2012 Tour of Oman (14th - 19th of February), 2.HC

[Thibaut Pinot]

Kittel very nice. For the second time beating al those worldclass sprinters. Go Marcel!

 

[cineteq]

Stage 6:
1. Marcel Kittel (Project 1t4i)
2. Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale)
3. Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Barracuda)

 

[El Pistolero]

First bonus sprint today won by Boonen before Nibali. Nibali takes GC lead from Velits by 1s (via @edekker1970) #tourofoman

#OmegaPharmaFail

#LiquigasandWaterlooSunrisefail

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

#LiquigasandWaterlooSunrisefail

Yup, apologies for taking the only news source available as news.

 

[El Pistolero]

Yup, apologies for taking the only news source available as news.

Yup, that's a pretty stupid thing to do, especially if you're going to base assumptions on it

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Yup, that's a pretty stupid thing to do, especially if you're going to base assumptions on it

Is that a form of humour I don't get, or are you just changing the meaning of words?

I notice you edited without me noticing, but I have literally no idea what the 2nd clause you appended is supposed to mean.

 

[seaby71]

Does anyone know how much kittel won by? Where did cav end up? Cheers

 

[zamzonait]

kind of strange that Sagan took that second place on the bonus-sprint.

 

[seaby71]

I am sure they will ask Sagan and he better have a good reason!

 

[cineteq]

I am sure they will ask Sagan and he better have a good reason!

I have no problem with Sagan taking on the sprint, but was Nibali really 4th?

 

[Rolling Rouleur]

kind of strange that Sagan took that second place on the bonus-sprint.

Was it really Nibali taking the fourth place? Just cann't imagine him outsprinting Velits, who is much more explosive.

 

[El Pistolero]

Is that a form of humour I don't get, or are you just changing the meaning of words?

No, believing what one source says, an untrusty one at that, the second the information got released is rather stupid and naive. If you just reported what the source said without making silly assumptions that would have been a totally different story. But you didn't do that did you

Anyway, I don't even think it's a big fail of Liquigas. Sagan is just a little bit too enthusiastic sometimes. People forget here how young he actually is. He still has some growing up to do. He probably was trying to lead-out Nibali and the latter failed to overtake him. Perhaps Sagan should stop over-rating Nibali

 

[seaby71]

That's a good question. Maybe he was protecting nibbles 2nd position by taking the bonus? Unfortunately the lack of coverage doesn't help.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

That's a good question. Maybe he was protecting nibbles 2nd position by taking the bonus? Unfortunately the lack of coverage doesn't help.

No, there was no 16 bonus second sprint.

I guess I've learned my lesson anyway. Next time something as important as the Tour of Oman comes along, I'll wait until I get triple confirmation before committing myself to the obvious conclusion of the initial report on an internet forum.

In other news, Sagan has made it look rather like he was more interested in Slovakia than Liquigas.

 

[seaby71]

I think it would be worse if the wrong winner was announced.

 

[canyonball]

Good stuff from Liquigas. (If confirmed)

 

[El Pistolero]

Wasn't Liquigas the best in teamwork in the by the way?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Lats Vuelta's stage 6 anyone?

Good stuff from Liquigas. (If confirmed)

That was Agnoli's fault, not Sagan's. If Sagan hadn't sprinted, Lastras would have outsprinted Nibali, and when you have 3 men in a 4 man break, you kind of have the responsibility not to lose from there. Liquigas needed the stage from that position, and Lastras outsprinted Nibali, so Agnoli should have sat up and let his leader get the 8 bonus seconds since he couldn't get the 20 and Liquigas weren't prepared to sacrifice the stage win.

 

[seaby71]

That was Agnoli's fault, not Sagan's. If Sagan hadn't sprinted, Lastras would have outsprinted Nibali, and when you have 3 men in a 4 man break, you kind of have the responsibility not to lose from there. Liquigas needed the stage from that position, and Lastras outsprinted Nibali, so Agnoli should have sat up and let his leader get the 8 bonus seconds since he couldn't get the 20 and Liquigas weren't prepared to sacrifice the stage win.

Totally agree, Sagan did the right thing there. You have to take the stage win in that situation as if you don't the sponsors would be p....d off

 

[cineteq]

That was Agnoli's fault, not Sagan's. If Sagan hadn't sprinted, Lastras would have outsprinted Nibali, and when you have 3 men in a 4 man break, you kind of have the responsibility not to lose from there. Liquigas needed the stage from that position, and Lastras outsprinted Nibali, so Agnoli should have sat up and let his leader get the 8 bonus seconds since he couldn't get the 20 and Liquigas weren't prepared to sacrifice the stage win.

The best way to have approached that sprint, would've been Sagan sprinting way earlier, leading Lastras to aborting any attempt to go for the win, and then Nibali either taking 2nd, or Sagan stopping just before the finish and letting Nibali get full bonus points. Of course, this is after the fact...

 

[canyonball]

@ Libertine: I edited the post has someone had already mentioned it apparently. I was not blaming Sagan for the vuelta incident (hence the "good stuff from Liquigas"). It's rather funny if they screw something like this once again. Fortunately at the Vuelta it didn't really matter in the end. Here...

 

[hrotha]

Totally agree, Sagan did the right thing there. You have to take the stage win in that situation as if you don't the sponsors would be p....d off

After today's events (if confirmed), I'm inclined to think Sagan did the right thing for all the wrong reasons.

 

[La Pandera]

One thing's for sure, he won't win.

Who's leg is that? I can tell its a Shack rider but which one?

 

[El Pistolero]

Who's leg is that? I can tell its a Shack rider but which one?

Fuglsang.........

 

[La Pandera]

Nope, he lost the GC yesterday.


I'm not one for getting hysterical about 'disrepecting the race' but if you arrive in form to win, win the key stage, but throw it away elsewhere due to choice rather than performance, I don't like that.

I'd blame the team management and their strategy and not the rider in this case. If they have him using valuable energy working for Sagan, and then expect such a dominant performance on the queen stage that it makes up for the time loss helping Sagan, then that is being a bit greedy and stupid on the management's part.