2014 1st Dubai Tour, 5th - 8th February (2.1)

[Gloin22]

Compare it to Dubai Desert Classic Golf Tournament :lol: Cycling is ridicolous in terms of money, no wonder most WT teams want change.

Player Prize Money
1 Stephen Gallacher €303,268
2 Emiliano Grillo €202,176
3 Romain Wattel €102,446
3 Brooks Koepka €102,446
5 Robert Rock €60,230
5 Mikko Ilonen €60,230
5 Thorbjorn Olesen €60,230
5 Steve Webster €60,230
9 Rory McIlroy €35,483
9 Edoardo Molinari €35,483
9 Paul Casey €35,483
9 Bernd Wiesberger €35,483
13 Soren Hansen €25,735
13 Darren Fichardt €25,735
13 Francesco Molinari €25,735
13 Brett Rumford €25,735
13 Paul Waring €25,735
13 Danny Willett €25,735
13 Thomas Bjorn €25,735
20 Damien McGrane €21,168

 

[argyllflyer]

Compare it to Dubai Desert Classic Golf Tournament :lol: Cycling is ridicolous in terms of money, no wonder most WT teams want change.

I don't see that as a reasonable comparison as golf charge a fortune for their top competitions in terms of entry so can raise money from ticket sales as well as sponsorship. Cycling is free. There is no way of raising revenue other than sponsorship and meagre TV deals.

British Open for example:

http://www.theopen.com/en/TicketsAndHospitality/Ticket-Prices.aspx

£65 (in advance) / £75 (on the day) for a day ticket last year.

Even the minor Scottish Open charge £35 to turn up on the day, £25 in advance.

It's incredibly difficult to see a solution for a sport that is free admission.

 

[Bavarianrider]

Cav must be very worried.

Why should he be worried? He has no chance a against Kittel and he knows it.

 

[Christian]

Was nice to see Pliushin in the spotlight also! Boy did he get screwed over by the RSLT merger. I hope he can bounce back one day. Ironic to see his former team mate from the Leopard CT, Fabio Silvestre, chase him down!

 

[Afrank]

Just finished watching the stage, impressive work by Kittel to survive the climb and endure the attacks on it.

And Phinney only a stage away from clinching the overall!

 

[MatParker117]

Why should he be worried? He has no chance a against Kittel and he knows it.

Watch the sprint in Paris again Cav made up several bike lengths on Kittel and would of won with better positioning. He has every chance if OPQS can pull there **** together. Kittel has better acceleration but Cav still appears to have a higher top speed.

 

[BigMac]

Watch the sprint in Paris again Cav made up several bike lengths on Kittel and would of won with better positioning. He has every chance if OPQS can pull there **** together. Kittel has better acceleration but Cav still appears to have a higher top speed.

This.

10char

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Tour of Dubai:
Prize money: 120k EUR
Winner overall: 25k EUR

Tour of Oman:
Prize money: 105k EUR
Winner overall: 11k EUR

Tour of Qatar:
Prize money: 99.6k EUR
Winnen overall: 11k EUR
Stage prizes:

there is a 3 week stagerace in the philipines going down now that has 200.000 dollars price money. @ thorny and roundabout the price money is nothing special here and there are no appearance fee's. ths isn't golf or tennis.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Compare it to Dubai Desert Classic Golf Tournament :lol: Cycling is ridicolous in terms of money, no wonder most WT teams want change.

that is a stupid comparison considering cycling has no tv deals worthy any money except the tour, which is aso and cycling is also no elite sport like golf, but an everymans sport like football. except in football there are more sponsors and people can be charged fee's to attend

 

[Bavarianrider]

Watch the sprint in Paris again Cav made up several bike lengths on Kittel and would of won with better positioning. He has every chance if OPQS can pull there **** together. Kittel has better acceleration but Cav still appears to have a higher top speed.

Kittel was in the wind like forever in that Sprint.

 

[Peter von]

Watch the sprint in Paris again Cav made up several bike lengths on Kittel and would of won with better positioning. He has every chance if OPQS can pull there **** together. Kittel has better acceleration but Cav still appears to have a higher top speed.

In fairness to the Quick-steppers they take way more responsibility than the other sprint teams in chasing escapees and keeping pace, so it's no wonder that Argos are very successful at hijacking the lead-out on many occasions. At some point this will change or the steppers will start using the Bakelandts, Stybars and Martins in an offensive capacity rather than helping Argos, so far they have been excused because Cav was the no. 1 sprinter in the world, but many have already declared an end to his reign and if Kittel outshines him at the Tour again the rest of us will do the same.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Sagan crashes out with 4km to go, and channels his inner Wiggins with a bike toss.

 

[trevim]

Nibali as a lead out man and Sagan pulling a Wiggins.

 

[trevim]

Wow Quickstep and HTC, what a difference!

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Amateur hour from Quickstep again - you really have to question the intelligence of some of these riders.

Do they honestly think the reason you wait until later is to get to the front and then start riding as if there's 8km to go.

Front position, 7 men left with 2km to go and they were trying to do km turns rather than gunning it.

Doesn't make much difference when Cav loses his pedal bindings, but really, some of this lot need to grow a brain cell or two.

 

[trevim]

1. Kittel
2. Renshaw
3. Guardini (he's alive!!!)
4. Ferrari
5. Porsev

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Wow Quickstep and HTC, what a difference!

Giant-Shimano in their white with black stripes are giving me terrible flashbacks with their horrific tactics, though. I just caught the last 5-6km after the Olympic skiathlon, but I think that's more of the Dubai Tour than I can handle. Apparently yesterday's stage wasn't bad, but a race with a TT and three sprints, but where the TT is too long for the bonus seconds to make any difference, ought to at least put the TT on the last day to give us a bit of tension.

 

[LaFlorecita]

I don't like it when ITT results equal the GC results in a stage race.

 

[trevim]

Well no one could predict that Kittel would learn to climb now...that would have made yesterday's stage a bit more unpredictable. But you're right, GC wise it was disgraceful. Off to Qatar hoping for wind otherwise it will come down almost exclusively to bonus seconds, since I think the TT is quite short.

 

[MagnusMagnussen]

OPQS Cycling Team ‏@opqscyclingteam 1 min

Confirmed mechanical for Cavendish inside the final km #DubaiTour2014 #OPQS

 

[argyllflyer]

Giant-Shimano in their white with black stripes are giving me terrible flashbacks with their horrific tactics, though. I just caught the last 5-6km after the Olympic skiathlon, but I think that's more of the Dubai Tour than I can handle. Apparently yesterday's stage wasn't bad, but a race with a TT and three sprints, but where the TT is too long for the bonus seconds to make any difference, ought to at least put the TT on the last day to give us a bit of tension.

Agree completely, with only one remotely hilly stage (with a small climb) the TT was too decisive. Increase bonus seconds and shift the TT.

 

[PeterB]

Anybody knows why Kittel's red yersey was without team print? Organizer's or team's screw-up?

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

OPQS Cycling Team ‏@opqscyclingteam 1 min

Confirmed mechanical for Cavendish inside the final km #DubaiTour2014 #OPQS

the start of an hopefully miserable year for the crybaby from men

 

[jens_attacks]

god maradona visiting the race

that's how i will probably remember this edition

 

[Bavarianrider]

So Cavendish is faking mechanicals to avoid humilation by Kittel.
Wonder if He'll even show up at the Tour.