2016 Tour de France, Stage 3: Granville → Angers (224km)

[MacBAir]

Re:

All this talk about solo rides when the real question should be why the breaks are less and less contested.

Too many sprinters that think that they can win? Katusha, Etix, Dimension Data, Tinkoff, Lotto...

 

[PremierAndrew]

Today's stage is a great advertisement for cycling. No wonder so many companies are lining up to sponsor teams

 

[King Boonen]

Re:

Today's stage is a great advertisement for cycling. No wonder so many companies are lining up to sponsor teams

Lots of spectators out.

 

[Praying Mantis]

Looks like they're pushing for the intermediate sprint.

 

[Warhawk]

Oh, look, there's a bicycle race going on.

 

[MacBAir]

The tour being the tour, with these amazing stages. At least put some cobbles on it, put it around unprotected areas (wind) so we can have a freaking race. Otherwise, why having a long stage at all?

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re:

The tour being the tour, with these amazing stages. At least put some cobbles on it, put it around unprotected areas (wind) so we can have a freaking race. Otherwise, why having a long stage at all?

Sprinters need stages too.

 

[El Pistolero]

Re: Re:

The tour being the tour, with these amazing stages. At least put some cobbles on it, put it around unprotected areas (wind) so we can have a freaking race. Otherwise, why having a long stage at all?

Sprinters need stages too.

Why? Cycling doesn't need sprinters to survive.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Re: Re:

The tour being the tour, with these amazing stages. At least put some cobbles on it, put it around unprotected areas (wind) so we can have a freaking race. Otherwise, why having a long stage at all?

Sprinters need stages too.

Cobbles, wind or even small hills don't stop sprinters from winning races. It just stops Kittel from winning stages, which is a good thing. If you put wind or some moderate cobbles/dirt road/small hills in ever sprinter stage, guys like Cavendish, Griepel etc. can still win races, only they have to work harder and other guys have a chance of beating them.

Degenkolb, Kristoff, Sagan, Demare, Bouhanni etc. all have shown to be good in tricky finales as long as it doesn't include serious climbing.

Even Cavendis and Greipel have won stages with fun finales, but they had to work very hard to be able to contest the sprint, which isn't a problem.

All sprinters who are competing ftw here except Kitte would be able to survive flat stages with a tricky finale giving some chances to attackers. All of them can win in echelons. All of them can get over a few cobbles or a few small hills.

 

[saganftw]

as much as people complain about little action,the riders themselves enjoy having an off day on the bike

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re: Re:

The tour being the tour, with these amazing stages. At least put some cobbles on it, put it around unprotected areas (wind) so we can have a freaking race. Otherwise, why having a long stage at all?

Sprinters need stages too.

Cobbles, wind or even small hills don't stop sprinters from winning races. It just stops Kittel from winning stages, which is a good thing. If you put wind or some moderate cobbles/dirt road/small hills in ever sprinter stage, guys like Cavendish, Griepel etc. can still win races, only they have to work harder and other guys have a chance of beating them.

They already do that in other stages.

 

[portugal11]

This stage seems a 90's tour's stage

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

I'm all for the riders getting a "rest day", but make the stage 50km shorter, please.

 

[Lexman]

Why is Lotto already riding it's still 44 km to go they'll catch them too soon...

 

[MacBAir]

Re:

as much as people complain about little action,the riders themselves enjoy having an off day on the bike

And they can have as many as they want, outside of competition.

The tour being the tour, with these amazing stages. At least put some cobbles on it, put it around unprotected areas (wind) so we can have a freaking race. Otherwise, why having a long stage at all?

Sprinters need stages too.

Cobbles, wind or even small hills don't stop sprinters from winning races. It just stops Kittel from winning stages, which is a good thing. If you put wind or some moderate cobbles/dirt road/small hills in ever sprinter stage, guys like Cavendish, Griepel etc. can still win races, only they have to work harder and other guys have a chance of beating them.

They already do that in other stages.

Not enough. Pan flat stages without any sort of difficulty/trouble/interest are waste of time. They don't have a place in these races. Great riders, great sprinters don't need them, too.

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

The tour being the tour, with these amazing stages. At least put some cobbles on it, put it around unprotected areas (wind) so we can have a freaking race. Otherwise, why having a long stage at all?

Sprinters need stages too.

Cobbles, wind or even small hills don't stop sprinters from winning races. It just stops Kittel from winning stages, which is a good thing. If you put wind or some moderate cobbles/dirt road/small hills in ever sprinter stage, guys like Cavendish, Griepel etc. can still win races, only they have to work harder and other guys have a chance of beating them.

Degenkolb, Kristoff, Sagan, Demare, Bouhanni etc. all have shown to be good in tricky finales as long as it doesn't include serious climbing.

Even Cavendis and Greipel have won stages with fun finales, but they had to work very hard to be able to contest the sprint, which isn't a problem.

All sprinters who are competing ftw here except Kitte would be able to survive flat stages with a tricky finale giving some chances to attackers. All of them can win in echelons. All of them can get over a few cobbles or a few small hills.

Nonsense. Kittel is the all time record winner of Scheldeprijs. He's fine on moderate cobbles. He's also on Etixx, so will fair way better than most sprinters in the wind. Take off your hater glasses.

 

[MacBAir]

Re: Re:

The tour being the tour, with these amazing stages. At least put some cobbles on it, put it around unprotected areas (wind) so we can have a freaking race. Otherwise, why having a long stage at all?

Sprinters need stages too.

Cobbles, wind or even small hills don't stop sprinters from winning races. It just stops Kittel from winning stages, which is a good thing. If you put wind or some moderate cobbles/dirt road/small hills in ever sprinter stage, guys like Cavendish, Griepel etc. can still win races, only they have to work harder and other guys have a chance of beating them.

Degenkolb, Kristoff, Sagan, Demare, Bouhanni etc. all have shown to be good in tricky finales as long as it doesn't include serious climbing.

Even Cavendis and Greipel have won stages with fun finales, but they had to work very hard to be able to contest the sprint, which isn't a problem.

All sprinters who are competing ftw here except Kitte would be able to survive flat stages with a tricky finale giving some chances to attackers. All of them can win in echelons. All of them can get over a few cobbles or a few small hills.

Nonsense. Kittel is the all time record winner of Scheldeprijs. He's fine on moderate cobbles. He's also on Etixx, so will fair way better than most sprinters in the wind. Take off your hater glasses.

Scheldeprijs is worse than this stage, it proves nothing besides the fact that he is crazy fast while racing in the easiest of the easiest conditions.

 

[King Boonen]

Re: Re:

The tour being the tour, with these amazing stages. At least put some cobbles on it, put it around unprotected areas (wind) so we can have a freaking race. Otherwise, why having a long stage at all?

Sprinters need stages too.

Cobbles, wind or even small hills don't stop sprinters from winning races. It just stops Kittel from winning stages, which is a good thing. If you put wind or some moderate cobbles/dirt road/small hills in ever sprinter stage, guys like Cavendish, Griepel etc. can still win races, only they have to work harder and other guys have a chance of beating them.

Degenkolb, Kristoff, Sagan, Demare, Bouhanni etc. all have shown to be good in tricky finales as long as it doesn't include serious climbing.

Even Cavendis and Greipel have won stages with fun finales, but they had to work very hard to be able to contest the sprint, which isn't a problem.

All sprinters who are competing ftw here except Kitte would be able to survive flat stages with a tricky finale giving some chances to attackers. All of them can win in echelons. All of them can get over a few cobbles or a few small hills.

Nonsense. Kittel is the all time record winner of Scheldeprijs. He's fine on moderate cobbles. He's also on Etixx, so will fair way better than most sprinters in the wind. Take off your hater glasses.

He could probably seriously challenge for MSR and PR if he trained for it as well. People always unfairly put sprinters down.

 

[Kwibus]

Re:

All this talk about solo rides when the real question should be why the breaks are less and less contested.

Because the break has no chance on stages like this. More and more teams are bringing a sprinter and they all start playing their sprinter as it's useless to go in the break.

 

[King Boonen]

Re: Re:

The tour being the tour, with these amazing stages. At least put some cobbles on it, put it around unprotected areas (wind) so we can have a freaking race. Otherwise, why having a long stage at all?

Sprinters need stages too.

Yes, it's part of the spectacle and crucially, you can't force GC riders to race every single day.

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

All this talk about solo rides when the real question should be why the breaks are less and less contested.

Because the break has no chance on stages like this. More and more teams are bringing a sprinter and they all start playing their sprinter as it's useless to go in the break.

Yes, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

[Andro]

It's fine to have flat stages like this, but I don't understand the need for it to be 223 km.

 

[deValtos]

Kirby: Coquard looks like he dried his hair in a crosswind this morning.

 

[Flamin]

Re:

It's fine to have flat stages like this, but I don't understand the need for it to be 223 km.

Check the map. This is pretty much the shortest route from Granville to Angers.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Re: Re:

They already do that in other stages.

Sure, but that does't refute the point of my post in any way. MaCBair said we should have open areas for wind or cobbles in panflat stages. You responded by saying sprinters need stages too. I responded to you by saying sprinters win stages with echelons and cobbles and even stages with small hills too. The fact that they put obstacles in other stages is completely irrelevant. It's about the necessity of panflat stages without any obstacles and sprinters don't need panflat stages without obstacles, sprinters can win stages with cobbles, echelons and small hills as well. So we don't need stages like today for the sake of providing sprinters with stages where they can compete.

Nonsense. Kittel is the all time record winner of Scheldeprijs. He's fine on moderate cobbles. He's also on Etixx, so will fair way better than most sprinters in the wind. Take off your hater glasses.

Not sure if you're being ironic here.......

If you're actually serious, I still won't really argue further because Kittel really has nothing to do with the main point of my post.