2015 Paris-Nice, Stage 6: Vence - Nice 184 km

[jaylew]

Re:

Yeah, Porte only put 23 seconds into Talansky two years ago and he seemed exhausted in the end.

TVG shows what he's made of...wonder what he'll be whining about this time!

The cold, apparently:

I got really cold and I was just shivering,” van Garderen said. “I just felt completely blocked. I tried to stay calm and tried to kind of regroup myself in hopes I would come around on the final climb. But once we started it, my legs were not really working.

“It is a huge disappointment because I came in with high hopes. I had good form. I showed that form a couple days ago. To have a day like today, it was one of those typical bad days that you hope that you don't have. Unfortunately, I had one today. All we can do is try to learn from it and move forward. I feel bad for the team because they've worked hard for me all week and we've done a perfect job."

In fairness, I have similar issues in cold races - my legs just get blocked. And there were a bunch of guys who finished well off the pace today that normally shouldn't have.

 

[ciranda]

Re:

What an EPIC stage this was. Thanks to Etixx, Kwia and Gallopin (and Porte/Thomas )

Now off to Tirreno.

And Fuglsang/Costa! I think they animated the race far more than the SKY duo, unless you consider crashing to be part of animating a race

Fuglsang pulled briefly: I don't believe Costa rode at the front much at all, and if he did it was only to fail to get closer to Gallopin. Thomas drove the chase on Kwiatkowski, and was still able to leave him behind, while Porte made the break of that briefly re-united group on the last climb to form a selection that would surely have caught Gallopin and left Kwiatkowski some distance back. Mistakes/misfortune later on does not mean that they did nothing to animate the race: far more than participants in a failed chase which is all Costa and Fuglsang were.

When British cyclists take leads in a group they animate the race, when cyclists from other nations take leads in a group it's a failed chase. Okay got it.

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

In fairness, I have similar issues in cold races - my legs just get blocked. And there were a bunch of guys who finished well off the pace today that normally shouldn't have.

Yeah, multiple riders said they suffered from the cold.

 

[JRanton]

Honestly, I think Thomas might be Gallopin's biggest threat. I don't rate Porte's recovery after a very hard day. Same with Kwiatko.

 

[Inquitus]

Some wild differences in odds at various bookies, best available

Porte 8/11
Gallopin 9/4
Thomas 11/1
Kwiat 14/1

 

[JRanton]

Gallopin can win this ,he's a fighter as shown last year in TDF.Porte crash was kinda hard i don't expect much for him tomorrow.

Personaly i thought the crash was a fairly soft one. A slider, road rash but nothing more.

Porte's the favourite for tomorrow as there didn't look to be any road rash. The gap between Gallopin and Porte last time was such that Tony may slide off the podium.

I wouldn't pay any attention to the 2013 results if I was you. Gallopin had nothing to ride for and his form was nowhere near as good as it is right now. Also note that Gallopin finished 2nd in a TT earlier this season. It will be very hard to take that time back on him but if he has heavy legs from today's stage then anything can happen.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Re: Re:

Fuglsang pulled briefly: I don't believe Costa rode at the front much at all, and if he did it was only to fail to get closer to Gallopin. Thomas drove the chase on Kwiatkowski, and was still able to leave him behind, while Porte made the break of that briefly re-united group on the last climb to form a selection that would surely have caught Gallopin and left Kwiatkowski some distance back. Mistakes/misfortune later on does not mean that they did nothing to animate the race: far more than participants in a failed chase which is all Costa and Fuglsang were.

When British cyclists take leads in a group they animate the race, when cyclists from other nations take leads in a group it's a failed chase. Okay got it.

Richie Porte will be intrigued to read that he is British, and if you are accusing me of pro-British bias you evidently know nothing about me.

But if you believe that Costa and Fuglsang did more to animate this race than Porte and Thomas, present your reasons. The person who originally made the assertion didn't: maybe you will.

 

[trevim]

How do you guys rate Thomas as a descender and bike handler?
Yesterday I was watching the stage to Luz Ardiden in the Tour 2011 and how he almost crashed like 2 times on the descent of the Tourmalet...he seems to have lots of crashes and "bad luck".

 

[Mr.White]

Honestly, I think Thomas might be Gallopin's biggest threat. I don't rate Porte's recovery after a very hard day. Same with Kwiatko.

Yep, all-mighty Geraint Thomas. He seems to win everything these days. He was a big engine once, who knows how to ride on cobbles, and was decent on hills and shorter climbs. But now...! He's freaking new Eddy Merckx. Sky Magic

 

[Rolling Rouleur]

Really impressive ride of Gallopin, i hope he can recover from his effort.

 

[neineinei]

Re: Re:

Spilak thought Gallopin wasn't ahead. He thought he had won the stage when he won the sprint for 2nd.

edit: It certainly seemed like that.

Confirmed on Katushas website

http://www.katushateam.com/news/press/paris-nice-simon-pilak-sprints-for-second-place-on-podium

 

[ciranda]

Re: Re:

Fuglsang pulled briefly: I don't believe Costa rode at the front much at all, and if he did it was only to fail to get closer to Gallopin. Thomas drove the chase on Kwiatkowski, and was still able to leave him behind, while Porte made the break of that briefly re-united group on the last climb to form a selection that would surely have caught Gallopin and left Kwiatkowski some distance back. Mistakes/misfortune later on does not mean that they did nothing to animate the race: far more than participants in a failed chase which is all Costa and Fuglsang were.

When British cyclists take leads in a group they animate the race, when cyclists from other nations take leads in a group it's a failed chase. Okay got it.

Richie Porte will be intrigued to read that he is British, and if you are accusing me of pro-British bias you evidently know nothing about me.

But if you believe that Costa and Fuglsang did more to animate this race than Porte and Thomas, present your reasons. The person who originally made the assertion didn't: maybe you will.

The race was decided on the the downhill from the second last mountain when Kwiatkowski + his team mates and Gallopin got an advantage. Sky/Thomas/Porte had defended their advantage riding tempo until then. Gallopin and Kwiatkowski reached the group ahead, Gallopin attacked and stayed away while Thomas/Porte still defended. Fuglsang attacked one time but is not explosive and helped a little in the chase. On the way down Thomas + Porte crashed and Valls, Fuglsang, Spilak, Costa worked together to try to get back to Gallopin.

All of these were caught out by Kwiatkowskis attack downhill and were forced to defend from then on. Fuglsang and Costa did better in the end than Thomas/Porte because they could stay on their bikes but it's not like any of these riders animated the race. For Costa and Fuglsang and Spilak are usually not afraid to attack, while Thomas and Porte are monster time triallists and so always seem to ride conservatively.

 

[phil-i-am]

Re: Re:

while Thomas and Porte are monster time triallists and so always seem to ride conservatively.

I'm definitely not a Sky fan, but still, that's just not true. Porte attacked yesterday and both of them attacked on Chaubouret. Algarve this year? Thomas won a stage solo and Porte was first on Malhao after working hard for Geraint. Even being strong time-trialists they're not that kind of riders you claim they are.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

Fuglsang pulled briefly: I don't believe Costa rode at the front much at all, and if he did it was only to fail to get closer to Gallopin. Thomas drove the chase on Kwiatkowski, and was still able to leave him behind, while Porte made the break of that briefly re-united group on the last climb to form a selection that would surely have caught Gallopin and left Kwiatkowski some distance back. Mistakes/misfortune later on does not mean that they did nothing to animate the race: far more than participants in a failed chase which is all Costa and Fuglsang were.

When British cyclists take leads in a group they animate the race, when cyclists from other nations take leads in a group it's a failed chase. Okay got it.

Richie Porte will be intrigued to read that he is British, and if you are accusing me of pro-British bias you evidently know nothing about me.

But if you believe that Costa and Fuglsang did more to animate this race than Porte and Thomas, present your reasons. The person who originally made the assertion didn't: maybe you will.

The race was decided on the the downhill from the second last mountain when Kwiatkowski + his team mates and Gallopin got an advantage. Sky/Thomas/Porte had defended their advantage riding tempo until then. Gallopin and Kwiatkowski reached the group ahead, Gallopin attacked and stayed away while Thomas/Porte still defended. Fuglsang attacked one time but is not explosive and helped a little in the chase. On the way down Thomas + Porte crashed and Valls, Fuglsang, Spilak, Costa worked together to try to get back to Gallopin.

All of these were caught out by Kwiatkowskis attack downhill and were forced to defend from then on. Fuglsang and Costa did better in the end than Thomas/Porte because they could stay on their bikes but it's not like any of these riders animated the race. For Costa and Fuglsang and Spilak are usually not afraid to attack, while Thomas and Porte are monster time triallists and so always seem to ride conservatively.

Forgot about that. Forgot that Porte didn't instigate the move on the last climb with an attack when he and Thomas could easily just have pulled to bring back Gallopin knowing that Porte (and possibly Thomas too) could more than easily gain the 1 second on Kwiatkowski today in the TT to win the yellow jersey

 

[ciranda]

Sorry, I don't understand your point here.

 

[wwabbit]

Re: Re:

Gallopin may take yellow but he will fall off the podium with the MTT tomorrow

No, he won't.

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