Geelong 2010: Elite Men's Road Race 262.7km

[raindog]

Did Feillu shoot out of his toecliip in the sprint?

He was suffering from cramp and unclipped as soon as he was over the line.

 

[craig1985]

Gilbert was probably hoping that someone like Evans would join him. I think he was too strong for his own good. And a tad too stupid.

Yeah but stupid riding makes it better to watch.

 

[bjaelkesex]

Does anyone have a link to video highlights from the race? Failed to stay up for more than an hour. Going back through the thread makes me think that I made a mistake.

(will they show it again on Spanish tv?)

 

[craig1985]

I liv in geelong and the city was overun with bike riders today, i wonted to goe for a cruze in my vs comodore ss with lowred suspnsoin but the copers pulled me up and turnd me arownd - i hate cyclysts cars r better.

Either you are drunk, or a mate of yours has hacked your account. You don't make a 100 posts on a cycling forum, if you hate cycling.

 

[davis_123]

I'm serious. Never watch cycling again. If you hated this race then you hate cycling.

You misunderstand, I enjoyed the race I just disliked the end result, someone like gilbert who attacked all day deserved the win not hushovd who wheel sucked all day and just happened to get lucky on the back of Oscar's teams hard work.

If Oscar won it would have been ok but Hushovd? Freeloaders should never get anything in life least of all a world title, if he had to respond to the attacks of Gilbert and Co with his own team he would have been lapped.

Even Davis for us getting 3rd doesn't really deserve it, these guys were not the strongest riders in the race they were simply the lucky ones who did nothing while the strong men fought a draw with each other and wore each other out.

 

[maltiv]

You misunderstand, I enjoyed the race I just disliked the end result, someone like gilbert who attacked all day deserved the win not hushovd who wheel sucked all day and just happened to get lucky on the back of Oscar's teams hard work.

If Oscar won it would have been ok but Hushovd? Freeloaders should never get anything in life least of all a world title, if he had to respond to the attacks of Gilbert and Co with his own team he would have been lapped.

So basically what you're saying is that only guys on the bigger teams deserve to win, because they have teammates working for them. Really nice logic there! Just like Cavendish is the only sprinter who deserves to win a sprint because he has the best leadout! ...

 

[davis_123]

So basically what you're saying is that only guys on the bigger teams deserve to win, because they have teammates working for them. Really nice logic there! Just like Cavendish is the only sprinter who deserves to win a sprint because he has the best leadout! ...

If you want more riders produce better riders, if Thor could have had 9 men chances are the 6 of the added to the team would have been gone within 2 laps anyway.

I am saying I like to see the riders who slogged it out and battled for victory all day win, not some 2 bit sprinter who's only job for the race is to hope he stays with the group by wheel sucking and being able to rider faster over 100m then the tougher riders.

Cycling is a team sport, Cav wins sprints because he has the best team by a country mile.

 

[Captain Serious]

Wiki isn;t slow:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Hushovd

ha! That's nothin'! I've seen Wikipedia pages updated within seconds of someone winning an F1 GP. There must be geeks with their fingers poised over their keyboards, just waiting to edit Wiki pages. Go Webber

 

[Captain Serious]

1. Visconti
2. Nibali
3 Sorensen
4. Moerenhout

Ah well, at least you stuck your neck out there and made the big call

 

[auscyclefan94]

We were all absorbed by a thoroughly eventful race, that helps. The boundaries between the teams that we all love and hate are seriously blurred, that helps. The absence and relative invisibility of certain polarizing riders in the filed, and their cult of personality fans, helps a great deal.

We did miss several of the the ozzies for obvious reasons, but I think that they would have made this particular thread even better, as some of their enthusiasm is as insufferable as it is endearing. It is their home turf, and despite all the teasing and pooh-poohing they get to endure, this race rocked. It hink on a day like today, we would let them have their moment of gloating, before the gloves come off again in January for the mid-winter-stop side-show .

And it is also hard not to appreciate the defending champion efforts of Cadel, and the way he has done so all year. Thor will have his work cut out if he wants to step in those footsteps, and wear it with similar pride.

It was positive racing for most of the night. Forum threads tend to derail only when the race offers room for diversions, and thanks to the riders and track out there, I guess we simply forgot to ***** about each other.

Blur a few sharp lines in the sand, and we aren't a bad bunch after all.

You must of had a peaceful day without me there! Though I agree. Very well said. I was a tad emotional after the race but it was still awesome day.

6km of straight wide roads after short steep climbs doesn't work.
This race was crazy and still there were 20 guys or something there in the end.

Kudos to Australia btw. Gold-Silver-Bronze. Very nice.

I thought the Dutch raced very well as a team. they were attacking and always had riders in the moves. A great day for Australian cycling. A day I will never forget. I was standing near some internationals for most of the day and the comraderie between the crowd was great. About 100 of us were in front of this tv and barracking and friendly banter created an electric atmosphere. To see the crowd go crazy for evans was amazing.

 

[Roland Rat]

If you want more riders produce better riders, if Thor could have had 9 men chances are the 6 of the added to the team would have been gone within 2 laps anyway.

I am saying I like to see the riders who slogged it out and battled for victory all day win, not some 2 bit sprinter who's only job for the race is to hope he stays with the group by wheel sucking and being able to rider faster over 100m then the tougher riders.

Cycling is a team sport, Cav wins sprints because he has the best team by a country mile.

"Ahh, boo hoo, I'm upset because my limited understanding of the sport means I don't appreciate Thor's qualities and am only happy when one type of rider wins the World Championships"

You need to go to the library and read a book of Harden The F*** Up.

 

[Tuarts]

You must of had a peaceful day without me there! Though I agree. Very well said. I was a tad emotional after the race but it was still awesome day.



I thought the Dutch raced very well as a team. they were attacking and always had riders in the moves. A great day for Australian cycling. A day I will never forget. I was standing near some internationals for most of the day and the comraderie between the crowd was great. About 100 of us were in front of this tv and barracking and friendly banter created an electric atmosphere. To see the crowd go crazy for evans was amazing.

Had to read this again, I'm sure the capital letters and coloured large text is in there somewhere but I can't see it.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

You misunderstand, I enjoyed the race I just disliked the end result, someone like gilbert who attacked all day deserved the win not hushovd who wheel sucked all day and just happened to get lucky on the back of Oscar's teams hard work.

If Oscar won it would have been ok but Hushovd? Freeloaders should never get anything in life least of all a world title, if he had to respond to the attacks of Gilbert and Co with his own team he would have been lapped.

Even Davis for us getting 3rd doesn't really deserve it, these guys were not the strongest riders in the race they were simply the lucky ones who did nothing while the strong men fought a draw with each other and wore each other out.

hushovd didn't wheel suc, as i said earlier he rode past me solo, and was about 8th over the climb. He did an epic job, and you shouldn't take anything away from his win.

Obviously I wanted gilbert to hold out, but hushovd is a worthy winner.

was a great race, and the atmosphere was really good.

 

[auscyclefan94]

hushovd didn't wheel suc, as i said earlier he rode past me solo, and was about 8th over the climb. He did an epic job, and you shouldn't take anything away from his win.

Obviously I wanted gilbert to hold out, but hushovd is a worthy winner.

was a great race, and the atmosphere was really good.

I thought there were a few more worthy winners but thor still thoroughly deserved it. Did you enjoy the race?

 

[aahmadhu]

If you want more riders produce better riders, if Thor could have had 9 men chances are the 6 of the added to the team would have been gone within 2 laps anyway.

I am saying I like to see the riders who slogged it out and battled for victory all day win, not some 2 bit sprinter who's only job for the race is to hope he stays with the group by wheel sucking and being able to rider faster over 100m then the tougher riders.

Cycling is a team sport, Cav wins sprints because he has the best team by a country mile.

will you come out with the same complaint if cancellara attack with two lap to go and time trial all the way to the finish line? he doesn't have a good team yet he wins using his one only weapon that he knows of.

indeed it's a team sport. but the big teams have the upper hand in many possible scenarios, so it is up to them to play their cards.

and riders who doesn't have many teammates can only hang on and hope for one scenario. that's the best option for them. when the opportunity come, do you expect these teamless riders to hold back and give way? this is race amigo!

btw, if i'm not mistaken, hushovd was dropped during one on the climbs in the last lap. he climbed by himself to the top and played catch-up during the descent. and hushovd is one hell of a descender.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

I thought there were a few more worthy winners but thor still thoroughly deserved it. Did you enjoy the race?

yeah it was a good race. the world champs generally are though.

Geelong did a good job this weekend, the climb was packed today.

koos should have won
I went pretty ballistic when gilbert flew past me though

 

[il_fiammingo]

hushovd didn't wheel suc, as i said earlier he rode past me solo, and was about 8th over the climb. He did an epic job, and you shouldn't take anything away from his win.

Obviously I wanted gilbert to hold out, but hushovd is a worthy winner.

was a great race, and the atmosphere was really good.

Indeed, the only wheelsucker today was Pozzato.

 

[The Hitch]

Anyone know what the crowds were on the circuit. Looked really good. Saw some stands even. 100 000?

 

[Spare Tyre]

Anyone know what the crowds were on the circuit. Looked really good. Saw some stands even. 100 000?

Official figure was 156,000.

Don't know how they work it out.

 

[Kwibus]

Just watched the race which I recorded... The initial idea was ffwd to the last 50km, but once the peloton reached the lap it was a great race.

Awesome race. Cycling at it's best.
Maybe the finish should've been a bit closer to the last climb since all 3 races ended in a sprint allthough the sprint of the men's race was a group of 25max?

Thank you Belgium for making it a fantastic hard race. It's a shame you ended up without a medal. I was cheering for Gilbert that last lap, but it was just too long.

I'm proud of the dutchies. Didn't expect much of them with the exception of Moerenhout and well he was great indeed, but also a lot of kudos to Poels and Terpstra. Boom once again proved he can't handle 200+km which worries me:/

Nice win by Hushovd. He didn't have to work for it, but surviving with the last 25 men is impressive, but Hushovd is a topnodge allrounder which we all expected to survive till the end I guess.

 

[theyoungest]

Just watched the race which I recorded... The initial idea was ffwd to the last 50km, but once the peloton reached the lap it was a great race.

Awesome race. Cycling at it's best.
Maybe the finish should've been a bit closer to the last climb since all 3 races ended in a sprint allthough the sprint of the men's race was a group of 25max?

Thank you Belgium for making it a fantastic hard race. It's a shame you ended up without a medal. I was cheering for Gilbert that last lap, but it was just too long.

I'm proud of the dutchies. Didn't expect much of them with the exception of Moerenhout and well he was great indeed, but also a lot of kudos to Poels and Terpstra. Boom once again proved he can't handle 200+km which worries me:/

Nice win by Hushovd. He didn't have to work for it, but surviving with the last 25 men is impressive, but Hushovd is a topnodge allrounder which we all expected to survive till the end I guess.

This time he faded away after 230 km, so that's 30 km more than he was able to handle up until now. And what about EBH? Same story.

I was pleasantly surprised with Poels though. I turned on the TV and there he was, countering an Italian attack. Best youngster in the race?

 

[Francois the Postman]

Official figure was 156,000.

Don't know how they work it out.

Official complaints lodged after a totally nikked fan was spotted running the length of the climb, following the rider of his dreams, screaming "his ode to Cadel", a cry from the heart poem, composed for the very occasion.

 

[Francois the Postman]

Did that need an ?

 

[hrotha]

I haven't seen Van Avermaet or Hoste mentioned here at all. Both were incredible. Actually, Belgium as a whole was incredible, including of course Gilbert and Leukemans. I sooo wanted Gilbert to win, but I too thought his chasing Leukemans was questionable (although, let's be fair - he probably was right in believing if he was going to get a big enough gap he had to go right there).

Let's not forget Italy. Their effort didn't pay off because Pozzato wasn't good enough (personally I think he's overrated), but the race would have been very different without them. People here have mentioned Bruseghin, but he did nothing compared to Tosatto. Wow. I thought Nibali's attack when he went solo killed Italy's chances, as Pozzato was behind and Visconti took some time to close the gap.

The Dutch were great. Glad to see Moerenhout gets as much praise as he deserves. Martens was very good but I expected more from Germany (although aside from Wegmann it's hard to think who else could have done more than they did). Spain did a poor race. Yes, they helped Freire come back but with the team they had you would have expected they'd have at least another card to play just in case. LLS or Samu should have been in the breaks with Gilbert and Evans, instead they had to pull for Freire because of their tactical mistakes.

I don't like Hushovd too much but he deserved it and is a worthy winner. However, I was most impressed by Gilbert and Evans. Superb rides by both.

 

[Kwibus]

The big downside to me is that the wc jersey will be on a sprinter - ie someone who is in the peloton on all flat stages and autobus on mountain stages. It was great having it on Cuddles for a year so we had the rainbow jersey in the moutnains contesting gts.

And the rainbow curse means im not sure well se Thor doing too much in PR.

Wait a sec. Hushovd and autobus in the mountains? He likes to get some points in those stages Anyways Hushovd is more then a sprinter.. a lot more imo.