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2015 Tour Down Under, Jan 18-25 (2.uwt)

Page 27 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Dazed and Confused said:
Organizer could split the Sunday into a short ITT and a crit in the afternoon for the local fans.

In any the race is pretty entertaining as it is and offers good variation, even if I like the corkscrew stage better than its replacement this year.

Loved Astana's action today. MOre of that moving forward please.

Also I think Porte will bring his A game to the Giro this year.

Yeah I hope Porte is over his health problems. He says he has been training well. Does not matter if he does not win the Giro but it will add some interest as many of the best GT riders will probably ride the Tour except for Contador maybe Uran and Aru.
 
Apr 2, 2014
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Dazed and Confused said:
lol, thats a nicely designed "flat" stage.
Surely you can see the difference.

well it was enough for some riders to complain about the level of danger it presented for an early season race

also it allowed Bobridge to slip away and win the stage ahead of sprint trains and sprinters, because he knew the road
 
Mar 14, 2009
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Jspear said:
Ah mate it was a thriller!! Did you watch it...climbing that mountain twice in a row. :eek:

In all seriousness I was impressed by Dennis...very happy he kept the overall. Would have been sad to see Porte take it.

I saw it, but I must have missed the part when they were climbing that "mountain" :D

Any way you slice it, Wilunga bump or TDU is not a real WT event.

At least Cuddles didn't make a fool out of himself and showed some class even though he was competing just against few good Aussies.

It always nice to see a rider quit while still on top and leave like a champion .... unlike those like Horner. :confused:

Kudos to Cadel! :cool:
 
Lupi33 said:
well it was enough for some riders to complain about the level of danger it presented for an early season race

also it allowed Bobridge to slip away and win the stage ahead of sprint trains and sprinters, because he knew the road

The biggest and most dangerous crash came on a non technical bunch sprint type run in this year's race.

Crashes happens everywhere during a bike race, descending isn't particularly dangerous as riders will adjust to the course.

If we asked the riders to design "safe" stages we will end up moving the entire business to the track and even there we have dangerous situations and crashes.

Anyway I liked the current version of the stage as well, but the Corkscrew variant will always provide true gaps in the GC.
 
movingtarget said:
Yeah I hope Porte is over his health problems. He says he has been training well. Does not matter if he does not win the Giro but it will add some interest as many of the best GT riders will probably ride the Tour except for Contador maybe Uran and Aru.

Yep, he will add spice. Before driving the hype train hard, I like to see a top performance in TA or PN.
 
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Dazed and Confused said:
The biggest and most dangerous crash came on a non technical bunch sprint type run in this year's race.

Crashes happens everywhere during a bike race, descending isn't particularly dangerous as riders will adjust to the course.

If we asked the riders to design "safe" stages we will end up moving the entire business to the track and even there we have dangerous situations and crashes.

Anyway I liked the current version of the stage as well, but the Corkscrew variant will always provide true gaps in the GC.


I dont know about that. Bunch sprint crashes the riders hit each other and tarmac but not head on

descent crashes you can hit a rock face or go down an embankment - which is more dangerous as WW found out.
 
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Ryo Hazuki said:
are there any intermediate sprints for bonus seconds today?

I think so, At least thats what they also asked Porte about in the interview after the race. He was like "Yeah technically I could but you know ..."
 
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Dekker_Tifosi said:
Funny both Kwiatkowski and Ruben Fernandez were not that brilliant at Caja Rujal. But a blast at WT teams.

Is Caja Rujal that bad?

He won L'Avenir with a big win on Col de la Madeleine and he was already riding for Caja Rural that year. Besides that he doesn't have many interesting U23 results, even rode on the track in Spain.

His program last year was a bit strange, I think. Did a good Volta ao Algarve, but then rode a lot of belgian/dutch classics. Also did a good Volta with top tens in Mondim de Basto and Santo Tirso, but had a jour sans at the Torre stage. So he seems a bit unconstant.
 
Dekker_Tifosi said:
Funny both Kwiatkowski and Ruben Fernandez were not that brilliant at Caja Rujal. But a blast at WT teams.

Is Caja Rujal that bad?

JRanton said:
Probably. Their budget is tiny I'd imagine so they can't provide much support for the riders beyond paying their wages.

When Kwiat was at Caja Rural it was only Continental level and was almost a feeder for Abarcá. That was part of the reason he was there. The story went that Unzué had everything in place to get him, but that was the year Caisse were pulling out and they couldn't offer him guarantees as they were still negotiating with Telefonica, and so when he was given a better offer, off he went, and never looked back. He was also 19 at Caja Rural, though he was in the breakaway a lot in Spanish small stage races that year, I especially remember the queen stage of Castilla y León.

The ProContinental Caja Rural is a low budget operation alright, and rider development, while not necessarily poor for a ProContinental team that doesn't see itself as a development team, and especially with the paucity of race days that the current Spanish calendar allows for, will certainly not be anything special. Fernández was pretty good in the first half of the Volta a Portugal last year, though he and the whole Caja Rural team imploded and cracked like an egg before Torre. I don't think he's a can't-miss talent, and this is an early season opportunity to get noticed, so to speak. Remember Unzué likes to bring people through slowly, too.
 
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Wallenquist said:
True but Dumoulin can go for it to gain podium place in overall.

I dont think that will happen. It is unwritten rule to take this stage easy. It is parade ride with a sprint at the end ... :cool:

We all know what will happen ... Bunch of Aussies in the break and sprint finish :cool:
 
Dekker_Tifosi said:
Funny both Kwiatkowski and Ruben Fernandez were not that brilliant at Caja Rujal. But a blast at WT teams.

Is Caja Rujal that bad?

Kwiatkowski was 19/20 and did ok given he was just a rouleur, his results under Bruyneel weren't really a huge leap. Being able to pick races that suit strengths and have a consistent calendar probably helps plus the money buying a bit more professionalism.
 
Dazed and Confused said:
Organizer could split the Sunday into a short ITT and a crit in the afternoon for the local fans.

Don't think the split is allowed in WT? Either way the race being bookended by city crits has always been an issue. Problem is they want the event to have a day in Adelaide on the two weekends so the race proper would have to be eight stages with the only alternative an ITT epilogue but Turtur's objections to that are well documented. The event is run by bureaucrats so the sporting aspects will always be a secondary consideration.
 
Can't see Kittel losing today. But as ever there are unforeseeable variables such as potential punctures or pile-ups.

Will Giant let the other teams do all the work until the final 2 kms and will the other teams happily do it for them as usual. I think yes.
 
Mar 13, 2009
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He's in Australia working on an Australian network.
The network will want Aussie chatter so all the Aussie's watching (those that don't normally watch cycling) will keep viewing.

I'm guessing when in other countries their local riders get talked up as well.
 

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