Critérium du Dauphiné 2012 Stage 7 Sunday, June 10 125 km Morzine → Châtel

[blaxland]

Wow i was impressed,did i see Denis Menchov ride at the front of the race"thats has got me thinking that maybe?just maybe?he will top 5 tdfWiggins and Evans are way in front of the rest of the contenders.Also like the way Samuel Sanchev keeps on riding,Andy/frank could learn a lot from Sami"

 

[greenedge]

Frank is going quite well at the TDS ( 2nd on a stage ). It is mainly just Andy.

Congrats to Moreno ( 4 solid wins this year ). Also congrats to Wiggins, Rogers and Evans.

Porte has in my view been the best rider this whole Dauphinie except for the flat ITT ( he has put in a lot of work for Wiggins ).

Nibali at least salvaged his Dauphinie by attacking today but it was worrying to see that he was caught before Westra ( who had been in the break longer ) on the flats.
Menchov looks to be entering silent assassin mode and will definitely be in good form for the last week of the TDF ( it's just a matter of how much time he loses early ).

Cadel will not need a strong BMC mountain team ( Sky will do all the work ) but other teams will work to split up the race in the mountains ( Lotto, RSNT, Liquigas, Rabobank Euskatel and Europcar )- which will hopefully benefit Evans.

 

[cineteq]

The courses are not the problem, Libertine, except inasmuch as they don't take the current attitude of the peloton into account. The course of the Tour is not very different from what has been the historical norm, and we've seen some of the toughest Giros of all time in the past few years.

Ultimately, it's up to the riders and DS's.

+100000 This!

I understand Libertine's frustration, but besides having challenging and diverse courses, the riders need other incentives such a bonus seconds along the courses, and sprints need to be completely eliminated from a GT.

 

[kjetilraknerud]

A top climber in top form should have no problem getting away from EBH, Porte or Rogers driving the peloton, as they are second/third tier climbers. That would have made the racing interesting. But none of the climbers bothers to attack, and the race gets boring.

 

[Ferminal]

A top climber in top form should have no problem getting away from EBH, Porte or Rogers driving the peloton, as they are second/third tier climbers. That would have made the racing interesting. But none of the climbers bothers to attack, and the race gets boring.

If Evans or JVdB could have gained a gap they would have. Quintana was the only one strong enough.

 

[Gloin22]

A top climber in top form should have no problem getting away from EBH, Porte or Rogers driving the peloton, as they are second/third tier climbers. That would have made the racing interesting. But none of the climbers bothers to attack, and the race gets boring.

Van der Broeck said the pace was too high to attack for him on the Col Joux Plane mate

 

[kjetilraknerud]

Van der Broeck said the pace was too high to attack for him on the Col Joux Plane mate

In that case he isn't a good enough climber to challenge Wiggins.

 

[kjetilraknerud]

If Evans or JVdB could have gained a gap they would have. Quintana was the only one strong enough.

Absolutely, and that's the problem - not the parcours. Although I do agree the parcours were tailor made for Wiggins. But had Andy been there in good form and bothered, surely he could have gained a gap on Porte and thus making the racing more interesting.

Edit: spelling

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The courses are not the problem, Libertine, except inasmuch as they don't take the current attitude of the peloton into account. The course of the Tour is not very different from what has been the historical norm, and we've seen some of the toughest Giros of all time in the past few years.

Ultimately, it's up to the riders and DS's.

The problem is, the riders and DSs don't WANT to change. The racing can be changed in two ways:

1) change the courses raced on
2) change the people racing on it.

It's an awful lot easier to change the course to try to enforce more interesting racing than it is to effect a sea change in the psychology of the teams and riders. The bigger part of the problem is the riders' being accepting of (unused to anything else?) highly controlled racing where an attack with 5km to go is considered "going from afar", but it's difficult to change that, and futile to decide to sit and wait until riders and DSs decide that long range attacks are worthwhile again, because as long as teams like Sky are so effective at controlling the race, those long range attacks aren't worthwhile. So I want to try to enforce that change by making courses that aren't so easy to control.