Elite male WC road race

[greenedge]

Ah but i do care who wins - rooting for an aussie victory for national pride. Dream scenario for me would be that gerrans and matthews are still in the lead group on the last lap and Gerrans to launch an attack well before the hill to make other teams chase and drag matthews along with them and then coming to the line matthews to smoke them all.

Maybe Clarke or Evans can do that on the preceeding laps, but you'd hope that if Gerrans or Matthews were there on the last lap the teammates just ride to help.

 

[diggercuz]

Maybe Clarke or Evans can do that on the preceeding laps, but you'd hope that if Gerrans or Matthews were there on the last lap the teammates just ride to help.

True that, however i am not sure they will have many left by that stage as i think they will burning plenty of matches early to keep it together as best they can...

I do hope they do have a few together for the finale though like OGE did in montreal (that was awesome by them also), but with the strengths of italy and spain i fear it will be very difficult.

I am really looking forward to this race though. Would like plenty of attacks to make it the opposite of LBL, but with the same result.

 

[l.Harm]

I dont care who wins - i just want this guy at the finish creating a super charged electric sexual atmosphere! Oh man that would be a sight.

Ah but i do care who wins - rooting for an aussie victory for national pride. Dream scenario for me would be that gerrans and matthews are still in the lead group on the last lap and Gerrans to launch an attack well before the hill to make other teams chase and drag matthews along with them and then coming to the line matthews to smoke them all.

That however has about as much chance of happening as Cadel winning another Grand Tour (and yes, i know he has retired)...

But hey, one can dream cant they.

Anyway cancellara and Piti to battle out the podium spots with an outsider to solo to the line while everyone just looks around to see who will chase, and when noone does it will be too late...

Noooooo

 

[Ryongsyong]

I won't vote unless they put Betancur in the list!

Who are you going to vote for?

 

[Shardi]

I think Gilbert is beeing a tad underrated here. He suffered in the heat in the first week of the Vuelta, then the rest of the finishes were either too flat (degenkolb) or too steep and long (spaniards).

I believe that in the last lap several things we've seen in the past, will happen!

First off:

Followed by some of this:

And meanwhile, these guys will surely be in companionship. But who pulls?

I'm going with the bold cenario that Gilbert attacks on the last hill with the other guys looking around, not beeing able to catch him after the downhill.

Gilbert finishes alone, 10 secs ahead of Gerrans, Valverde and Co.

 

[Pantani_lives]

Gerrans' chances are overestimated. He can only win if the other riders are too passive (like this year in LBL and Canada). I don't think that will happen on this course with a hungry Cancellara.

I have however a bad presentiment that Cancellara will be one of those great one day riders without a world title, like Kelly, Zabel and Bartoli. He can't drop the best climbers on the climb and there's always the danger of one fast guy like Sagan or Kristoff holding on to his wheel. He will definitely be one of the strongest, but winning wil be hard.

 

[diggercuz]

I think Gilbert is beeing a tad underrated here. He suffered in the heat in the first week of the Vuelta, then the rest of the finishes were either too flat (degenkolb) or too steep and long (spaniards).

I believe that in the last lap several things we've seen in the past, will happen!

First off:




Followed by some of this:



And meanwhile, these guys will surely be in companionship. But who pulls?



I'm going with the bold cenario that Gilbert attacks on the last hill with the other guys looking around, not beeing able to catch him after the downhill.

Gilbert finishes alone, 10 secs ahead of Gerrans, Valverde and Co.

Snipped due to photo limits

So your saying

and

 

[BeagRigh]

I think if we made a gif of the images above we could accurately predict the finale!

 

[greenedge]

True that, however i am not sure they will have many left by that stage as i think they will burning plenty of matches early to keep it together as best they can...

I do hope they do have a few together for the finale though like OGE did in montreal (that was awesome by them also), but with the strengths of italy and spain i fear it will be very difficult.

I am really looking forward to this race though. Would like plenty of attacks to make it the opposite of LBL, but with the same result.

Super Dennis and Matty Hayman will ride for 200 km straight
Same

 

[Shardi]

So your saying

and

That is... that is exactly what I'm saying..!

 

[jens_attacks]

big attention to the belgian mythical squadra if they made the same ritual as always before the worlds. i think they will destroy gerrans big time

 

[Akuryo]

Belgium, Italy. Nibali also said that they couldn't wait for the final lap. So they will try something early. That should also make it hard for Gerrans/other sprinters.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

How about Navardauskas for a surprise win?

(just dropping it here, since I'm somewhat surprised he isn't even mentioned by anyone)

 

[sir fly]

How about Navardauskas for a surprise win?

I doubt he can beat Degenkolb and Matthews.
Can't see him without them at the finish.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

I voted other for Bouhanni.

He might've improved his climbing enough to make the finish. Kristoff isn't in top shape anymore I think, Degenkolb's form might be lacking due to his health problems and Bouhanni is faster than Matthews.


If it's raced properly hard, of course Bouhanni won't be there. Don't know who would win in that case. Maybe Gallopin or a Belgian.

 

[ILovecycling]

Belgium, Italy. Nibali also said that they couldn't wait for the final lap. So they will try something early. That should also make it hard for Gerrans/other sprinters.

they say it every year, I dont believe it. I dont like Worlds too much, pretty much a borefest almost every year

 

[The Barb]

Kristoff's record this season in races beyond 240km:

1st Milan San Remo (winning with phenomenal sustained sprint)
1st Vattenfalls (beating Kittel, Cavendish, Gerrans etc in sprint)
5th Tour of Flanders (the ride of the race outside of the winner)
DNF Paris Roubaix (can happen to anyone)

If he survives in a reduced bunch sprint then he should be favourite.

25-1 earlier in the week made me very happy.

 

[kanari]

Too many altitude meters for Kristoff I think. I also doubt his shape is at its best.

 

[The Barb]

Too many altitude meters for Kristoff I think. I also doubt his shape is at its best.

You may be right, although his form in Norway and Vattenfall just last month looked pretty damn awesome. Even so, at 25-1 he's well over the odd imho.

 

[Akuryo]

You may be right, although his form in Norway and Vattenfall just last month looked pretty damn awesome. Even so, at 25-1 he's well over the odd imho.

And exactly that is the problem. He in form for MSR, he was in form for the cobbles, then again at the Tour and then he kept it high for Vattenfall. He said it himself after the race in Hamburg: I know I raced a lot and I don't know if I can keep going until Ponferrada (or something in that context, don't have a quote at hand right now).

In best shape, he would be (one of) my topfavorite(s), but he seriously raced a lot and also had a few peaks already.

 

[Lupetto]

Bananito looks ready to tear this race up.

 

[The Hitch]

they say it every year, I dont believe it. I dont like Worlds too much, pretty much a borefest almost every year

Back when I joined this forum the popular belief was that no matter how bad the rest of the season is, the Worlds always delivered.

Though sadly since 2011 it has indeed been 3 years of really crap races.

 

[hfer07]

Bananito looks ready to tear this race up.

and he's lost the incredible amount of 1 kilo

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Bananito looks ready to tear this race up.

Wow, he actually looks really fit! Uran on the other hand...

 

[VeloHuman]

Could be some nasty weather. Interested to see how Matthews does. The profile looks good but he has done very little in one-day races of this length.