Hot racing coming up in Australia

[Jspear]

Re:

Mutant sprint by Porte. Again. One of the cycling moments of the year for sure.

Surprised to see Chaves doing so well already. I thought he would go slowly at the beginning of the season, like the past years. Guess i was wrong. Which is only good though!

The year just started. This performance will most likely get drowned out by many more impressive wins on bigger stages.

 

[DNP-Old]

Re:

Mutant sprint by Porte. Again. One of the cycling moments of the year for sure.

Surprised to see Chaves doing so well already. I thought he would go slowly at the beginning of the season, like the past years. Guess i was wrong. Which is only good though!

Not very surprising if you consider he has a nationals to win in his hometown next month.

 

[jens_attacks]

Re:

jens will be ecstatic with Richie's performance.

Seal of approval.

Great attack.

 

[Escarabajo]

Nice race. Great win by Porte.

I have no problem with a WT race in January. It works perfectly for some riders who want to stay away from the bad weather in Europe. I don't like it that it has the same points as Paris-Nice. Maybe they can fix that later. But no problems at all with having this race in Australia.

 

[pastronef]

Re: Re:

Mutant sprint by Porte. Again. One of the cycling moments of the year for sure.

Surprised to see Chaves doing so well already. I thought he would go slowly at the beginning of the season, like the past years. Guess i was wrong. Which is only good though!

Not very surprising if you consider he has a nationals to win in his hometown next month.

should we hope he does not win it, so that Orica won't butcher another national champ jersey?

 

[DNP-Old]

Re: Re:

Mutant sprint by Porte. Again. One of the cycling moments of the year for sure.

Surprised to see Chaves doing so well already. I thought he would go slowly at the beginning of the season, like the past years. Guess i was wrong. Which is only good though!

Not very surprising if you consider he has a nationals to win in his hometown next month.

should we hope he does not win it, so that Orica won't butcher another national champ jersey?

Well, I hope at least one of the big guns who consistently ride in Europe will win. Wether it's Chaves, Nairo, Uran or whoever I couldn't really care. The course is 240 kilometers, so that will be a huge advantage for them and it decreases the chance of another Chalapud or Avila a whole lot.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

Always thought this was Porte's race to lose and the Paracombe climb would change the dimension of the race - A few of us have been posting about Michael Storer - Will end up at Orica.

I wouldn't say its set in stone that he ends up at Orica but also it wouldn't surprise me.

The fact that he's coming through the AIS program means that's he's much more likely to end up there.
If you're outside the AIS system then you tread the Porte/Canty etc path ..

Ah yes that's a very good point, ending up at Orica wouldn't be the worst place for him anyway considering the track record they have with young riders.

You have a point about the AIS, though Orica is utterly ruthless when it comes to Australian riders - In fact they only have 10 Australian's on their roster - They will choose the best talent.

 

[yaco]

Re: Re:

Always thought this was Porte's race to lose and the Paracombe climb would change the dimension of the race - A few of us have been posting about Michael Storer - Will end up at Orica.

I wouldn't say its set in stone that he ends up at Orica but also it wouldn't surprise me.

Posted before last years L'Avenir that Orica have interest in Hindley and Storer - They are particularly interested in Storer's TT skills which are a point of difference to their current GC guys - Have a question ? Is Rob Power injured again ? Not racing in Australia and certain he's not in Europe.

Like not racing currently in Australia or not even for the Herald Sun Tour?
I can understand why he's not racing at the TDU, it's a very strong WT field and there's better riders for more specific roles within Orica.

I know that Edmondson is training in Adelaide and I believe he is riding the Herald Sun Tour - No idea what's happening with Power - All i know he was a last minute withdrawal from the Australian RR - Surprised he's not with Haig and the rest of the climbers in Spain.

 

[yaco]

My guess is Stage 3 could be won by a breakaway, especially if the weather takes a turn for the worse.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

Swift's characteristic positioning skills strike again. Also striking again was Phil Liggett, who merged two riders to create "Danny Boy van Poppel".

I didn't think Swift was involved in the finish at all or did he attempt to do a leadout for Kump?

I only saw it on my phone but I'd say he was as fast if not faster than the three photo-finishers, he just started from too far behind them.

Are you confusing Kump and Swift? I ask because Kump finished 4th and Swift finished 36th

You're right. I disgracefully dismissed out of hand the possibility it was him because he was sprinting too fast (to my eyes at least) for such a lean record at WT.

 

[del1962]

So will sprinters like Ewan be blown out the back on stage 3?

 

[yaco]

Re:

So will sprinters like Ewan be blown out the back on stage 3?

More likely to be a sprint finish, though a reasonable chance the breakaway could stay away - I like Bennett for the stage - He sat out the back while Van Poppel and Ewan worked hard.

 

[GuyIncognito]

It's good to see the new generation like Mas and Guerreiro do well in their first race and make the selection.
Particularly the latter as it's his first race back from a severe injury

 

[Kwibus]

Huge gap for such a climb.

Sometimes I wonder if this early peak by Richie does him any good later in the season.
Well this year he certainly has the TDU in the bag.

Also please ignore Jancouver.

You're right about his lack of performance at any race post TDF, but hopefully he can start to piece it together. Also in 2015 he rode well at the TDU then won at P-N and Catalunya, so it can't hurt him that much (hopefully).
Additionally after he wins this year, he may not have as much of a focus on it in later years, allowing Dennis the chance to win.

@Arredondo, hopefully this means Chaves vs Froome at the Sun Tour is great!

Porte performs just great even when peaking in January, but I wonder if maybe he could do even better if his form was a bit less at this time of year.

 

[yaco]

I always wonder why Orica doesn't have the whole team training in Australia in January - Sick of seeing riders posting pics of sub zero conditions in Europe.

 

[Arredondo]

Re: Re:

Mutant sprint by Porte. Again. One of the cycling moments of the year for sure.

Surprised to see Chaves doing so well already. I thought he would go slowly at the beginning of the season, like the past years. Guess i was wrong. Which is only good though!

The year just started. This performance will most likely get drowned out by many more impressive wins on bigger stages.

I actually remember all of Porte's wins in Down Under. Because of the way he does it: it's quite remarkable. Standing on the peddles for almost 1 minute.

Let's put it differently. For me it's one of the most exciting performances of the year. Whatever will happen in 2017.

 

[Arredondo]

Re: Re:

Mutant sprint by Porte. Again. One of the cycling moments of the year for sure.

Surprised to see Chaves doing so well already. I thought he would go slowly at the beginning of the season, like the past years. Guess i was wrong. Which is only good though!

Not very surprising if you consider he has a nationals to win in his hometown next month.

Yeah. Forgot about that. It's surprising because last years he was mediocre till the Giro. I thought he would have had a similair succesfull approach this year too. But it's great too see him riding at such a level already in the season!

 

[sienna]

Re:

I always wonder why Orica doesn't have the whole team training in Australia in January - Sick of seeing riders posting pics of sub zero conditions in Europe.

I wonder whether it is better to train hot or cold this time of year or any other time for that matter - generally it is colder at higher altitudes and that's an obvious factor as well.

 

[sienna]

Re:

Nice race. Great win by Porte.

I have no problem with a WT race in January. It works perfectly for some riders who want to stay away from the bad weather in Europe. I don't like it that it has the same points as Paris-Nice. Maybe they can fix that later. But no problems at all with having this race in Australia.

Good comment in the context of what has been written in this thread.

 

[HelloDolly]

Re: Re:

I always wonder why Orica doesn't have the whole team training in Australia in January - Sick of seeing riders posting pics of sub zero conditions in Europe.

I wonder whether it is better to train hot or cold this time of year or any other time for that matter - generally it is colder at higher altitudes and that's an obvious factor as well.

I would imagine it is better to train cold if targeting the Belgain classics ?

Whatever is best it must be harder to go back to Europe agter all the heat rather than have been in Eurpe in the cold all along....just my opinion

 

[StryderHells]

Re: Re:

Always thought this was Porte's race to lose and the Paracombe climb would change the dimension of the race - A few of us have been posting about Michael Storer - Will end up at Orica.

I wouldn't say its set in stone that he ends up at Orica but also it wouldn't surprise me.

The fact that he's coming through the AIS program means that's he's much more likely to end up there.
If you're outside the AIS system then you tread the Porte/Canty etc path ..

Ah yes that's a very good point, ending up at Orica wouldn't be the worst place for him anyway considering the track record they have with young riders.

You have a point about the AIS, though Orica is utterly ruthless when it comes to Australian riders - In fact they only have 10 Australian's on their roster - They will choose the best talent.

I was referring to Orica having a good track record in general developing young riders and not referring to just young Australian riders.

 

[sienna]

Re: Re:

Always thought this was Porte's race to lose and the Paracombe climb would change the dimension of the race - A few of us have been posting about Michael Storer - Will end up at Orica.

I wouldn't say its set in stone that he ends up at Orica but also it wouldn't surprise me.

The fact that he's coming through the AIS program means that's he's much more likely to end up there.
If you're outside the AIS system then you tread the Porte/Canty etc path ..

Ah yes that's a very good point, ending up at Orica wouldn't be the worst place for him anyway considering the track record they have with young riders.

You have a point about the AIS, though Orica is utterly ruthless when it comes to Australian riders - In fact they only have 10 Australian's on their roster - They will choose the best talent.

I notice that many teams that have traditionally had higher numbers of domestic riders are increasingly diluted with foreign riders - Astana, Movistar as well as some French and Italian teams.

 

[claude cat]

Incoming

 

[swuzzlebubble]

Re: Re:

Nice race. Great win by Porte.

I have no problem with a WT race in January. It works perfectly for some riders who want to stay away from the bad weather in Europe. I don't like it that it has the same points as Paris-Nice. Maybe they can fix that later. But no problems at all with having this race in Australia.

Good comment in the context of what has been written in this thread.

Perhaps as an extension of the recent UCI rule about teams loosing WT status if they don’t get enough WT teams attending, they could look at something like this
-non-WT races can get WT status if enough WT teams do attend (requires relax of rule re maximum WT teams allowed to race)
-WT points to based weighted by the percentage of WT teams in attendance

 

[StryderHells]

Re:

Incoming

While that will make the roads wet for a while it will pass pretty quickly and it won't be raining by the end of the stage, the storms aren't predicted until after the race is finished.