Eneco Tour - 8th to 14th August

[Shardi]

Details about tomorrows finish, anyone?

800m at 3.8%, or did I mix it up?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

For goodness sakes Dekker_Tifosi make yourself stand out when you are watching the tt on course today

i was at the 100m to go sign, did anyone see me? I was looking straight into the camera

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I'm sure Boom would've won if it didn't rain. When I was there I couldn't believe his time because it was ****ing rain at the time and the course has many corners.
Oh well, just typical for our cursed nation anyway

 

[maltiv]

So, how hard exactly is the uphill finish tomorrow? Gilbert terrain or does it favour EBH? Impossible to tell by the profile.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

They are easy as ****

Normally tomorrow and sunday are sprints.
The sittard-geleen stage sunday might have some serious hills, but they are all before the middle of the race. The final is really easy. So unless some team starts to make crazy attacks straight from the start, there is no way there will be any kind of selection

 

[Michielveedeebee]

Phille says that the race has been run in his head. He doesn't believe he can win anymore.

Philippe Gilbert wist vrijdag de schade te beperken, maar was toch ontevreden. De Belgische kampioen gelooft niet meer in de eindoverwinning.

PhotoNews
"De vele bochten lagen er ook voor mijn concurrenten gevaarlijk bij, dus daarin kon ik moeilijk tijd verliezen. Dat wil zeggen dat ik 17 seconden verloor op de weinige rechte stukken. Die vaststelling maakt me niet blij", zei Gilbert.

"Boasson Hagen zal zaterdag zeker bonificatieseconden pakken. Die achterstand zal ik zondag niet meer kunnen inhalen. In mijn hoofd is het een beetje over. Ik zal deze Eneco Tour niet winnen."

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

what a mentally weak rider /el pistolero mode

 

[theyoungest]

Mouris did a good T.T actually. Good as in, I didn't know he could TT. Nice

It's pretty much the only thing he can do. Which is why I don't really understand the Greenedge signing... Australia has a lot of good time trialists who can't do a lot else.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

That's harsch and untrue. Mouris is a domestique in any other race he usually does. Has to keep guys out of the wind, fetch bottles etc. Which he does without complaining.

But in the few races he gest his own chance he usually does pretty good, remember he did win Groene Hart by an impressive solo. That's no an ITT.
Plus he had a several top 10 placings in flat short stage-races even when they had no ITT or prologue in them. You can't do that if you can "only ITT"

And for GreenEdge, they can't have 25 leaders on their team, can they?
I'm always suprised when people think that way. "what has that rider ever done to deserve a spot on that team" ...hello think? You can't have a football team with 11 strikers and no goalie and defenders either...

 

[Michielveedeebee]

+1 well said

 

[theyoungest]

That's harsch and untrue. Mouris is a domestique in any other race he usually does. Has to keep guys out of the wind, fetch bottles etc. Which he does without complaining.

But in the few races he gest his own chance he usually does pretty good, remember he did win Groene Hart by an impressive solo. That's no an ITT.
Plus he had a several top 10 placings in flat short stage-races even when they had no ITT or prologue in them. You can't do that if you can "only ITT"

And for GreenEdge, they can't have 25 leaders on their team, can they?
I'm always suprised when people think that way. "what has that rider ever done to deserve a spot on that team" ...hello think? You can't have a football team with 11 strikers and no goalie and defenders either...

Okay, maybe I'm being a bit unfair, but Mouris is precisely the kind of rider that Australia has plenty of... the 25 leaders story is entirely your own, of course I agree but it doesn't contradict my point.

 

[AussieGoddess]

Final Stage results:

1. J. Sergeant 20" B.P (Before Phinney)
2 A. Rasmussen 16" B.P
3 J. Roelandts 10" B.P
4 V. Isaichev 3" B.P
5 L. Boom 3" B.P
6 J. Mouris 0" B.P
7 Tjallingii M. 0" B.P
8 T. Phinney 0:18 '25 "
9 E. Boasson Hagen 2" A.P
10 B. Grabsch 4" A.P

LOL - thanks for the laughs Tuarts

As for Phil - I will keep the faith till Sunday He will fight on

Seriously good ride by EBH though.

 

[seaby71]

Any thoughts on stage 5 winner? I think greipel will grab another win clearly the best sprinter there.

 

[greenedge]

Phil lost more time than i expected. Nice ride by EBH. I would like to see him win a stage race to his palmares for the year. However Gilbert will be on the attack.

 

[Sydney21]

It's pretty much the only thing he can do. Which is why I don't really understand the Greenedge signing... Australia has a lot of good time trialists who can't do a lot else.

Yeah I agree with you there. I mean Mouris is a good Rider and will be strong as part of a train but Greenedge need to target foreign guys who can ride the hills and climbs well. Especially since they are only signing 10 or so foreigners. There's probable less than 10 Australians in total that can climb well... They will have no shortage of guys who can just hack out A good turn on the front though.

 

[AussieGoddess]

oh lord - coverage only just started and they are on the Phinney bandwagon already (he got 2nd in the sprint ... so got another big spiel)

 

[Mellow Velo]

oh lord - coverage only just started and they are on the Phinney bandwagon already (he got 2nd in the sprint ... so got another big spiel)

The Taylor Phinney show is now live on Eurosport.

 

[maltiv]

Greipel won the sprint and thus stopped Gilbert from taking a bonus second, great team tactics there. EBH taking it easy, he is confident that he will be top 3 on the stage anyway.

 

[sTTevie]

just got back from the 1st intermediate sprint ... the road tightens at about 500m from the line ... than it twists & turns with an almost 180° turn at 400m from the line ... meanwhile the gradients runs up to about 4° ... where it flattens out 70m from the line ... the wind was blowing towards the line, so a headwind will not be an issue today

it's not hard enough for Phil ... it's best they put everthing on Greipel

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

just got back from the 1st intermediate sprint ... the road tightens at about 500m from the line ... than it twists & turns with an almost 180° turn at 400m from the line ... meanwhile the gradients runs up to about 4° ... where it flattens out 70m from the line ... the wind was blowing towards the line, so a headwind will not be an issue today

it's not hard enough for Phil ... it's best they put everthing on Greipel

Good to hear, Harmon's top quality intel info was that it rises 77m in the last 500m. He didn't seem to realise he was suggesting the final sprint was up a 15% climb.

 

[Gloin22]

oh lord - coverage only just started and they are on the Phinney bandwagon already (he got 2nd in the sprint ... so got another big spiel)

Who won the sprint ?

 

[Michielveedeebee]

Who won the sprint ?

Gorilla did

 

[AussieGoddess]

Greipel won it - not that you heard much about that

 

[Tuarts]

Phinney updates every 10km...no 5km please! How many times has he reached for his bidon? How many team-mates around him? Is he sheltered from the wind? Has he been at the back of the pack?

 

[Gloin22]

Thanks, how long to go ? Slow internet connection, so cant watch.