2016 Tour Down Under WT January 19-24 Adelaide

[gooner]

He held on well there to hold off Ulissi.

 

[jaylew]

Gerrans, Impey down? Who else?

 

[Jspear]

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Impressive from McCarthy to stay ahead of Ulissi after Ulissi seemed to have him. It will be interesting to see how he does on GC - he obviously has some real form.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Don't know what was going on with Cannondale there, with two riders in front beside each other.

 

[Jancouver]

Re:

Don't know what was going on with Cannondale there, with two riders in front beside each other.

They were leading out the rest of the bunch

 

[greenedge]

Great win by McCarthy! I though he'd started his sprint too early but he had a great throw to the line. It's great for my CQ team too

Gerrans seems to not be in the top 10 overall, surely his bonuses during the day should allow him to be up there?

 

[Jspear]

Re:

Gerrans, Impey down? Who else?

I'm not sure yet...I know two Astana dudes went down. Bad luck for Gerrans continues.

 

[jaylew]

Re:

Great win by McCarthy! I though he'd started his sprint too early but he had a great throw to the line. It's great for my CQ team too

Gerrans seems to not be in the top 10 overall, surely his bonuses during the day should allow him to be up there?

He will be. You can't ever trust GC standings posted that quickly, particularly when there's been a crash.

 

[42x16ss]

Re:

Oh yeah! Great to see

McCarthy's been training his ar$e off up here over the summer. Great to see it paying off. McCarthy was also showing some relative restraint in local races here in Brisbane (unlike a couple of the Drapac boys), good to see him with the bigger picture in mind. An underrated rider IMHO.

 

[Jspear]

They're saying Gerrans only has "superficial wounds."

 

[Jancouver]

Re:

Good to see Vakoc covering Dennis. Solid 5th today. I think the Top10 or even better is doable.

While crashes and bad luck sucks, I'm glad to see no Orica in Top10.

And where is the "new best sprinter". Frankly, he will be just another one trick pony if he can't even hang on with the bunch today he will never win any monument or a big race.

 

[Lupi33x]

Re: Re:

McEwen is good in the little "tactical" spots, where he's asked to explain how some element of the sport works tactically to people who don't know what's going on. More races should do this.

P&P doing this? FFS

McEwen is on this same broadcast as well? Because if not, I can't deal with those two.

The spot I saw involved McEwan and some burlier Australian guy, not P&P. For most of the programme he's on with P&P. He is pretty good. They obviously, are, well, themselves.

The burley bloke is a Channel 9 sports commentator/reporter more known for his work on rugby league. He's not a particularly knowledgeable cycling guy and doesn't portray himself as one but he's a familiar face to the many cycling ignorant channel 9 sports watchers and it's a good thing that it's getting exposure to watchers that otherwise may not have ever bothered to flip over to SBS.

Funnily enough though his name is Phil Gilbert, and he has met his namesake IIRC.

He's annoying. He keeps telling me the 'scenery' is beautiful but it doesnt match what I'm seeing. It creates a feeling of dissonance in my mind that makes me feel sick.

 

[Jspear]

Re: Re:

Good to see Vakoc covering Dennis. Solid 5th today. I think the Top10 or even better is doable.

While crashes and bad luck sucks, I'm glad to see no Orica in Top10.

And where is the "new best sprinter". Frankly, he will be just another one trick pony if he can't even hang on with the bunch today he will never win any monument or a big race.

While he was most likely truly "dropped," perhaps it was the plan for him to save himself regardless of how he was feeling. Today was suppose to be all about Gerrans.

 

[Squirbos_19]

This stage isn't your typical sprint stage, Ewan had no chance today, it's a very tough finale. Just look at the last 4 times this stage was raced, there's no typical sprinter in the top 3 apart from Lobato but he's shown he's got a very good uphill sprint.

 

[Lupi33x]

Re: Re:

Good to see Vakoc covering Dennis. Solid 5th today. I think the Top10 or even better is doable.

While crashes and bad luck sucks, I'm glad to see no Orica in Top10.

And where is the "new best sprinter". Frankly, he will be just another one trick pony if he can't even hang on with the bunch today he will never win any monument or a big race.

Did Ewan get dropped?

 

[Lupi33x]

Re:

This stage isn't your typical sprint stage, Ewan had no chance today, it's a very tough finale. Just look at the last 4 times this stage was raced, there's no typical sprinter in the top 3 apart from Lobato but he's shown he's got a very good uphill sprint.

they're all sprint stages according to "Jancouver"

 

[Squirbos_19]

Re: Re:

This stage isn't your typical sprint stage, Ewan had no chance today, it's a very tough finale. Just look at the last 4 times this stage was raced, there's no typical sprinter in the top 3 apart from Lobato but he's shown he's got a very good uphill sprint.

they're all sprint stages according to "Jancouver"

Seems very true.

Also Ewan did get dropped, with about 3km to go I think.

 

[Lupi33x]

Is this the weakest field ever assembled since this race went WT?
everyone whose anyone giving it a miss this year. I guess its too hot, too far away and wrong time of the year.

at least Greipel toughened up the sprints all those years when he went.

 

[Jancouver]

Re: Re:

This stage isn't your typical sprint stage, Ewan had no chance today, it's a very tough finale. Just look at the last 4 times this stage was raced, there's no typical sprinter in the top 3 apart from Lobato but he's shown he's got a very good uphill sprint.

they're all sprint stages according to "Jancouver"

Seems very true.

Also Ewan did get dropped, with about 3km to go I think.

More like 6km to go. Sorry, I know it is not a real sprinter stage but before the crash, there was still at least 50 guys left and if you were supposed to be the new sprinting sensation, you should be able to hang on with those guys.

IMO Ewan is a crit sprinter and he will only be winning races/stages similar to crits. Maybe a slight uphill in the last 100m similar to his Vuelta stage.

Funny as some already saw him as the next San Remo winner. He will never get over the Poggio and Cipressa to even contest the sprint if he can't compete in poorly attended and fairly easy 130km Aussie race.

 

[The Hegelian]

Ewan is indeed a long way off the Poggio......at 21.

Does anyone here have an Australian ex-wife?

 

[swuzzlebubble]

Re:

Does anyone here have an Australian ex-wife?

Could be arranged. Why?

 

[JRanton]

Those are the types of crashes that just shouldn't happen at this level. An uphill drag sprint should not see a crash like that and god knows what Westra was doing. First crashes of the season for Gerrans and G Thomas already!

 

[Lupi33x]

Re:

Ewan is indeed a long way off the Poggio......at 21.

Does anyone here have an Australian ex-wife?

LMAO

 

[Lupi33x]

Those are the types of crashes that just shouldn't happen at this level. An uphill drag sprint should not see a crash like that and god knows what Westra was doing. First crashes of the season for Gerrans and G Thomas already!

Orica seem to be involved in most crashes. They dont ride too smart in the peloton.