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

Page 43 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.

Who will win the 2016 Race to the Sun?

  • Zakarin

    Votes: 2 2.0%
  • Other

    Votes: 11 11.0%
  • Bardet

    Votes: 4 4.0%
  • Dumoulin

    Votes: 9 9.0%
  • Costa

    Votes: 3 3.0%
  • Gallopin

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • Sanchez

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Porte

    Votes: 10 10.0%
  • Thomas

    Votes: 19 19.0%
  • Contador

    Votes: 41 41.0%

  • Total voters
    100
  • Poll closed .
May 24, 2015
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Re:

HelloDolly said:
Contador looked very good on those short climbs....almost like he was chomping on the bit to get going ...his stage tomorrow I'd say

How many times does Frank Schleck crash...can he stay on a bike at all

I hope you are right. If this goes on, Contador will leave P-N without any references. What a waste of racing days so far! Horrible week :mad:
 
Feb 18, 2015
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Re: Re:

TommyGun said:
HelloDolly said:
Contador looked very good on those short climbs....almost like he was chomping on the bit to get going ...his stage tomorrow I'd say

How many times does Frank Schleck crash...can he stay on a bike at all

I hope you are right. If this goes on, Contador will leave P-N without any references. What a waste of racing days so far! Horrible week :mad:
Well stage 2 was quite interesting, but no stage in which Contador could shine. Stage 3 where Contador could have been good was cancelled and stages 4 and 5 just didnt suit him. But from tomorrow on this will be a race for climbers.
 
Jan 7, 2010
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Told ya it would be Lutsenkos year. He is so suited for these kinds of races. :) Get on the bandwagon while you can
 
May 17, 2013
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markene2 said:
Told ya it would be Lutsenkos year. He is so suited for these kinds of races. :) Get on the bandwagon while you can
Great rider indeed. We'll see a lot more of him in the future, no doubt. Gutsy performance. Big win. He's in the GC picture now. Let's see what he can do tomorrow. I hope he can recover.

Tomorrow, more than Malhao, is the day for Contador fans to overreact. One way or another :D . I predicted Bertie's win in Malhao, I see him winning tomorrow.
 
Dec 26, 2012
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Lutsenko's ride reminded me of LL Sanchez, go at the right moment and when he has some seconds, you won't see him again.
 
May 10, 2013
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I wonder what were the Cannondale (Craddock) chasing for. Yeah, they had some quickish guys there with Bevin (well, he is yet to score any decent result on a flat finish as a WT rider) and Breschel but it was rather obvious they wouldn't win a sprint against Kristoff and Matthews. Better to save Craddock for harder stages, he seems to be in decent form.
 
Oct 21, 2012
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Re:

HelloDolly said:
Contador looked very good on those short climbs....almost like he was chomping on the bit to get going ...his stage tomorrow I'd say

How many times does Frank Schleck crash...can he stay on a bike at all

From the tiny amount of climbing we saw today, Yates, Contador and Lutsenko looked the liveliest, though the latter may be knacked after today. The first two could be the most likely to do something based on their current positions
 
Re:

Anderis said:
I wonder what were the Cannondale (Craddock) chasing for. Yeah, they had some quickish guys there with Bevin (well, he is yet to score any decent result on a flat finish as a WT rider) and Breschel but it was rather obvious they wouldn't win a sprint against Kristoff and Matthews. Better to save Craddock for harder stages, he seems to be in decent form.


Every stage and every so often some Cannondale guy goes off the front and I haven;t a clue who they are as I haven't gotten used to yet , who is riding for Cannondale ...And their gear really is a great disguise
 
Oct 26, 2010
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I like Matthews so I really hope he doesn't do well tomorrow: 8.5km@5.4% + 6.2km@5.5% + 15.3km@5.7% is nowhere near the territory for a sprinter regardless of how well he does in the climbs. And please don't even compare with Sean Kelly or Jalabert; Matthews reminds me a lot of Freire and he certainly couldn't win anything with this sort of stages in it.
 
Jul 6, 2011
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trevim said:
I like Matthews so I really hope he doesn't do well tomorrow: 8.5km@5.4% + 6.2km@5.5% + 15.3km@5.7% is nowhere near the territory for a sprinter regardless of how well he does in the climbs. And please don't even compare with Sean Kelly or Jalabert; Matthews reminds me a lot of Freire and he certainly couldn't win anything with this sort of stages in it.

Oscarito could only dream of handling the Cauberg like Matthews did last year. :D
 
Aug 6, 2010
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trevim said:
I like Matthews so I really hope he doesn't do well tomorrow: 8.5km@5.4% + 6.2km@5.5% + 15.3km@5.7% is nowhere near the territory for a sprinter regardless of how well he does in the climbs. And please don't even compare with Sean Kelly or Jalabert; Matthews reminds me a lot of Freire and he certainly couldn't win anything with this sort of stages in it.

The sheer length of the climbs means that Matthews has no chance of staying near, let along with, the peloton on this Queen stage. Was it on stage 4 of last years Giro when in the overall lead he lost about ten minutes?
 
Jul 28, 2012
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trevim said:
I like Matthews so I really hope he doesn't do well tomorrow: 8.5km@5.4% + 6.2km@5.5% + 15.3km@5.7% is nowhere near the territory for a sprinter regardless of how well he does in the climbs. And please don't even compare with Sean Kelly or Jalabert; Matthews reminds me a lot of Freire and he certainly couldn't win anything with this sort of stages in it.

Agree - I guess Matthews will fight hard and come home overall top 5-10 over the next 2 hard days. Once the big GC guys decide to really go at the steep pitch halfway through the last climb tomorrow only the top 5-10 climbers in the world will be able to hang on. In my view very different to the lactic fest of holding onto Gilbert in a long uphill sprint on the Cauberg during the finale of AGR. Even the hugely impressive hard Giro win against Evans etc was over 5-6k @ 5% or so, not 15 and multiple hills prior.

Prove me wrong bling!
 
May 10, 2015
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Don't think we need to expect some crazy things from tomorrows stage. Big names will look at each other and attack at 6km from the finish.
 
Jul 27, 2009
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Bardet's certainly gonna attack. If the big guns watch each other then, I'm fine with it.

Contador sounds eager to triumph though!
 
May 9, 2010
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Hard stage to predict as many different scenarios are possible. The main question is: Will they be able to get rid of Matthews?

I think the most likely result is a sprint between a select group in which case I put my money on Gallopin or Henao. Another possible scenario is of course that a break will take the win, but I think that's a bit unlikely as Tinkoff, Sky and Movistar will want to race this stage in a fiery pace. A third scenario is that an opportunistic rider attacks from the front group up the last climb in case of a standstill among the favorites which is quite likely I think. In this scenario, Gallopin, Ruben Fernandez, Herrada, Craddock, Zakarin etc. are all likely candidates.

Of course Contador might just pulverize the field, but on an easy climb like the last one and with headwind, it's gonna be hard. Last scenario is simply Matthews holding on and outsprinting everyone in the last 300 metres.
 
Apr 14, 2009
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gregrowlerson said:
trevim said:
I like Matthews so I really hope he doesn't do well tomorrow: 8.5km@5.4% + 6.2km@5.5% + 15.3km@5.7% is nowhere near the territory for a sprinter regardless of how well he does in the climbs. And please don't even compare with Sean Kelly or Jalabert; Matthews reminds me a lot of Freire and he certainly couldn't win anything with this sort of stages in it.

The sheer length of the climbs means that Matthews has no chance of staying near, let along with, the peloton on this Queen stage. Was it on stage 4 of last years Giro when in the overall lead he lost about ten minutes?

"No chance"???? I think you will be surprised. Perhaps he loses contact but it us by no means a sure thing. For me I think he's still in yellow at the end of today.
 
May 9, 2010
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gregrowlerson said:
trevim said:
I like Matthews so I really hope he doesn't do well tomorrow: 8.5km@5.4% + 6.2km@5.5% + 15.3km@5.7% is nowhere near the territory for a sprinter regardless of how well he does in the climbs. And please don't even compare with Sean Kelly or Jalabert; Matthews reminds me a lot of Freire and he certainly couldn't win anything with this sort of stages in it.

The sheer length of the climbs means that Matthews has no chance of staying near, let along with, the peloton on this Queen stage. Was it on stage 4 of last years Giro when in the overall lead he lost about ten minutes?
He actually lost 20 minutes even though he was one of the favorites for the stage win. That said, losing 5, 10 or 20 minutes doesn't really matter as you're just cruising along with the gruppetto.
 
Feb 18, 2015
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Why does everyone say this mtf is so easy. Thats a normal 1st category climb, not a climb which only gets this categorization because it looks good when a WT race has a 1st cat. mtf. So why so do many people think there wont be and Time gaps and a sprinter can be as good as some of the best climbers in the world? :confused:
 
Jun 7, 2010
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Gigs_98 said:
Why does everyone say this mtf is so easy. Thats a normal 1st category climb, not a climb which only gets this categorization because it looks good when a WT race has a 1st cat. mtf. So why so do many people think there wont be and Time gaps and a sprinter can be as good as some of the best climbers in the world? :confused:

Finally someone who gets it.
 

classicomano

BANNED
May 5, 2011
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The main GC guys have been holding back the entire week now, they must be desperate to unleash their fury. I think Bling will go down, fighting hard, but going down.
 
Jul 29, 2012
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Gigs_98 said:
Why does everyone say this mtf is so easy. Thats a normal 1st category climb, not a climb which only gets this categorization because it looks good when a WT race has a 1st cat. mtf. So why so do many people think there wont be and Time gaps and a sprinter can be as good as some of the best climbers in the world? :confused:

I don't get it either, matthews will never survive and he's racing against many good climbers. These ain't scrubs, arguably against 2 of the 5 best climbers in the world, contador and porte

And look at the climbs before it, it's a really hard stage for a race in march.