• The Cycling News forum is still looking to add volunteer moderators with. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

John Gadret non-selection for tour of Beijing

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
maxmartin

maxmartin

May 19, 2011
4,857
2
0
After Giro, he said his next biggest goal of the season is tour of bj

what happened? anybody know any insider information??:confused:
 
Z

Zinoviev Letter

Aug 18, 2010
11,435
3,594
28,180
maxmartin said:
After Giro, he said his next biggest goal of the season is tour of bj

what happened? anybody know any insider information??:confused:
Click to expand...

Who knows when it comes to Ag2r's selection policies? They stuck him in the Tour when he clearly was exhausted, so maybe that effectively finished his season.

If I recall correctly they were telling Roche that he had to ride Beijing after the Vuelta for points reasons, and he wasn't keen.
 
bicing

bicing

Nov 23, 2009
649
0
0
Gadret is a one-race pirate. He can't focus on more than one race per year and that's the Giro. Probably it was just his goal because he'd never visited China :p
 
maxmartin

maxmartin

May 19, 2011
4,857
2
0
maxmartin

maxmartin

May 19, 2011
4,857
2
0
I will be in Beijing at that time for business trip, I was hoping to get John Gardret 's signature LOL
 
Libertine Seguros

Libertine Seguros

Feb 20, 2010
32,227
13,697
28,180
Lupetto said:
I'm quite surprised that this race is taken that serious at this late point of the season. There will be lots of strong teams in China.
Click to expand...
All the teams that are sending strong teams are those who are in a flaky position vis-à-vis holding on to their World Tour licences. A late season race with a bunch of points available = potential goldmine, especially for those unlikely to take anything from Lombardia (especially if they fear that, say, Androni Giocattoli might take a bucketload somehow).
Ryo Hazuki said:
how is the course then? it's hard?
Click to expand...

Not really. It looks pretty rubbish tbh.
 
Tank Engine

Tank Engine

Jul 16, 2011
1,561
10
10,510
Ryo Hazuki said:
how is the course then? it's hard?
Click to expand...

You can get profiles from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Tour_of_Beijing

There's a 11k time trial to start. Apart from that there are two flat stages (2 and 5) and two "mountain" stages (3 and 4)
The "queen" stage is the third. The profile looks comparable to one of the middle stages of Paris-Nice. If the 4th stage is a mountain stage, then I'm the Archduke Ferdinand.
Roche may well do well on Stage 3, and hence overall (although the TT won't help him). Gadret did well in the hilly stages of the Giro, so also could do well. Since it's Pro Tour, it's not going to be won by a random breakaway, but lots of riders could come high on GC on a course like this, so I'm not surprised if Gadret is not targeting it, especially with the TT.
 
El Pistolero

El Pistolero

Jul 16, 2010
17,455
5
0
Libertine Seguros said:
Just because it's ProTour doesn't mean it won't be won by a random breakaway. Anybody remember Gustavo César winning the 2008 Volta a Catalunya?
Click to expand...

Or Stuart O'Grady, Oscar Pereiro and Johan Vansummeren.
 
Tank Engine

Tank Engine

Jul 16, 2011
1,561
10
10,510
Libertine Seguros said:
Just because it's ProTour doesn't mean it won't be won by a random breakaway. Anybody remember Gustavo César winning the 2008 Volta a Catalunya?
Click to expand...

Fair point. I guess I should have said I don't think this race will be won by a "random breakaway".

As for Pereiro in TdF- Definitely a random breakaway, but no team is going to want to give away the leader's jersey in a five day race.

As for Paris-Roubaix. Stuart O'Grady ...mmm maybe... He was in the early breakaway, punctured and fell back to the chase group, which then caught the breakaway. If he had punctured in the chase group, then he wouldn't have won. A surprise winner, yes, but not a mega surprise and he was very strong that day.

This year's PR was a strange race. Van Summeren escaped from the peleton with 6 others in the Arenberg forest chasing the early breakaway.
I wouldn't call a breakaway which occurred at a traditionally critical point of the race random (one might argue about that).
What was random was Boonen crashing just before and Spartacus not being at the front in the forest. I think Van Summeren's win was more a question of Cancellara not being at the front and lacking any support.
 
Nicosix

Nicosix

Sep 19, 2011
203
0
9,030
I think AG2R is going to race for Péraud since he might do well in the ITT.

He just dropped from the first 30 in WT ranking and a 7th place would make him back (+ 20 pts for AG2R in the WT point chasing)
 
auscyclefan94

auscyclefan94

Jun 16, 2009
19,654
2
0
Tank Engine said:
Fair point. I guess I should have said I don't think this race will be won by a "random breakaway".

As for Pereiro in TdF- Definitely a random breakaway, but no team is going to want to give away the leader's jersey in a five day race.

As for Paris-Roubaix. Stuart O'Grady ...mmm maybe... He was in the early breakaway, punctured and fell back to the chase group, which then caught the breakaway. If he had punctured in the chase group, then he wouldn't have won. A surprise winner, yes, but not a mega surprise and he was very strong that day.

This year's PR was a strange race. Van Summeren escaped from the peleton with 6 others in the Arenberg forest chasing the early breakaway.
I wouldn't call a breakaway which occurred at a traditionally critical point of the race random (one might argue about that).
What was random was Boonen crashing just before and Spartacus not being at the front in the forest. I think Van Summeren's win was more a question of Cancellara not being at the front and lacking any support.
Click to expand...

O'Grady's win was not remotely surprising in the Paris Roubaix considering how good he has been in the cobbled classics in the past. He was clearly the strongest that year. By a country mile if I might say.
 
Ryo Hazuki

Ryo Hazuki

Mar 31, 2010
18,136
5
0
auscyclefan94 said:
O'Grady's win was not remotely surprising in the Paris Roubaix considering how good he has been in the cobbled classics in the past. He was clearly the strongest that year. By a country mile if I might say.
Click to expand...

when you think you couldn't say any more ludicrous things this is said. LOL. ogrady was the luckiest yes
 
auscyclefan94

auscyclefan94

Jun 16, 2009
19,654
2
0
Ryo Hazuki said:
when you think you couldn't say any more ludicrous things this is said. LOL. ogrady was the luckiest yes
Click to expand...

look who's talking...you seriously don't have a clue and you are so blinded from reality. How was O'Grady lucky? Please tell me who was stronger than O'Grady in that that edition of Paris Roubaix? He was in the break so he would of most likely expended more energy than the other favourites. He put in a decent attack a fair way out and won easily. that doesn't make you lucky. It makes you the strongest and a most deserving winner.
 
Tank Engine

Tank Engine

Jul 16, 2011
1,561
10
10,510
auscyclefan94 said:
O'Grady's win was not remotely surprising in the Paris Roubaix considering how good he has been in the cobbled classics in the past. He was clearly the strongest that year. By a country mile if I might say.
Click to expand...

I would say surprising, but only in comparison to the likes of Cancellara or Boonen winning. Personally, I wouldn't call it a win from a random breakaway and the luck that he had was that he punctured while being in the front rather than in the chase group, if you can call that luck.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom