2016, 70th Tour de Romandie, April 26th - May 1st, WT

[johnymax]

Re: Re:

Vuelta a Comunidad de Madrid profiles are worse than the Volta a Portugal ones.

I love the completely random numbers in the scale.

Nice catch...this is brilliant
I wonder what they stand for. Maybe the altitude of the beginning, the finish/last climb, first climb, the lowest point and the penultimate climb. Just a guess

 

[Poursuivant]

Ilnur Zakarin.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

God. They should just start using Cronoescalada and not give a crap.

I don't see why that's necessarily a bad thing. Some of the smaller race organisers are using Cronoescalada. The Emakumeen Bira profiles were made using it, for example. It's not necessarily about not giving a crap, frankly if the best that comes out of them giving a crap is they produce something as bad as those Madrid profiles, or even the Volta ones which are nothing like as bad as that but are still misleading, then Cronoescalada offers an improvement. It's free software, so maybe they could partner with the Cronoescalada guys and build their own profile-creating algorithm so it doesn't just clone the existing features, even if it just means a different colour scheme. After all, the Paris-Nice and Dauphiné profiles are the same as the Tour ones but in a different colour. If more cash-strapped organizers can get something that looks half-decent and is less misleading than some of the stuff we've been given for free, why shouldn't they?

For example inconsistent height scales that make sprint stages look like they're climbing the Manhattan skyline like you see in the Tour of Turkey, or the Giro Rosa profiles that only take the height at the points noted on the profile (towns, climbs etc.) so as to completely flatten out sections between. Or just difficult to read ones like the Volta ones that don't allow you to get a real handle for how steep or difficult climbs are. Sure, larger race organizers like those on the WT should definitely be producing their own graphics, but for small .1 and .2 races Cronoescalada is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, one of the things that we have seen happening for several years is that when terrible route profiles have been released, fans have used sites like the sadly soon-to-be-departed Tracks4Bikers and more recently Cronoescalada to produce more realistic profiles so that we can gauge expectations more accurately.

 

[liamito]

Re:

Ilnur Zakarin.

Going for the win in Romandie AND the Giro most of the times doesn't seem to be a good combination.

 

[Tonton]

Yikes !

BTW the prologue has a hill, but it's not steep. 50 meters...meh. The profile is misleading.

Unlike Algarve and Pais Vasco, this one is a more Pinot-friendly course. Too bad the mountain stage at Tirreno was cancelled, so Tibopino must do well on his second major objective of the season. How good is Froome right now? I don't know: so I'll be bold 1. Pinot, 2. Froome, 3. Quintana. And I hope for the same in July

 

[Valv.Piti]

Dont think Froome will finish in the top-5. While he will be decent, Quintana '15 Romandie me thinks. Super peak for Le Tour inc le Froomedawg

1. TJ
2. Quinco
3. Pinot
4. Izagirre
5. Jungels

 

[Tonton]

Re:

Dont think Froome will finish in the top-5. While he will be decent, Quintana '15 Romandie me thinks. Super peak for Le Tour inc le Froomedawg

1. TJ
2. Quinco
3. Pinot
4. Izagirre
5. Jungels

TJ over Pinot? Are you out of your mind (me pulling my hair)?

 

[Tonton]

Re: Re:

Vuelta a Comunidad de Madrid profiles are worse than the Volta a Portugal ones.

I love the completely random numbers in the scale.

Yes, they should add colors and pictures of babes...groovy baby

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Dont think Froome will finish in the top-5. While he will be decent, Quintana '15 Romandie me thinks. Super peak for Le Tour inc le Froomedawg

1. TJ
2. Quinco
3. Pinot
4. Izagirre
5. Jungels

TJ over Pinot? Are you out of your mind (me pulling my hair)?

Tonton you fool, its not only TJ over Pinot, its TJ over everyone, stop acting like a spoiled Contador-fan
I have no clue to why my top-5 looks like that, Im feeling lucky and stranger things have happened.

 

[ice&fire]

Re: Re:

Vuelta a Comunidad de Madrid profiles are worse than the Volta a Portugal ones.

I love the completely random numbers in the scale.

They're not random at all. 1796m is Morcuera's summit altitude; 1524m is Canencia's summit altitude; 1020m is the approx altitude of both el Atazar and la Trampa summits; 944m is the altitude of the stage departure point at Colmenar Viejo and 722m is the lowest altitude in the stage at the River Jarama before the climb to El Atazar. The non-categorised hill summit at the beginning of the stage (Cerro de San Pedro) is 1050m.

 

[trevim]

Why on earth is Kruijswijk riding 3-days Yorkshire instead of a proper stage race like this one? It's seems like Lotto-Jumbo is making sure he gets to the Giro under raced just to make him lose 10min in the first week yet again.

 

[GP Blanco]

Why on earth is Kruijswijk riding 3-days Yorkshire instead of a proper stage race like this one? It's seems like Lotto-Jumbo is making sure he gets to the Giro under raced just to make him lose 10min in the first week yet again.

Maybe as a preparation for the hilly stages at the Giro.

 

[Wallenquist]

Why on earth is Kruijswijk riding 3-days Yorkshire instead of a proper stage race like this one? It's seems like Lotto-Jumbo is making sure he gets to the Giro under raced just to make him lose 10min in the first week yet again.

Because it worked very well last year. Check his schedule, he's repeating his 2015 spring campaing this year.
Also, he didn't loose time because of bad shape last year, more like a mistake and bad placing in peleton.

 

[dlwssonic]

Watch out for Tom Bohli. He will be a serious threat in both TTs. Especially the prologue. He is one of the favorites or in fact THE favorite IMO. Many people will be surprised by his strength as he makes his first big appearance in a World Tour Time Trial.

And why the hell is Eurosport not showing this but showing the tour of turkey instead....

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Yeah Bohli is definately on my radar, had some really good results earlier this season already.

I think for Dumoulin the prologue is too short.

 

[staubsauger]

Watch out for Tom Bohli. He will be a serious threat in both TTs. Especially the prologue. He is one of the favorites or in fact THE favorite IMO. Many people will be surprised by his strength as he makes his first big appearance in a World Tour Time Trial.

And why the hell is Eurosport not showing this but showing the tour of turkey instead....

Eurosport never strikes any Infront rights since like 15 years. Apart from the TdS at British Eurosport only.

 

[Squire]

Watch out for Tom Bohli. He will be a serious threat in both TTs. Especially the prologue. He is one of the favorites or in fact THE favorite IMO. Many people will be surprised by his strength as he makes his first big appearance in a World Tour Time Trial.

And why the hell is Eurosport not showing this but showing the tour of turkey instead....

Bohli will do well, I agree, but I'd say Jungels for the prologue. Think LLS, Dumoulin and Kwiatkowski will be close too. Looks technical.

The climb makes it too hard for Kittel, who would otherwise be another favourite over this distance.

 

[liamito]

Watch out for Tom Bohli. He will be a serious threat in both TTs. Especially the prologue. He is one of the favorites or in fact THE favorite IMO. Many people will be surprised by his strength as he makes his first big appearance in a World Tour Time Trial.

And why the hell is Eurosport not showing this but showing the tour of turkey instead....

Bohli will do well, I agree, but I'd say Jungels for the prologue. Think LLS, Dumoulin and Kwiatkowski will be close too. Looks technical.

The climb makes it too hard for Kittel, who would otherwise be another favourite over this distance.

Course for tomorrow could still be changed or even cancelled.

 

[search]

"Une annulation n'est pas envisagée, mais un plan B est en cours d'élaboration." is what it says in the aricle, so (so far) there's no risk of a cancellation, just of a route change

 

[yaco]

Why on earth is Kruijswijk riding 3-days Yorkshire instead of a proper stage race like this one? It's seems like Lotto-Jumbo is making sure he gets to the Giro under raced just to make him lose 10min in the first week yet again.

Some riders are doing Romandie or Turkey or Yorkshire and some are nor riding this week. Nothing to see.

 

[yaco]

Watch out for Tom Bohli. He will be a serious threat in both TTs. Especially the prologue. He is one of the favorites or in fact THE favorite IMO. Many people will be surprised by his strength as he makes his first big appearance in a World Tour Time Trial.

And why the hell is Eurosport not showing this but showing the tour of turkey instead....

Interested to see how Hepburn goes - Back on the road before he goes to the Olympics - Think his track time will help him in the prologue - Not so sure about the TT.

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

Dont think Froome will finish in the top-5. While he will be decent, Quintana '15 Romandie me thinks. Super peak for Le Tour inc le Froomedawg

1. TJ
2. Quinco
3. Pinot
4. Izagirre
5. Jungels

No Spilak in the top 5 and Jungels finishing 5th? That's rather bold.

 

[DNP-Old]

Betancur has been on the startlist for Romandia for almost half a decade and now he's been last-minute replaced with Pedrero?

 

[blackmamba]

How is the climbs in this years Romandie? Are they demanding enough for guys like Quintana to drop em all? Contenplaying doing a overall bet.

 

[search]

if the weather stays like this, we can be happy if we don't end up with four stages for Albasini