General News Thread

[Arnout]

He's not in bad form, decent ride up the climb in Criterium International and then 3rd at GP Mig last weekend

He was nowhere in Pays Vasco, against much better competition. Indurain was basically Movistar vs Anton.

 

[greenedge]

Could he have been riding for Sanchez before the TV coverage started???

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

He was nowhere in Pays Vasco, against much better competition. Indurain was basically Movistar vs Anton.

he was working for samu the entire week :facepalm:

 

[Arnout]

he was working for samu the entire week :facepalm:

He said himself he was nowhere. First few days was ok, but Arrate was horrible and after that he was spent. He felt tired and not up to it and didn't know why.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

fortunately fw is only 1 day

 

[Arnout]

Ain't gonna dispute that. No-one more happy to see him perform than me, but I don't count on it, based on Pays Vasco. No facepalm necessary for that

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

he rode very well in gp indurain

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

does anyone btw have any news about rujano crash yesterday?

 

[greenedge]

Poor little Ryo getting worried that his endless posts about how Rujano will win the Giro this year might not come about???

Nah- hopefully he is ok.

 

[trevim]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/2012-eneco-tour-suits-contador-says-saxo-bank-chief

Ah I can see it already: Contador pulling off a Cancellara on the Muur. Beautiful Does anyone know how much it is from the Muur to the finish? Just out of curiosity since I don't expect Mr. Berto to be on the front there

 

[El Pistolero]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/2012-eneco-tour-suits-contador-says-saxo-bank-chief

Ah I can see it already: Contador pulling off a Cancellara on the Muur. Beautiful Does anyone know how much it is from the Muur to the finish? Just out of curiosity since I don't expect Mr. Berto to be on the front there

They finish on the Vesten of the Muur if I remember correctly. If you don't know what that is: the place where Cancellara cracked big time last year in the Ronde. Perfect finish for a guy like Boonen, Hushovd or Freire.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Just out of curiosity since I don't expect Mr. Berto to be on the front there

No one does.

 

[trevim]

They finish on the Vesten of the Muur if I remember correctly. If you don't know what that is: the place where Cancellara cracked big time last year in the Ronde. Perfect finish for a guy like Boonen, Hushovd or Freire.

Vesten.... OK Good explanation though, everyone remembers the men cracking!

I thought the finish wouldn't be on the muur.

 

[trevim]

No one does.

I wouldn't write him out of anything though. He seems to be training like a mad men....

 

[LaFlorecita]

I wouldn't write him out of anything though. He seems to be training like a mad men....

It's not his type of finish.

 

[El Pistolero]

Meh, if Eddy Merckx Hagen can win this race, so can Contador.

 

[trevim]

It's not his type of finish.

Of course it isn't. But the man will be angry and hungry

 

[luckyboy]

Aw, I thought they'd be going up to the chapel and finishing just after that

 

[LaFlorecita]

Of course it isn't. But the man will be angry and hungry

But even he has his limits.

 

[El Pistolero]

Aw, I thought they'd be going up to the chapel and finishing just after that

They ride over the Muur a couple of times and then finish on the Vesten. So, the final split will still be made on the Muur if they race like in the Ronde.

Boonen will probably be very motivated there because he wants to win the World Tour and Eneco Tour is one of the few stage races where he can score big.

 

[RedheadDane]

I wouldn't write him out of anything though. He seems to be training like a mad men....

He's training like more than one?

 

[trevim]

He's training like more than one?

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean

What I meant was that he's not on vacation so he'll have some form

 

[cineteq]

JJ Rojas accident, but not consequences
@jjrojillas
Hoy entrenamiento con percance incluido, por suerte sin consecuencias, pero falto poco para cargarse a @AngelMadrazo
http://p.twimg.com/Aqr6v_sCAAExQCO.jpg

 

[Moncoutie]

JJ Rojas accident, but not consequences
@jjrojillas
Hoy entrenamiento con percance incluido, por suerte sin consecuencias, pero falto poco para cargarse a @AngelMadrazo
http://p.twimg.com/Aqr6v_sCAAExQCO.jpg

Looks like the road has swallowed half of his wheel!!!

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

It looks like a bunch of Irish Continental level riders won't get to ride the Ras this year. The Ras functions as a kind of stage race national championships, with usually pretty much all of the Conti riders plus all the top domestic amateurs involved.

The UCI has refused to give the Ras an exception to the rules to allow Cycling Ireland to field a national team which includes riders not selected for their trade team if the trade team is sending a squad. These rules do actually exist for a sensible purpose, to prevent riders having a conflict of interest.

Unfortunately, five (ie close to half) of the Irish Conti riders are on the An Post team, and it seems hard to imagine more than one or two of them making the squad. The Ras is pretty central to the team's season and on this years form, their best performing riders have been Bagdonas, McNally, Vanbilsen and Eeckhout. It's also by no means guaranteed that the Irish riders on the British Conti teams will make their squads.

The net result is that it's quite likely that there'll be little or no local GC interest in the race, unless perhaps the Asian based RTS riders perform unexpectedly well. The domestic amateurs are hopelessly outmatched nowadays with a whole bunch of good Conti teams serious about winning.

I'm not normally nationalistic about bike racing at all, but the Ras thrives while races like the Tour of Ireland died precisely because of the local interest.

http://www.stickybottle.com/races-r...an-post-sean-kelly-irish-riders-may-miss-out/