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2016 Giro d'Italia : STAGE 3: Nijmegen – Arnhem 190 km

Page 7 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
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Irondan said:
I'd say Patrick Lefevere's pretty satisfied with trading in Cav for Kittel, or trading up as it seems..
Yep, I remember it was seen as kind of a gamble at the time, but looks amazing business now. He could rack up something absurd like 10 Gt stages and even challenge for the WC if he can maintain this kind of form. So far ahead of the rest at the moment.
 
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HelloDolly said:
I haven't a clue what JA Fletcha is saying most of he time..and he talks too much and doesn't let the riders talk (though nice guy)

Both Flecha and Laura Meseguer (her especially she can't ask fluid questions, just broken sentences) are bit perplexing for Eurosport, sure get them on Spanish ES, but International? Odd choices.
 
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Ramon Koran said:
Irondan said:
I'd say Patrick Lefevere's pretty satisfied with trading in Cav for Kittel, or trading up as it seems..
Of course kittel is slightly better than cav on pan flat stages like this. But on the tour most of the stages have hills and in those cases he can't compete against cav, kristoff...
That's funny, he seemed to compete much better than Cav the great in the previous Tours that they were head to head, unless I'm missing something? :rolleyes:
 
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Ramon Koran said:
Irondan said:
I'd say Patrick Lefevere's pretty satisfied with trading in Cav for Kittel, or trading up as it seems..
Of course kittel is slightly better than cav on pan flat stages like this. But on the tour most of the stages have hills and in those cases he can't compete against cav, kristoff...
He can. It's a myth that Kittel can't do hills. When he's on form he can get over the same kind of bumps that Cavendish can. Look at his wins in Corsica, Yorkshire or even in Romandie last week.
 
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Re:

Bye Bye Bicycle said:
All the hate on Kittel... :eek: he's just simply the best sprinter by far at the moment. His sprints are demonstrations of effortlessness, a holy mass of raw sprinting power. So impressive.


He's not an anglophone you know
 
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Bye Bye Bicycle said:
All the hate on Kittel... :eek: he's just simply the best sprinter by far at the moment. His sprints are demonstrations of effortlessness, a holy mass of raw sprinting power. So impressive.

That's precisely why I dislike him. He can just sit in the peloton in every race with a flat second half and do nothing because he knows he's the strongest every day, any day of the week, because he has the largest tighs. There's nothing that can motivate him to be less of a one-dimentional rider and as such nothing that can motivate me to like him.
 
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dirkprovin said:
HelloDolly said:
Wonder can Caleb Ewan take it

Until he ever learns to keep his man's wheel, he is going to get washed away in sprints against the big boys. As for this Giro, they may as well send him home now as its pointless wasting resources on him. The next flat stage isnt until stage 12 and he'll most likely have been HD'd by then.

Still, this Giro will be an educational experience for him ....... and for OGE management when it comes contract time at the end of the year.
You are a bit harsh. This guy is only 21, and has hardly any experience in gt's. Yeah he really messed up his position in the last kilometer but thats the only way he can learn to do it better. And saying Orica should just abandon him is even more nonsensical. He and Gaviria are probably the most talented young sprinters right now and it would be stupid to let him go to another team.
And generally he didnt really get that much support today and yesterday. Considering that Orica doesnt really have a man for the gc one would expect them to put more effort into support their sprinter especially because right now Ewan really is a sprinter who needs his team to get a good position, but if he has nobody left at 1 km to go it's just extremely difficult for him.
 
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BigMac said:
Bye Bye Bicycle said:
All the hate on Kittel... :eek: he's just simply the best sprinter by far at the moment. His sprints are demonstrations of effortlessness, a holy mass of raw sprinting power. So impressive.

That's precisely why I dislike him. He can just sit in the peloton in every race with a flat second half and do nothing because he knows he's the strongest every day, any day of the week, because he has the largest tighs. There's nothing that can motivate him to be less of a one-dimentional rider and as such nothing that can motivate me to like him.
But there are loads of sprinters who are as one dimensional, if not more so, than Kittel. They're also nowhere near as good. Why hate on the guy who is one of the all time sprinting greats, for winning sprints? At least he does it in a pretty incredible and spectacular style.

What exactly have Nizzolo, Modolo, Greipel, Hofland, Viviani Demare etc.. contributed to the race? Surely it's up to those guys to try something different, not up to the bloke who has won two stages and is in the race lead.
 
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DFA123 said:
PremierAndrew said:
Hugo Koblet said:
Kittel showing once again that no one is even close to his level.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIfw0sE_EwE
Indeed, even when Kittel is not on top form and is in the wind for 300m, the 4th best sprinter in the world can't get around him.

He's just too fast.

Kittel was not on top form but Cavendish was?

For a split second, Cavendish was in front, before the road turned and Kittel with the shorter line edged in front.

And who are you putting above Cav apart from Greipel and Kittel? Bouhanni? Kristoff? :eek:

The point is I replied to the comment 'no one is even close to his level', and this year's scheldeprijs suggests otherwise
 
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The other sprinters should be engaging in long-range attacks from 500m out. If you wait till the last clim.. 100m then of course the best sprinter wins.
 
Re: Re:

BigMac said:
Bye Bye Bicycle said:
All the hate on Kittel... :eek: he's just simply the best sprinter by far at the moment. His sprints are demonstrations of effortlessness, a holy mass of raw sprinting power. So impressive.

That's precisely why I dislike him. He can just sit in the peloton in every race with a flat second half and do nothing because he knows he's the strongest every day, any day of the week, because he has the largest tighs. There's nothing that can motivate him to be less of a one-dimentional rider and as such nothing that can motivate me to like him.
The only thing that could motivate him is if race organizers stopped producing such BS parcours that enable a guy who has no intention of even trying to defend his race lead as soon as there's a speedbump with regularity. As it is, they produce so many races that are easy for him, and so many of these early stages where the only way there will be any action is through crashes (and that is the WORST type of all stages, because there's no chance of anything interesting happening and every chance of people getting hurt) so that a guy like him can wear the leader's jersey because it's good for marketing to have a big star leading.

It's an impossible cycle really, because the sprinters become stars because they win lots, and they win lots because they have more chances to win than any other type of rider.
 
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Breh said:
Kittel finished 5th in the opening TT. Where were the other sprinters who are so multi-dimensional?
On one hand you are right, on the other hand this is not what people mean when they talk about one dimensional sprinters. For a sprinter timetrialing is pretty useless, but abilities like being good on hills or cobbles can be very helpful in some stages. Therefore Kittel is maybe the sprinter with the best TT but he still can only win pan flat stages. For example Sagan, Degenkolb or Kristoff usually win stages on harder terrain and usually they also have to work more for these wins because sprint trains on the end of a hilly stage are normally not as useful as on stages like today. Moreover there aren't as many sprinters left who try to control the race and bring back every attack.
 
Re: Re:

BigMac said:
Bye Bye Bicycle said:
All the hate on Kittel... :eek: he's just simply the best sprinter by far at the moment. His sprints are demonstrations of effortlessness, a holy mass of raw sprinting power. So impressive.

That's precisely why I dislike him. He can just sit in the peloton in every race with a flat second half and do nothing because he knows he's the strongest every day, any day of the week, because he has the largest tighs. There's nothing that can motivate him to be less of a one-dimentional rider and as such nothing that can motivate me to like him.

Yeahh because he is so one dimensional he was able to do a top 5 in the TT :rolleyes:
 

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