To liven up next year's race we need Super Mario Kart rules - the guys behind can fire red Koopa shells and the guys ahead can drop banana skins on the road. No triple mushroom speed powerups though, those were already tried in 1994.
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dlwssonic said:Pitiful performance by sky and orica. **** awful.
vedrafjord said:When Martin signed for Quickstep I thought "finally a team can drop him off in a prime spot at the bottom of the Mur so he doesn't have a ton of ground to make up" and yet here we are again, Dan fifteen places back and boxed in for the majority of the climb, leaving him way too much to do in the final hundred metres.
Deja vu all over again as Yogi Berra would say.
Saint Unix said:Sky should be ashamed of themselves riding like that with both Henao and Kwiat in the team. They absolutely needed to try something with Kwiat on Cherave to have a chance.
Martin was plenty close enough on the lower slopes if he was good enough (on Teuns wheel and ahead of Gaudu). To me, he overachieves on this climb by timing his effort well while too many of the others do too much too earlyvedrafjord said:When Martin signed for Quickstep I thought "finally a team can drop him off in a prime spot at the bottom of the Mur so he doesn't have a ton of ground to make up" and yet here we are again, Dan fifteen places back and boxed in for the majority of the climb, leaving him way too much to do in the final hundred metres.
Deja vu all over again as Yogi Berra would say.
movingtarget said:dlwssonic said:Pitiful performance by sky and orica. **** awful.
Albasini did what he always does, gets outsprinted by Valverde.
Yeah, to neutralize the race in order for Albasini to get destroyed by Valverde. They're probably happy with a top 5 finish - but it's pretty shameful to see big teams racing so negatively.movingtarget said:DFA123 said:Not just Sky - I think every team in the peloton apart from Quickstep and maybe BMC should be hanging their heads in shame at their performance today. A load of big WT teams, knowingly racing for 2nd place at best.Saint Unix said:Anyone who knows anything about cycling saw this coming like a freight train the moment they went over Cherave all together.
Sky should be ashamed of themselves riding like that with both Henao and Kwiat in the team. They absolutely needed to try something with Kwiat on Cherave to have a chance.
Orica put some work in didn't they ?
Agreed, but Sky in particular since they have Kwiatkowski, who is arguably the strongest rider for an early (Cherave is early in this snoozefest of a race) attack and Henao, who is possibly the second best rider on the Mur. They had two possible winning tickets and threw away the one with the highest winning odds, which ironically also lowered the odds on the other ticket too.DFA123 said:Not just Sky - I think every team in the peloton apart from Quickstep and maybe BMC should be hanging their heads in shame at their performance today. A load of big WT teams, knowingly racing for 2nd place at best.
Kwiatkowski going earlier and working with Jungels, de Marchi and maybe one other could have held on though without needing a crazy LBL-destroying effort. Valverde was pretty isolated at one stage before and during the Cherave. If Sky and Quick Step had riders up the road and would disrupt the chase they would have had a serious chance.Arked said:Saint Unix said:Sky should be ashamed of themselves riding like that with both Henao and Kwiat in the team. They absolutely needed to try something with Kwiat on Cherave to have a chance.
Kwiatkowski's main goal is L-B-L so he probably wasn't interested in any crazy efforts today. As of Henao I'm not sure he is the rider who would hold of peloton on such course profile.
jaylew said:Mr Flèche! Just untouchable. What happened to Cannondale? They were well-positioned and then just disappeared.
frisenfruitig said:I just don't see the logic in what teams like Orica were doing. .
The best thing about the race is that the two teams who chanced their arm and sent riders on ambitious long range attacks, still ended up with podium positions from the races. The ones setting up a Valverde win ended up scrapping around for 4th place.frisenfruitig said:Also a good ride by Dylan Theuns.
I just don't see the logic in what teams like Orica were doing. They closed the gap for Valverde when they could have attacked along with Jungels instead of going to the Mur to get f*ed up the keester by Valverde.
DFA123 said:Yeah, to neutralize the race in order for Albasini to get destroyed by Valverde. They're probably happy with a top 5 finish - but it's pretty shameful to see big teams racing so negatively.movingtarget said:DFA123 said:Not just Sky - I think every team in the peloton apart from Quickstep and maybe BMC should be hanging their heads in shame at their performance today. A load of big WT teams, knowingly racing for 2nd place at best.Saint Unix said:Anyone who knows anything about cycling saw this coming like a freight train the moment they went over Cherave all together.
Sky should be ashamed of themselves riding like that with both Henao and Kwiat in the team. They absolutely needed to try something with Kwiat on Cherave to have a chance.
Orica put some work in didn't they ?
therhodeo said:frisenfruitig said:I just don't see the logic in what teams like Orica were doing. .
Are we going to pretend that Orica knows how to do anything other than riding for sprints?
Akuryo said:vedrafjord said:When Martin signed for Quickstep I thought "finally a team can drop him off in a prime spot at the bottom of the Mur so he doesn't have a ton of ground to make up" and yet here we are again, Dan fifteen places back and boxed in for the majority of the climb, leaving him way too much to do in the final hundred metres.
Deja vu all over again as Yogi Berra would say.
To be fair, Gilbert, Alaphilippe and Serry where all out injured ...
Eyeballs Out said:Martin was plenty close enough on the lower slopes if he was good enough (on Teuns wheel and ahead of Gaudu). To me, he overachieves on this climb by timing his effort well while too many of the others do too much too early
jaylew said:What happened to Cannondale? They were well-positioned and then just disappeared.