2017 Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, March 20-26, WT

[ice&fire]

Re:

I haven't seen a TTT that long in a while, certainly in a week-long stage race. I don't really know what to expect, which makes me excited for this race. Too bad I have exams coming week.

Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana last month had a 38kms long TTT and a 4kms long MTF. By the looks of the final GC the TTT wasn't long enough.

 

[Vasilis]

Re: Re:

I haven't seen a TTT that long in a while, certainly in a week-long stage race. I don't really know what to expect, which makes me excited for this race. Too bad I have exams coming week.

Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana last month had a 38kms long TTT and a 4kms long MTF. By the looks of the final GC the TTT wasn't long enough.

You're right, forgot about that one... Was I this hilly though? I think that adds to the unpredictability here.

 

[can3478]

Re:

51 Martin, Daniel (30)
52 Brambilla, Gianluca (29)
53 Serry, Pieter (28)
54 Cavagna, Rémi (21)
55 De Plus, Laurens (21)
56 Mas, Enric (22)
57 Schachmann, Maximilian (23)
58 Vakoc, Petr (24)

That is one young team.

The youngsters here are quite talented, so it's interesting to see how they perform.

 

[rhubroma]

Re:

I haven't seen a TTT that long in a while, certainly in a week-long stage race. I don't really know what to expect, which makes me excited for this race. Too bad I have exams coming week.

As with all TTTs the entire race might (and this has happened at the Tour) be decided by the team leader whose team gives him the best advantage, despite not necessarilly being the overall strongest rider in the race. This is why I find them questionable. At any rate, such a long one has no place in a +/- one week stage race.

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

Smaller teams? As far as I know, all WT teams are the same size.

I think it is unfair to blame teams that do spend more time TTT training or do hire a good time trialist for having an advantage in some race.

So if some teams sucks in TTT, it is only their fault and their riders do not deserve to win these type of races.

Heck, its almost like whining that Contador cant win Paris-Roubaix because there are cobbles in that race and only fair race would be to remove those cobble sections.

The stronger TTT teams would still have an advantage with a 15km TTT. The race needs to be balanced.

Thats exactly what is wrong with today's stage racing. Too many "balanced" boring races. Just look at the TdF. It is so balanced that there is no room for anyone to gain any time and then the skyborgs, switch on to the powermeters and burn out 99% of the field by riding like a bunch of robots.

No thanks. Have a good TTT squad to gain a minute or two so the rest of the GC hopefuls has to attack from waaaaay out ... Landis style.

Problem with your example is the GC team likely to benefit would be the team with those skyborgs you mention. So we should add a TTT that will give Froome an additional 1-3 minutes? How would that help? You honestly think someone can be successful in a Landis against a Tour team with the "domestiques" they have at their disposal?

The only guy who would even try would be Contador.

 

[rick james]

Re: Re:

Even with a 15km TTT you could get gaps of over a minute between the best and worst teams. A rider like Bardet would be far behind and forced to attack. With a 40km TTT, the worst teams will lose 3 minutes at best, 5 or more at worst. Even the good but not great teams could lose one or two minutes. That kills the race.

Actually it makes the race great.

true, but some are thinking that Bertie has a crap team for the TTT so they don't like it, if Bertie had a strong team for the TTT they would be loving it.

 

[jaylew]

Re: Re:

Even with a 15km TTT you could get gaps of over a minute between the best and worst teams. A rider like Bardet would be far behind and forced to attack. With a 40km TTT, the worst teams will lose 3 minutes at best, 5 or more at worst. Even the good but not great teams could lose one or two minutes. That kills the race.

Actually it makes the race great.

true, but some are thinking that Bertie has a crap team for the TTT so they don't like it, if Bertie had a strong team for the TTT they would be loving it.

Keep on painting with that brush

 

[Singer01]

Re: Re:

Even with a 15km TTT you could get gaps of over a minute between the best and worst teams. A rider like Bardet would be far behind and forced to attack. With a 40km TTT, the worst teams will lose 3 minutes at best, 5 or more at worst. Even the good but not great teams could lose one or two minutes. That kills the race.

Actually it makes the race great.

true, but some are thinking that Bertie has a crap team for the TTT so they don't like it, if Bertie had a strong team for the TTT they would be loving it.

Keep on painting with that brush

You honestly can't see the correlation?
I have no problem with ttt other than the losses can be far too big. I'd like to see a sliding scale for position so that 1st team gains a minute on the last team with every place in between losing a proportionate number of seconds. So if you expect to come last or thereabouts you could just soft pedal the whole thing and save your legs for the following days. This would add an additional tactical calculation.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

You honestly can't see the correlation?
I have no problem with ttt other than the losses can be far too big. I'd like to see a sliding scale for position so that 1st team gains a minute on the last team with every place in between losing a proportionate number of seconds. So if you expect to come last or thereabouts you could just soft pedal the whole thing and save your legs for the following days. This would add an additional tactical calculation.

Yes, that would be very interesting

 

[dlwssonic]

Hope BMC forget about Tejay and give leadership to Hermans.
Wishful thinking.

 

[DFA123]

This first stage looks really interesting. A couple of medium mountains along the route, and then quite a steep uphill sprint to finish. I wonder if the GC contenders who are scared of the TTT will try to do something; either try to split the race apart and put riders who prefer to ease into the race in difficulty. Or maybe at least to make it really hard so everyone is fatigued going into the TTT.

If it's ridden fairly easy paced then Bouhanni should get over the climbs OK and win the sprint - possibly Greipel as well if he has the form. If it's ridden hard, then anything could happen.

 

[Matteo.]

anyone knows the profile of the Alt de la Musara? or at least how is that climb 'cause the stage could be very very interesting

 

[swuzzlebubble]

Re: Re:

You honestly can't see the correlation?
I have no problem with ttt other than the losses can be far too big. I'd like to see a sliding scale for position so that 1st team gains a minute on the last team with every place in between losing a proportionate number of seconds. So if you expect to come last or thereabouts you could just soft pedal the whole thing and save your legs for the following days. This would add an additional tactical calculation.

Yes, that would be very interesting

Unless everyone soft pedalled

 

[Singer01]

Re: Re:

You honestly can't see the correlation?
I have no problem with ttt other than the losses can be far too big. I'd like to see a sliding scale for position so that 1st team gains a minute on the last team with every place in between losing a proportionate number of seconds. So if you expect to come last or thereabouts you could just soft pedal the whole thing and save your legs for the following days. This would add an additional tactical calculation.

Yes, that would be very interesting

Unless everyone soft pedalled

That would be pretty funny. I could imagine contador stopping at the side of the road for coffee and ice cream and waving at sky as they ride past.

 

[May0maniac]

I kinda feel bad for Max Walscheid, it's a bit cruel to send a young, 90kg heavy sprinter to this race, let him gain a bit of experience in Belgium.

 

[Ricco']

Apparently ASO and Volta a Catalunya have signed a 5 year contract on image production, TV rights and sponsorship. Is this the end of the sh**** coverage?

 

[yaco]

I suspect the TTT will lead to big - Reckon up to a minute for the best 4 teams - Then b/w one or two minutes for the next 8 teams. Reckon it will lead to exciting racing.

 

[wirral]

Re:

Apparently ASO and Volta a Catalunya have signed a 5 year contract on image production, TV rights and sponsorship. Is this the end of the sh**** coverage?

I was just thinking the same thing.
It wouldn't be Catalunya without a shot of people milling around the finishing line and Kirby saying, "Well we appear to have lost live pictures. Apparently the cloud is too low for the plane to go up or so the organisers have told us. I tried a delicious local cheese today made from unpasteurised sheep's milk."

 

[Jancouver]

Re: Re:

Smaller teams? As far as I know, all WT teams are the same size.

I think it is unfair to blame teams that do spend more time TTT training or do hire a good time trialist for having an advantage in some race.

So if some teams sucks in TTT, it is only their fault and their riders do not deserve to win these type of races.

Heck, its almost like whining that Contador cant win Paris-Roubaix because there are cobbles in that race and only fair race would be to remove those cobble sections.

The stronger TTT teams would still have an advantage with a 15km TTT. The race needs to be balanced.

Thats exactly what is wrong with today's stage racing. Too many "balanced" boring races. Just look at the TdF. It is so balanced that there is no room for anyone to gain any time and then the skyborgs, switch on to the powermeters and burn out 99% of the field by riding like a bunch of robots.

No thanks. Have a good TTT squad to gain a minute or two so the rest of the GC hopefuls has to attack from waaaaay out ... Landis style.

Problem with your example is the GC team likely to benefit would be the team with those skyborgs you mention. So we should add a TTT that will give Froome an additional 1-3 minutes? How would that help? You honestly think someone can be successful in a Landis against a Tour team with the "domestiques" they have at their disposal?

The only guy who would even try would be Contador.

Maybe, it is the other way around, SKY can lose time, Froome has to (unsuccessfully) attack and my favorite rider TLMRP can finally win the Tour

BTW when was the last time SKY won some major TTT stage?

 

[Lexman]

Pierre Rolland, Antonio Nibali, Murilo Affonso, Magno Nazaret have 2,25 on the bunch

 

[MatParker117]

Re: Re:

Smaller teams? As far as I know, all WT teams are the same size.

I think it is unfair to blame teams that do spend more time TTT training or do hire a good time trialist for having an advantage in some race.

So if some teams sucks in TTT, it is only their fault and their riders do not deserve to win these type of races.

Heck, its almost like whining that Contador cant win Paris-Roubaix because there are cobbles in that race and only fair race would be to remove those cobble sections.

The stronger TTT teams would still have an advantage with a 15km TTT. The race needs to be balanced.

Thats exactly what is wrong with today's stage racing. Too many "balanced" boring races. Just look at the TdF. It is so balanced that there is no room for anyone to gain any time an hid then the skyborgs, switch on to the powermeters and burn out 99% of the field by riding like a bunch of robots.

No thanks. Have a good TTT squad to gain a minute or two so the rest of the GC hopefuls has to attack from waaaaay out ... Landis style.

Problem with your example is the GC team likely to benefit would be the team with those skyborgs you mention. So we should add a TTT that will give Froome an additional 1-3 minutes? How would that help? You honestly think someone can be successful in a Landis against a Tour team with the "domestiques" they have at their disposal?

The only guy who would even try would be Contador.

Maybe, it is the other way around, SKY can lose time, Froome has to (unsuccessfully) attack and my favorite rider TLMRP can finally win the Tour

BTW when was the last time SKY won some major TTT stage?

2013 Giro.

 

[manolo57]

2016 Vuelta.

 

[dacooley]

Re:

Apparently ASO and Volta a Catalunya have signed a 5 year contract on image production, TV rights and sponsorship. Is this the end of the sh**** coverage?

I don't think so, at least colloboration with ASO fails to improve the level of the Vuelta broadcasting thus far.

 

[Jancouver]

Re:

2016 Vuelta.

Same time as 2nd Movistar
Orica 06"
BMC 07"

And total of 11 teams under a minute

... so clearly, SKY has no upper hand in TTT winning once every 3 years by a split second.

So enough with the whining about having a TTT once every blue moon.

 

[therhodeo]

I would have zero problem with TTT's like this if there was less salary disparity among teams.