2012 Tour de France: Stage 2: Visé → Tournai (208km)

[wirral]

Nice statistical post. Good research.

 

[HemmoBosscher]

I only count wins not merely finishing high in the sprint, to win your nose has to be in the wind, you must do better than just taking the wheel of the winner for 2nd 3rd etc
Sagan vs Kittel sprint wins 1:7. Sagan's 1 Kittel didn't sprint.
Sagan vs Greipel 0:5
sagan vs Goss 0:3
sagan vs Cav 1:4 Sagan's 1 Cav didn't sprint.

In short when riding against any of these guys in a sprint, Sagan has never crossed the line first. However there is a first time for everything.

Solid info. Nice heads-up.

I'm very anxious to see what Sagan does to be honest, I can see a 6-8 finish where he doesn't really contend, but I can also see a top 3 or stage win. If he does win, 5 wins is not unreasonable this year.

 

[Trofinios]

Sagan winning reduced bunch sprints (big bear lake comes to mind -_-) =/= winnning pan flat hotly contested sprints.

Goss has shown he is second to cavendish in the Giro with everyone else pretty far behind. (Admittedly not every contender was there, but that goes for every race except the tour)

He didn't win a stage in Tour of Turkey. He was 2nd behind Cav in stage 2 och 5 in the Giro, won stage 3 where Cav crashed in the final, and was 6th in stage 13 beaten by Cav, Kristoff, Renshaw, Modolo, Favilli. In the two sprint stages in T-A he was beaten both times by Sagan and his best place was 6th in stage 3, where EBH won and Greipel just edge out Sagan for 2nd place.

I'm not saying that Goss isn't any good - he is one of the best and he has a strong team to help him in the sprints. I'm just not that superimpressed by him this year and believe that Sagan's performances this year indicates that he might just be as good as Goss - even in the flat hotly contested sprints. One worry I have however, is that Sagan might not have the best support (only Oss really) on the flat sprint stages.

And as I said before, I might be wrong, and we will see this week what Sagan is capable of on the flat sprint stages.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Except that the evidence that suggests that Cav is not on top sprinting form comes from the fact that at ZLM he got beat by Greipel or Kittel in every sprint

He also beat Griepel or Kittel in every sprint.

 

[Trofinios]

I only count wins not merely finishing high in the sprint, to win your nose has to be in the wind, you must do better than just taking the wheel of the winner for 2nd 3rd etc
Sagan vs Kittel sprint wins 1:7. Sagan's 1 Kittel didn't sprint.
Sagan vs Greipel 0:5
sagan vs Goss 0:3
sagan vs Cav 1:4 Sagan's 1 Cav didn't sprint.

In short when riding against any of these guys in a sprint, Sagan has never crossed the line first. However there is a first time for everything.

Sagan is 22 and he is developing fast. Three months ago I wouldn't give Sagan much of a chance either, but after seeing him tooling the competition in ToC and TdS, something says me that he is sharper than ever and that he is ready to take on the best.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Just curious but why don't you like Sagan? He seems like a nice kid.

I don't dislike him. I just don't want him to run away with the points competition.

If he finishes 6-10th in sprints it sets up a nice dynamic for a tight contest.

 

[LaFleur]

17km and nobody has attacked yet? 5 minutes behind the schedule.. wow, just wow. Someone should atleast go to the breakaway for the sprint points. Saur, this is your chance, TAKE IT!

 

[LaFlorecita]

17km and nobody has attacked yet? 5 minutes behind the schedule.. wow, just wow. Someone should atleast go to the breakaway for the sprint points. Saur, this is your chance, TAKE IT!

This is what @mrconde said on twitter..

Mikkel Condé v2.0 ‏@mrconde
207,5 km and 99% chance of a bunch sprint..No wonder we still don't have the break of day...No need to waste energy before TV-time..

 

[burning]

Ticker says morkov,kern and roux has 2 minutes over peloton??

 

[LaFlorecita]

Wowzers Michael Morkov in break again, he wants the only KOM point of the day

Mikkel Condé v2.0 ‏@mrconde
Those polka dot cakes from team chef Hannah Grant @dailystews must have been good for Mørkøv! Dane has class... #TDF12

https://twitter.com/dailystews/status/219539106672291841/photo/1/large?tw_p=twt

 

[jens_attacks]

kern,now back at being one of those french guys in impossible breakaways

i still hope he will improve his health this season and get back to a decent level

 

[Trunnions]

Roux breaks, Kern, Morkov chasing. Roux has over a minute already.

DuMoulin's feet will be itching on the pedals.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Gap out to 4 minutes now, our BOTD have gone.


If no one tries a pointless chase now, we should have decent points up for grabs at the intermediate for the peloton.

 

[DominicDecoco]

Mørkøv needs to calm the fuc* down!

 

[dlwssonic]

Anyone knows who is leading the chase??

 

[LaFlorecita]

Mørkøv needs to calm the fuc* down!

No this is great! Every rider in the break for 2 days.

 

[maltiv]

Mørkøv needs to calm the fuc* down!

Well there weren't many attacks today, so I assume it wasn't that hard to get into the breakaway. Still, great to see how offensive the guy is. He's been in an incredible amount of breakaways this season.

 

[Cimber]

No this is great! Every rider in the break for 2 days.

He should have saved his energy for tomorrow where he could go out and defend the jersey. Today is alot of wasted energy for 1 point. But as I said yesterday, he is the new Jacky Durand. Always in a breakaway

 

[Panda Claws]

How long 'till the intermediate sprint, then I can turn on my tv to watch that?

 

[Andy99]

the 'aero' helmets being sported today by some teams are horrid.

 

[Mellow Velo]

145kms of __________________________________

 

[Panda Claws]

145kms of __________________________________

I heard there were some pretty tough corners.

 

[karlboss]

I heard there were some pretty tough corners.

10 chars

 

[DominicDecoco]

No this is great! Every rider in the break for 2 days.

It's just reckless. No point in it whatsoever. He could have been useful for JJ in the sprint as well.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

It's just reckless. No point in it whatsoever. He could have been useful for JJ in the sprint as well.

KOM shirt + really baad team = breakaway to get as much TV time as possible