2014 Tour of Qatar, 9th - 14th February (2.HC)

[Dazed and Confused]

GC after the TT:

1 (1) TERPSTRA Niki [www.procyclingstats.com] Omega Pharma - Quick-Step 10 6:57:06
2 (2) ROELANDTS Jurgen Lotto Belisol 0:21
3 (9) BOOM Lars Belkin-Pro Cycling Team 0:24
4 (3) BOONEN Tom Omega Pharma - Quick-Step 0:28
5 (7) STANNARD Ian [www.procyclingstats.com] Team Sky 0:35
6 (12) VAN KEIRSBULCK Guillaume Omega Pharma - Quick-Step 0:45
7 (4) MøRKøV Michael Tinkoff-Saxo 0:49
8 (5) SIEBERG Marcel Lotto Belisol ,,
9 (13) VANDENBERGH Stijn Omega Pharma - Quick-Step 0:58
10 (6) FENN Andrew [www.procyclingstats.com] Omega Pharma - Quick-Step 1:06

5 Steppers flooding the top.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

You seriously think you only have to push at the top of an echelon? The hardest part is of course at the back.
There's no hiding in those.

exactly thats'why you need to place well. once outside the echelon line you will drop, wether you are quintana or cancellara

 

[Der Effe]

cancellara wasn't placed proper;y clearly or he would've been with the group. you only relay for 1 or 2 seconds. you don't need to be some kind of monster to do that because no rider in the world can ride etxreme speeds in wind for longer period of time. they would all blow. any reasonable pro can however keep the speed steady and hold that speed for 2 seconds before falling back into the echelon. echelons is all about placing and experience

Exactly, it's not for no reason the GC top-5 is Dutch-Belgian at the moment. The masters of the echelons

 

[Kwibus]

echelons is all about placing and experience

Most of all yes. ofcourse it helps when you are a strong powerful rider.

 

[karlboss]

He was the fastest in the 2nd half. Either he had better wind or he simply hold something back for the last part. Nice win for him anyway, let's see how he does now that he's focusing on the road.

Maybe a little of both.

 

[manafana]

gilbert or bennati dark horses for me to go well tomorrow but bonnen will of course be up for the sprint again.

 

[42x16ss]

the whole itt was one way right? also how come almost no early starters or none in fact are in top ten?

Hepburn was one of the very first to start and spent over an hour in the hotseat. He did puncture twice on the first stage though.

 

[Polyarmour]

Hepburn beat Turbo Durbo in the National ITT a few weeks ago, something that no-one was expecting.. including himself. I watched him race 1.5 weeks ago here locally. Despite being a really windy day, he was in a break of 4 doing 48-51km/h laps. The thing that impressed me the most though was that he looked like he was on a Sunday recovery ride. Anyway even if he has had some minor help from the wind here I believe that ride signals that Hepburn is going to have a very bright future on the road.

 

[jens_attacks]

seems like we can't miss today's stage:

 

[barmaher]

Yes, expect OPQS to race aggressively. Looks like around 80km with a cross wind. Force 4 is enough to do a bit of damage.

 

[Wallenquist]

#TourofQatar After 6km race already split in to 4 groups. Via @katushacycling

Would love to see Qatar live from km 0 one day

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Hepburn beat Turbo Durbo in the National ITT a few weeks ago, something that no-one was expecting.. including himself. I watched him race 1.5 weeks ago here locally. Despite being a really windy day, he was in a break of 4 doing 48-51km/h laps. The thing that impressed me the most though was that he looked like he was on a Sunday recovery ride. Anyway even if he has had some minor help from the wind here I believe that ride signals that Hepburn is going to have a very bright future on the road.

he will have a much better road career than durbridge for sure. hepburn is much more complete and aggressive. I know he won multiple stages in avenir. durbirdge is overrated though and will become just an itt/prologue guy

 

[trevim]

Average for the first hour: 61 km/h !

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Average for the first hour: 61 km/h !

If only "this sort of thing" would be the norm in stage races, we would have very few dull races imo.

 

[jens_attacks]

lol are we gonna catch 5 minutes of coverage or nothing at all?

how many km to go?

 

[the asian]

he will have a much better road career than durbridge for sure. hepburn is much more complete and aggressive. I know he won multiple stages in avenir. durbirdge is overrated though and will become just an itt/prologue guy

Completely agree.

Distance should be the only problem . If he can overcome it, he'll be a top class classics rider.

 

[jens_attacks]

any live broadcast?

only 40 km to go...

 

[trevim]

lol are we gonna catch 5 minutes of coverage or nothing at all?

how many km to go?

40 km to go it seems from this tweet:
CiCLE Classic Col ‏@CiCLEClassic 3 min
OPQP split race again on stage 4 with 70 kph start! 90 riders lead with 40 to go #tourofqatar

 

[trevim]

Gilbert attacks after the feed zone.

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

Usually there aren't any live pics until after 13:30 CET, so we might not see any of this stage.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Gilbert attacks after the feed zone.

Thats more like it.

 

[trevim]

And it's back together as some are dropped by the first group including Demare and Cancellara.

 

[trevim]

1st intermediate sprint: 1. Morkov, 2. Roelandts, 3.Kroon
2nd intermediate sprint: 1.Boonen,OPQS. 2.Terpstra,OPQS. 3.Roelandts,Lotto.

~25km to go

 

[trevim]

Cancellara's group is about 20s back to the front peloton.

 

[The Blues]

Was Cance really dropped from the front group after making the split?