Hammer series

[kenk09]

Few tweaks in tactics and rules, and I think all 3 stages have shown there is exciting racing to be had.

 

[ice&fire]

Re:

Sunweb played it poorly. They should've just let Sky dangle 2 seconds in front and then blow past them at the finish.

They had to be first at the last turn, but they let a gap at the inside

 

[Red Rick]

So... Now they'll all go out and get hammered?

 

[Billie]

not like everyone could hear what the plan was lol

 

[Climbing]

Well every team cheated with drafting, I don't really see the point of the race, but just pointless fun.

 

[RedheadDane]

My personal verdict of this:
Nice idea, definitely needs some improvement.

 

[Beech Mtn]

apparently Dowsett crashed or something during the sprint for 3rd? or just as they were gearing up for it

 

[Vasilis]

And Boswell isn't even here anymore

 

[dirkprovin]

Re:

My personal verdict of this:
Nice idea, definitely needs some improvement.

Concur, the concept is fine but they'll need to look at where such events can fit into the calendar (so as to not see absolutely farcical team entries). Having 8 TTT teams on the same road with such minimal starting time gaps was always going to be problematic; HOW they can rejig that will be interesting. Wider roads would help but you'd ideally like to see a mix of courses/terrain for both sprint and chase rather than just pancake flat

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

LOL

Zes ploegen hebben een tijdstraf van vijf minuten ontvangen vanwege stayeren. Het gaat om LottoNL-Jumbo, Lotto Soudal, Nippo-Vini Fantini, Cannondale-Drapac, Movistar en Orica-Scott. De tijdstraf geldt alleen voor de daguitslag van vandaag.


Naast de eindzege gaat ook de dagzege naar Sky. Zij werkten het 44,7 kilometer lange parcours af in 51 minuten en 59 seconden. Sunweb eindigt als tweede in de daguitslag, één seconde achter Sky. Quick-Step reed in de B-groep naar een tijd van 52 minuten en 38 seconden.

--

Basically means that aside from Sunweb and Sky, everybody got a 5 minute time penalty in the finale

 

[Beech Mtn]

If this were a race that mattered, I'd think Orica would be pissed about that. They mostly seemed to get drafted on rather than drafting other people. Only saw them behind Lotto-Soudal briefly, but then we didn't see enough of the peloton.

Organizers are partly at fault for the drafting too.

 

[Eagle]

Re:

LOL

Zes ploegen hebben een tijdstraf van vijf minuten ontvangen vanwege stayeren. Het gaat om LottoNL-Jumbo, Lotto Soudal, Nippo-Vini Fantini, Cannondale-Drapac, Movistar en Orica-Scott. De tijdstraf geldt alleen voor de daguitslag van vandaag.


Naast de eindzege gaat ook de dagzege naar Sky. Zij werkten het 44,7 kilometer lange parcours af in 51 minuten en 59 seconden. Sunweb eindigt als tweede in de daguitslag, één seconde achter Sky. Quick-Step reed in de B-groep naar een tijd van 52 minuten en 38 seconden.

--

Basically means that aside from Sunweb and Sky, everybody got a 5 minute time penalty in the finale

Seems harsh on Orica, looked like they were on the front most of the time

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Extraordinary rather than uplifting, but no less entertaining for that. The competitive mandate that TTT gaps should be possible to close needs to be maintained, otherwise day 3 is meaningless, but something needs to be done to maintain something resembling TTT format.

But you can't have commissaires motoring up to riders to order them to slow down: that is not racing.

 

[Beech Mtn]

Re:

LOL

Zes ploegen hebben een tijdstraf van vijf minuten ontvangen vanwege stayeren. Het gaat om LottoNL-Jumbo, Lotto Soudal, Nippo-Vini Fantini, Cannondale-Drapac, Movistar en Orica-Scott. De tijdstraf geldt alleen voor de daguitslag van vandaag.


Naast de eindzege gaat ook de dagzege naar Sky. Zij werkten het 44,7 kilometer lange parcours af in 51 minuten en 59 seconden. Sunweb eindigt als tweede in de daguitslag, één seconde achter Sky. Quick-Step reed in de B-groep naar een tijd van 52 minuten en 38 seconden.

--

Basically means that aside from Sunweb and Sky, everybody got a 5 minute time penalty in the finale

Sky drafted also. Possibly more than Orica did.

Race is rigged

 

[William H]

Honestly, they should just ditch the "no drafting" rule. Or maybe hold the event on a motorway. I don't see how its fairly enforceable on a vaguely technical course.

 

[Eviter]

OF course Dutch media and pundits called this a great spectacle, but they didn't thought that TTT through. Which is strange because the Dutch teams that had a lead in this are known for the professionalism.

Most of the excuses from the big Dutch crowd that watched it was that it wasn't predictable. While I agree that is good, doesn't cut it. For example the Mass start in speed skating (yes stay with me here) was brought in for that reason a few years ago, but they decided to reduce the points for the intermediate sprints and just reduce the field of riders to 2/10th to get that effect. Worked much better. That would've been better also looking at the TTT. Disappointing.

 

[dirkprovin]

Re:

If this were a race that mattered, I'd think Orica would be pissed about that. They mostly seemed to get drafted on rather than drafting other people. Only saw them behind Lotto-Soudal briefly, but then we didn't see enough of the peloton.

Organizers are partly at fault for the drafting too.

That is certainly the case but Orica should've wised up to the situation rather than just consenting to playing locomotive to a train of other teams for a couple of laps. They should've moved off the front and forced someone else to do a turn.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Re:

Honestly, they should just ditch the "no drafting" rule. Or maybe hold the event on a motorway. I don't see how its fairly enforceable on a vaguely technical course.

No drafting means that with 40km to go you would have a 30 man peloton chasing a lead group of 5 with 1'30", and a bunch sprint that renders the two previous days redundant.

 

[kingjr]

Re:

OF course Dutch media and pundits called this a great spectacle, but they didn't thought that TTT through. Which is strange because the Dutch teams that had a lead in this are known for the professionalism.

Generally, or by Dutch media?

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Re:

Naast de eindzege gaat ook de dagzege naar Sky. Zij werkten het 44,7 kilometer lange parcours af in 51 minuten en 59 seconden. Sunweb eindigt als tweede in de daguitslag, één seconde achter Sky. Quick-Step reed in de B-groep naar een tijd van 52 minuten en 38 seconden.

Google translate:

In addition to the final victory, the day goes to Sky. They completed the 44.7 kilometer long course in 51 minutes and 59 seconds. Sunweb finishes second in the dayout, one second behind Sky. Quick-Step drove in the B group to a time of 52 minutes and 38 seconds.

How can they publish a classification for the day that is based on time gaps established on the previous two days?

Either credit Sunweb for having done today's stage fastest (31" faster than Sky), or have the honesty to say that there is no stage classification for day 3.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

Naast de eindzege gaat ook de dagzege naar Sky. Zij werkten het 44,7 kilometer lange parcours af in 51 minuten en 59 seconden. Sunweb eindigt als tweede in de daguitslag, één seconde achter Sky. Quick-Step reed in de B-groep naar een tijd van 52 minuten en 38 seconden.

Google translate:

In addition to the final victory, the day goes to Sky. They completed the 44.7 kilometer long course in 51 minutes and 59 seconds. Sunweb finishes second in the dayout, one second behind Sky. Quick-Step drove in the B group to a time of 52 minutes and 38 seconds.

How can they publish a classification for the day that is based on time gaps established on the previous two days?

Either credit Sunweb for having done today's stage fastest (31" faster than Sky), or have the honesty to say that there is no stage classification for day 3.

That's ridiculous. Reminds me of the XC skiing I see on Eurosport sometimes, where athletes start a second event with time gaps established in an earlier event, and the one to cross the line first wins the 2nd event. It makes no sense to me, surely the winner is the one who got through the course the fastest.

 

[yaco]

Need to introduce a rule that once a team is passed in the TTT, the team passed, must sit up for 3 seconds - This means the stronger team will usually ride away.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Re:

Need to introduce a rule that once a team is passed in the TTT, the team passed, must sit up for 3 seconds - This means the stronger team will usually ride away.

But how do you prevent the team that is closing, perhaps only very gradually, from getting some drafting advantage?

And can you really ask a team to stop pedalling if they are caught in the last 2km?

 

[Red Rick]

I think the fault lies in the assumption this was supposed to make sense

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Re: Re:

Naast de eindzege gaat ook de dagzege naar Sky. Zij werkten het 44,7 kilometer lange parcours af in 51 minuten en 59 seconden. Sunweb eindigt als tweede in de daguitslag, één seconde achter Sky. Quick-Step reed in de B-groep naar een tijd van 52 minuten en 38 seconden.

Google translate:

In addition to the final victory, the day goes to Sky. They completed the 44.7 kilometer long course in 51 minutes and 59 seconds. Sunweb finishes second in the dayout, one second behind Sky. Quick-Step drove in the B group to a time of 52 minutes and 38 seconds.

How can they publish a classification for the day that is based on time gaps established on the previous two days?

Either credit Sunweb for having done today's stage fastest (31" faster than Sky), or have the honesty to say that there is no stage classification for day 3.

That's ridiculous. Reminds me of the XC skiing I see on Eurosport sometimes, where athletes start a second event with time gaps established in an earlier event, and the one to cross the line first wins the 2nd event. It makes no sense to me, surely the winner is the one who got through the course the fastest.

What's ridiculous? In today's scenario, Sky win the overall, Sunweb win the stage.
But Hammer had (at least in the publicity I had seen) said nothing about there being a day winner for Sunday until they suddenly (late last night?) decided that there ought to be some purpose in the B race.