Most Pathetic Mountain Stages.

[burning]

Are you sure you are not Jens_A the man? He has posted that one a thousand times

I'm pretty sure that he watches this video at least 3 times per day

 

[Arnout]

Tignes 2007 wasn't so bad. Well I guess it was for you since then someone big started

I agree with the 2nd thing you said btw. Evans is happy with 2nd it seems. Uran obviously with podium. And Santa already has a stage win.

Tignes 2007 was beyond belief good. Sure on the second to last climb Bennati set the pace, but on the last climb we suddenly saw attacks from Moreau and Mayo, talk about unexpected goodness.

 

[airstream]

Tignes 2007 was beyond belief good. Sure on the second to last climb Bennati set the pace, but on the last climb we suddenly saw attacks from Moreau and Mayo, talk about unexpected goodness.

Moreau and Mayo were not podium contenders..

 

[Miburo]

Moreau and Mayo were not podium contenders..

Actually there was some believe Moreau was a podium contender after the dauphine.

And yea mayo stays mayo

I'm still annoyed with that flat tire Contador got in that stage otherwise he would have been up there with mayo

Edit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rytIQzEbuz8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQxtJCjAhaQ

If someone wants to see it again

 

[argyllflyer]

Playing 'devil's advocate' Dave Brailsford has stated recently that the 'clean' era of cycling means less attacks as the riders physically cannot do the stop start accelerate thing paniagua.

So, if there is anything in what Brailsford says, maybe in grand tours there needs to be an adaptation? Shorter mountain stages perhaps? Forgetting the 'go slow', imagine the attacks if the stage was half the length.

 

[burning]

Playing 'devil's advocate' Dave Brailsford has stated recently that the 'clean' era of cycling means less attacks as the riders physically cannot do the stop start accelerate thing paniagua.

So, if there is anything in what Brailsford says, maybe in grand tours there needs to be an adaptation? Shorter mountain stages perhaps? Forgetting the 'go slow', imagine the attacks if the stage was half the length.

Today's stage was 30km long

 

[Miburo]

Playing 'devil's advocate' Dave Brailsford has stated recently that the 'clean' era of cycling means less attacks as the riders physically cannot do the stop start accelerate thing paniagua.

So, if there is anything in what Brailsford says, maybe in grand tours there needs to be an adaptation? Shorter mountain stages perhaps? Forgetting the 'go slow', imagine the attacks if the stage was half the length.

Yea look at today, only 60 km of real racing and look what we got!!!

What a great spectacle!!

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Easy one: every mountain stage of the 2007 Tour de France.

 

[airstream]

I disagree with Brailford. In theory, even if we take 5 best climbers and prepare them perfectly, almost any attack will entail even tougher attack. As a result riders will start fearing each other too much which can close the race up very seriously.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Playing 'devil's advocate' Dave Brailsford has stated recently that the 'clean' era of cycling means less attacks as the riders physically cannot do the stop start accelerate thing paniagua.

So, if there is anything in what Brailsford says, maybe in grand tours there needs to be an adaptation? Shorter mountain stages perhaps? Forgetting the 'go slow', imagine the attacks if the stage was half the length.

Not this BS again.

David Moncoutié is widely perceived as clean, and could light up the race in the mountains.

Levi Leipheimer is widely perceived as dirty, and bored the life out of everybody.

As long as doping still gains an advantage, it will still happen, so all that happens if you start doing shorter mountain stages or one-climb mountain stages is you get the same doping going on, but crappier course design.

Also, easier, shorter mountain stages just mean that more domestiques are there at the end of the race, which means no need for the GC men to take any risks, because they still have domestiques to pace them. The problem today was that at no point was Nibali isolated, he had at least one (sometimes three) domestiques with him at all times; Scarponi had Niemiec at least with him at all times, Evans had a helper much of the time, Santambrogio had di Luca and Rabottini up the road, Sky had both Colombians, even Beñat Intxausti had Herrada and Capecchi as helpers with Visconti up the road. That isn't to discredit the achievements of those helpers to be there (and certainly some of those guys are bona fide contenders in their own right and would be there no doubt anyhow), but when the stage is easier, more people are able to hold on for longer, which makes early attacking more futile (see Gesink's move today, which achieved nothing as he tired himself out while the GC leaders were able to instruct their domestiques to hold him until such a point as they could take the time back themselves - so they put their nose in the wind for 3km, Gesink for 30km) and also reduces the amount of time in which the attacks can feasibly take place and hold on.

For every Alpe 2011, there are large numbers of tedious one-climb or sub-150km mountain stages that have yielded stalemate until the final few kilometres. The 2012 Vuelta was seen as a great success, but there was only one stage where more than the last 10km counted.

 

[icefire]

Playing 'devil's advocate' Dave Brailsford has stated recently that the 'clean' era of cycling means less attacks as the riders physically cannot do the stop start accelerate thing paniagua.

So, if there is anything in what Brailsford says, maybe in grand tours there needs to be an adaptation? Shorter mountain stages perhaps? Forgetting the 'go slow', imagine the attacks if the stage was half the length.

I'm afraid Brailsford believes everyone is as young and naïve as you.

 

[Granville57]

So, if there is anything in what Brailsford says, maybe in grand tours there needs to be an adaptation? Shorter mountain stages perhaps?

How short? 100 meters?

I know...I know...Clinic stuff. But low hanging fruit, etc..

 

[The Hitch]

Playing 'devil's advocate' Dave Brailsford has stated recently that the 'clean' era of cycling means less attacks as the riders physically cannot do the stop start accelerate thing paniagua.

So, if there is anything in what Brailsford says, maybe in grand tours there needs to be an adaptation? Shorter mountain stages perhaps? Forgetting the 'go slow', imagine the attacks if the stage was half the length.

The key word there is Bailsford.

 

[icefire]

The key word there is Bailsford.

That line of thought is quite widespread. You migth as well substitute Guillén, Olano & Co for Brailsford in those statements

 

[trevim]

Arcalis, almost always.

Sierra Nevada, 2011 Vuelta.

Bourg-Saint-Maurice, 2009 Tour.

Contador made Arcalis 2009 somehow entertaining

 

[trevim]

Mont Ventoux 2009 when Garate won before Martin.

Tactically speaking it was good. It's a good example of how cycling is sometimes a bit like chess: you move Andy, Alberto goes, you move Frank, Lance goes, Kloden sacrificed to keep everybody else in check. I liked it although Martin was very naive that day.

 

[Linkinito]

Tour 2012 "masterpieces of pathetism"

These were pure jokes. Just look at the profiles. At each stage, a breakaway made it to the end. The favourites never did anything. And also, the Péguère stage was also ternished by the carpet tacks thrown on the road. And don't ask why, they come in Foix, do 13 km around, then come back to Foix for the finish. In France, we call stages like this "a la Pescheux".

 

[maxmartin]

Tour 2012 "masterpieces of pathetism"

These were pure jokes. Just look at the profiles. At each stage, a breakaway made it to the end. The favourites never did anything. And also, the Péguère stage was also ternished by the carpet tacks thrown on the road. And don't ask why, they come in Foix, do 13 km around, then come back to Foix for the finish. In France, we call stages like this "a la Pescheux".

Nibali's summary

The Best Nibali ever? “I think I have the same form as I had last year at the Tour, but the Tour is different from the Giro. At the Tour there were fewer possibilities. The finishes were the bottom of hills, there were two time trials totalling 110km. Here the race suits my style.”

 

[burning]

Tour 2012 "masterpieces of pathetism"

snipped pics

These were pure jokes. Just look at the profiles. At each stage, a breakaway made it to the end. The favourites never did anything. And also, the Péguère stage was also ternished by the carpet tacks thrown on the road. And don't ask why, they come in Foix, do 13 km around, then come back to Foix for the finish. In France, we call stages like this "a la Pescheux".

This stage looks pretty cool on paper but the final descent has only 2 turns or something like that, so nothing happened at that decsent

 

[Linkinito]

This stage looks pretty cool on paper but the final descent has only 2 turns or something like that, so nothing happened at that decsent

This Aubisque-Tourmalet-Aspin-Peyresourde chain is called "the circle of death" (le cercle de la mort), it's commonly used in the Tour, as it occupies a central place in the Pyrénées.

But anyway, as long as the riders won't have enough cojones (or strength) to make the trains derail, we can do 250+km stages with 7000+m ascent and still have a 30-people group at 3km of the last ascent with one or two attacks.

 

[Afrank]

Maybe people need to just lower their expectation for these stages. We're not going to get epic battles between GC contenders or long distance solo attempts on every mountain stage. Sometimes we will get lucky and get to see some great racing across multiple mountains. And sometimes we won't. Don't expect the riders to be able to give us fireworks on every stage, it's unrealistic.