March 19: Milan - San Remo 2011 298km

[Francois the Postman]

youre trolling really has hit an all time high.

As far as Sky go, the one thing stopping them from being complete fail of the day is how badly garmin did. What is going on there.

They are saving themselves for all the wonderful new races that are going to be part of the breakaway calendar. MSR is so 1907.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Except their schedules are REALLY innacurate, and they cut off the presentation ceremony before we got to see Goss on the podium.

Oh, and Sean Kelly's monotone voice is incredibly sleep-inducing if you're even slightly tired!

Apart from those not-insignificant drawbacks, the australian Eurosport coverage of the entire cycling season is great.

yeah the tv guide is a poor indication, Amount of times I watch tennis for 20mins before we finally get the cycling going That being said, if the races goes past schedule, it doesn't stop coverage either.

 

[LugHugger]

What a great race. Riders going off left right and center for the last 40k's. Fantastic, one of my favourite races in recent years. Massive congratulations to Matty Goss.

 

[auscyclefan94]

They are saving themselves for all the wonderful new races that are going to be part of the breakaway calendar. MSR is so 1907.

Sky is building up for the tour of califronia and ditching the giro and the tour!

 

[Lanark]

Just came back from my ride, thought I'd have the time to watch the finale but I was too slow

So far I've only seen the last 2 kms on Sporza but if the rest of the race was as exciting as those I'll have to look for a longer summary. Congratulations to Goss, impressive stuff. Cancellara looking really strong, even beat Gilbert in the sprint.

I was surprised to see no Garmin-Cervélo rider in the first group ... what happened there?

Cancellara was already incredibly strong on the Poggio (the way he bridged that gap on Nibali in the last meters was great), Boonen and friends will have a hell of a time stopping him in De Ronde van Vlaanderen.

 

[Christian]

Milan-San Remo was full of excitement from 90km to go mark. And you went on a training ride?

The weather was too nice to stay inside all day

 

[Tuarts]

As i said on the cq thread. I dont like it, i really wanted anyone but Goss to win, but i cant take anything from Goss (no matter how hard i try). He did deserve it.

To get over that climb at the pace of a Grand tour winner (shark) and win the sprint on your own, impressive.

Those of us who hate (lightly) on the ozzies, will have to take this defeat. But we we will be back.

We will get our revenge as we await the return of their most hated cyclist.




Alejandro Valverde.

Surely most hated is Contador and those 23 seconds?

 

[luckyboy]

lol Eurosport having 45 mins of studio talk after the race. Never seen that apart from the Tour.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Well he wasn't exactly visable....

Cameras picked him up a few times. I was watching gazzetta's coverage but, having watched some British Eurosport coverage of races before, I wouldn't be surprised if every time he appeared on screen Séan Kelly was in the middle of an 83-clause run-on sentence and everything that happened was missed.

It took us about half an hour to confirm that Goss was in the front group, and as an Anglophone riding for a major team, a teammate of Cavendish and a much more genuine threat to win the race than Ventoso, if it took them that long with him it's therefore not surprising that Harmon and Kelly didn't see fit to mention Ventoso even if they had identified him.

 

[Cobblestoned]

Don't be too down on sky dim. The amount of success they have outweighs failures.

Goss has confirmed himself in the top echelon of riders in world cycling. Such a strong rider.

His performance on way to Nizza was one of the biggest "!" i ever saw.
Stronger than strong.

Of course people tend to predict/pick big names.

But from today on he is also BIG.

 

[maltiv]

As far as Sky go, the one thing stopping them from being complete fail of the day is how badly garmin did. What is going on there.

But what should they have done? They were probably caught behind the crash which was unfortunate and there's no way they should've tried to chase down their leader EBH, who eventually cracked but they couldn't know that. Garmin is a much bigger fail because they had the chance to get things back together and they didn't even try.

 

[ansimi]

a joke frankly. If you are the teams protected rider you should not be alone at any point in the race, certainly not left by your entire team.

As has happened before they simply werent paying attention and then took too long to react. Worst sky performance that I can remember.

When Scarponi took off, it seemed like there were some very strong Sky timetrialists at the front just looking at each other? At least they didn't under perform as badly as Garmin.

OLO, BMC, and Katusha seemed to have some nice teamwork going.

I like Nibali more and more.

Overall, a fantastic race!

 

[luckyboy]

I wouldn't be surprised if every time he appeared on screen Séan Kelly was in the middle of an 83-clause run-on sentence and everything that happened was missed.

Hahaha, I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed how he always talks over important events going on.

 

[L'arriviste]

Garmin is a much bigger fail because they had the chance to get things back together and they didn't even try.

I agree with the fail. Hugely disappointing. Maybe it's also that they thought Haussler would last the distance. In that respect, one could say the same about Sky with Boasson Hagen.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Another nomination for race of the year?

 

[Bailey]

yeah the tv guide is a poor indication, Amount of times I watch tennis for 20mins before we finally get the cycling going That being said, if the races goes past schedule, it doesn't stop coverage either.

Hahaha yeah, and it's always womens tennis from some obscure Polish tournament, with no one sitting in the crowd at the venue!

Good point about how they do usually stick with the cycling telecast even when it goes over the scheduled finish time.

 

[Anonymous]

But what should they have done? They were probably caught behind the crash which was unfortunate and there's no way they should've tried to chase down their leader EBH, who eventually cracked but they couldn't know that. Garmin is a much bigger fail because they had the chance to get things back together and they didn't even try.

EBH should not have been alone to start with. yes there crash split the race, but Eddy should have had someone with him, the fact he didnt points that eddy was in the front of the race, the rest of the team were at the back. Thats a rookie mistake. WEve seen it time and time again with SKy, they are always hanging around at the back but USUALLY they get away with it.

Eddy didnt look comfortable all day, they should have known that.

But like I say, the all classics super team of Garmin-Cervelo had riders in the lead group and did nothing.

 

[LugHugger]

But what should they have done? They were probably caught behind the crash which was unfortunate and there's no way they should've tried to chase down their leader EBH, who eventually cracked but they couldn't know that. Garmin is a much bigger fail because they had the chance to get things back together and they didn't even try.

Wasn't Haussler in group 1? If I haven't got that wrong then, like Sky, it's not surprising that Cervelo did not organise the chase.

 

[El Pistolero]

Safe to say that Cancellara and Gilbert are the best classics specialists at the moment

Ronde will be a fight between them I think. If an Aussie wins there I'll go bananaz.

 

[luckyboy]

Another nomination for race of the year?

Another?

wordswords

 

[roundabout]

EBH should not have been alone to start with. yes there crash split the race, but Eddy should have had someone with him, the fact he didnt points that eddy was in the front of the race, the rest of the team were at the back. Thats a rookie mistake. WEve seen it time and time again with SKy, they are always hanging around at the back but USUALLY they get away with it.

Eddy didnt look comfortable all day, they should have known that.

But like I say, the all classics super team of Garmin-Cervelo had riders in the lead group and did nothing.

Cervelo had 1 more rider than Sky. Klier attacked. Both leaders sucked. End of story. Surprised that Cervelo's failure is so important for you though.

 

[L'arriviste]

EBH should not have been alone to start with. yes there crash split the race, but Eddy should have had someone with him, the fact he didnt points that eddy was in the front of the race, the rest of the team were at the back. Thats a rookie mistake. WEve seen it time and time again with SKy, they are always hanging around at the back but USUALLY they get away with it.

Eddy didnt look comfortable all day, they should have known that.

So come on, TSF, what do you reckon? Is it this tendinitis thing of his? I worry about poor EBH, I really do. That stuff starts early in a career and you're stuck with it.

 

[luckyboy]

Surely the most hated retired not so long ago?

 

[Mellow Velo]

Judging by the way Garmin (Sky, too) sat at the back of the chase group and contributed zilch, I would hazard a guess that their race radios were on the blink.

 

[El Pistolero]

Apparently Milan-San Remo is a stage race

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Goss