinking

 

[Mellow Velo]

Deep Joy. Even the HTC leftovers are taking the big wins. JV must be pleased.:
Carlton Kirby commentating, too. What could be better?

Difficult to follow the "action" from that editing, but it looks like the Peloton took too much of the day off?
The playbook seems to make greater sense.
Harder than it looked on tv, then.

Not only Phinney. Sicard and Soler still struggling.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Before we mock Ryo too much, Darwin Atapuma is 23, was in the front group and was 6th in the Vuelta a Colombia last year...

and had zero racing days in his legs this year!! to me result of cep is very strong when you consider that apart from pena and quintana none of them have any racing days in their legs yet as the team didn't ride vuelta valle. only quintana I had hoped would've been in first group. still he is by far the youngest rider in this race and should show something to andorra

 

[theyoungest]

only quintana I had hoped would've been in first group. still he is by far the youngest rider in this race and should show something to andorra

The youngest rider in this race would be Taylor Phinney. And Slagter is just 6 months older than Quintana, Roe 3 months. There are probably more.

 

[nevada]

Showery weather this morning. Coming down from Els Angeles will be interesting.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

The youngest rider in this race would be Taylor Phinney. And Slagter is just 6 months older than Quintana, Roe 3 months. There are probably more.

you are correct although phinney sucks even more

 

[kurtinsc]

you are correct although phinney sucks even more

Yeah, Phinney sucks... in the mountains. Even the hills.

At 83 kg, he's no climber. At this stage in his career at his current weight, he's a TT rider who may have some use in the flatter classics and as a leadout guy for a sprinter. He's pretty much useless in a race like this that has no time trial.

He's using it to try to "crash course" his way into some form to help out in some of the northern classics. I'm doubtful it will work, but we'll see.

 

[joy118118]

Smukulis is the same type of Mini Phinney- both for classics. Phinney's form looks really bad. Does BMC still want him to Paris-Roubaix? will he take part in RVV?

 

[Ferminal]

Deep Joy. Even the HTC leftovers are taking the big wins. JV must be pleased.:
Carlton Kirby commentating, too. What could be better?

Difficult to follow the "action" from that editing, but it looks like the Peloton took too much of the day off?
The playbook seems to make greater sense.
Harder than it looked on tv, then.

Not only Phinney. Sicard and Soler still struggling.

I also found the highlights very difficult to follow, and would have liked to have seen more of the main bunch on the final climb.

And yeh, Kirby.

 

[hughmoore]

For Australian viewers, stage 2 highlights are on Foxtel/Eurosport around 11.35am tommorrow SA and repeated early evening, (6pm SA time) suggest you set your program guide.


Regards


Hugh

 

[flicker]

I wish Phinney no ill will, but I think he will drop out of this race. It would be good for him to finish and man up. Lose the twitter.

 

[sublimit]

Sounds like a tough race to come into for Phinney. Maybe some one day races would be better than this and getting fried.
Ryo put the kiss of death on Quintana..

 

[hrotha]

He also said Phinney sucks more, so I'm tipping Taylor to take tomorrow's mountain-top finish stage.

 

[cineteq]

*yawn*

 

[TourOfSardinia]

-20km gruppo compatto.

 

[Euskaltel!]

Hey,
I'm new to the forum, but as seems common around here I've been following cyclingnews and the forum debates for quite a while. As a PhD student who studies cycling history (particularly in the Spanish context) this seemed the most appropriate thread to have my first post. Anyway!

Some of you have mentioned how it's odd that La Volta a Catalunya is not televised like the other races which are at the same level, and I mean by that the same protour level etc. This lack of coverage is mystifying... If you check out all the press in Spain they hardly bother to mention La Volta, which may add to the general attitude of indifference which surrounds it. Although Catalunya does have its own tv network... So one would think that they could use it to promote Catalan identity, i.e. like Barca and what they did with the olympic games. Hopefully some of my research will unearth the reasons for this ignorance of La Volta. It seems to reflect the lack of interest RTVE (Spanish state television) showed in La Vuelta a Espana until the 80's... Catalonia really is missing a trick here. The only vaguely half decent coverage I can find is regular updates on Catalunya Radio...

Can't wait for tomorrows stage though! Proper Andorran mountains!

And a few random things about me:
I like Euskaltel-Euskadi because they concentrate on climbing!
TGBM - I'm almost fond...
I'm Welsh... So a bit of Geraint bias may be observed...

 

[Contre la montre]

Hey,
I'm new to the forum, but as seems common around here I've been following cyclingnews and the forum debates for quite a while. As a PhD student who studies cycling history (particularly in the Spanish context) this seemed the most appropriate thread to have my first post. Anyway!

...

It's nice to know someone out there is studying 'cycling'. I wrote my bachelorsthesis about cycling but they wouldn't let me write my masters about the same subject. Welcome.

 

[Highlander]

I love Google translate for coming up with the weirdest phrases.

"20 km to go. There are attempts to escape, but the Lampre-ISD takes very attached the race and leaves no joy."

 

[amp300]

I love Google translate for coming up with the weirdest phrases.

"20 km to go. There are attempts to escape, but the Lampre-ISD takes very attached the race and leaves no joy."

That is hilarious. I am going to use that from now on when someone is not letting a break get away. Or in a historical context like 'armstrong takes very attached the race and leaves no joy for Simeoni'.

 

[joy118118]

Rojas wins？

 

[roundabout]

He's a sprinter, right?

Maybe Peta got boxed in or something

 

[TeoSheva]

Rojas took it!

 

[Connor Pass]

Rojas wins？

Photo finish!

From my broken Catalan I'm gathering that Rojas has won though...

 

[hatcher]

Petacchi from Rojas according to Bici twitter. Other way round according to their ticker!

 

[Connor Pass]

Petacchi called as the winner