2012 Tour Down Under Stage 5: McLaren Vale - Old Willunga Hill 151.5km

[Jamsque]

EBH to get his first win of 2012. This is going to be the year of Eddy Boss.

 

[auscyclefan94]

That profile is laughable. Looks just like the one for the Crostis-Zoncolan, Giro stage finish.
They should climb it half a dozen times, not twice.

I don't see how it is laughable. If they used the same y-axis scale as the giro profiles then the climbs would be too small. For this race the scale is appropriate.

 

[will10]

I don't see how it is laughable. If they used the same y-axis scale as the giro profiles then the climbs would be too small. For this race the scale is appropriate.

Profiles are supposed to give a reasonable approximation of the route. Making all molehills look like mountains is misleading - a scale that results in Willunga being a near vertical climb when it's actually 7% is a joke.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

MarkCavendish Mark Cavendish
Looked a good sprint in #TourDownUnder. @AndreGreipel looks proper lean. I don't reckon 2 x Willunga Hill will be a problem for him..

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Ratto will win!

 

[auscyclefan94]

Profiles are supposed to give a reasonable approximation of the route. Making all molehills look like mountains is misleading - a scale that results in Willunga being a near vertical climb when it's actually 7% is a joke.

Yes but again the climb would be much too small to the naked eye if you used such a scale. Considering it is the main climbing stage I don't think it will be a problem.

MarkCavendish Mark Cavendish
Looked a good sprint in #TourDownUnder. @AndreGreipel looks proper lean. I don't reckon 2 x Willunga Hill will be a problem for him..

If he really tries, he may actually survive but I guess it also depends on EBH's and Bling's climbing form.

 

[will10]

Yes but again the climb would be much too small to the naked eye if you used such a scale. Considering it is the main climbing stage I don't think it will be a problem.



If he really tries, he may actually survive but I guess it also depends on EBH's and Bling's climbing form.

Says it all.

 

[El Pistolero]

Thomas Degendt for overall GC!

 

[auscyclefan94]

He's a good candidate for the gc. Could get away on Wilunga.

 

[Tuarts]

Profile is no different to the Belgian races and their zig-zag profiles.

 

[classicomano]

TMWK! Expect him!

 

[theyoungest]

TMWK! Expect him!

Wilco is a pure domestique in this race, it's already pretty good that he's still on the same time in GC after working on the front for a couple of laps yesterday.

 

[sublimit]

Ratto will win!

Nice to see your old avatar back, that other one gave me the creeps.

I'm going for Gerrans.

 

[jsem94]

the profile according to veloroutes.

thats just for willunga hill road. They reckon average is 13 and max is 21.. Guess veloroutes doesnt work

That looks like it's in feet, not meters.

 

[Ruudz0r]

Ratto will win!

I obviously love your optimism about Ratto as I am a Ratto fan myself and Willunga hill suits Ratto perfectly however Ratto lost 18 seconds on the bunch in stage 2, do you by any chance know how/why?

He must have had like 4 punctures and a crash in the last 3K right?

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Degendt to get in a breakaway again on stage 4 earning seconds in the intermediate sprints and then being up with the best on willunga hill so he wins the GC.

One can only hope.....

 

[Hugo Koblet]

I obviously love your optimism about Ratto as I am a Ratto fan myself and Willunga hill suits Ratto perfectly however Ratto lost 18 seconds on the bunch in stage 2, do you by any chance know how/why?

He must have had like 4 punctures and a crash in the last 3K right?

No, I don't unfortunately. It's obviously quite a long shot that Ratto should win here given he's probably not in the best shape - and others are and are targeting this stage - and probably doesn't try anything but as you mention, Willunga suits him perfectly.

Glad to see other Ratto fans as well

 

[luckyboy]

Profile is no different to the Belgian races and their zig-zag profiles.

Yeah but this isn't European so every tiny mistake must be amplified and harshly criticised

 

[jens_attacks]

can't see greipel surviving,movistar will fly up the willunga hill

1.valverde
2.gerrans

 

[Mellow Velo]

Yeah but this isn't European so every tiny mistake must be amplified and harshly criticised

If you say so.
Me? I have a general gripe about ridiculous profiles that make it seem as if the riders don't need gears, but ropes and crampons.

Luckily, in this case, the organizers have also provided us with a final 3km profile, which
serves to highlight my point.

 

[The Hitch]

Yeah but this isn't European so every tiny mistake must be amplified and harshly criticised

Nothing to do with European.

To completely destroy your argument, here are some comments from my beloved race

And the other climb is less than 4% for 10 km, although it looks like the Zoncolan on the profile. Hm, maybe Sagan could survive this.

As an (apparent) Poland expert, can you tell us how hard stage 5 actually is? You know, ignoring the profile that makes it look like a Giro stage?

This was the profile

Poland is very very much in europe.


You may also remember one of Libertines attacks on Guardini and his inability to climb

I can't find it, because the key words "Libertine Seguros" "Andrea Guardini" and "dropped" give me about 500 different posts from LS about Guadini being unable to climb

http://www.google.co.uk/#sclient=ps....,cf.osb&fp=a88b69dd15f1b6f2&biw=1280&bih=830

Anyway, in one of these attacks, Libertine posted a profile of an Italian one day race where Guardini was like the only person dropped.

The profile was of a couple of 3% climbs made to look like the Gardeccia stage and everyone critiscsed it.

Also the only existing profile of Beijing rr to my knowledge is this

and it has been subjected to many comparisons to Zoncolan, and comments about a Zomegnan ideal stage.


So basically critiscsms of joke profiles happen all the time.

 

[auscyclefan94]

nobody even considering martin kohler for gc?

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

you make it hard to support bmc riders.

Normally I'd proably be thrilled for a lesser rider to be challanging gc (maybe less so for tdu). Yet now I just want anyone, anyone else to win

 

[auscyclefan94]

 

[Tuarts]

Way I see it its a three way fight: Gerrans v Valverde v Boasson Hagen.

Should be interesting, going silent on news now as i'll be away for the weekend so will catch up on the stage later.