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

[The Barb]

Stage 2 very open. Looks like a breakaway to me, now that plenty of riders are way down.

But just the words "Stage 2 Tour of Romandie" give me post traumatic stress disorder. In 2016 I thought I'd had the biggest punting win of my life when Zakarin crossed the line first. I had him at 16-1 straight up and through all sorts of parlays. After waking up and watching the recording I had about 15 minutes of joy before going on line and seeing he'd been relegated. Didn't even cross my mind when watching that there was any problem. Horrendous decision by the officials.

Anyway, I'm right on the Bernal bandwagon for the overall (6-1).

 

[EroicaStradeBianche]

I don't understand why Lotto worked so hard to drop Matthews. He would have lost the yallow in the last stages in any case. Now Rogla has to defend his jersey.

 

[Lequack]

Re:

I don't understand why Lotto worked so hard to drop Matthews. He would have lost the yallow in the last stages in any case. Now Rogla has to defend his jersey.

Yeah I don't know, I don't think they were really trying to get rid of him specifically, he can usually get over such climbs. But strange either way.

 

[roundabout]

It's only one sprinter friendly stage more to control, so probably not a big deal vs almost certainly having the jersey for a day.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Bernal is basically a mix between Contador, Purito and Valverde. Scary boy.

 

[Robert5091]

Chapeau Omar & Astana! (again) - Sonny went/had to go too soon ...

Lumpy stage 2 too - Delémont – Yverdon-les-Bain 173.9 km

 

[Breh]

Re:

Stage 2 very open. Looks like a breakaway to me, now that plenty of riders are way down.

But just the words "Stage 2 Tour of Romandie" give me post traumatic stress disorder. In 2016 I thought I'd had the biggest punting win of my life when Zakarin crossed the line first. I had him at 16-1 straight up and through all sorts of parlays. After waking up and watching the recording I had about 15 minutes of joy before going on line and seeing he'd been relegated. Didn't even cross my mind when watching that there was any problem. Horrendous decision by the officials.

Anyway, I'm right on the Bernal bandwagon for the overall (6-1).

Ah yeah, that was a disgrace.

Zakarin doesn't many races as it is. That sprint vs Quintana was a golden opportunity, too bad the officials screwed him over.

 

[johnymax]

Re:

Nice win by Nibali's brother Fraile looks more alike Vincenzo than Antonio does IMO.
Terrible team work by Bahrain Merida in the end. Colbrelli had to be at the front for the last couple of kms with no other teammates there to help him. Then suddenly you see Gorka sprinting to an useless 5th place smh.

Also surprised to see Matthews being dropped from more than 50 riders. I imagine it was a bad day but still...people on this forum were discussing the other day who is the better climber between him and Sagan. I don't see any circumstances in which Sagan wouldn't be there sprinting for the stage win in today's stage (if he was in the race of course).

I don't understand why Lotto worked so hard to drop Matthews. He would have lost the yallow in the last stages in any case. Now Rogla has to defend his jersey.

To me it didn't look like they were driving that hard. Kruijswijk was keeping a steady tempo to keep Roglič in front and to prevent attacks. It was far from a strong pace IMO, as the peloton of 50+ riders sprinting for the win in the end suggests. I don't think they wanted to drop Matthews and one would expect the Australian to comfortably make it to the line with the first group of 50+ riders. He just didn't have it today.

On the other hand it was nice to see Lotto Jumbo ride like a big team. Well they aren't yet there, they don't have the personnel of a big team, again there were only Roglič and Kruijswijk in the front group. But what I mean is sacrificing one rider who'd be good enough for a top10 or even a top5, for another who is the favourite or at least among the 3 top favourites for the race. This is what the best teams usually do (ok Movistar in GTs doesn't :lol: ). With the raise of Rogla and Groenewegen the mentality in the team has changed it seems, they ride for the win. Now they just need a couple of strong climbing domestics.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

Nice win by Nibali's brother Fraile looks more alike Vincenzo than Antonio does IMO.

You must be onto something.

He nose things

 

[Valv.Piti]

So does Lotto really have to fit Rogla, Kruijswijk and Groenewegen in the 8 spot Tour roster? That can prove a little problematic....

 

[GP Blanco]

Re:

So does Lotto really have to fit Rogla, Kruijswijk and Groenewegen in the 8 spot Tour roster? That can prove a little problematic....

It can be done
Groenewegen, Roosen, Jansen, Boom or Leezer or Martens
Kruijswijk, Roglic, Clement, Gesink

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

So does Lotto really have to fit Rogla, Kruijswijk and Groenewegen in the 8 spot Tour roster? That can prove a little problematic....

It can be done
Groenewegen, Roosen, Jansen, Boom or Leezer or Martens
Kruijswijk, Roglic, Clement, Gesink

Forget about Gesink as well.

Will be a decently strong team. Many opportunities, Lotto can just rely on other teams to catch the breaks, I assume

 

[RedheadDane]

To the surprise of approximately nobody De Gendt is in the breakaway.

 

[Laplaz]

Break:
Thomas De Gendt, Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal), Andriy Grivko (Astana), Matteo Fabbro (Katusha-Alpecin) and Nathan Brown (EF-Drapac)

 

[Robert5091]

6 and a half minutes for the breakaway - go all the way?

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Break:
Thomas De Gendt, Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal), Andriy Grivko (Astana), Matteo Fabbro (Katusha-Alpecin) and Nathan Brown (EF-Drapac)

I expected Dillier to be in there! I think he said he was targeting today's stage.

 

[Laplaz]

They won't catch them easily, 7:20 now their lead.

 

[Samamba]

A small break but wow, there is some serious horsepower in there.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

They won't catch them easily, 7:20 now their lead.

Unless Quickstep get their act together, they're gone I think. With Viviani and Gaviria they are the red-hot favorites and everyone will look at them.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

They won't catch them easily, 7:20 now their lead.

Unless Quickstep get their act together, they're gone I think. With Viviani and Gaviria they are the red-hot favorites and everyone will look at them.

At some point GT teams will ride cause you don't want to gift De Gendt too much time.

 

[Jagartrott]

De Gendt is pretty harmless for GC here, already 3:30 back, but Brown is closer (30 seconds)

 

[Samamba]

Grivko not working apparently

 

[Robert5091]

Steve Cummings (Dimension Data) abandoned http://live.cyclingnews.com/

 

[Robert5091]

Re:

Grivko not working apparently

Waiting up, I imagine.

 

[Robert5091]

Re:

Steve Cummings (Dimension Data) abandoned http://live.cyclingnews.com/

Seems he didn't want to be here in the first place!
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/cummings-keeping-calm-in-the-eye-of-the-storm/#disqus_thread