General News Thread

[Angliru]

He doesn't know what to do normally. Well, that is my opinion.

I found the one where he kind of wiped his brow upon crossing the finish rather interesting and original.

 

[Nielsa]

Evans' low-stated victory gestures reminds me of the older Russian hockey players, every goal is a team effort to them so they go to thank their teammates instead of celebrating.

 

[The Hitch]

Jose Garcia Acosta, officialy retires.

The end of an era.

Ha Llegado el momento de poner fin a mi carrera deportiva en la q he disfrutado como un enano muchas gracias a tod@s por vuestro apoyo

 

[jens_attacks]

García Acosta, el último gregario en activo de Induráin...un grande!chapeau!

chente and chava:

the hard men of the 90's slowly disappearing

 

[mortand]

the hard men of the 90's slowly disappearing

Thank God for the Jens Voigt's, Jaan Kirsipuu's and Nico Eeckhout's. But it's definitely going to be sad to watch a Movistar-fronted peloton without 'Chente'. It's like he's been there since the beginning of time. Actually, I'm pretty sure he invented bike racing. A true hero!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Christian Meier (he who tweeted last year about what an honour it was to pace the péloton with Txente, and how "if I become half the domestique he is I will retire happy") has weighed in with the following update:

http://mobile.twitter.com/christianmeier/status/129104163018768384

Think that sums it up. People like Lastras still have a few years in them, but Txente was an all-time great domestique. The Voigts, Kirsipuus and Eeckhouts have won plenty down the years and have been high profile riders as well as domestiques; Txente has 9 wins in a 17 year career, and a million kilometres on the front of the bunch, for Miguelón, for Chava, for Paco, for Piti, it didn't matter who he rode for, he would ride into the ground ten times over for them.

 

[Parrulo]

he will be missed in the pro peloton it felt like he was almost part of the furniture, and he is the proof that you don't need to win everything nor much in order to become a legend of the sport.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

he will be missed in the pro peloton it felt like he was almost part of the furniture, and he is the proof that you don't need to win everything nor much in order to become a legend of the sport.

yeh he was a pretty great team mate.
will be sadly missed in the peloton.

 

[Tuarts]

Is this something the "New Wave" of cycling fans are missing? The adulation and respect for those who ride like Txente n co?

 

[theyoungest]

Is this something the "New Wave" of cycling fans are missing? The adulation and respect for those who ride like Txente n co?

That's not really particular to the new wave of fans... everytime Grischa Niermann appears on screen, Belgian commentator Wuyts (old guy) says he wonders why Rabo always take him to the Tour, because he's so invisible, and I think: hello, ever heard of the word domestique??

 

[Fus087]

Also, I would argue that Christian Meier is part of the "new wave" himself.
His admiration is almost hero worshipping...

 

[El Pistolero]

Mark Cavendish wins the Vélo d'Or 2011.

No, not really, it's Phil

 

[hrotha]

Since everyone's praising Chente's domestique exploits, I'd like to remind everyone that he was also a very good stage-hunter back in the day.

 

[Arnolfini]

Belgian Grace Verbeke is badly injured after she got hit by a car during training.

http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/wielrennen/111027_verbeke_aanrijding

 

[El Pistolero]

Belgian Grace Verbeke is badly injured after she got hit by a car during training.

http://www.sporza.be/cm/sporza/wielrennen/111027_verbeke_aanrijding

Her situation is stable now, for those who don't speak Dutch.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Her situation is stable now, for those who don't speak Dutch.

Nevertheless, it's another scare that the sport didn't need after an already horrible year.

Glad to know she's stabilised, and hope she makes a full recovery.

The last Belgian to win the Ronde!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The Volta ao Algarve is at risk of dying if they can't find funding for next year's edition. They estimate the running cost of the event at €350,000; they've only managed to put together €6,000 to date. It seems that the sport is very low on the list of potential priorities for promoting tourism to the region through sport, especially given that the Volta takes place in February, not exactly peak time.

 

[The Hitch]

Mark Cavendish wins the Vélo d'Or 2011.

No, not really, it's Phil

Ha, nicely done

The Volta ao Algarve is at risk of dying if they can't find funding for next year's edition. They estimate the running cost of the event at €350,000; they've only managed to put together €6,000 to date. It seems that the sport is very low on the list of potential priorities for promoting tourism to the region through sport, especially given that the Volta takes place in February, not exactly peak time.

They spend 350 000 on a race even the most diehard cycling fans pay little attention to.

Wow.

Im surprised a minor cycling race like that gets any tourists yet alone worth spending 350 big gs on.

 

[craig1985]

The Volta ao Algarve is at risk of dying if they can't find funding for next year's edition. They estimate the running cost of the event at €350,000; they've only managed to put together €6,000 to date. It seems that the sport is very low on the list of potential priorities for promoting tourism to the region through sport, especially given that the Volta takes place in February, not exactly peak time.

Can they change the dates around to make it more appealing?

 

[luckyboy]

FDJ - BigMat is definitely happening then http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme/brev...6_bigmat-et-la-fdj-pourraient-s-associer.html

Seems a bit late to be 'strengthening the structure' now - not many riders available to bring in

 

[just some guy]

FDJ - BigMat is definitely happening then http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme/brev...6_bigmat-et-la-fdj-pourraient-s-associer.html

Seems a bit late to be 'strengthening the structure' now - not many riders available to bring in

JV be happy then.

 

[pastronef]

FDJ - BigMat is definitely happening then http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme/brev...6_bigmat-et-la-fdj-pourraient-s-associer.html

very bad behaviour with Garmin-Slipstream

 

[maltiv]

very bad behaviour with Garmin-Slipstream

I guess they realized the enormous potential of Pinot, whose success will probably be of higher commercial value than an american team would bring. Still quite unacceptable behaviour though, we see too much of that lately...

 

[craig1985]

Can Garmin sue or do anything like that to Big Mat? Wouldn't it be great to be a fly on the wall to hear JV's reaction to this.

 

[Fundertaker]

They spend 350 000 on a race even the most diehard cycling fans pay little attention to.

Wow.

Im surprised a minor cycling race like that gets any tourists yet alone worth spending 350 big gs on.

The thing is... they should have at least let it be televised this year, otherwise it won't get ANY exposition at all. Yeah, diehard cycling fans may know about it and it's one of those great small stage races in the beggining of the year that has a bit of everything (so many WT teams want to race there) but the promoters and the tourism association make absolutely no effort to promote for years. No TV, barely registers on sports newspapers (and it doesn't register on the regular ones), no internet promotion, nothing.

It's a big shame though, as it would be the one Portuguese race that I could see eventually going to the WT. Now we'll get a bunch of mediocre races with our Conti teams all year. The spectacle!