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

[movingtarget]

Re:

Roglic is the new LRP.

Naah there can only be one...........

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Nice fight back for Fuglsang

Great way to enter the spring break, before the build up for the tour, where I think he and Astana will be the surprise of the race..... unless ofcourse he does his usual token crash

How will Astana be a surprise ? They have been winning all season.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re: Re:

Nice fight back for Fuglsang

Great way to enter the spring break, before the build up for the tour, where I think he and Astana will be the surprise of the race..... unless ofcourse he does his usual token crash

How will Astana be a surprise ? They have been winning all season.

Because on paper it's the B team

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re: Re:

Nice fight back for Fuglsang

Great way to enter the spring break, before the build up for the tour, where I think he and Astana will be the surprise of the race..... unless ofcourse he does his usual token crash

Hmm, Astana will be pretty weak and I really haven't been impressed by his climbing so far. They are sending their A-team to win the Giro, while Fuglsang will get the B-team and Valgren. Lets see.

There in lies the surprise dude

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re: Re:

Nice fight back for Fuglsang

Great way to enter the spring break, before the build up for the tour, where I think he and Astana will be the surprise of the race..... unless ofcourse he does his usual token crash

Hmm, Astana will be pretty weak and I really haven't been impressed by his climbing so far. They are sending their A-team to win the Giro, while Fuglsang will get the B-team and Valgren. Lets see.

He's also too fat, they say ...

 

[Jagartrott]

Re: Re:

Roglic confirmed 2nd. Will have 8s to burn tomorrow, which could easily go to the break cause I'm not sure there's any sprinters left.

Sonny and Ackermann

Mørkøv!

Who's... kinda basically on his own. Got Capecchi and Knox to help him...

Knox is out.

 

[staubsauger]

Re: Re:

Nice fight back for Fuglsang

Great way to enter the spring break, before the build up for the tour, where I think he and Astana will be the surprise of the race..... unless ofcourse he does his usual token crash

Hmm, Astana will be pretty weak and I really haven't been impressed by his climbing so far. They are sending their A-team to win the Giro, while Fuglsang will get the B-team and Valgren. Lets see.

He's also too fat, they say ...

Nah, he's lost his butter hip last year already to win the Dauphine!

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Roglic confirmed 2nd. Will have 8s to burn tomorrow, which could easily go to the break cause I'm not sure there's any sprinters left.

Sonny and Ackermann

Mørkøv!

Who's... kinda basically on his own. Got Capecchi and Knox to help him...

Knox is out.

:lol:

Well then... this hasn't been Quickstep's race!
Which I actually think is good, they need to be taken down a bit, still want Mørkøv to do well tomorrow.

Nice fight back for Fuglsang

Great way to enter the spring break, before the build up for the tour, where I think he and Astana will be the surprise of the race..... unless ofcourse he does his usual token crash

Hmm, Astana will be pretty weak and I really haven't been impressed by his climbing so far. They are sending their A-team to win the Giro, while Fuglsang will get the B-team and Valgren. Lets see.

He's also too fat, they say ...

Nah, he's lost his butter hip last year already to win the Dauphine!

No, it's true. He says he's too fat.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re: Re:

Nice fight back for Fuglsang

Great way to enter the spring break, before the build up for the tour, where I think he and Astana will be the surprise of the race..... unless ofcourse he does his usual token crash

Hmm, Astana will be pretty weak and I really haven't been impressed by his climbing so far. They are sending their A-team to win the Giro, while Fuglsang will get the B-team and Valgren. Lets see.

He's also too fat, they say ...

Nah, he's lost his butter hip last year already to win the Dauphine!

No, it's true. He says he's too fat.

Yep, he said to danish media, that he will shed some weight before the tour - he doesn't think he is lean and mean enough yet

I would bet you, both Valgren and Cort will shed a lot of weight over the break too, because for them, after the tour, the goals will be stage wins at a very hilly the vuelta, then making the World Championships squad (which in the case of Denmark, is very light on qualified climbers), and then Il Lombardia - so it is all about climbing from here on in.

I also think both Fraile and Hansen are fully on track, to both ride their best GT ever.... and Hansen further knows, this is the season he might also have a shot at worlds, if he can take the next step up, and consistently ride with the lieutenants.

The stars are aligning

 

[May0maniac]

Over the last year i actually started liking Fuglsang, he rides like a changed man, always attacking.
I guess he'll get Hansen, Cataldo and Fraile for the mountains and strong rouleurs for the TTT and the cobbles. he's one of those guys who could gain a lot of time on the cobbles, sso it makes sense to send a few strong rouleurs with him.
11 years ago we had the last great Danish mountain raid at the Tour and 11 years before that we had the Bjarne show, you never know...

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re:

Over the last year i actually started liking Fuglsang, he rides like a changed man, always attacking.
I guess he'll get Hansen, Cataldo and Fraile for the mountains and strong rouleurs for the TTT and the cobbles. he's one of those guys who could gain a lot of time on the cobbles, sso it makes sense to send a few strong rouleurs with him.
11 years ago we had the last great Danish mountain raid at the Tour and 11 years before that we had the Bjarne show, you never know...

It is interesting his career is so similar to Riis', in that Riis spent years as Fignons primary helper, always giving up his own race for him.... much like Fuglsang did for Nibali..... and then, when the old captain finally leaves, he gets the chance to spread his wings, both at classics and GTs.

Where they differ is, that Fuglsang was always a good climber, where as Riis got some "help" later on in his career (just to preclude the usual snide comments )

 

[Valv.Piti]

Fuglsang didn't give anything up, he got sick and then crashed in 2014 and sucked in 2015 (was basically captain after Nibali lost everything on the first MTF). Then in 2016 they were both peaking for Rio while he crashed again in 2017. And in that Giro in 2016, he simply didnt have it. For the most part, he rode his own race.

Nothing to do with Nibali really

 

[rune1107]

Re:

Fuglsang didn't give anything up, he got sick and then crashed in 2014 and sucked in 2015 (was basically captain after Nibali lost everything on the first MTF). Then in 2016 they were both peaking for Rio while he crashed again in 2017. And in that Giro in 2016, he simply didnt have it. For the most part, he rode his own race.

Nothing to do with Nibali really

Obviously it has helped him a lot switching focus along with trainer Rune Larsen. In the latter years of his career, he seems to be more of a winner, than he was in 2013-2016. Still, it is top 10 in TDF, or he should start aiming for one-week stage races.

 

[The Barb]

Been a surprisingly good race, even though it never really looked like Roglic was in trouble.

So, it'll be a breakaway for the final stage, right? Always hard to pick but the Swiss riders will surely be motivated. Ordinarily a stage like this would be an Albasini special, but he looks well below his best. Danilo Wyss and Silvan Dillier the most likely two for me.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re:

Over the last year i actually started liking Fuglsang, he rides like a changed man, always attacking.
I guess he'll get Hansen, Cataldo and Fraile for the mountains and strong rouleurs for the TTT and the cobbles. he's one of those guys who could gain a lot of time on the cobbles, sso it makes sense to send a few strong rouleurs with him.
11 years ago we had the last great Danish mountain raid at the Tour and 11 years before that we had the Bjarne show, you never know...

Yeah, I agree with this. I've never liked Fuglsang, but his riding is slowly winning me over. Now, if only he would stop whining all the time...

 

[Laplaz]

Ackermann wins.

 

[Sestriere]

Finally the first pro win for Ackermann, he was second and third often enough.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Fantastic leadout by Selig.

 

[Robert5091]

Bahrain-Merida sat it up nicely for Ackermann Nice for Bora to have someone other then Sagan getting a win.

Chapeau to Roglic on the GC.

 

[DNP-Old]

Dani Martinez' season:
2nd in ITT Colombian championships - 6 seconds behind Egan Bernal
5th in Oro y Paz - 5th to Manizales
7th in Catalunya - 10th on La Molina
12th in Romandia - 14th in CTT to Villars

Very good season for him thus far, performing better than in the last two Gaudu for instance.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Today was obviously a very entertaining stage judging on the comments and everything.

Why end the race with a flat and completely irrelevant stage?...

 

[Squire]

Re:

Today was obviously a very entertaining stage judging on the comments and everything.

Why end the race with a flat and completely irrelevant stage?...

To keep the number of finishers at a respectable level.

 

[movingtarget]

Re:

Today was obviously a very entertaining stage judging on the comments and everything.

Why end the race with a flat and completely irrelevant stage?...

The Swiss countryside was nice................

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Re:

Today was obviously a very entertaining stage judging on the comments and everything.

Why end the race with a flat and completely irrelevant stage?...

The more they make their race have features of a GC (Prologue, sprint stage to finish), the bigger they feel their race is.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

Today was obviously a very entertaining stage judging on the comments and everything.

Why end the race with a flat and completely irrelevant stage?...

The more they make their race have features of a GC (Prologue, sprint stage to finish), the bigger they feel their race is.

Yeah, I'm surprised they didn't make a TTT as well. That would go well alongside the prologue and MTT in a six-day race. Maybe a long ITT to finish it off with too.