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General News Thread

Page 73 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
hrotha said:
I'm not sure why you rate Rujano so much, honestly. It hasn't been long since he didn't do crap at Caisse.

He said he was the 3rd best climber in the world. Cyclists would never lie;)

But on a more serious note, wheres the fun in predicting ex winner Menchov or Ricco.

Every day the commentators give predictions. If they say "Cav" and Cav wins, its never mentioned again. If they say "Hutarovich" and he wins, well, they get credit for a clever prediction. Backsted always uses this. the opposite commentator picks Cancellara for PR but he picks Flecha. Sometimes it works.


Thats why for gts im hyping up Samuel "Cant descend (liggett) and not a contender (Andrew)" Sanchez, Michele "lost 3 minutes in ttt so was never mentioned as contender but owned the mountains" Scarponi and Jose " who?" Rujano.

Also theres hope involved. I want to see a Venezuelan win. I now have something called "Canal Sur" which i think is Veneuzelan and want to see how they would treat his victory.

I bet you Lequip dont give Rujano more than 2 stars in their pre gt summary. Im not sure theyll even bother to cover him. Last year they gave Scarponi 2, Nibali 2 Basso 3 stars. Cadel and Sastre had the 5.

At the Vuelta the gave the 5 to Menchov and Frank.
 
Jun 16, 2009
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Timmy-loves-Rabo said:
it isn't just menchov.
anton, ricco.. some of the best climbers in the world.
Return of rujano (and I'm not one of those guys on the Colombian - yes i know he isn't Colombian blah blah - hype train.. far from it).
Nibali with added self belief and experience... same goes for scarponi really (i can only see him being better at the giro this year, last year he didn't really think about winning the giro.. this year he might)
+ krueziger (even tho i believe he will fail, should add some interest), di luca maybe, the usual suspects (cunego, garzelli etc), sastre(?), sella(?).
Maybe even purito will ride.

There is a lot to like about the field at this stage.
Much better the 10' imo.

Evans, basso, Nibali, Vinokourov, Sastre aren't interesting enough? Rujano hasn't done much for years in any big or significant races. I question how well Ricco, Di Luca, etc will perform. Don't know why you bother putting in Cunego.
 
Jun 22, 2009
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auscyclefan94 said:
Evans, basso, Nibali, Vinokourov, Sastre aren't interesting enough? Rujano hasn't done much for years in any big or significant races. I question how well Ricco, Di Luca, etc will perform. Don't know why you bother putting in Cunego.

nibali and sastre are racing again (well i assume sastre is)

so on top of that we have; evans, vino (whom in reality was never gonna win, not good enough in the mountains) and basso
vs.
1. Ricco, Anton - super climbers (better the evans and vino at least imo)
2. Menchov (GT winner x3)
3. Rujano (has performed very well in s/america of late and is back to mgmt where he has found sucess before.
4. Kreuziger. Again i don't think he'll do much but there is still some hype there.
5. Dop.. err sella and di luca.

and maybe others will ride to.. purito?

btw; Nibali has grown a lot since last giro, and undoubtedly be stronger this time around. I suspect scarponi will be better this year also (esp. with lampre behind him)


re; Evans, basso, Nibali, Vinokourov, Sastre aren't interesting enough?
never said that. merely suggesting the field was a tad week, especially in depth for such a great GT.

and I understand you get offended with my suggestion that the field last year with your hero evans wasn't as good as this year's is shaping up to be. But alas it is the truth :)
 
Timmy-loves-Rabo said:
I suspect scarponi will be better this year also (esp. with lampre behind him)

Scarponi doesnt neccesarily need to be better.

Individualy he beat Basso in all 3 itts and in the mountains only lost on the Zoncolan - a minute and a half. (+Basso cheap little bonus seconds on Grappa after E and S did all the work)

So he was by far the best of the rest last year. The reason he was so far down on the gc the whole time was Androni lost 2.26 on the ttt. That Nibali could only hold 13 seconds from this huge advantage shows who the stronger rider was. And unlike Liqui, Androni were helpless against the Laquilla break and the 1 minute Arroyo eventually beat him by.

So for 2011 all he needs is a better time in the ttt which is where the lampre factor which you point out comes into play. To beat Nibali anyway. And i think it should be enough to stay with Anton Ricco and Menchov too. Maybe not Rujano though;)
 
Didn't know where this should go but i found it hilarious.....Wiggins twitter:

Wiggins Twitter said:
just had the pleasure of having my morning shower as Flecha could hold his bowels no more and came in and had a dump #spanishmanonthe****ter

I was looking on bikechatter.com at all the tweets from people about Ricco's current situation when that popped up. Couldn't control myself for a minute or two.
 
The Hitch said:
Scarponi doesnt neccesarily need to be better.

Individualy he beat Basso in all 3 itts and in the mountains only lost on the Zoncolan - a minute and a half. (+Basso cheap little bonus seconds on Grappa after E and S did all the work)

So he was by far the best of the rest last year. The reason he was so far down on the gc the whole time was Androni lost 2.26 on the ttt. That Nibali could only hold 13 seconds from this huge advantage shows who the stronger rider was. And unlike Liqui, Androni were helpless against the Laquilla break and the 1 minute Arroyo eventually beat him by.

So for 2011 all he needs is a better time in the ttt which is where the lampre factor which you point out comes into play. To beat Nibali anyway. And i think it should be enough to stay with Anton Ricco and Menchov too. Maybe not Rujano though;)

In terms of Scarponi vs Nibali last year, one factor on Nibali's side is that he didnt know that he would be riding until Pellizotti got suspended about a week beforehand. He was supposed to be going to the tour of California so he would have been in good condition for a one-week race - quite how that translates into three week ability im not sure.
 
May 15, 2010
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Amgen Tour of California 2011:

amgentourofcalifornia20.jpg


Awesome route!
 
Wow, AToC actually has a pretty good route. Though I am confused by your imperial measuring system, cycling is metres and kilometres for me, so it's hard to judge how hard these climbs will actually be.

Now all we need is some teams willing to animate the race, and we'll have a recipe for the race growing on its own merit, rather than being the **** of all the jokes again.
 
Mar 12, 2009
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Good stuff from California. Looks like they've realised that even when they provide a course perfect for Levi he still can't win so they might as well make it a proper race.
 
djlovesyou said:
Good stuff from California. Looks like they've realised that even when they provide a course perfect for Levi he still can't win so they might as well make it a proper race.

I would feel that more climbs is better for Levi.

Hes a far better climber than Michael Rogers or David Zabriskie, and i cant think of too many climbers who will be going for this.

Any climbers that do turn up will find it difficult to hold Levi in the tt
 

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djlovesyou said:
Good stuff from California. Looks like they've realised that even when they provide a course perfect for Levi he still can't win so they might as well make it a proper race.

I live about 1 1/2 hours from the finish on Sierra Road near San Jose I will be on the side of the road there, it is described as a goat track 20 0/0 grade.
I like the Big Sur stage also, they say sprint finish, no way! That will be a full on breakaway win, the field will be shreaded.
 
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Libertine Seguros said:
Wow, AToC actually has a pretty good route. Though I am confused by your imperial measuring system, cycling is metres and kilometres for me, so it's hard to judge how hard these climbs will actually be.

Now all we need is some teams willing to animate the race, and we'll have a recipe for the race growing on its own merit, rather than being the **** of all the jokes again.

I would of chucked out a team like Kenda and invited one of those top Colombian teams. If they are as good as Ryo says they are, then it would of been fun watching drop us mere mortal gringos.
 
Jun 16, 2009
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Tour de Romandie Route (was announced a while a go but it hasn't been posted)

Prologue: Martigny
Stage 1: Martigny - Leysin (pretty sure it is a MTF)
Stage 2: Romont - Romont
Stage 3: Thierrens - Neuchatel
Stage 4: Aubonne - Signal-de-Bougy (ITT)
Stage 5: Champagne - Geneve
 

DAOTEC

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Teams for Critérium Internacional 26/27 March 2011:

Saur-Sojasun, EuropCar, Cofidis, FDJ, AG2R, Bretagne-Schuller, Bigmat-Auber 93, Movistar, Euskaltel-Euskadi, Leopard-Trek, Astana, Sky, Garmin-Cervélo, Radioshack, Vacansoleil-DCM, Skil-Shimano.
 

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