Cyclingnews Poll Results? WTF?

[Michielveedeebee]

Judging a race from a CN commentary? What a laugh!

I saw both. For KBK I was also roadside at the Oude Kwaremont spectating with my other half. The fact that the race was so well managed, well commentated and well shot is a testament to the considerable knowledge, experience and skills of the race organisers and the TV team respectively. That smoothness made the race look something like normal, whereas of course the unfamiliar, one-off, unscripted novelty of the Giro's St. 7 made it look more like two-wheeled anarchy.

Sure, there was rain at KBK. But the rain was just one noticeable symptom of a freakish cyclone that came up from France overnight - violent winds, near-freezing temperatures and yes, buckets of rain. Add to a stinker of a parcours and mix well. And the sky was almost dark enough to be night. It was apocalyptic stuff. Anyone who finished should be considered special. Anyone who made the podium should be considered an animal.

KBK passed through my street, we were the only ones coming out of our house to check the riders out. it was on the descend of Tiegemberg. After the leading 3 had passed a small peloton followed. Suddenly, almost a quarter after the rest a guy from topsport Vlaanderen passed. All alone with just the broomwagon after him. I never felt so much respect for anybody as then.

 

[djconnel]

Don't read much into who finishes second. One-person, one-vote is not effective at producing a meaningful ranking, just at predicting a winner. Suppose everyone agrees B is the second choice. Then B gets no votes. For example, everyone may think the Vuelta is 2nd or 3rd to either the Tour or Giro, but a few people think TOC is 1st because it's a new race in their own country. Then the TOC ranks higher than the Vuelta, even though a ranked voting scheme would have resulted int he Vuelta coming out higher.

 

[supercameron]

Phinney best track rider. What a surprise.

Cameron Meyer was by far more exciting

This is definately the most surprising result out of all of them. Whenever I watched track Meyer seemed to completely dominate his races. It must be the same problems that everybody else is pointing out

 

[Matthijs]

Sample quotes from the CN live commentary:

"We haven't heard about the peloton in a while. Wonder if they are still there?"

"No changes. The first three are still together, the second three are still together. Everyone else is probably wondering why there are out here in this not-so-lovely weather."

Nothing happened. It was a dull race.

(And if Hushovd 'stepped out of the race', how did he manage to come 6th?)

So I'm right and you just based your opinion on live feeds with just text and no video?
Most Rvv you can summarize as well with: a group got away in some hilly section 40-20k before the finish, one guy solo or a sprint with 2-5, some chasers and a peloton. Very boring if you just got this summary. Still most people who see the actual racing like this race

 

[Ferminal]

More than Alpe d huez?

I kind of don't remember watching the Dauphine... I watched a few stages but it was during my exam period.

The Phinney result takes the cake. I thought most people here would have some idea of track results (if not watched a bit of it), but I guess the US audience just auto-voted Phinney.

 

[The Hitch]

I kind of don't remember watching the Dauphine... I watched a few stages but it was during my exam period.

The Phinney result takes the cake. I thought most people here would have some idea of track results (if not watched a bit of it), but I guess the US audience just auto-voted Phinney.

They probably thought they were voting for Davis Phinney

 

[Mambo95]

So I'm right and you just based your opinion on live feeds with just text and no video?

No, I watched it live (on the internet I think). But it's difficult to reference a live video in an internet forum. I even saw Hushovd finish, despite him abandoning being the only racing incident you thought worthy of mentioning?

Here are some questions:
What were the racing incidents that made it such a great race?
Had the race been run the same way in decent weather conditions, would it have been a great race?

Great effort by the riders who finished? Most definitely
Great race? Not at all

 

[Mambo95]

This is definately the most surprising result out of all of them. Whenever I watched track Meyer seemed to completely dominate his races. It must be the same problems that everybody else is pointing out

Agreed. I don't much like seeing Aussies win anything, but I voted for him. I thought it was a no brainer.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Preferential voting would be more appropriate than a first past the post voting system which is kinda like what Cyclingnews have done for this poll.

 

[Anonymous]

I didn't like ToC, only the last stage was really exciting, the earlier one where Rogers/DZ/Bottle got away was kind of OK too.

The best stage of the tour of california was the one we didnt get to see because the helicopters couldnt fly in the rain.

 

[Anonymous]

So, the world champion, a guy who can sprint well after 260k, a Norwegian and Paris-Roubaix contender, a junior TT champion, was the only one able to chase. And he got dropped and stepped out of the race while racing in 4th position because of the horrible weather!
and you think nothing happened??? how many time a world class cyclist on 4th position in a semi-classic decided to step out of the race?
I hardly can't believe anyone who says 'nothing happened' or 'no one chased' really watched the race live. Their where chasings, a peloton who came nearer at times, but because of the bad weather the peloton just fell apart and couldn't chase effectively at some point. Riders try to make it to the pursiuvants group with Hushovd, and so on. Yes, an early break made it. But to say nothing happened you must be blind to all the attempt the riders behind try to make.

Exactly. I think those that say nothing happened didnt watch it or just saw the closing km video on youtube.
Huschovd made immense efforts that day, and kept on going even on the final finishing circuit when he could have stopped as soon as he got to his hotel.

Actually, originally it was Traksel and another vacon teammate that attacked. A second attack had stan, hunt, Rosseler, Flens, Thor etc in it. Then stan and flens attacked from there to join traksel. Then the second group started gradually getting bigger, the likes of chavanel joining it at which point most of us thought they would catch the breakaway. Then hunt, thor and someone else attacked and started chasing. Ended up with three cervelo riders in the chasing group with about a 30 second gap, and it looked like Thor would be a likely winner.then hunt quit his work done for the day. Coming into first lap thor was only about 45 seconds back with roulston. Then thor cracked and finished 6th, roulston 4th..

It was a long way from being a breakaway group that went out early and stayed there. It was a long long way from that.

 

[Anonymous]

So I'm right and you just based your opinion on live feeds with just text and no video?
Most Rvv you can summarize as well with: a group got away in some hilly section 40-20k before the finish, one guy solo or a sprint with 2-5, some chasers and a peloton. Very boring if you just got this summary. Still most people who see the actual racing like this race

And i know for a fact that ACF even if he didnt see it live he definately saw the highlights of the whole race and footage of about the closing 20k because it was me put it on youtube. And i know he watched it because he watched virtually all of the videos i put up last year.