Men Elite Road Race - UCI RWC Doha 2016

[fantomas]

Worst thread start I've ever seen. No course profile pic?

 

[Gigs_98]

Worst thread start I've ever seen. No course profile pic?

There is no profile. OP shouldn't be forced to make one.

Fixed it

Thanks

 

[Alexandre B.]

I can count every spectator.

 

[staubsauger]

Verandas Willems beats Ag2r!

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Verandas top 10 lol

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

so Orica 3

Etixx/BMC will win/2nd in whatever order. Sky 4th, LottoNL 5th

Boring

 

[Netserk]

Re:

There's no way they can do this at 260km after watching the women's TTT. It would be absurd. Insane heat with no respite sections, dry heat, no moisture. No fans, no racing. I'm pretty angry about it, having seen it. You had Mieke Kröger, who in most circumstances is a TT machine, just hit the wall and have to be helped out before she collapsed. You had two Twenty16 riders implode in the final kilometre. You had riders vomiting everywhere, and worst of all, Anouska Koster clearly passed out from heat exhaustion on the bike and veered into a wall, having a horrible crash where she landed on her face, since unlike Kröger the team only had four riders left and she couldn't let go. The team and the medics, rightly, wouldn't let her get back on the bike, but should never have been allowed to get to that stage. To be doing this at 7 hours, the pace would have to be so relaxed at the start to make it doable that it would be an almost unwatchably dull spectacle.

If they want to, are riders allowed to ride with an ice-vest on? Together with lots of water and then a vest on once in a while, surely it should be possible to ride 260km. Isn't the heat just part of being an outdoor sport and in this case the course's only selectiveness?

Some people would probably use the same argument to say that courses with lots of vertical gain force riders to go so slow that it becomes boring as well.

 

[Vroome.exe]

Kittel the one trick pony strikes again! His last kilometre was amazing, won it for Etixx!

 

[Gigs_98]

The only good thing about the WC is that its broadcasted on Austrian TV, so I can listen to the great commentary of Peter Brunner. I have already learnt that the reason why G.Thomas didn't win a medal in the Olympics was a mechanical. :lol:

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

There's no way they can do this at 260km after watching the women's TTT. It would be absurd. Insane heat with no respite sections, dry heat, no moisture. No fans, no racing. I'm pretty angry about it, having seen it. You had Mieke Kröger, who in most circumstances is a TT machine, just hit the wall and have to be helped out before she collapsed. You had two Twenty16 riders implode in the final kilometre. You had riders vomiting everywhere, and worst of all, Anouska Koster clearly passed out from heat exhaustion on the bike and veered into a wall, having a horrible crash where she landed on her face, since unlike Kröger the team only had four riders left and she couldn't let go. The team and the medics, rightly, wouldn't let her get back on the bike, but should never have been allowed to get to that stage. To be doing this at 7 hours, the pace would have to be so relaxed at the start to make it doable that it would be an almost unwatchably dull spectacle.

If they want to, are riders allowed to ride with an ice-vest on? Together with lots of water and then a vest on once in a while, surely it should be possible to ride 260km. Isn't the heat just part of being an outdoor sport and in this case the course's only selectiveness?

Some people would probably use the same argument to say that courses with lots of vertical gain force riders to go so slow that it becomes boring as well.

Might have more to do with the riders' health. Vertical gain is harmless, or pretty much harmless in comparison.

If they use the EW potocol to hack and ruin potentially epic races, they should use it now to cut this cringe-fest as short as possible.

 

[Netserk]

Re: Re:

There's no way they can do this at 260km after watching the women's TTT. It would be absurd. Insane heat with no respite sections, dry heat, no moisture. No fans, no racing. I'm pretty angry about it, having seen it. You had Mieke Kröger, who in most circumstances is a TT machine, just hit the wall and have to be helped out before she collapsed. You had two Twenty16 riders implode in the final kilometre. You had riders vomiting everywhere, and worst of all, Anouska Koster clearly passed out from heat exhaustion on the bike and veered into a wall, having a horrible crash where she landed on her face, since unlike Kröger the team only had four riders left and she couldn't let go. The team and the medics, rightly, wouldn't let her get back on the bike, but should never have been allowed to get to that stage. To be doing this at 7 hours, the pace would have to be so relaxed at the start to make it doable that it would be an almost unwatchably dull spectacle.

If they want to, are riders allowed to ride with an ice-vest on? Together with lots of water and then a vest on once in a while, surely it should be possible to ride 260km. Isn't the heat just part of being an outdoor sport and in this case the course's only selectiveness?

Some people would probably use the same argument to say that courses with lots of vertical gain force riders to go so slow that it becomes boring as well.

Might have more to do with the riders' health. Vertical gain is harmless, or pretty much harmless in comparison.

If they use the EW potocol to hack and ruin potentially epic races, they should use it now to cut this cringe-fest as short as possible.

Surely heat is harmless as well, if riders take good care of themselves. More so than descents.

 

[Brullnux]

Up to a point, but it's impossible to be completely sure at 36 degrees (in the shade), not much wind, baking sun with no protection with a heart rate at 160. Some people's bodies will just really really struggle and they will collapse with heat exhaustion. You can't risk that.

 

[BigMac]

There's only so much you can do to fight heat. At some point in-race logistics are bound to become really confusing if an entire peloton is to go 250+KMS putting on ice vests and undressing them every now and then, get new ones from overloaded team cars with the 5x more water bottles... If temperatures are really, really high, there are few manageable counter measures. Trying to keep a low body temperature is just not enough.

 

[Brullnux]

But anyway, if the race is 250 then Italy should go all out for Trentin. He's in great shape and has great stamina.

 

[Craigee]

Re:

I can count every spectator.

Good point. Shows it's about money and not about cycling. The athletes must feel weird racing with no spectators at a world champs.

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

I can count every spectator.

Good point. Shows it's about money and not about cycling. The athletes must feel weird racing with no spectators at a world champs.

Has any rider spoken against it yet? In my book they're all guilty of this charade.

 

[pastronef]

Re: Re:

I can count every spectator.

Good point. Shows it's about money and not about cycling. The athletes must feel weird racing with no spectators at a world champs.

Has any rider spoken against it yet? In my book they're all guilty of this charade.

guilty?

remember that the Uci is in charge of pro-cycling and those athletes job is racing. so if you can win a world champ or a medal, racing in the desert, you´ll do it.

 

[staubsauger]

In the end its a nice holiday trip in luxury hotels for thm. A holiday they even get paid for because they show up for work twice.

Some might disagree of course after a long season. But I guess most went there a bit more laissez faire than to other bike races. Not even on purpose. Simply because it is as it is!

 

[HelloDolly]

Re:

In the end its a nice holiday trip in luxury hotels for thm. A holiday they even get paid for because they show up for work twice.

Some might disagree of course after a long season. But I guess most went there a bit more laissez faire than to other bike races. Not even on purpose. Simply because it is as it is!

Well those speeds today were not laissez faire

Looked to me that Tony Martin really wanted i t...as did the whole of BMC and Alex Dowsett has tweeted he is gutted that Movistar didn't go well

The problem with the heat is it can effect some more than others and many do not know they have heat stroke until they are verring all over the place...

It is not a climate for bike racing hence you see no locals out on bikes ...The UCI care very little about riders health ...Surely this should be paramount ...Therefore the race should be run in a country where people can and do ride bikes

I guess no one at UCI will do anything till riders have a serious mishap or worse

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

In the end its a nice holiday trip in luxury hotels for thm. A holiday they even get paid for because they show up for work twice.

Some might disagree of course after a long season. But I guess most went there a bit more laissez faire than to other bike races. Not even on purpose. Simply because it is as it is!

Well those speeds today were not laissez faire

Looked to me that Tony Martin really wanted i t...as did the whole of BMC and Alex Dowsett has tweeted he is gutted that Movistar didn't go well

The problem with the heat is it can effect some more than others and many do not know they have heat stroke until they are verring all over the place...

It is not a climate for bike racing hence you see no locals out on bikes ...The UCI care very little about riders health ...Surely this should be paramount ...Therefore the race should be run in a country where people can and do ride bikes

I guess no one at UCI will do anything till riders have a serious mishap or worse

Regarding the heat, the ideal thing would probably be to arrive 10-14 days before the first race to acclimatize to the heat, but only very few riders will be able to do that.

 

[DFA123]

A lot of nonsense about the heat written here. There are hotter stages in the Vuelta every year on courses which go over the mountains. Going at 50km/h in 35 degree heat isn't so demanding that the race should be changed. Perhaps if some Northern European riders don't like it, then it's tough luck. No-one sympathises with the Mediterranean riders who don't like the cold and wet of the cobbled classics. This is basically the other side of the same coin.

Plus, as mentioned, it's literally the only thing that makes this course somewhat selective.

 

[Ricco']

Re:

A lot of nonsense about the heat written here. There are hotter stages in the Vuelta every year on courses which go over the mountains. Going at 50km/h in 35 degree heat isn't so demanding that the race should be changed. Perhaps if some Northern European riders don't like it, then it's tough luck. No-one sympathises with the Mediterranean riders who don't like the cold and wet of the cobbled classics. This is basically the other side of the same coin.

Plus, as mentioned, it's literally the only thing that makes this course somewhat selective.

Someone may understand a bit more of this subject than me, but AFAIK it's not the same to ride at 35ºC in Spain and in Qatar. In Spain you have some places with trees, buildings, shadows, etc. and in the desert you don't have that. In addition to that, there is less humidity in Qatar, which aggravates the effects of the higher temperatures.

 

[jens_attacks]

Re:

There's no way they can do this at 260km after watching the women's TTT. It would be absurd. Insane heat with no respite sections, dry heat, no moisture. No fans, no racing. I'm pretty angry about it, having seen it. You had Mieke Kröger, who in most circumstances is a TT machine, just hit the wall and have to be helped out before she collapsed. You had two Twenty16 riders implode in the final kilometre. You had riders vomiting everywhere, and worst of all, Anouska Koster clearly passed out from heat exhaustion on the bike and veered into a wall, having a horrible crash where she landed on her face, since unlike Kröger the team only had four riders left and she couldn't let go. The team and the medics, rightly, wouldn't let her get back on the bike, but should never have been allowed to get to that stage. To be doing this at 7 hours, the pace would have to be so relaxed at the start to make it doable that it would be an almost unwatchably dull spectacle.

i don't agree
with this temperature, it won't be any problem

i love the women cycling but sadly you could see many were not prepared (possibly medically) for such conditions. there were no problems at all in the men's race. it''s hot but not hotter than a stage in malaga or in the pyrenees.


what it's absolutely disgusting (almost criminal) is to not have ambulances ready at the finish.

 

[GreasyChain]

Just shows what poor athletes women are. And they want equal pay for being unable to do the same distance as the men as a much slower pace.

 

[jens_attacks]

Re:

Just shows what poor athletes women are. And they want equal pay for being unable to do the same distance as the men as a much slower pace.

now that's just silly.