2014 Tour of California May 11-18

[Jspear]

Cav barely winning sprints against Degenkolb now, he will be dog chow for Kittel in July.

Remember he expended alot of energy in the breakaway. I personally think it was a great stage and win.

 

[SKSemtex]

Good Degengolb, better Cav. Sagan has no chance against these guys.

Probably but we will see different Sagan in 7 weeks. It was his first start after "vacation". It was the same last year.

 

[BigMac]

Cav barely winning sprints against Degenkolb now, he will be dog chow for Kittel in July.

He came from far back though. Giant had a good train. Reminded me of last year's tour.

 

[pastronef]

are UHC and Belkin wearing those different Bell aero helmets, because the ones they wear in Europe are not USA omologated?

 

[Jspear]

very close....

 

[BigMac]

very close....

Nice TV.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Hofland with no support at all btw.

Bos gets all the support he wants in Turkey and does **** all with it. Hofland with no support gets 3rd.
For crying out loud Belkin.

 

[doperhopper]

Sagan gave up seeing Cav powering around, and then that look at Hofland: WTF? U mad bro? Sprinting for 3rd?

 

[kingjr]

He came from far back though. Giant had a good train. Reminded me of last year's tour.

Took them till the last stage though to get it right.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Sagan gave up seeing Cav powering around, and then that look at Hofland: WTF? U mad bro? Sprinting for 3rd?

Even before Sagan gave up he was already sprinting way slower than Hofland. You could see it from the helicopter view easily. Hofland had 2nd best speed in that sprint. But had to come from way too far. And he isn't exactly Kittel. Hofland is more suited for slightly uphill sprints

Im worried about Sagan though. He looks like he lost all his speed for flat sprints. It's just positioning now.

 

[trevim]

Cav barely winning sprints against Degenkolb now, he will be dog chow for Kittel in July.

Cav was taking pulls in the break and Degenkolb is faster than 80% of the so called pure sprinters.

 

[classicomano]

Hofland with no support at all btw.

Bos gets all the support he wants in Turkey and does **** all with it. Hofland with no support gets 3rd.
For crying out loud Belkin.

Yes I said it before, just get rid of Bos after this season, hes over 30 now and already on the decline. Hes holding up the real talent.

 

[b3n3v3nt3]

If that young dude Hofland had more help, he could very well be a threat to Cav and Degen...

 

[Beech Mtn]

Not a single fast food franshise spoted yet in Sacramento.

#mythbusted

They rode past a Burger King

 

[johnymax]

Degenkolb in the last 30m was probably thinking: "We are winning too much lately. Gotta leave inferior teams something to cheer on, too...Oh, there's Cav. Thank God..."

 

[The Hitch]

Probably but we will see different Sagan in 7 weeks. It was his first start after "vacation". It was the same last year.

Sagan hasn't been himself at all this year.

At this rate he might even win less than 50% of stages at TDS

Or to be more dramatic
\jensattacksmode

Sagan is the new popovych /jensattacksmode.

 

[SKSemtex]

Sagan hasn't been himself at all this year.

At this rate he might even win less than 50% of stages at TDS

Or to be more dramatic
\jensattacksmode

Sagan is the new popovych /jensattacksmode.

I personaly do not care too much about his mass sprint ability. I just hope he can keep enough speed to win the sprint in reduced group.

I am more interested in how he end up in the stage 5 or even tommorow TT.

 

[Fight.The.Power]

Even though Cav won tonight, it was certainly not a breeze as we have seen Kittel winning in the Giro.

Although I hate saying thus I am fearful Cav might get his *** whipped at this years Tdf

 

[doperhopper]

Im worried about Sagan though. He looks like he lost all his speed for flat sprints. It's just positioning now.

well, his "decline" as a sprinter is probably inevitable as he was never what's called a "pure sprinter", and most of his wins were not clean one to one flat out against the fastest guys - as we all know, he's rather winning thanks to many different factors, smart tactics/positioning, technical finishes, uphill, weaker/weakened opposition, earlier difficulties in the race killing top gun sprinters, etc.

Anyway, maybe even bigger problem of S. is how to stay "sprint fit" in the long classics despite of being one of the "watched" riders, and moreover, there's always someone fast in the last select group (Degenkolb, Kristoff, etc).

 

[SKSemtex]

One thing is sure. Unless he show something special in TDS and Tour his price on the market might fall quite considerably.

 

[djlovesyou]

Anyway, maybe even bigger problem of S. is how to stay "sprint fit" in the long classics despite of being one of the "watched" riders, and moreover, there's always someone fast in the last select group (Degenkolb, Kristoff, etc).

Depending on the size of the group, Sagan is always capable of attacking early and winning alone though. Guys like Degenkolb and Kristoff can't do that so well.

 

[greenedge]

Sagan will prove everyone wrong and win the WC!!!

On topic i think Dennis could go well tmrw- but he probably can't win against Wiggins/ Phinney.

 

[Jancouver]

Pretty good stage IMO. On a paper this supposed to be a boring stage but it turned out to be pretty exciting to watch.

Cav deserved to win after doing some hard work in the break. Boonen and Phinney looked strong. Not sure if Phinney burned too many matches before tomorrows ITT.

Sagan looks like he lost his confidence and I hope new team next year will change that.

The live tracker/video should be mandatory for all (at least) WT races!

 

[Pippo_San]

Maybe it's because of the new training ways implemented by Weber that Sagan isn't like The Hulk of last year.
Still a monster tho, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

 

[red_flanders]

Really enjoyed watching that. Beautiful time of year here, and always love echelons, best most exciting racing there is sometimes.

Good for Omega and Sky, they were ripping today. Fun to watch.