2016 Paris - Nice, March 6th - 13th, WT

[TommyGun]

Thomas not too great.

What was wrong with his ride in comparison with his other GC rivals?

I was expecting him to win this.

Thomas never has been a specialist like Dumoulin.

Everybody is a specialist in everything these days Thomas needs to do more than last year if he's really into becoming a future GT winner.

Exactly, I really dont like this new trend, it will uniformize everything
If this goes on, I will stop following cycling. I dont care about some random jockstraps ripping the field in every discipline possible, thanks to a favorable genetic heritage. Cycling should be so much more than that!

Pantani come back please

 

[portugal11]

Majka will be the key in this race, mark my words

 

[RedheadDane]

It's a good thing CN - and presumably other sites as well - use full names in the result list. Otherwise J. Herrada Lopez would be really useless.

 

[HelloDolly]

Orica are backing Matthews fro GC for Paris Nice ...He has been training very hard on mountians...expect him to put up a big fight to keep the jersey

Maybe could keep it till next Saturday or even beyond
Also Dumoulin will put up a fight for GC

The course is as good as these riders can get for a stage race win

So is Majka the leader of Tinkoff ??

 

[DBotero]

Re:

Orica are backing Matthews fro GC for Paris Nice ...He has been training very hard on mountians...expect him to put up a big fight to keep the jersey

Maybe could keep it till next Saturday or even beyond
Also Dumoulin will put up a fight for GC

The course is as good as these riders can get for a stage race win

So is Majka the leader of Tinkoff ??

Simon Yates lost only 20 sec.

 

[HelloDolly]

Re: Re:

Orica are backing Matthews fro GC for Paris Nice ...He has been training very hard on mountians...expect him to put up a big fight to keep the jersey

Maybe could keep it till next Saturday or even beyond
Also Dumoulin will put up a fight for GC

The course is as good as these riders can get for a stage race win

So is Majka the leader of Tinkoff ??

Simon Yates lost only 20 sec.

So ?
listen to Matthews interview ..there speaks a man with ambition
He must have been watching Dumoulin in the Vuelta
Everybody is going to be a GC rider soon

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

It's a good thing CN - and presumably other sites as well - use full names in the result list. Otherwise J. Herrada Lopez would be really useless.

Speaking of Jesus, what a fine performance he put in today along with Ion. Standing by my prediction of Ion winning the race, but its good to see Jesus Herrada finally producing in some bigger WT-races compared to the minor races he always does well in.

 

[DBotero]

Re: Re:

Orica are backing Matthews fro GC for Paris Nice ...He has been training very hard on mountians...expect him to put up a big fight to keep the jersey

Maybe could keep it till next Saturday or even beyond
Also Dumoulin will put up a fight for GC

The course is as good as these riders can get for a stage race win

So is Majka the leader of Tinkoff ??

Simon Yates lost only 20 sec.

So ?
listen to Matthews interview ..there speaks a man with ambition
He must have been watching Dumoulin in the Vuelta
Everybody is going to be a GC rider soon

Yeah,it looks like it.No problem if Matthews will make it too.

 

[portugal11]

Matthews doesn't have a chance. Last stage will be terrible for him

 

[Hugo Koblet]

I already said before today's stage that Matthews will be top 5 in GC.. Watch out for him

 

[StryderHells]

Re:

Orica are backing Matthews fro GC for Paris Nice ...He has been training very hard on mountians...expect him to put up a big fight to keep the jersey

Maybe could keep it till next Saturday or even beyond
Also Dumoulin will put up a fight for GC

The course is as good as these riders can get for a stage race win

So is Majka the leader of Tinkoff ??

They can back Matthews all they want but he won't win this race, it just won't happen and Yates is a better bet from OGE.
Also why would Majka be leader of Tinkoff now? It's not like Contador lost minutes

 

[StryderHells]

Dumoulin will podium Il Giro.Grande Ilnur Zakarin is still under par,though.

Not a chance in hell that is happening, i'd be surprised if he even finishes inside the top 10 at the Giro

 

[Brullnux]

Dumoulin will podium Il Giro.Grande Ilnur Zakarin is still under par,though.

Not a chance in hell that is happening, i'd be surprised if he even finishes inside the top 10 at the Giro

There's not that many high mountains. Ofc, I don't know if he'll be as good.

OTOH, Dumoulin would prefer if there were 5 MTFs rather than 2 hard high mountain stages.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Actually Matthews was ahead of Kelderman in the Tour l'Avenir GC when they were both U23 riders. When Quiintana won I think

So matthews definately has it in him

 

[Orbit501]

Re: Re:

Despite weaker field than expected, there's enough people in the race to make it exciting.
I'll pay attention on Lulu, he'll want to make up what he missed in Catalunya.

Personally I think the field is pretty strong. Should be a good race too as the parcours look decent.

Lulu could have done really well here on current form, but I wonder how that ITT crash has affected him. He went down pretty hard and said he hurt for a while after. Not sure how technical the prologue is here... I wonder if he'll now take fewer risks following his fall?

He could either go really well in this race to make up for recent disappointment, or be lacking because of recovery.

Matthew's will be interesting to watch too. Flying off the back of a long winter training? , or not quite up to race speed? Did well here with the same program last year.

Well it's only a prologue, but some interesting half answers to those questions already.

 

[jens_attacks]

can't wait to see bling dropping contador in the mountains!

 

[dirkprovin]

Yates IS OGE's man for GC for this race however they did comment that Bling was a likely factor for the prologue and that he could most certainly ride high in GC for a number of days.

 

[cineteq]

GC
NED 2 DUMOULIN, Tom (GIANT - ALPECIN) + 1
GBR 7 THOMAS, Geraint (SKY) + 7
AUS 11 PORTE, Richie (BMC RACING) + 10
NED 14 KELDERMAN, Wilco (LOTTO NL - JUMBO) + 13
ESP 27 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (TINKOFF) + 16
USA 28 TALANSKY, Andrew (CANNONDALE) + 18
RUS 30 ZAKARIN, Ilnur (KATUSHA) + 19

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

"only" 1 sec faster than Bevin. If Contador is decent, he won't lose more than 15 seconds to Dumoulin.

^ good call

 

[Dazed and Confused]

So first PN mass start stage coming up tomorrow:

Don't think anybody can beat Kittel here.....

 

[Orbit501]

What, not even Bling!?

Agreed. Kittel's to lose really. He's looking really strong at the moment.

 

[DBotero]

Re:

So first PN mass start stage coming up tomorrow:

Don't think anybody can beat Kittel here.....

Saw something about two late sections of gravel road on Sky site.The first is 600m long and preceded by a tight and potentially tricky left turn, while the second section is over a kilometer.

 

[carolina]

greipel will take this!

 

[Brullnux]

How hard is 'Cote Chem. Tertre Morte'? Could an attack go from there?

 

[DBotero]

Re:

How hard is 'Cote Chem. Tertre Morte'? Could an attack go from there?

Côte du chemin du Tertre de la Motte 1 kilometre-long climb at 3.7%.