2012 Glava Tour of Norway 16-19 May, 2.1s

[maltiv]

Anyway, tomorrow will be a whole different race. Norway's best cyclist by far, Lars Petter Nordhaug, will crush the field easily. Only Firsanov has a chance to hang on.

 

[Gloin22]

Anyway, tomorrow will be a whole different race. Norway's best cyclist by far, Lars Petter Nordhaug, will crush the field easily. Only Firsanov has a chance to hang on.

Do you know if he has good form to do that ?

Also do you think he will ride Tour de Suiise ? I doubt he'll get to do Tour and suiise would be a great opportunity for some nice results for him. Then focus on Veulta and Worlds I guess

 

[theyoungest]

It's now officially the Beat Boasson Hagen Tour

Once this kid was Sagan-ing races like the Tour of Britain. It seems so long ago...

 

[goggalor]

It's now officially the Beat Boasson Hagen Tour

Once this kid was Sagan-ing races like the Tour of Britain. It seems so long ago...

Yup. I'd like to say that a few years ago he would've won every stage of this race, but he has actually evolved as a sprinter at Team Sky. But that's about it. Hopefully his new coach can get him back on track and turn him into the winner he could be, instead of the mediocre rider he is at the moment.

 

[maltiv]

It's now officially the Beat Boasson Hagen Tour

Once this kid was Sagan-ing races like the Tour of Britain. It seems so long ago...

He seems to have completely lost his winner's mentality since he went to Sky. Earlier he felt no pressure at all, and raced to win in every race. He almost never made tactical mistakes and was never stressed about anything. Now he's a nervous wreck who seems so indecisive and defensive.

Today he got a good leadout by Luke Rowe, but he didn't use it. At all. When Luke Rowe started his lead out, at a pretty fast pace, Edvald went past him immediately, even if there were 350 meters to go. Had he just let his leadout man do his leadout, he would've won easily...

 

[El Pistolero]

Modern cycling sucks. It's obvious why they avoid the mountains: they need money from host cities.

 

[Nielsa]

Modern cycling sucks. It's obvious why they avoid the mountains: they need money from host cities.

Well, stage 3-5 take place in one of the least populated regions of the country. Total population of 190'000, in an area 10% smaller than Belgium. (27k sq km vs 30k sq km.)
Today's host city has a population of 19,5k.

You could easily make stage races out west, in/near the fjords and mountains, finishing in cities with more population than this.
But, yeah, I guess the money mainly comes from stage 1 and 2 in the Oslo area.

 

[El Pistolero]

Well, stage 3-5 take place in one of the least populated regions of Europe. Total population of 190'000, in an area 10% smaller than Belgium. (27k sq km vs 30k sq km.)
Today's host city has a population of 19,5k.

You could easily make stage races out west, in/near the fjords and mountains, finishing in cities with more population than this.
But, yeah, I guess the money mainly comes from stage 1 and 2 in the Oslo area.

And those stages are flat as well? Or hilly?

Also, this is a warm up race where riders return after the spring season, so they probably want to avoid making it too hard. One mountain stage should be ok though.

A mountain stage, a very hilly stage(multiple big hills in the final 20km), 2 flat stages and a time trial is a very balanced route to me. Yet we rarely see it in cycling these days, it's sad.

 

[goggalor]

He seems to have completely lost his winner's mentality since he went to Sky.

Indeed. He hasn't been an attacking rider since he joined them. Compare his 2008 and 2009 seasons at High Road to his time at Sky. He was a fun rider to watch then. Every so often he does channel his old self, like in his stage win in Dauphiné 2010, or his second Tour win last year, but usually he just rides as a sprinter.

And those stages are flat as well? Or hilly?

Also, this is a warm up race where riders return after the spring season, so they probably want to avoid making it too hard.

There aren't that many big riders there, so I don't think there are a lot who use the race as a warmup. I can only think of Petacchi who's clearly just prepping for le Tour.

 

[Nielsa]

And those stages are flat as well? Or hilly?

Also, this is a warm up race where riders return after the spring season, so they probably want to avoid making it too hard. One mountain stage should be ok though.

A mountain stage, a very hilly stage(multiple big hills in the final 20km), 2 flat stages and a time trial is a very balanced route to me. Yet we rarely see it in cycling these days, it's sad.

It wouldn't be extreme, it would be possible to set up stages in the valleys between the mountains and down by the fjord sides and the cities there.

But it's true, some climbs can't be avoided and might be too much for what kind of race they want.
As for that, well, Glava Tour's race director is also EBH's manager...

 

[kanari]

Team Type 1 ‏@TeamType1
We have hit a moose in our bus - all riders and stuff uninjured, front window, some undercarriage destroyed - moose is dead. Not a good day.

When driving on Norwegian tarmac always look out for this sign:

 

[Gloin22]

He seems to have completely lost his winner's mentality since he went to Sky. Earlier he felt no pressure at all, and raced to win in every race. He almost never made tactical mistakes and was never stressed about anything. Now he's a nervous wreck who seems so indecisive and defensive.

Strange. After his Tour wins, Vatenfall and Eneco wins he looked immense but looks to lost bit confidence this year after poor classics campaign. He still got that very good tirreno win though.

 

[theyoungest]

Team Type 1 ‏@TeamType1
We have hit a moose in our bus - all riders and stuff uninjured, front window, some undercarriage destroyed - moose is dead. Not a good day.

When in Norway, kill a moose. You can't make this stuff up.

He seems to have completely lost his winner's mentality since he went to Sky. Earlier he felt no pressure at all, and raced to win in every race. He almost never made tactical mistakes and was never stressed about anything. Now he's a nervous wreck who seems so indecisive and defensive.

Those two Tour stages he won, he showed some good winner's mentality there. Certainly for the second one.

 

[maltiv]

Do you know if he has good form to do that ?

Also do you think he will ride Tour de Suiise ? I doubt he'll get to do Tour and suiise would be a great opportunity for some nice results for him. Then focus on Veulta and Worlds I guess

Apparently Nordhaug has been training after every stage of Tour of Norway because he feels it hasn't been hard enough training for him. So perhaps his ambitions aren't very high for this race, but it says a lot about his ambitions for the rest of the season.

From what I've heard he'll be Team Sky's GC man at both the Tour of Luxembourg and at TDS.

 

[Gloin22]

Apparently Nordhaug has been training after every stage of Tour of Norway because he feels it hasn't been hard enough training for him. So perhaps his ambitions aren't very high for this race, but it says a lot about his ambitions for the rest of the season.

From what I've heard he'll be Team Sky's GC man at both the Tour of Luxembourg and at TDS.

Sounds great to me, thx for this. After his performance in Amstel until that fall with Cunego I'd fancy his chances in Worlds for a Top 10 or even sneaky Top 5 as well. Everything looking good for him.

BTW, does anyone have the video for this stage ? Thx in advance.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

When in Norway, kill a moose. You can't make this stuff up.

There's a souvenir shop on Karl Johans Gate with the slogan "Elg, Troll, Viking Etc".

On the parcours - the race is fairly flat because for the most part the most famous Norwegian cyclists, who they want to have in the race to attract sponsors and fans, are not mega climbers, at least not in preparation races. The couple of stages close to Oslo work for money purposes, but after that they don't want to have mega transfers, but don't want the race to be a totally flat farce (after all, that would then be even less representative of the terrain of Norway than the Vuelta a Andalucía or the Giro di Reggio Calabria are to their homelands thanks to being in February), so they go for a few hilly stages, but that entails going away from the more populated areas.

Hence why I'm still fairly surprised there's no Holmenkollen/Tryvann stage. There's the infrastructure there to finish a race, you can decide whether to go all the way to Tryvann (about 7,5km of final climb at just over 5,5%) or go with the shorter climb to Holmenkollen (about 4,5km at the same). It's right outside Oslo - you can get most of the way up the climb on the T-bane - and it would make a great TV spectacle (also, the views are great, as any fan of biathlon or XC skiing can tell you).

 

[Wilba60]

Great to see Kroupis have his first win for OGE. He was close in Qatar behind a rampant Tom Boonen. He and Cooke seemed to have formed a pretty good team as they have raced together a fair bit this year and have swapped roles pretty consistently. Cooke was in fact the nominated rider for GE in this stage but Kroupis found himself in a better position and luckily managed to squeeze down the inside. Strong ride.

GE sprinters are going pretty well at the moment with Kroupis finding some speed in Norway, Howard doing well in California and Goss in Italy. It will be interesting to see now that Goss has left the Giro how Impey goes in any of the few remaining sprint stages.

 

[Wilba60]

Meant to add the link....only one I could find;

http://www.tv2.no/sport/sykkel/edvald-boasson-hagen-spurtslaatt-for-tredje-gang-3785230.html

 

[ingsve]

Well, stage 3-5 take place in one of the least populated regions of the country. Total population of 190'000, in an area 10% smaller than Belgium. (27k sq km vs 30k sq km.)
Today's host city has a population of 19,5k.

You could easily make stage races out west, in/near the fjords and mountains, finishing in cities with more population than this.
But, yeah, I guess the money mainly comes from stage 1 and 2 in the Oslo area.

I'm guessing part of the reason for this course is because Tour of Norway is really an extension of the old regional race Ringerike Grand Prix that featured the same area as finishing stages. This means the organisers already have a good relationship with the towns in this area so it makes sense to stay in that area while they are still building support for the race. Hopefully they will use some tougher climbs in the future especially now that Nordhaug has matured into a competent climber, something that wasn't clear until this year.

 

[greenedge]

I am hoping for Clarke to repeat wins for Orica- Greenedge.

Nice sprint by Kroupis.

 

[meandmygitane]

Re: the norwegian tarmac discussion; I thought the last picture here (bottom of page) was rather amusing. That is some serious ruts, the whole breadth of the road looks wavy.

 

[maltiv]

Today's stage passes Edvald's home town, so if he has struggled with the pressure so far he'll be a wreck today. The pressure outside the Sky bus was immense this morning, while there was almost no interest for the other teams. Will be interesting to see how his climbing shape is. Those sprints really don't say anything about his form as he usually sprints about as well in bad form as in good form, it's the climbing that varies.

 

[goggalor]

There's a souvenir shop on Karl Johans Gate with the slogan "Elg, Troll, Viking Etc".

On the parcours - the race is fairly flat because for the most part the most famous Norwegian cyclists, who they want to have in the race to attract sponsors and fans, are not mega climbers, at least not in preparation races. The couple of stages close to Oslo work for money purposes, but after that they don't want to have mega transfers, but don't want the race to be a totally flat farce (after all, that would then be even less representative of the terrain of Norway than the Vuelta a Andalucía or the Giro di Reggio Calabria are to their homelands thanks to being in February), so they go for a few hilly stages, but that entails going away from the more populated areas.

Hence why I'm still fairly surprised there's no Holmenkollen/Tryvann stage. There's the infrastructure there to finish a race, you can decide whether to go all the way to Tryvann (about 7,5km of final climb at just over 5,5%) or go with the shorter climb to Holmenkollen (about 4,5km at the same). It's right outside Oslo - you can get most of the way up the climb on the T-bane - and it would make a great TV spectacle (also, the views are great, as any fan of biathlon or XC skiing can tell you).

Your knowledge of the geography of every country in the world is very impressive.

What is your opinion on the tarmac?

 

[maltiv]

Firsanov is completely destroying the peloton at the moment. Nordhaug is trying to pull EBH up to him.

 

[kanari]

24.2km to go. Firsanov with something like 20 seconds ahead of Nordhaug/EBH/Clarke/2 Lampre/2 Topsport Vlaanderen