2017 Abu Dhabi Tour, 23 to 26 Feb

[Scarponi]

Taking out portes 2017 you can't tell me that the TDU is any worse then 90% of stageraces up until Paris nice

 

[Scarponi]

Tour of Oman would have been amazing with this field btw

 

[hfer07]

I just watched the stage & quite frankly I don't know what to make of it .... Quintanita made things exiting when he first attacked from 9k followed by Contador & Nibs... but then I don't quite get what Movistar was trying to achieve with no apparent plan to get the stage.... Contador OTOH said he was willing to work for Mollema, which he did superbly by marking Quintanita like a shadow..... BTW Nibs looked good, Aru OK, Dumoulin looked superb- that man has a superb style-great for Costa's win as he gets more confidence, & great for Zakarin's effort .

wish there was another mountainous stage or a ITT to make it more entertaining...

 

[GuyIncognito]

Re:

This race is WT? Really? And then people still try to argue that the cobbled classics have a less good field because the riders have less WT points on average than climbers... This is a shitty race with no prestige and it gives more points than the Omloop het Nieuwsblad or Gent-Wevelgem.

Damn. I wanted to avoid spoilers but I made the mistake of reading your post so now I know Nibali didn't win.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Re: Re:

nope. costa is going for the GC at the giro, unfortunately...

Saronni said that one week races and LBL are his main goals, at the Giro he'll have no pressure and take it day by day.

He could use it as a prep race for a fourth victory at the Tour de Suisse.

https://www.cyclingranking.com/riders/overall/POR

He still has a bit to do to catch Agostinho.

 

[Red Rick]

When 3 greats face off in february, and the kilo's still have to come off. Nibali in particular looks chubbier than usual.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Rui Costa will win this bike race.

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

Rui Costa will win this bike race.

And his name is safe bet.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

In a low key way that was a good day's work for Contador. He got inside Quintana's head and screwed with him. He completely threw a key rival off his game. Secondarily, he got to be Mr Nice Guy team player in the eyes of Mollema and other riders he wants to bury themselves for him at the Tour. He's on a new team without his old retinue. Every bit of good will helps.

A great win for Costa. His 2016, where he somehow turned into the kind of mark he usually makes a living by conning, should be treated like a bad dream. The real Rui Costa has one of the best racing brains in the peloton. That usually means winning in the Gerrans style, but he is more versatile in his talents. Today, he saw an opportunity to profit from rivalry among the on-paper favourites and he took it by attacking with the same ruthlessness that usually had him leaning on someone else. Then he played a probably stronger opponent, Zakarin, like a piano.

 

[Tonton]

Re: Re:

Rui Costa will win this bike race.

And his name is safe bet.

Good bet . Nice win for Rui Costa.

Zakarin, Dumoulin and Mollema, wow! Good form.

For the favorites, I'm like several of you here: a little bit puzzled. It reminded me of the end of the comic book, Asterix and the Goths: Contador "I was shadowing Quintana"; Nibali "I was shadowing Contador"; Aru "I was shadowing Nibali"; Bardet "I was shadowing Aru"...no maces, no bloodbath tho'...like no one wanted to race for the win.

Good for Rui Costa.

 

[Red Rick]

Apparently it's raining heavily. In the middle of the desert. One of the guys in the peloton really did something wrong in a past life.

 

[ferryman]

Up on ES now

 

[portugal11]

And that's why i hate mother nature... is raining in the desert in a useless sprint stage. In roubaix will not rain at all

 

[ferryman]

Re:

And that's why i hate mother nature... is raining in the desert in a useless sprint stage. In roubaix will not rain at all

No! Love mother nature always Joking aside, it's a pro bike race in bad conditions, with most of the best sprinters on earth there. It could actually be quite an exciting finish if they are all in the mix at the end

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Re: Re:

And that's why i hate mother nature... is raining in the desert in a useless sprint stage. In roubaix will not rain at all

No! Love mother nature always Joking aside, it's a pro bike race in bad conditions, with most of the best sprinters on earth there. It could actually be quite an exciting finish if they are all in the mix at the end

Yeah come on, this should be accepted as a gift. Makes things a little less boring

 

[Dazed and Confused]

we have 50k to go, but really they should just cut the shite down to 5k now and we can quickly get a bunch sprint.
Ewan ftw.

 

[carolina]

magnificent weather.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Ewan wins. Good man.

 

[BigMac]

Nice win for Ewan and good work by Orica.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

That was not even close. Dominant win by Ewan who really seems to have taken a step up this year (although it's still early season and he's probably closer to his peak than most other riders). Orica has really become good at these leadouts.

 

[DBotero]

Great win for Ewan.
Nice pics with the lovely desert weather on the Sky site.https://www.teamsky.com/article/soaking-finish-in-abu-dhabi?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral

 

[Max Rockatansky]

50% of that Ewan victory belongs to Roger Kluge. Fantastic leadout.

Also interesting to see that Etixx used their entire team to give Alaphilippe the chance for three bonus seconds and moving from 9 to 5. Hard fighting for every little WT point so early this season.

 

[May0maniac]

So Patrick Konrad went for bonus seconds to get a top 10 on gc and the points sprints to get the intermediate sprint jersey, nothing to really brag about but still a good result for him.

 

[SafeBet]

Re: Re:

Rui Costa will win this bike race.

And his name is safe bet.

But seriously, don't bet on my predictions. I'm normally terrible.