2015 Tour de France: Stage 1, Utrecht-Utrecht

[BlackWhiteEagle]

Nibali will lose that advantage on Huy and win it back on cobbles. Froome (or Alberto) for the win overall.

 

[DenisMenchov]

Re:

Nibali 0:00
Froome +7 secs
Contador +15 secs
Quintana +18 secs

Thanks man

 

[auscyclefan94]

Will be nice to see where Dennis goes in future years at GC

 

[46&twoWheels]

Re: Re:

Cobbles? TTT?

also: attacks out of nothing,finisseur attacks,descent

lots of opportunities

 

[Pantani_lives]

Re: Re:

Impressive. Nibali, who most here rated as an inferior TTer compared to Contador and Froome beats them under the same conditions. He continues to surprise.

...Yep.

Happy for Pinot. The wind must have changed toward the end. Good day all around. I wouldn't mind seeing Froome, Quintana, and Contador with 1:30 or 2:00 to make up on Nibali in the mountains. Would make for spectacular racing.

How in the name of God will Nibali put nearly 2 minutes into them before the mountains?

The way he did it last year?

By them crashing out

He was two minutes ahead before they crashed out.

 

[franic]

Re:

For all people who came to the Forum late, the wind did not change direction, it just picked up a bit more.

I called it many time many pages ago.

Thanks!!!!!!!!

It was a back and forth course, so it’s obvious direction doesn’t matter.

 

[huge]

Re: Re:

If cobbles are ridden in dry weather, as it looks very likely, it's gonna be a total different story than last year.

Dry cobbles require a lot of raw power

Definitely true. But riding skills play a slightly smaller role than on the wet.
That was what made the difference last year... meaning it is difficult to make any prediction for this year based on last year performances

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

I will bet my ballsack kelderman won't top ten here. still hilarious though how you overrate the dutch :tranen:

hahahahahaha

Can we now please get a video of Ryo where he smashes his ballsack with a hammer. Not that I will watch...

I kind of miss this one

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

Updated.

Riders who Rohan Dennis has finished 2nd to in TT's/prologues (since he turned pro);

Brändle
Porte
Dowsett
Wiggins
Kwiatkowski
Dumoulin
Sagan
Martin
Durbridge



Riders who have finished 2nd to Rohan Dennis in TT's/prologues (since he turned pro);

Martin

I'll probably stop posting this now.

 

[rhubroma]

Re: Re:

I seriously doubt Nibali will be in front of Contador on the Mur…Contador has much more power. Last year, when Contador was inferior, he was able to put 2/3” in front of Nibali on the first hill

But that was last year. He looked like he could never find his rhythm out there and, as I said, isn't lean enough. His face looks more like 2013 than 2014. Call me skeptical, but until I see it I don't think Contador will finish ahead of Nibali, Froome and Valverde on the Mur.

 

[Kwibus]

Re:

Will be nice to see where Dennis goes in future years at GC

He's no GT rider. Weeklong stage races with not too much mountains, but with some TT certainly in his grasp.

 

[AICA ribonucleotide]

Really bad TTs from Kwiatkowski(1'06) and Talansky(1'15). You would expect better from both of them in a TT.

 

[BlurryVII]

Re: Re:

I seriously doubt Nibali will be in front of Contador on the Mur…Contador has much more power. Last year, when Contador was inferior, he was able to put 2/3” in front of Nibali on the first hill

You're going at it again? When was Contador inferior?

 

[Netserk]

Re: Re:

For all people who came to the Forum late, the wind did not change direction, it just picked up a bit more.

I called it many time many pages ago.

Thanks!!!!!!!!

It was a back and forth course, so it’s obvious direction doesn’t matter.

But when it picks up, it is OBVIOUS that it's a disadvantage.

 

[mr. tibbs]

Hell of a ride by Dennis. Great to see the first yellow jersey awarded.

Hinault's looking hale and hearty, and Lemond's looking... well... hearty.

Happy July, guys.

 

[Rollthedice]

Re: Re:

By them crashing out [/quote]

He was two minutes ahead before they crashed out.[/quote]

2 minutes 33 seconds to be more precise.

 

[The Hitch]

Re: Re:

Impressive. Nibali, who most here rated as an inferior TTer compared to Contador and Froome beats them under the same conditions. He continues to surprise.

...Yep.

Happy for Pinot. The wind must have changed toward the end. Good day all around. I wouldn't mind seeing Froome, Quintana, and Contador with 1:30 or 2:00 to make up on Nibali in the mountains. Would make for spectacular racing.

How in the name of God will Nibali put nearly 2 minutes into them before the mountains?

Cobbles? TTT?

Can't see Astana making up big ground here. TCS, SKY and MOV are all very good in that discipline

Doesn't matter if you are good. Matters how many people you have left.

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

For all people who came to the Forum late, the wind did not change direction, it just picked up a bit more.

I called it many time many pages ago.

Thanks!!!!!!!!

It was a back and forth course, so it’s obvious direction doesn’t matter.

That's being said quite often, but reality is that headwind simply hurts more then the tailwind helps you.

Every Tt where this happens the riders with more wind lose more time.

 

[DenisMenchov]

Nice
GESINK Robert + 00' 33'
MOLLEMA Bauke + 00' 37''
PINOT Thibaut + 00' 41''
All better than the BIG4

 

[huge]

My 2 cents for the Mur

Froome
Nibali
Contador
Quintana

 

[yetanothergreenworld]

Re:

Hinault's looking hale and hearty, and Lemond's looking... well... hearty.

Happy July, guys. [/quote]

Huzzah!

 

[auscyclefan94]

Re: Re:

Will be nice to see where Dennis goes in future years at GC

He's no GT rider. Weeklong stage races with not too much mountains, but with some TT certainly in his grasp.

Yeah, I think he'll have to lose some weight if he is ever going to be truly be competitive in the mountains. Physiologically he is super, I think he even broke some of Evans' records at the AIS which have stood for decades.

 

[Kwibus]

Re:

Nice
GESINK Robert + 00' 33'
MOLLEMA Bauke + 00' 37''
PINOT Thibaut + 00' 41''
All better than the BIG4

Gesink will be dropped like a stone when they reach the first mountain though.

 

[cellardoor]

Ok...all the GC contenders clustered around very similar times and fairly off the pace. I admit I called it wrong as thought Froome, Contador and Nibali would top ten. But it seems it was a real power course and just not suitable for the light climbers. The form-book has been torn up as far as the GC guys are concerned with Uran and Purito being perhaps the only notable exceptions. What this tells me is that the short nature of the course combined with the extreme heat made it a bit of a cra@p-shoot between the GC guys.

 

[DenisMenchov]

Re: Re:

Nice
GESINK Robert + 00' 33'
MOLLEMA Bauke + 00' 37''
PINOT Thibaut + 00' 41''
All better than the BIG4

Gesink will be dropped like a stone when they reach the first mountain though.

He and JVDB are the biggest underachievers in the mountains the past couple of seasons. But one can hope they find the climbing form again.