Amgen Tour of California 2019, May 12-18

[Rvizzle]

Re: Re:

New break-situation:

Eight is enough for this breakaway:
Lennard Hofstede (Team Jumbo-Visma)
Hermann Pernsteiner (Bahrain-Merida)
Matteo Fabbro (Katusha-Alpecin)
Hugo Houle (Astana Pro Team)
Pawel Bernas (CCC Team)
Michael Storer (Team Sunweb)
Mikkel Bjerg (Hagens Berman Axeon)
Matteo Badilatti (Israel Cycling Academy)
Pernsteiner and Holst Enger have gone back to the bunch, which has closed the gap to 2:05

Not how Pernsteiner has managed to splice in two!

What's happened to Doull?

Dropped out of the break, I guess.

Or maybe not: Looks like whoever's in charge of the CN live updates can't make up their minds. This should be the break:

Houle, Fabbro, Doull, Bernas, Hofstede, Bjerg, Storer and Sagan Sr.

Yep, they're also now describing him as the first Welsh rider to win an olympic gold.......

 

[RedheadDane]

Break definitely confirmed now.
Wonder if Pernsteiner dropped back, as he is only 1:12 behind in GC.

 

[del1962]

Wasnt that Nicole Cooke or was the track before rr in Bejing

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

Wasnt that Nicole Cooke

Where?

 

[del1962]

Re: Re:

Wasnt that Nicole Cooke

Where?

Bejing

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Wasnt that Nicole Cooke

Where?

Bejing

What's that got to do with Tour of California?

 

[del1962]

Re: Re:

Wasnt that Nicole Cooke

Where?

Bejing

What's that got to do with Tour of California?

Just answering this about Doull

Yep, they're also now describing him as the first Welsh rider to win an olympic gold.......

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

Wasnt that Nicole Cooke or was the track before rr in Bejing

RR before track. CN following the BC party line of writing Nicole out of history it seems

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Hofstede & Storer are now leading 100 meters in front of the other 6.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

Hofstede & Storer are now reading 100 meters in front of the other 6.

They really should concentrate on doing their job!

 

[Lequack]

Peloton is going pretty slow, they gained no time on the break.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

First time we ever see TT prodigy Mikkel Bjerg in the mountains.

Today will show if he has the makings of a GT captain in future

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

First time we ever see TT prodigy Mikkel Bjerg in the mountains.

Today will show if he has the makings of a GT captain in future

Time to actually live up to his name?

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Mads P punishing himself, putting all the disappointment of the spring into his legs - I wonder how long he can suffer like that

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

Re:

First time we ever see TT prodigy Mikkel Bjerg in the mountains.

Today will show if he has the makings of a GT captain in future

Is that expected? Has he ever shown anything uphill?

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re: Re:

First time we ever see TT prodigy Mikkel Bjerg in the mountains.

Today will show if he has the makings of a GT captain in future

Is that expected? Has he ever shown anything uphill?

I have no idea.

First time I ever see him on a proper mountain - that was the point

He DOES look like he is suffering though, but then, he does riding TT too

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

First time we ever see TT prodigy Mikkel Bjerg in the mountains.

Today will show if he has the makings of a GT captain in future

Is that expected? Has he ever shown anything uphill?

No... but it seems those Danes are doing the unexpected these days.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

I'm glad you guys don't expext him to, because from all his results that i've seen, there was nothing to suggest that he would (or could) be a GT GC guy.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re: Re:

First time we ever see TT prodigy Mikkel Bjerg in the mountains.

Today will show if he has the makings of a GT captain in future

Is that expected? Has he ever shown anything uphill?

No... but it seems those Danes are doing the unexpected these days.

Pretty fun race to watch as a dane this - especially as we only have 2 guys at the giro

Just noticed, Cort is working as a mountain dom for Gregaard - pretty cool

 

[RedheadDane]

Agreed, this is fun race (despite the jersey-snafu).
And Hansen is just sneaking around.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

You can just see the back 20 in the peloton mubling "f*cking Mads Pedersen" under their breath

The punishment continues.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Can I just say:

WOW this part of California is beautiful!

The spectacle is just wonderful.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

Re:

Agreed, this is fun race (despite the jersey-snafu).
And Hansen is just sneaking around.

Just looked at the start list, I actually think we have more riders in the race than any other nation, outside of the host nation.

I may have miscalculated, but that's what I arrived at, at a glance.

When has that ever happened before in a would tour race?

 

[Bushman]

Re: Re:

First time we ever see TT prodigy Mikkel Bjerg in the mountains.

Today will show if he has the makings of a GT captain in future

Is that expected? Has he ever shown anything uphill?

No.

Howvever, he was 22nd overall at l’Avenir last year in his first U23 season which is not too bad and obviously his tt capabilities indicate that he is a VO2 max monster. He probably wont ever be a great climber but he shouldnt be terrible either. I think Tony Martin makes for a good camparison.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Ah, of course, so if a stage suits Sagan, it's badly designed, because you don't like Sagan.

Sagan won the Laguna Seca stage. That was a really good finish and a good design.

Sagan is a very versatile rider and he can win a lot of different types of finish. I was referring to a particular type of stage design which suits him and has proliferated in the Tour of California in the past, which has been a contributing factor in his immense number of stage wins here. He's won plenty of races I've thought well designed in the past. That Tirreno-Adriatico stage in the two-up with Nibali? Awesome design. The Grindelwald finish in the Tour de Suisse all those years ago? Great design. The 2011 Vuelta stage where Lastras went away with the three Liquigas riders? Good.

The Tour of California has a lot of stages which include too much climbing for the general sprinter, but that guys like Sagan, Matthews or similar can get over - but not close enough to the finish for anybody to reasonably use them as a platform to attack from, which makes a bunch finish more likely - especially as the Tour of California often has wide open finishes which suit the bunch. Stages like this (last climb 52km from home), this (Sagan won this one), this, this, this and this are what I mean. Not stuff like this, which Sagan also won.

So, so... just to clarify, are you suggesting that Tarbes 2009 and Pau 2010 actually aren't good stage designs?! Blasphemous.