2014 National Championships

[luckyboy]

Anybody have any information about the Italian race? Can't find any parcours or even where it is, though I remember something said about Pescara a while ago

 

[Michele]

As far as I know it will be again at Melinda.

 

[fowlyetti]

British Road Race..
In the men’s road race, former world champion and multiple Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish will defend the title he won in Glasgow last year.

The ‘Manx Missile’ will be up against a strong field which includes Team Sky’s Tour de France winner, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Olympic team pursuit champions, Peter Kennaugh and Wales’ own Geraint Thomas, as well as talented young riders Adam and Simon Yates (both Orica-GreenEDGE).

Also Live on Eurosport. Should be decent

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

In the men’s road race, former world champion and multiple Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish will defend the title he won in Glasgow last year.

The ‘Manx Missile’ will be up against a strong field which includes Team Sky’s Tour de France winner, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Olympic team pursuit champions, Peter Kennaugh and Wales’ own Geraint Thomas, as well as talented young riders Adam and Simon Yates (both Orica-GreenEDGE).

I doubt if Andy Fenn, the only other British rider on OPQS, is looking forward to it with much enthusiasm.

 

[LaFlorecita]

The Portuguese nationals will be held in Sabugal

http://www.uvp-fpc.pt/calendario.php?epoca_site=2014&vertente_new

 

[Parrulo]

The Portuguese nationals will be held in Sabugal

http://www.uvp-fpc.pt/calendario.php?epoca_site=2014&vertente_new

This is great news, reports say it will be an hard circuit, which is normal considering it is in Sabugal.

Hopefully some of the guys riding in the international peloton takes it.

 

[christopherrowe]

This is great news, reports say it will be an hard circuit, which is normal considering it is in Sabugal.

Hopefully some of the guys riding in the international peloton takes it.

Grrr, I fly into Lisboa for a two week stay in Portugal the day after this race.

Is Rui Costa the only Portuguese rider on a World Tour team? He's the only one I can think of.

 

[Parrulo]

Grrr, I fly into Lisboa for a two week stay in Portugal the day after this race.

Is Rui Costa the only Portuguese rider on a World Tour team? He's the only one I can think of.

Fabio Silverstre (trek), André Cardoso (Garmin), Sergio Paulinho and Bruno Pires (Saxo) and Nelson Oliveira (Lampre)

I don't think Costa will ride this as it doesn't really make sense to win the national championships when he is already wearing the rainbow jersey. It would be cool to see Machado winning because i think he will be on some breakaways during the Tour.

 

[christopherrowe]

Fabio Silverstre (trek), André Cardoso (Garmin), Sergio Paulinho and Bruno Pires (Saxo) and Nelson Oliveira (Lampre)

Thank you. I guess I'd heard of more than I thought and just wasn't necessarily aware of their nationality.

 

[Catwhoorg]

British Road Race..
In the men’s road race, former world champion and multiple Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish will defend the title he won in Glasgow last year.

The ‘Manx Missile’ will be up against a strong field which includes Team Sky’s Tour de France winner, Sir Bradley Wiggins, Olympic team pursuit champions, Peter Kennaugh and Wales’ own Geraint Thomas, as well as talented young riders Adam and Simon Yates (both Orica-GreenEDGE).

Also Live on Eurosport. Should be decent

Course Maps

Some decent lumps on the long course. The finish circuit will be a little sapping for a true sprinter, but I think a good break early one will carry the day.

The time trial is not flat. Should be interesting, but hard to see past Sir Wiggo on it.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Fabio Silverstre (trek), André Cardoso (Garmin), Sergio Paulinho and Bruno Pires (Saxo) and Nelson Oliveira (Lampre)

I don't think Costa will ride this as it doesn't really make sense to win the national championships when he is already wearing the rainbow jersey. It would be cool to see Machado winning because i think he will be on some breakaways during the Tour.

Well, he will either be in breaks or he will be nailed to Konig's side as his chief lieutenant, depending on how they play it. Either way he will be visible.

Pity that he will have no teammates, as he's been the strongest Portuguese rider this year, bar Costa.

 

[Parrulo]

Well, he will either be in breaks or he will be nailed to Konig's side as his chief lieutenant, depending on how they play it. Either way he will be visible.

Pity that he will have no teammates, as he's been the strongest Portuguese rider this year, bar Costa.

He will have Jose Mendes actually.

I seriously hope Nett App doesn't hold him back working for Konig. You don't really need a team mate with you all the time to finish on the top 15. If they really want to do that then they should ask Mendes to do it as he already did at last years Vuelta with some good results.

After all Mendes saved Konig's GC on this stage last year:

http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Vuelta_a_Espana_2013_Stage_10_Guejar_Sierra_Alto_de_Hazallanas

Machado is no GC guy because he can't handle real mountains, but he is a good aggressive rider to go on breakaways on medium and high mountain stages.

 

[roundabout]

Mendes rides for netapp?

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

He will have Jose Mendes actually.

I seriously hope Nett App doesn't hold him back working for Konig. You don't really need a team mate with you all the time to finish on the top 15. If they really want to do that then they should ask Mendes to do it as he already did at last years Vuelta with some good results.

After all Mendes saved Konig's GC on this stage last year:

http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Vuelta_a_Espana_2013_Stage_10_Guejar_Sierra_Alto_de_Hazallanas

Machado is no GC guy because he can't handle real mountains, but he is a good aggressive rider to go on breakaways on medium and high mountain stages.

Ah, forgot about Mendes. A team of just those two could be pretty good on a sufficiently hard course, provided some other teams are interested in controlling the break.

On the Tour, NetApp seem to be planning to back Konig hard, injuries permitting. That could mean leaving Bennett at home rather than taking up a spot for him and another for a lead out/ minder. And it could mean that their other "name", Machado finds himself fully committed to support duties.

That is a bit of a worst case scenario though. Konig has earned a chance to see what he can do, and that means putting him first, but they also have the goal of a stage win. Which should mean a bit of a diversity of tactics, some combination of random riders in every break, Bennett to have a go in the sprints, Machado to go for the break on medium mountain stages etc. They do want to be invited back after all!

Even working for Konig may involve going in breaks, so that he can try to jump across. A lot depends on the form of their third and fourth best climbers. The more of them who are capable of offering lateish support to Konig, the more flexibility they have tactically.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

German National Champ's U23

This year held as the traditional GDR one-day classic Cottbus-Görlitz-Cottbus. Being panflat it's no surprise a mass sprint took place. Top favorite team Stölting managed a 1-2 win with Max Walscheid being the new champion and Phil Bauhaus taking 2nd place.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Irish TT and RR men's start lists available:

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-...ome-really-big-names-set-for-quality-contest/

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-...s-road-race-champs-heres-the-full-start-list/

In the TT, the most notable oddity is that Dan Martin is riding, presumably just to get an extra day's racing in his legs. The race should be about youth (19 year old talent Ronan Mullen) against age (defending champion Michael Hutchinson), with Matt Brammeier and Martyn Irvine as outside chances.

In the RR, pretty much everyone will be there bar Roche who has withdrawn to concentrate on Tour prep. Dan Martin, Phil Deignan, Sam Bennett, Martyn Irvine and Stephen Clancy, the remaining WT or PC riders, will all be flying solo with no team mates. An Post have sent a team of four, Madison Genesis a team of two, there's Felix English from Rapha Condor and Matt Brammeier of Synergy Baku for once has an actual team (of three) as he tries to win his fifth national RR in a row. The amateur squads shouldn't really be able to compete, but there are a couple of strong six man teams there and with drastic dearth of domestiques at the top end of the field, you never know.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Going to expand Europe a bit, just like the good old days.

National Championships Kazakhstan - ITT (NC) result:

1 FOMINYKH Daniil Astana Pro Team-
2 OKISHEV Viktor Continental Team Astana,,
3 RIVE Dmitriy Continental Team Astana,,

 

[el_angliru]

Danish start list is available as a xls file. Tinkoff-Saxo with 7 riders (Breschel, CAS, Mørkøv, Nicki, Valgren, Christopher JJ, Jesper Hansen). Other riders from Pro Tour teams are: Lasse Norman (Garmin), Sebastian Lander (BMC). But the riders from the Continental teams will usually do very well at the Nationals, and they will definetely play a big role (like Magnus Cort, Guldhammer etc.). Notable PT-riders missing are Fuglsang, Bak, Alex Rasmussen (the latter will ride TT though).

I suppose there will be streaming again this year. Pretty tough course for a Danish race (profile posted on page 1 in the thread). And I guess there's not much chance that we will see the Danish jersey in this year's tour! I guess Breschel or Mørkøv needs to win the title then, but neither of the two are a sure bet for the TS tour-team.

 

[RedheadDane]

I would not be surprised at all if Cort takes it.

Notable PT-riders missing are Fuglsang, Bak, Alex Rasmussen (the latter will ride TT though).

Uhm... Alex isn't a WT (or PT, you mean 'Pro-Tour', right?) rider. At least I don't think Riwal suddenly got WT status overnight.

 

[el_angliru]

I would not be surprised at all if Cort takes it.



Uhm... Alex isn't a WT (or PT, you mean 'Pro-Tour', right?) rider. At least I don't think Riwal suddenly got WT status overnight.

Haha, silly me
I wouldn't be surprised either if Cort wins. He seems to be winning all sort of races. The question mark seems to be the hill. Cort wasn't really competetive among the very best (like Breschel) at the Kiddesvej stage last year. But "Golfbakken" isn't quite as hard as Kiddesvej, and it's in the middle of the course, so he could be there at the finish even if he's dropped on the hill. I'm looking forward to the live-stream

 

[screaming fist]

As expected Cancellara wins the Swiss TT championship.

1. Fabian Cancellara
2. Stefan Küng
3. Silvan Dillier

 

[JosephD]

Kwiatkowski takes the Polish TT

1 KWIATKOWSKI Michal Omega Pharma - Quick-Step 48:33
2 BODNAR Maciej Cannondale 0:27
3 TACIAK Mateusz CCC Polsat Polkowice 2:01

 

[Wallenquist]

Dutch TT after 23,7km (from 47,8):

1. Tom Dumoulin 28.02
2. Sebastiaan Langeveld +19
3. Jos van Emden +23
4. Niki Terpstra +27
5. Stef Clement +42

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Yeah Dumoulin is winning this no doubt

 

[Parrulo]

Martin to surprise the world with his new dutch nationality and beat Dumoulin in the itt!!!