General News Thread

[BigMac]

Awesome Max, thanks for sharing. Last year Costa didn't participate in the Road Race beacause he feared a crash ahead of the Tour, as crashes very often happen in the Nationals, but also because he was World Champ and would never wear the jersey. This year I'm convinced he will ride it, as he certainly fancy his chances. This is also a very decent course after ages of Pataias and last year's improvement in Sabugal.

Here's a profile:

 

[BigMac]

Costa is confirmed to be in the Road Race, as well as Tiago 'Axe' Machado, Nelson Oliveira, Paulinho, Pires... If all goes well I should be there.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Re:

Last year Costa didn't participate in the Road Race beacause he feared a crash ahead of the Tour, as crashes very often happen in the Nationals, but also because he was World Champ and would never wear the jersey.

He didn't expect to ride between October and the end of June ??? Did his 37 race days so far this year come entirely unexpectedly? If Costa gave that as a reason, he was insulting the intelligence of his audience.

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

Last year Costa didn't participate in the Road Race beacause he feared a crash ahead of the Tour, as crashes very often happen in the Nationals, but also because he was World Champ and would never wear the jersey.

He didn't expect to ride between October and the end of June ??? Did his 37 race days so far this year come entirely unexpectedly? If Costa gave that as a reason, he was insulting the intelligence of his audience.

That season of course. An entire year showing the portuguese jersey > half of the next season, and that's what his team mate Oliveira managed to accomplish. No he didn't give that as a reason as far as I remember, only mentioned the crashes. That was me deducing.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

BM, still a shite reason. Gotta go for the win. Always.

 

[Jspear]

Re:

Costa is confirmed to be in the Road Race, as well as Tiago 'Axe' Machado, Nelson Oliveira, Paulinho, Pires... If all goes well I should be there.

Which continental team are you on?

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

Costa is confirmed to be in the Road Race, as well as Tiago 'Axe' Machado, Nelson Oliveira, Paulinho, Pires... If all goes well I should be there.

Which continental team are you on?

Haha, I wish. No, I mean, i'll be watching live. I really have to learn how to phrase and ponctuate correctly.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

Costa is confirmed to be in the Road Race, as well as Tiago 'Axe' Machado, Nelson Oliveira, Paulinho, Pires... If all goes well I should be there.

Which continental team are you on?

Haha, I wish. No, I mean, i'll be watching live. I really have to learn how to phrase and ponctuate correctly.

Just sneak in. Nobody will suspect a thing.


Anyways, in other news; Astana is going to PDR!

http://www.postdanmarkrundt.dk/index.php?p=nyheder/profil.php&nyhed=434

 

[BigMac]

North Star GP / Minneapolis Crit live, if you care. http://velonews.competitor.com/live-2

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Portuguese nationals will be a hellacious race, with that climb. Manuel Cardoso winning this ain't on the cards.

Costa is obviously a major shout for it along with Machado, I'm wondering about Brandão, he's good on short to mid climbs, but how's his recovery doing it 11 times? Ricardo Vilela is a possibility but has no support, also Edgar Pinto with the same issue. Of course I'd love for Hernâni Brôco or Amaro Antunes, and really anybody but Rui Sousa.

 

[BigMac]

Re:

Portuguese nationals will be a hellacious race, with that climb. Manuel Cardoso winning this ain't on the cards.

Costa is obviously a major shout for it along with Machado, I'm wondering about Brandão, he's good on short to mid climbs, but how's his recovery doing it 11 times? Ricardo Vilela is a possibility but has no support, also Edgar Pinto with the same issue. Of course I'd love for Hernâni Brôco or Amaro Antunes, and really anybody but Rui Sousa.

Brandão is definitely a solid bet. This shouldn't take much more from him than last year's Torre stage (where when you come to think about it, he sort of pulled a Geraint Thomas, or the the other way around). But again, the nationals are the nationals, and it's not really comparable. But if anything, one would expect this race to suit him better. Edgar Pinto, I wish he could to wonders here... I like him a lot because he has always been one of the most consistent riders in the Portuguese peloton. Plus he continues doing his thing in Skydive, i'll be rooting for him this year. This can also go the attackers' side, I'm thinking António Carvalho for instance. But I promised myself three years ago I wouldn't do more predictions for the nationals, so...


That said, can't see past Costa if victory is to come from his group.

 

[search]

Re: Re:

Last year Costa didn't participate in the Road Race beacause he feared a crash ahead of the Tour, as crashes very often happen in the Nationals, but also because he was World Champ and would never wear the jersey.

He didn't expect to ride between October and the end of June ??? Did his 37 race days so far this year come entirely unexpectedly? If Costa gave that as a reason, he was insulting the intelligence of his audience.

...or he was just very confident to be able to defend the rainbow jersey

 

[movingtarget]

Re: Re:

Alessandro Petacchi retires from professional cycling ...

Good, but 2-3 years too late probably.

Hopefully Basso and Schleck will be next.

 

[No_Balls]

Re: Re:

Telegraphe and Galibier cut from stage 20 in Tour de France.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/galibier-cut-from-tour-de-france-stage-to-lalpe-dhuez

 

[Christian]

Danish ProConti team Cult Energy is in financial troubles and looking for a co-sponsor to be able to maintain commitments for this season and secure the teams future for the following years. Team manager Christa Skelde has resigned for health reasons, the job caused her too much stress.

http://www.tageblatt.lu/sport/radsport/story/Cult-Energy-mit-Problemen-25267970

 

[Gloin22]

There's always question about salaries in cycling...well Sky accounts for 2014 show this..

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

they have a budget of 24.4 million pounds? wow insane!

 

[ILovecycling]

Re:

There's always question about salaries in cycling...well Sky accounts for 2014 show this..

great post ,thanks!

 

[Gloin22]

Re:

they have a budget of 24.4 million pounds? wow insane!

Yep.

''The income statement above lists the figure in black and white: £24,479,000. ($38.1m / €31.1m, exchange rates below). That’s up 11% on 2013''

Vaughters on twitter related to this article said Garmin runs on $16M budget a year. Of course we knew it was much lower, but still

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

they have a budget of 24.4 million pounds? wow insane!

Yep.

''The income statement above lists the figure in black and white: £24,479,000. ($38.1m / €31.1m, exchange rates below). That’s up 11% on 2013''

Vaughters on twitter related to this article said Garmin runs on $16M budget a year. Of course we knew it was much lower, but still

So he could afford about 3 Sagans?

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

There's always question about salaries in cycling...well Sky accounts for 2014 show this..

It certainly explains how they can hire all those domestiques who would be leaders on many other teams.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Makes LottoNL's €8 million euro budget for cycling+skating team combined look like nothing

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

lottonl jumbo have 8 million just for road racing team. ag2r doesn't have much more and look at what they accomplish with that.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Bora decide to trump Sky's motorhome with a purpose built 19 meter long cooking truck, complete with dining room and some weird glass cube. I'm assuming that the glass cube is to show off a fancy pants sponsor made kitchen. http://www.bora-argon18.com/en/news/detailview/news/bora-argon-18-with-innovative-cooking-truck-at-the-tour-de-france/

The team don't get to keep it though. The sponsor will be using it for their own promotional work after the Tour.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re:

There's always question about salaries in cycling...well Sky accounts for 2014 show this..

F'in hell. 24.4 mil? Any idea how much BMC, TCS and EQS run on?