73ª Volta a Portugal 2.1 04/08 - 15/08

[trevim]

uci rules. they are different for south america I think. tachira and venezuela are also 2 weeks and guatemala

Thanks. It's a shame, it would be awsome a 15 day stage race.

 

[jens_attacks]

thomas turbo diesel dekker will be here!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.wielerland.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17526&Itemid=36

another reason to watch this race.any other big names confirmed?

 

[Parrulo]

thomas turbo diesel dekker will be here!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.wielerland.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17526&Itemid=36

another reason to watch this race.any other big names confirmed?

wow awesome news

it will be nice to watch him getting dropped like a stone by cardoso

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

incredible news!

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Wow, bit hard to begin with. He will probably finish in the bus in every hard stage

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yea, talk about in at the deep end! If Tommy had been racing for a couple of months and got into some form, this would be the right kind of race for him, given the difficulty and the style of race. However, to go straight in with 11 days in the scorching heat in Portugal is going to hurt big style.

 

[theyoungest]

Wow, bit hard to begin with. He will probably finish in the bus in every hard stage

Are you telling this so if he doesn't, you can brag about how great a comeback this is?

But yeah, he probably will. He's not really a natural climber to begin with.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

No i'm saying this because I know when he got at Silence Lotto it took him 6 months to achieve any kind of form in the hills/mountains.

To start in Portugal after 2 years of no competition except some kermesses..well, I can easily see him having huge problems

 

[El Pistolero]

No i'm saying this because I know when he got at Silence Lotto it took him 6 months to achieve any kind of form in the hills/mountains.

To start in Portugal after 2 years of no competition except some kermesses..well, I can easily see him having huge problems

That's normal at Lotto apparently. A lot of cyclists there need to get used to the equipment first.

 

[Parrulo]

That's normal at Lotto apparently. A lot of cyclists there need to get used to the equipment first.

lol what do you mean with that?

i hope dekker does well but i don't think he will be with the best in the mountains. besides i want the volta to be a portuguese affair this year with hopefully cardoso winning. the guy should be on a pro tour team no doubts.

july has been a pretty cold month and temperatures have been going up steadily for the past week. we may be on our way to a extremely hot volta.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

No i'm saying this because I know when he got at Silence Lotto it took him 6 months to achieve any kind of form in the hills/mountains.

To start in Portugal after 2 years of no competition except some kermesses..well, I can easily see him having huge problems

at lotto he was injured.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

lol what do you mean with that?

i hope dekker does well but i don't think he will be with the best in the mountains. besides i want the volta to be a portuguese affair this year with hopefully cardoso winning. the guy should be on a pro tour team no doubts.

july has been a pretty cold month and temperatures have been going up steadily for the past week. we may be on our way to a extremely hot volta.

how is cardoso supposed to win with an itt in it?

 

[Parrulo]

how is cardoso supposed to win with an itt in it?

by killing it in the mountains

besides he isn't that horrible . . .

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

by killing it in the mountains

besides he isn't that horrible . . .

in u23 he wasn't horrible but as a pro he truly is horrible, he trained hard on itt this year and lost 4 minutes in portugese itt championships, while broco who was strong itt in youth seem to have improved again in it this uear

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Think Broco has always been alright in the ITT, he just bottled it last year or didn't have enough gas left in the tank - he'd been on the attack on Campanhó and caught on Sra da Graça, rather than holding on on Sra da Graça.

I'm very interested to see how Sérgio Sousa goes, he was climbing really well in the Vuelta a Asturias.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The organizer of the race, Joaquim Gomes, said in RTPN that until 2013 there will be no Volta in Algarve and Alentejo. So I guess we'll have the same route (more or less) for the coming years.

I hope they at least serve up a bit of variety in what they offer though, since it's the same every year, just the order that changes.

Instead of Monte Assunção, for example, why not climb to the Santuário do Sameiro (5,3km, 6,7%, <12%)? Or even if they don't want to go to the Alto de São Macário as I'm practically begging them to - why not Montemuro (13,6km @ 7%)?

 

[El Pistolero]

lol what do you mean with that?

i hope dekker does well but i don't think he will be with the best in the mountains. besides i want the volta to be a portuguese affair this year with hopefully cardoso winning. the guy should be on a pro tour team no doubts.

july has been a pretty cold month and temperatures have been going up steadily for the past week. we may be on our way to a extremely hot volta.

I remember when Gilbert first went to Silence Lotto he was absolutely crap because they're using other equipment there(bikes and stuff like that), so Phil had muscle soreness. They desperately added him to the Ronde van Vlaanderen(because their season was terrible up to that point) even though he sucked in all his races and ended on the podium and that was the start of his greatness. OPL use Canyon bikes and FDJ an other type of bike. Cycling shoes and stuff like that take some time to getting used to.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Suppose this is why Dekker has used a bike last month custom made by Salden that is almost exactly the same as the bike/materials Garmin use.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I spy with my little eye...

http://www.volta-portugal.com/index...cle&id=225:chipotle-development-team&catid=23

 

[Libertine Seguros]

lmao Andrea Guardini is going. The man who got dropped by Kenny van Hummel on the mountains of the Tour of Turkey is going to take on this:

Comedy gold.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

In other news though, I will be very interested to see how Daniel Diaz does.

 

[El Pistolero]

You gotta learn how to climb somewhere. Better in Portugal than in Italy or France

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Guardini has come for some cheap CQ points, god bless him. It's going to be Langkawi all over again.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Lucky that they don't go for a proper hard stage to Mondim de Basto otherwise he'd HD stage 3, and stage 2 is most definitely not for him.

 

[FujiAnton]

No way for Guardini, there are only 2 stages that realy suits him, before Torre, once he will be in his way to home after that stage. And i will be suprised if he wins more than one stage here.