2017 Int. Österreich-Rundfahrt-Tour of Austria (2.HC)

[Escarabajo]

Where can I get a good stream?

The one I have looks awful!

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

Where can I get a good stream?

The one I have looks awful!

Welcome to the Tour de San Luis 2017. That's the stream.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Denifl makes the catch.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

It seems that Denifl went much, much faster on the front of his group on the descent than Lopez did on the front of his. Denifl, of cours, should know these roads extremely well.

 

[Escarabajo]

Re: Re:

Where can I get a good stream?

The one I have looks awful!

Welcome to the Tour de San Luis 2017. That's the stream.

I thought Austrians were high tech people!

(I hope I didn't offend anybody )

 

[Stilletto]

Anyone know how long is left ?
O'Connor and Zoidl looks like they have this?

Is it flat until the finish ?

 

[BalearicBeats]

Who is the blue rider? I really can't read his number. Good move by O'Conner

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

Anyone know how long is left ?
O'Connor and Zoidl looks like they have this?

Is it flat until the finish ?

Flattish. The finish is at the top of an uncategorised climb, but it's hard to know how significant that is.

Only about 4 km to go now I think. Yes the two should have it. There have been more attacks from the GC group, but Denifl has been chasing down anyone GC relevant.

Really a fun day's racing from Lopez and Denifl.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

Who is the blue rider? I really can't read his number. Good move by O'Conner

It's Zoidl.

 

[BalearicBeats]

Re: Re:

Who is the blue rider? I really can't read his number. Good move by O'Conner

It's Zoidl.

Oh okay, good ride for him, he needs this

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

O'Connor drops Zoidl on the climb to the finish and wins. A couple of other rides (I didn't see who) came in a few seconds before what remains of the GC group.

 

[ppanther92]

Re: Re:

Who is the blue rider? I really can't read his number. Good move by O'Conner

It's Zoidl.

Oh okay, good ride for him, he needs this

Good race, but he unfortunatly isn't as strong anymore as he was 3-4 years ago where he would have won this certainly. In the end he was 2nd on Glockner and 2nd at the finish.

Strong ride by Denifl who calmly realed in Lopez in the descent and brought back everyone GC relevant. Grossschartner and Ciccone showed their puncheur qualities in the end and Lopez was probably done from his Solo, even losing some seconds to Denifl in the end.

 

[slosada]

The last part gave me ~2Km@7%
López was spent at the end and almost gave his GC position to Grossschartner
Ben O'connor made it

Clear images, but impossible to follow the action with just one moto and no on-screen info

 

[Escarabajo]

These long descents are race killers. Some forum members love them but if we evaluate them statistically there have been more fails than successes.
Oh well!

 

[ppanther92]

Re:

The last part gave me ~2Km@7%
López was spent at the end and almost gave his GC position to Grossschartner
Ben O'connor made it

Clear images, but impossible to follow the action with just one moto and no on-screen info

Yep, hard to follow. ORF only shows highlights...

Anyways at livetiming.at you at least can see intermediates. For example that mountainbiker Geismayr lost almost 1:30 minutes on the favorites, still doing well of course.

 

[ppanther92]

Re:

These long descents are race killers. Some forum members love them but if we evaluate them statistically there have been more fails than successes.
Oh well!

If the race ended at Hochtor or Fuschertörl, Lopez would have been in yellow, thats true. With the long downhill and flat parts he had no chance alone agains 13 (later 16) riders.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Most of his gap was taken back on the descent proper, which I think was mostly about the rain. Either Denifl was very fast or he was very slow. Or some mix of the two. Knowing the roads very well was probably a big advantage.

I will certainly be looking out for Lopez from here on. Obviously everyone knows he's a huge talent, but he's also a huge talent who is willing to go completely ballistic 75 km out. Real win or die, second means nothing, attitude.

 

[May0maniac]

Great attitude by Lopez, but a solo attack on this kind of stage with sooo much false flat after the descent is pretty much useless.
Nice to see that Ciccone is back on track, O'Connor seems to be a great climbing talent.
Debesay blew up yesterday when he tried to follow Lopez, otherwise he'd finished in the top 10 on gc.
I'm also happy for Denifl and Großschartner, I met his family at the start of the Piancavallo stage when they came to support him.

 

[carton]

Re:

Great attitude by Lopez, but a solo attack on this kind of stage with sooo much false flat after the descent is pretty much useless.

Yeah, even for a WT Stage Race winner and GT team leader against a largely Pro Conti field, it's hopeless.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Great attitude by Lopez, but a solo attack on this kind of stage with sooo much false flat after the descent is pretty much useless.

Yeah, even for a WT Stage Race winner and GT team leader against a largely Pro Conti field, it's hopeless.

It was his best chance of actually winning once Denifl limited his losses to 16 seconds yesterday. There were a few ways it could have worked - a bad day for Denifl, Denifl rashly following him and then getting dropped by him in isolation, the break being stronger than it turned out to be, the other GC guys getting spaced out or sitting on Denifl even.more than they did. And of course the rain on the descent screwed him. His chances weren't great but were better than any other option on the parcours. But yeah, doomed unless Denifl botched the chase.

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

Great attitude by Lopez, but a solo attack on this kind of stage with sooo much false flat after the descent is pretty much useless.

Yeah, even for a WT Stage Race winner and GT team leader against a largely Pro Conti field, it's hopeless.

It was his best chance of actually winning once Denifl limited his losses to 16 seconds yesterday. There were a few ways it could have worked - a bad day for Denifl, Denifl rashly following him and then getting dropped by him in isolation, the break being stronger than it turned out to be, the other GC guys getting spaced out or sitting on Denifl even.more than they did. And of course the rain on the descent screwed him. His chances weren't great but were better than any other option on the parcours.

Yes, it was his best chance, but the stage wasn't exactly great for a big solo attack.
He lost the race in the crosswinds, but he was the strongest climber and he seems to be back on track.

 

[carton]

Hopeless was maybe too strong of a word. And yes, it was his only shot. But on that kind of a stage the odds are really stacked, even against a pretty strong rider.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re: Re:

Great attitude by Lopez, but a solo attack on this kind of stage with sooo much false flat after the descent is pretty much useless.

Yeah, even for a WT Stage Race winner and GT team leader against a largely Pro Conti field, it's hopeless.

It was his best chance of actually winning once Denifl limited his losses to 16 seconds yesterday. There were a few ways it could have worked - a bad day for Denifl, Denifl rashly following him and then getting dropped by him in isolation, the break being stronger than it turned out to be, the other GC guys getting spaced out or sitting on Denifl even.more than they did. And of course the rain on the descent screwed him. His chances weren't great but were better than any other option on the parcours.

Yes, it was his best chance, but the stage wasn't exactly great for a big solo attack.
He lost the race in the crosswinds, but he was the strongest climber and he seems to be back on track.

Agreed, fundamentally if the last big climb finishes 60km out, it takes a phenomenal performance or a weird race situation for a kamikaze solo to pay off. Lopez has had a good race. He won the mtf, was the strongest climber in the race and, as you say lost the race when Cannondale and Co ripped it up in the crosswinds.

He might have overcome even his crosswind loss if Denifl hadn't been so strong though. Losing only 16 seconds to Lopez on the Kitzbuheler Horn and absolutely murdering everyone else was a hell of a performance and today's show was almost as impressive. Everyone knew Denifl can climb at a very high level, but I certainly didn't see this coming on the basis of his form this year. Aquablue certainly look well worth their surprise Vuelta invite if Denifl and Warbasse can show up in their current form.

Am I right in assuming that tomorrow is a likely sprint? I can't really be sure from the profile, because uncategorised bumps in Austria can be pretty hard.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

So yes, it was a sprint but a reduced one after Katusha smashed the peloton on a climb. Venturini (Cofidis) won the stage, with Vanmarcke second yet again.

Denifl wins the GC.