March 17th 2012 Milan-Sanremo - The Primavera - 298km

[cocteau_ireland]

so watched the race later when i came home.

And what an awful winner. Did almost no work and profited from Cancellara.
Horrible win really.

And Nibali did 0.00 and could do nothing? Wtf... why not work for Sagan then who could've won [

Why should gerrans,who doesn't have the ability, work for another. He did all he could do to win. WIN

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

My problem with this is that many riders on this forum gets flamed for wheelsucking. Especially when they are italian/spanish. But when it's an Australian it's all fine and dandy and a great win.

Come on!!!!

 

[movingtarget]

My problem with this is that many riders on this forum gets flamed for wheelsucking. Especially when they are italian/spanish. But when it's an Australian it's all fine and dandy and a great win.

Come on!!!!

Obviously you are joking. Cadel Evans had been copping the wheelsucker comments for years on this site. Only someone who did not want to win the race would be swapping turns with Cancellara and that's if they could even manage it with the way Cancellara was riding. Simple fact is that Cancellara is often the strongest but still loses in sprints. Should Gerrans apologise ?

 

[karlboss]

Gerrans did one thing smart, mark Nibali most if not all the way up the poggio. When Nibali gets out of the saddle to attack I don't think a single inch opens.
After that only an idiot would have done anything differently.

As for Cancellara, he had a few other options, but really ran out of them. The big thing he could have done differently would be launch the attack on the poggio, tough ask without a teammate, so he waited for Nibali's. Couldn't get to the top fast enough to drop Nibali or Gerrans, pushed them both on the decent frequently opening up gaps on the decents, but it's tough to drop someone on a decent unless they are a muppet. Once they came off the decent, there aren't any sharp coners to take a risk on. So what do you do, with Sagan, Friere, Degenkolb approaching after riding in wheels? He has 2 options, sit up and go into the bunch and chance it in a sprint or a attack at 1 or 2 to go, or push hard to the finish and hope Gerrans is shattered after trying to hold his wheel.

Maybe he should have backed himself to launch an attack earlier on the poggio, bet he wished he rode for...well someone with a classics team, though bennati is doing ok.

 

[movingtarget]

Gerrans did one thing smart, mark Nibali most if not all the way up the poggio. When Nibali gets out of the saddle to attack I don't think a single inch opens.
After that only an idiot would have done anything differently.

As for Cancellara, he had a few other options, but really ran out of them. The big thing he could have done differently would be launch the attack on the poggio, tough ask without a teammate, so he waited for Nibali's. Couldn't get to the top fast enough to drop Nibali or Gerrans, pushed them both on the decent frequently opening up gaps on the decents, but it's tough to drop someone on a decent unless they are a muppet. Once they came off the decent, there aren't any sharp coners to take a risk on. So what do you do, with Sagan, Friere, Degenkolb approaching after riding in wheels? He has 2 options, sit up and go into the bunch and chance it in a sprint or a attack at 1 or 2 to go, or push hard to the finish and hope Gerrans is shattered after trying to hold his wheel.

Maybe he should have backed himself to launch an attack earlier on the poggio, bet he wished he rode for...well someone with a classics team, though bennati is doing ok.

Maybe they should have tried to put a rider up the rode to link up with Cancellara on the descent but to to do that it has to be done earlier because all the moves cause reactions late in the race. I don't think Cancellara could have done much better except maybe attack earlier and risk it all. Maybe the Cipressa was the place to go for him but it's a long way from the finish.

 

[Polyarmour]

My problem with this is that many riders on this forum gets flamed for wheelsucking. Especially when they are italian/spanish. But when it's an Australian it's all fine and dandy and a great win.

Come on!!!!

We were a few seconds away from it finishing in a bunch sprint where any one of 20 wheelsuckers (aka sprinters) would have won. Is it ok for a sprinter to wheelsuck for 300km and win but not Gerrans? At least Gerrans attacked on the Poggio with Nibali. At Least Gerrans made an attempt to do some work on the descent.

 

[movingtarget]

We were a few seconds away from it finishing in a bunch sprint where any one of 20 wheelsuckers (aka sprinters) would have won. Is it ok for a sprinter to wheelsuck for 300km and win but not Gerrans? At least Gerrans attacked on the Poggio with Nibali. At Least Gerrans made an attempt to do some work on the descent.

I agree........it seems it's only wheelsucking when the wrong person wins !

 

[karlboss]

Maybe they should have tried to put a rider up the rode to link up with Cancellara on the descent but to to do that it has to be done earlier because all the moves cause reactions late in the race. I don't think Cancellara could have done much better except maybe attack earlier and risk it all. Maybe the Cipressa was the place to go for him but it's a long way from the finish.

Cipressa too far, without team support. Put someone upfront to help on the decent of Poggio? (you can't mean that, because if someone was that far ahead, they shouldn't be looking backwards)?

Cancellara i think did what he could, I think his only other realistic option for a win was an attack on Poggio, and I suspect he'd have still ended up with Gerrans and Nibali on his wheel.

Gerrans won as he was 2nd strongest in the race and not stupid, marking Nibali was the smartest thing he did all race. To say he outsmarted Cancellara is a little generous IMHO.

 

[Echoes]

I agree........it seems it's only wheelsucking when the wrong person wins !

Yup, DT and his contradictions. But he's gonna say it's part of the human nature, lol.


On one side, he's telling us that Gerrans is a damn wheelsucker.

On the other side, he's telling us that Nibali should've worked for Sagan, in order for the latter to get the win ... wheelsucking his own teammate's wheel.

An Aussie gets flamed for wheelsucking but when it's a Slovakian or a German (or a Manxman), it's all fine and dandy.


I also wished Cancellara got that one, but the way the race evolved, I'd rather Gerrans got this one than Sagan (or worse Degenkolb) who could not respond to Cancellara's counter on the Poggio. While Gerrans had to fight very hard to keep Fabian's wheel in the descent.

 

[greenedge]

I don't even believe in Karma, but this was definitely IT!

He was the favourite and had not crashed- if he showed bad form what did you expect ( people to wait 50 seconds for him to catch up to his teammates/ get back to the pack to probably fail on the Poggio??? ). If BMC had not ridden other teams would also have stepped up.

Agnoli did a great ride.

 

[dlwssonic]

BMC were doing just fine, distancing Cav. Gilbert *****ing about it and falling is definitelyl Karma!

LOL Karma?! Even if the peloton waited for cav, do you really think the peloton would have waited for Gilbert when the race was heating up already. Anyway Cav was gonna fail big time anyway.

 

[Frosty]

Cav on twitter

So yesterdays race gets filed in my #worstdaysofmycareer list. Something was VERY wrong. No explanation, but I let down an incredible group.

http://twitter.com/#!/markcavendish

 

[Frosty]

As i remember it there was still a very large group there until Nibali attacked when it broke up, fragmenting a bit more on the descent. So maybe without Nibali's attack then more sprinters would have been able to make it to the finish in Sagan's group? Perhaps a happy medium would have been Nibali setting a high tempo on the front?

 

[greenedge]

Is Gerrans a bit of the dead wood of which Wiggo spoke?

Gerrans way smarter than Spartacus.

Liqui ****ed up. They may have agreed to attack on the Poggio, but they should have tried keep it together given Sagan's form.

Completely true. Imagine if Sky had kept Gerrans- they would be the number one ranked team already, though Gerrans might have had to work for Cav here. I agree with that assessment of Liquigas as well, i feel sorry for Sagan.

 

[greenedge]

I was waiting on Cancellara to try and break free from Nibali and Gerrans.

I think everyone was.

 

[greenedge]

My problem with this is that many riders on this forum gets flamed for wheelsucking. Especially when they are italian/spanish. But when it's an Australian it's all fine and dandy and a great win.

Come on!!!!

Yeah but Aussies have only come onto the scene as of late- compared to those others/ larger numbers. We all know that Gerrans has been an enterprising rider with attacking flair, winning 3 GT stages from breaks is quite an accomplishment. Besides maybe he was just trying to hang on. If Sagan had won he would have profited from Katusha- there is no difference.

 

[theyoungest]

Yeah but Aussies have only come onto the scene as of late- compared to those others/ larger numbers.

Currently Australia is one of the strongest cycling nations in the world, who cares about when they entered the scene. An Aussie won the very same race last year...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yeah but Aussies have only come onto the scene as of late- compared to those others/ larger numbers. We all know that Gerrans has been an enterprising rider with attacking flair, winning 3 GT stages from breaks is quite an accomplishment. Besides maybe he was just trying to hang on. If Sagan had won he would have profited from Katusha- there is no difference.

Emphasis on "has been". Back in 2008-9 Gerrans was a really good rider to watch, would get in the right moves and pick up good wins. Then everybody started going overboard about him being a contender, and he stopped going in the attacks and outsmarting people, instead preferring to wait until the final charge for the line and come 7th or 8th while people go ape about his chances.

Yesterday he finally remembered that there are ways to compete in races other than waiting for uphill sprints and watching Philippe Gilbert disappear into the distance, and reaped the benefits.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yeah but Aussies have only come onto the scene as of late- compared to those others/ larger numbers. We all know that Gerrans has been an enterprising rider with attacking flair, winning 3 GT stages from breaks is quite an accomplishment. Besides maybe he was just trying to hang on. If Sagan had won he would have profited from Katusha- there is no difference.

How does how long they have been in the scene affect how we see their tactics? It's to do with perceptions. The perceptions always change based on who is involved.

It's like all those people who couldn't stand Levi Leipheimer and would have hated to see him sit in the bunch all week then win in the ITT, but they're suddenly really upset because Movistar pushed the pace on a descent and he crashed, because they dislike Valverde or his team more. If it had been somebody like Leipheimer or Pozzato that had done all that work then Gerrans came around, people might have been less critical. Or not even critical (Gerrans did the right thing in order to win), just disappointed that it came down to that.

 

[auscyclefan94]

My problem with this is that many riders on this forum gets flamed for wheelsucking. Especially when they are italian/spanish. But when it's an Australian it's all fine and dandy and a great win.

Come on!!!!

I hope you are joking as well because that comment is just plain crap.

 

[hrotha]

Didn't he get his TdF stage victory by wheelsucking the hell out of Egoi Martínez, though?

 

[theyoungest]

Didn't he get his TdF stage victory by wheelsucking the hell out of Egoi Martínez, though?

Indeed. And Pate.

 

[JRanton]

Cav on twitter

So yesterdays race gets filed in my #worstdaysofmycareer list. Something was VERY wrong. No explanation, but I let down an incredible group.

http://twitter.com/#!/markcavendish

Something must have gone very wrong to be fair given that he won a stage in Tirreno-Adriatico that wasn't exactly easy at 230km and with a lumpy last 50km.

Maybe that illness he had at KBK came back in the last week and has been lingering in his system.

 

[pastronef]

you know what we are really missing?

a Nibali sprint victory yesterday, after taking no turns behind Canc and Gerro, and the comments about his (wheelsucking) victory by italian tv and journalists and fans (i would have liked to know what they would have thought about it)

but luckily Gerro won, and that's more important

 

[pastronef]

I love Charlie's tweets

http://www.twitter.com/wegelius
Milano san remo is like some girls I have met in the past: you buy her drinks all night and charm her, but she goes home with another guy.