2018, 72nd Tour de Romandie, April 24th - April 29th, WT

[WheelofGear]

The mountain stage is short as f--k. A time trialist to take this.

If Porte and Roglic haven't recovered, Thomas is the favorite.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Hmm, would regular bikes be necessary for the ITT - about 8% gradient - or could the powerhouse Tony Martin types push it up on the TT bike?
At least they won't have to change bikes by the looks of it.

Tony Martin can't push anything these days...
Honestly, I have no clue. These time trials are the best.

 

[HelloDolly]

Geraint Thomas for the GC win

 

[Robert5091]

Strange route, normal street furniture problems I suppose, form test for G, LRP etc.

 

[Laplaz]

Fuglsang to win this.

 

[Koronin]

Half of Movistar's team for this race is coming off the Ardennes week. Interesting.

 

[Son of Amsterhammer]

Roglic I think

 

[The Barb]

I'm not sure about Ion Izagirre's form (his results in the Ardennes don't read well) but I would have thought the route (with a priorities on time trialing and descending) suits him very nicely. No mountain top finishes (unless you count the time trial) lessens Porte's chances greatly.

Roglic is a deserving favourite but at 18-1 Izagirre is over the odds.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

I like these short prologues. Dennis is of course the favorite but I think that Matthews could be close.

 

[movingtarget]

More training for Richie. Going for the slow Tour build up not through choice but because of his illness and missed racing.Maybe for him not such a bad thing to be away from the media hype.

 

[Strawberry_Jams]

Brits in 7 different world tour teams. Must be a record. Makes a change from the early 2000's

 

[LosBrolin]

Mathias Frank to grind top 5 on GC

 

[RedheadDane]

BTW, how come there's only one Wild Card team? That's just bizarre.

 

[loge1884]

Albasini is not a contender this year ... he has been ill earlier the season and is not in good shape (had to give up both FW and LBL - and he's not the guy racing for DNF) ....

 

[loge1884]

Re:

Am I alone in looking at that prologue and thinking “that’s a waste of a race day”? Especially with a mountain TT later in the week?

I love prologues .... unfortunately they don't seem to be en vogue anymore in the GTs ....

 

[barmaher]

It doesn't look like the best route, but screw it...it's different so let's give it a go.

I would think that Roglic is a legitimate favourite for this race, given the form he has shown this year so far. Ordinarily, I would rank Ion Izagirre, Thomas and more particularly Richie Porte ahead of them, but there are varying degrees of doubt over their levels of form.

I am very interested to see how Latour, Bernal and Gaudu go.

 

[yaco]

Re:

Am I alone in looking at that prologue and thinking “that’s a waste of a race day”? Especially with a mountain TT later in the week?

Agree 100% - And add not one finish on top of a hill - It's a strange parcours.

 

[WheelofGear]

Although it's very short, the mountain stage should still be too much for Roglic.

13 km at 6,6%. Not the steepest one, but it's one of those you can climb in ITT mode. I except massive gaps.

Since the stage is so short, it's not really in favor of real (endurance) climbers. You can even say that there is two MTT in this race.

 

[Leinster]

Re: Re:

Am I alone in looking at that prologue and thinking “that’s a waste of a race day”? Especially with a mountain TT later in the week?

I love prologues .... unfortunately they don't seem to be en vogue anymore in the GTs ....

Well exactly. A prologue has its place; at a GT. Does any race shorter than 7 stages need to spend 2 different days in TT mode?

 

[search]

Re: Re:

Am I alone in looking at that prologue and thinking “that’s a waste of a race day”? Especially with a mountain TT later in the week?

I love prologues .... unfortunately they don't seem to be en vogue anymore in the GTs ....

Well exactly. A prologue has its place; at a GT. Does any race shorter than 7 stages need to spend 2 different days in TT mode?

I can't see what's the problem with it - especially if completely different kind of skills are needed to succeed in those two time trial stages (like it's the case in Romandie now)

And I don't think scrapping the prologue and adding a road stage is a viable option anyway given the short break between Liege and Romandie. It would probably mean that the race has to start a day later

 

[Jungle Cycle]

assuming they pick their place in the start(within the team) why Spilak+Martin start so soon??

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Re:

assuming they pick their place in the start(within the team) why Spilak+Martin start so soon??

may be they just fancy the weather warm than colder

or even have an appointment in late afternoon.

 

[Chrispol]

https://www.tissottiming.com/2018/tdr/fr/tdr/Stage/1/Live#anchor

For those who want to know the time before the live broadcast.

Martin first 2 second better than Spilak. :surprised:

EDIT : Ok William Clarke 13s in front now.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Re:

https://www.tissottiming.com/2018/tdr/fr/tdr/Stage/1/Live#anchor

For those who want to know the time before the live broadcast.

Martin first 2 second better than Spilak. :surprised:

EDIT : Ok William Clarke 13s in front now.

Thanks for the link.

 

[johnymax]

Dennis won't win :surprised: