ENECO Tour August 17 - 24

[Ferminal]

Greipel certainly CAN pull off something like that - his win in the torrential rain on the hill finish in stage 2 of the Volta ao Algarve, where he pulled 4" out in the sprint to catch the escapee is testament to that - but whether he will in his current form is another matter.

That was indeed a great win.

Haven't quite seen him repeat it yet though.

 

[Scirea]

It's an uphill finish, 700 m at max 7%, so I'm not so sure about Greipel or Rasmussen.

Where did you get a profile on the stage/finish?

 

[theyoungest]

Where did you get a profile on the stage/finish?

Don't know if there's a stage profile somewhere, but this is the finish (Grebbeberg):

The line is after 700 m, so just after the "steep" part.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I took few photo's of me with 2 hero's of me this morning!!

btw Italked to neil stephens for a bit and unless soler gets injured again he will 100% ride the vuelta!!!! so great news!! his knee is better as well despite crahsing again in hamburg let's keep our fingers crossed this eneco tour for him

 

[the student]

dispite that hill its still plain sprinting... that little hill is dead boring... ( that thing has got some reputation though, maybe because its just there after kilometres of flat ) sprinters will still be able to take the win here especially with a good leadout...

 

[Mellow Velo]

A picture says a thousand words, eh?

85 kms to go and Eurosport is on. Yipee! More z's for me.

 

[catmiles]

A picture says a thousand words, eh?

85 kms to go and Eurosport is on. Yipee! More z's for me.

Please keep me updated im at work!!

 

[Lyds97]

Brutt, Timmer and Malori have a 2'45" advantage at the moment. Garmin doing the work on the front of the bunch.

 

[Tom T.]

Devolder is pulling a Bettini and hanging at the back.

 

[Cobblestoned]

No rain and sunny, but werrie werrie windy/stormy.

 

[Ryaguas]

Lucky!!!! Great pics Ryo! Well fingers crossed to have a healthy Soler in La Vuelta!

 

[Mellow Velo]

Final sprint coming up. 42kms to go.
Other than that it's tranquillo, tranquillo.....

 

[Cobblestoned]

Crash

Collarbone-alarm at Caisse

 

[insideout leadout]

Soler just went down...hope he's ok.

 

[hrotha]

Soler just went down...hope he's ok.

Okay this has officially got ridiculous. Didn't someone say he crashed yesterday too?

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Quite a lot of riders caught behind. Jens definitely. Tony Martin was at the back but HTC don't seem bothered because they're pushing on front

 

[Moondance]

Soler crashed and is out..... What else is new?

 

[Mellow Velo]

Milram put the hammer down. Do we have a nice crosswind?

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Martin, Voigt, Porte, VDB and another dozen have regained contact but Garmin going hard up front

 

[The Hitch]

btw Italked to neil stephens for a bit and unless soler gets injured again he will 100% ride the vuelta!!

a few minutes later

Soler just went down...hope he's ok.

Soler crashed and is out..... What else is new?

All right take a breath.

Some might say you junxed this.
Dont beat yourself up about it though.

I remember Harmon very very annoyingly went on and on and on about how Txuruka crashing in Pais Vasco was ALL his fault because as a commentator he had said ( i hope he doesnt crash) minutes before. He even went on to apologise to Txurukas mother and consider giving up commentating etc

This is not your fault, even if you did post the original commentin in the eneco tour thread rather than the Big stars entering vuelta thread :

 

[insideout leadout]

Ouch that final hill is some tough stuff. Looks a lot like Cauberg.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Eurosport commentators have just realised the finish isn't flat!

 

[Tom T.]

A bit of a climb to the finish. I like EBH for this one.

 

[Tom T.]

Eurosport commentators have just realised the finish isn't flat!

Me too! Thought it was a flat stage.

 

[insideout leadout]

Looks like the mecca of road furniture, more crashes to come.