Giro d'Italia 2016 stage 2 - Arnhem – Nijmegen 190 km

[Libertine Seguros]

Re: Re:

Then Kittel and Greipel wouldn't bother coming. And rather than seeing an incredible display of sprinting, the sole highlight of the day would be watching to see which one of Nizzolo, Modolo or Hofland manages to mess up their sprint the least

Well, at least then it would be a bit less predictable and we could talk about who we expected to mess up their sprint the least.

I didn't even think about tuning in today. No point. Marcel Kittel hasn't done a single thing of even remote interest to me on a bike since he left U23s, and I don't like his haircut. Him making it to the end of a weekend stage in the front group is indictment enough

 

[Libertine Seguros]

From the Clinic discussion referenced, Maxiton favours the XC Skiing sprint approach - shorten and simplify, tour parts of countries only instead of the whole ones to keep total distance down, make races 50-75% shorter in distance.

I'm a curmudgeonly traditionalist who is most fond of the endurance aspect of the sport and finds the similar trend in XC skiing towards reducing the endurance aspect and increasing the amount of short races over short courses to maximise the stadium time (negating the "cross country" aspect of the sport entirely) abhorrent already.

 

[Taxus4a]

Re:

From the Clinic discussion referenced, Maxiton favours the XC Skiing sprint approach - shorten and simplify, tour parts of countries only instead of the whole ones to keep total distance down, make races 50-75% shorter in distance.

I'm a curmudgeonly traditionalist who is most fond of the endurance aspect of the sport and finds the similar trend in XC skiing towards reducing the endurance aspect and increasing the amount of short races over short courses to maximise the stadium time (negating the "cross country" aspect of the sport entirely) abhorrent already.

I prefer of course long stages and people who are no good for short stages but have a big resilience as Hesjedal.

 

[Breh]

They should've done an AGR type of stage, very exciting

Flat stages belong in a GT as do TT's, uphill sprint, mountains stages,... There's not an awfull lot you can do in the Netherlands and the crowd turned up in great numbers. Atleast you know exactly what to expect in these kind of stages. "Die hard cycling fans" tuning in with 50k to go on a pan flat stage are dissapointed with the outcome. Right....

People giving Kittel stick for doing what he does best, meh.

 

[pedromiguelmartins]

Re: Re:

What a stupid pathetic stage. I hope the organization burns to the ground. 0 chance of action.

So the useless organization found suitable to start the weekend with a stage that gives 0 chance to attackers, 0 chance to even write a word on the outcome of the race, etc?

Pathetic. Simply pathetic. I feel sorry for everybody that is trying to spread knowledge about how cycling can be great instead of a borefest. If a casual turned on their TVs, they changed the channel in less than 5min. Pathetic.

Sure, let's have mountains every single freaking day for 21 days

Who's talking about mountains? I'm talking about stages where we can have more than 1KM of racing. Otherwise, why bother with the 21 days and 6h per day at all?

 

[Pippo_San]

I've seen lots of positioning mistakes and very bad sprint trains.
Kittel surely has a super hyper monster form, but you never know.

 

[Maxiton]

Re:

From the Clinic discussion referenced, Maxiton favours the XC Skiing sprint approach - shorten and simplify, tour parts of countries only instead of the whole ones to keep total distance down, make races 50-75% shorter in distance.

I'm a curmudgeonly traditionalist who is most fond of the endurance aspect of the sport and finds the similar trend in XC skiing towards reducing the endurance aspect and increasing the amount of short races over short courses to maximise the stadium time (negating the "cross country" aspect of the sport entirely) abhorrent already.

I had to edit out the parts of your post we can't talk about outside the Clinic.

My position is more fully explained here (which I know you've already seen, but I'll leave the link for the benefit of others who might be interested). I appreciate where you're coming from, and your concerns, but I think I can address them to your satisfaction in the upcoming thread I'm planning. I look forward to getting your further input on it then.