94th Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2014 (2.WT, 24 March - 30 March)

[gospina]

For goodness sake. Wiggins has pulled out to do 'a block of climbing based training' rather than race with froome

This sucks! Wiggo is the perfect launching pad for Nairo to take a stage, like last year.

 

[ILovecycling]

I think so too and I hope Berto can closely match or even beat him

Me too,still dont know what to expect in comparison with Froome.Its tough too be open-mind to the result
Anyway I expect that Nairito will be at better level than PN too.

This sucks! Wiggo is the perfect launching pad for Nairo to take a stage, like last year.

Lol!!!

 

[VeloHuman]

wiggo doing mountaintraining for p-r? we can surely scrap his p-r participaiton as well and now he's going to focus on the tour and after that fails he will retire

I think Wiggins wants to do something at the Vuelta, just to go out with a bang.

 

[arvc40]

Cant wait to see Bert v Froome next week !!!.

 

[arvc40]

I think Wiggins wants to do something at the Vuelta, just to go out with a bang.

He's certainly going out with a bang ! lol.

 

[Jspear]

I think Wiggins wants to do something at the Vuelta, just to go out with a bang.

Traditionally the Vuelta has more climbing than the TdF. Wiggins sucks at climbing so all I see him doing at the Vuelta is using it as prep for the Worlds.

 

[VeloHuman]

Traditionally the Vuelta has more climbing than the TdF. Wiggins sucks at climbing so all I see him doing at the Vuelta is using it as prep for the Worlds.

Yeah... Wiggins doesn't suck at climbing when he really wants to do it. One does not simply win the Tour de France while sucking at climbing. He's also podiumed at the Vuelta. At his best, he can be a top-shelf climber.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Yeah... Wiggins doesn't suck at climbing when he really wants to do it. One does not simply win the Tour de France while sucking at climbing. He's also podiumed at the Vuelta. At his best, he can be a top-shelf climber.

He was a (not quite but almost) top shelf climber when in rather extreme condition. But he hasn't shown any indication that he is going to replicate that sort of condition again, or even any desire to replicate it. I don't blame him for that - he put himself through hell to win the biggest prize in the sport, it's hardly shocking that he has less motivation when he can't conceivably do so again.

 

[Jspear]

Yeah... Wiggins doesn't suck at climbing when he really wants to do it. One does not simply win the Tour de France while sucking at climbing. He's also podiumed at the Vuelta. At his best, he can be a top-shelf climber.

I was talking about his 2013-14 form and was comparing him to "real" climbers. Contador, Froome, Quintana, ect. There are MANY others that climb alot better than him. For someone was once a gt gc rider, he kinda sucks(at climbing).

 

[Hugo87]

Yeah... Wiggins doesn't suck at climbing when he really wants to do it. One does not simply win the Tour de France while sucking at climbing. He's also podiumed at the Vuelta. At his best, he can be a top-shelf climber.

If Oscar Pereiro won Le Tour with a freaking 30 minutes breakaway, almost half of the bunch that starts the Tour can win it, with luck and a dumb team just like Phonak was, everything is possible.

 

[VeloHuman]

He was a (not quite but almost) top shelf climber when in rather extreme condition. But he hasn't shown any indication that he is going to replicate that sort of condition again, or even any desire to replicate it. I don't blame him for that - he put himself through hell to win the biggest prize in the sport, it's hardly shocking that he has less motivation when he can't conceivably do so again.

I certainly don't think he's shown anything recently to suggest that he can still climb with the top guys right now, but "at his best" was the operative phrase there. He wasn't just some schmuck with a strong time trial and a good team when he won the Tour; he probably won't ever reach that climbing level again, but no reason to believe it's simply impossible.

 

[Jelantik]

I think so too and I hope Berto can closely match or even beat him

i would think so. I watched TA video last year again when bertie got beat. He attacked and attacked, but he ended up got his *** kicked by Froome. This year he definitely looks better than last year. He just need to be patient not to attack too early. I think he'll be able to match Froome. If Quintana is improving there's no reason why Bertie won't.

I'm curious to see how Majka fares against Quintana, Purito and Porte. His form supposedly closed to peak.

 

[hfer07]

The Start list is all the A teams lined up

difficult parcours to control for one single team-we might see the winner until the very last stage


at last we witness a serious battle among the best: Contador vs Froome vs Quintana vs Purito

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

If Oscar Pereiro won Le Tour with a freaking 30 minutes breakaway, almost half of the bunch that starts the Tour can win it, with luck and a dumb team just like Phonak was, everything is possible.

what kind of bull**** is this. pereiro before ever winning the tour was a frequen top ten rider in the tour gc. only a few % of the peloton could ever hope to manage that. did you even see the tour 2006 and how pereiro climbed?

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I think Wiggins wants to do something at the Vuelta, just to go out with a bang.

he's not even going to do the vueklta

 

[Miburo]

what kind of bull**** is this. pereiro before ever winning the tour was a frequen top ten rider in the tour gc. only a few % of the peloton could ever hope to manage that. did you even see the tour 2006 and how pereiro climbed?

Yea pretty much, pereiro was a good GC rider but his stats in pcm '07 were a bit too good

 

[Hugo87]

what kind of bull**** is this. pereiro before ever winning the tour was a frequen top ten rider in the tour gc. only a few % of the peloton could ever hope to manage that. did you even see the tour 2006 and how pereiro climbed?

It's not bull****, it's a fact deal with it was a stupid 30 minutes breakaway, curiously he started climbing like Landis after that stage... Lol

I know Pereiro, he raced here in Portugal and i can only discuss that in Clinic.

Other thing:

figures of speech
An expression that uses language in a nonliteral way, such as a metaphor or synecdoche, or in a structured or unusual way, such as anaphora or chiasmus, or that employs sounds, such as alliteration or assonance, to achieve a rhetorical effect.

Don't need to thank me.

 

[GuyIncognito]

It's not bull****, it's a fact deal with it was a stupid 30 minutes breakaway, curiously he started climbing like Landis after that stage... Lol

I know Pereiro, he raced here in Portugal and i can only discuss that in Clinic.

Other thing:



Don't need to thank me.

Pereiro announced before the Pyrenees that he would be riding with the autobus on purpose to be allowed into breaks later
His justification was that he didn't feel capable of better than a top 10, which he'd already done before, so he'd rather ride for stages and KOM.

That said, of course he started taking silly risks with clinic things once he found himself in yellow so that he could try to win and his performances went up a step as a result.

 

[Hugo87]

Pereiro announced before the Pyrenees that he would be riding with the autobus on purpose to be allowed into breaks later
His justification was that he didn't feel capable of better than a top 10, which he'd already done before, so he'd rather ride for stages and KOM.

That said, of course he started taking silly risks with clinic things once he found himself in yellow so that he could try to win and his performances went up a step as a result.

His 2005 10th place was result of 2 successful breakaways (stage 14th and 15th), he didn't manage to climb with the best 20 guys in that year.

His 2004 10th place his "legit", if you ignore that he was riding with Phonak, a team that had like 10 positive tests for doping in 3 years.

He was nothing special and his 2006 Le Tour's win is a bogus and a disgrace for the history of the race.

 

[Parrulo]

Drop the clinic talk now!

 

[Hugo87]

Drop the clinic talk now!

Sorry

Only a guy like Rio to make me lose my patience.

...

On Topic:

Sky dealing with some pressure in Catalunya, almost no results after winning Oman's (only Nieve top-10 in TA and Stannard Omloop) and off course Geraint Thomas bad luck and poor handling skills in Nice.

 

[Jelantik]

Sorry

Only a guy like Rio to make me lose my patience.

...

On Topic:

Sky dealing with some pressure in Catalunya, almost no results after winning Oman's (only Nieve top-10 in TA and Stannard Omloop) and off course Geraint Thomas bad luck and poor handling skills in Nice.

Froome won the Oman GC, with not so hard core training last 2013. That's how easy he crushed everyone in green mountain.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Majka is out, he hasn't recovered from his crash in PN yet.

 

[Jspear]

Majka is out, he hasn't recovered from his crash in PN yet.

That is a bummer. He would have provided good support for Contador.

 

[LaFlorecita]

That is a bummer. He would have provided good support for Contador.

Yep, Contador will have to do it on his own now unfortunately