Name one great and or exciting thing about this season so far

[Lexman]

the series of four WT wins in a row of Boonen

The ITT at PN duel Wiggins - Westra

Lotto Belisol doin well in the Ardennes

Contador banned

 

[personal]

Name one great and or exciting thing about this season so far

Return of the Batm.. ehm... Boonen.

 

[will10]

there were lots of them

valverde coming back in style on willunga hill.i remember that the stage was at 5 in the morning and i was driving back from the airport and i almost crashed into a ditch to catch the live stream.it worthed

san luis showdown.contador winning before the bad news came


JTL !!!!!!!!!!!!!"Comme une bombe"

richie going uphill on malhao like a supersonic.the day UK Postal was invented


col d'eze itt.motoring at 30 km/h,westra the beast performances.it was great

chavanel time-trialing like a god in de panne,destroying all the old course records.

thomas dekker winning in sarthe

voeckler's solo in brabantse pijl,doing faces for almost one hour without a stop

pozzovivo and punta veleno.that was superb

the biggest one and the greatest:

tommeke winning his 4th roubaix with an extraordinary attack.



hey and it's just april!

I challenge anyone to deny that jens attacks is this forum's biggest hero. Love your posts

 

[hatcher]

there were lots of them

valverde coming back in style on willunga hill.i remember that the stage was at 5 in the morning and i was driving back from the airport and i almost crashed into a ditch to catch the live stream.it worthed

san luis showdown.contador winning before the bad news came


JTL !!!!!!!!!!!!!"Comme une bombe"

richie going uphill on malhao like a supersonic.the day UK Postal was invented


col d'eze itt.motoring at 30 km/h,westra the beast performances.it was great

chavanel time-trialing like a god in de panne,destroying all the old course records.

thomas dekker winning in sarthe

voeckler's solo in brabantse pijl,doing faces for almost one hour without a stop

pozzovivo and punta veleno.that was superb

the biggest one and the greatest:

tommeke winning his 4th roubaix with an extraordinary attack.



hey and it's just april!

This is how much everyone should love cycling.

Unexpected winners all over the place. It's been fun.

 

[Catwhoorg]

Boonen at PR, thankfully I got to watch the last hour and a bit live.

Paris-Nice, a good week of racing, with an awesome last day.

Richie Porte riding an awesoem climb on Day 3 of the Volta ao Algarve

 

[Wilba60]

Luke Durbridge overall at Sarthe. Ok, not the most prestigious of races these days, but to win your second race ever in Belgium as a 20 year old is pretty impressive and every season I always look forward to young guys coming through - last year it was Guardini, Kittel and Betancur

Quote:
Originally Posted by stefank
The silencing of the GreenEdge detractors.
well said, and yes Alba albasini

Can I join these two quotes together. Not only did Durbridge win in only his second race in the pro's, he did it with just 3 team mates, or was it 2. This only partially silenced the GE detractors and this was obvious during the La Fleche Wallonne thread where you could have sworn GE weren't racing. The invisible team of the year nearly stole the show with only Rodriguez beating Albasini. Wish I had the time to sift through some November and December thread contributions by the GE knockers on Cycling News forums.

GE have been exciting...IMHO

 

[Angliru]

-Boonen's return to form and success in the races that he covets.
-Purito's FW win.
-Samu's and Euskaltel's Basque Country win.
-Andy's continued efforts to keep me entertained with his unparalleled media savvy

Edit: How could I forget Freire's attack at AGR?!!

 

[will10]

Quote:
Originally Posted by stefank
The silencing of the GreenEdge detractors.
well said, and yes Alba albasini

Can I join these two quotes together. Not only did Durbridge win in only his second race in the pro's, he did it with just 3 team mates, or was it 2. This only partially silenced the GE detractors and this was obvious during the La Fleche Wallonne thread where you could have sworn GE weren't racing. The invisible team of the year nearly stole the show with only Rodriguez beating Albasini. Wish I had the time to sift through some November and December thread contributions by the GE knockers on Cycling News forums.

GE have been exciting...IMHO

Exciting? No. Have they raced smartly? Yes.

 

[karlboss]

Exciting? No. Have they raced smartly? Yes.

I'm surprised they haven't been in more breaks, they don't have to take responsibility for the peloton in any race, and not everyone is needed to help the captain...surely the odd break isn't too much to ask,

 

[will10]

I'm surprised they haven't been in more breaks, they don't have to take responsibility for the peloton in any race, and not everyone is needed to help the captain...surely the odd break isn't too much to ask,

I think we'll see more of that in the GTs when they have nine riders all hours down on GC

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Astana's lack of success...that's glorious as well.

lol, i would say Astana have had a pretty god season.

Gasparotto winning amstel offcourse as the highlight, but good performances of Kiserlovski and Kreuziger throught the whole season

 

[Fetisoff]

Purito finally winning F-W
Astana doing well in the early season
Sammy Sanches taking Pais Vasco, with Purito's good TT showing

 

[Kwibus]

I challenge anyone to deny that jens attacks is this forum's biggest hero. Love your posts

Definately agree. First months on this forum I thought he was a lunatic in love with dopers.... which he is as well, but most of all someone who loves cycling. Keeps track of climbing times on the famous climbs etc etc.

We should start an jens_attack fanclub

 

[Machu Picchu]

Giro del Trentino, in particular two fantastic stages and great riding by Pozzovivo, Atapuma, Cuengo, Szmyd, Betancourt, Rujano...

 

[will10]

Giro del Trentino, in particular two fantastic stages and great riding by Pozzovivo, Atapuma, Cuengo, Szmyd, Betancourt, Rujano...

Best stage race of the year so far. Although that says more about the poor parcours we were given for so many of the WT races.

 

[barmaher]

Tour of Qatar Stage 4 (echelons)
Paris Nice Stage 2 (echelons)
Strade Bianche. A beautiful course, and a great winning performance
Milan san Remo. Classic brains versus brawn
Sanchez in Pais Vasco, and his win in Catalunya
Evans' performance in the Criterium
Het Volk...seeing Boonen beaten by a better man on the day.
E3, Boonen ripping it up and winning the sprint.
Flanders was a good race, but meh in comparison to the Muur years
Boonen ripping up Roubaix. Wow.
Giro del Trentino. It is a pity it wasn't a 30km ITT to kick us off.
Purito on the Mur de Huy

Riders:
Sagan, always interesting
Demare, getting good
Navarduskas, should keep getting better
Dan Martin, I am waiting for a really big win this year. Lombardy? I think he will do well in the 2013 Tour
Boonen and Cancellara
Sam Sanchez
Albasinin

 

[meat puppet]

Pais Vasco & Trentino. Columbians.

Little else TBH.

 

[gustienordic]

Pais Vasco & Trentino. Columbians.

Little else TBH.

Definitely Sagan getting podiuming everything and winning nothing, MSR was actually pretty exciting.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Contador banned

What?!?!?!?!?!?!

 

[LeakyBoat]

Boonen's return to form.

 

[therhodeo]

That so far we've not seen any big races cancelled. Love Vasco and was very happy it went off. Happy for Sammy getting a win there too.

I've thought the season has been great so far otherwise. Wish Cancellara would have been there in the Flanders and PR to make both better races but they weren't bad as is. Seeing Sagan tear things up makes me look forward to the future. Also Sky and Shack coming up short over and over is pretty satisfying. Oh and seeing Oscar attack is good stuff. Hoping he can shake things up at Worlds.

 

[Afrank]

Boonen- his entire season of domination in almost every one day race.
Sagan- has shown promise in the classics and has continued to be impressive all season
Vacansoleil's perfomance in paris-nice (3 stages + Westra 2nd overall)
Gerrans rising to the challange-won national championships, tour down under, and milan san-remo
Purito finally getting a classic
Cancellara at strade Bianchi and him storming down the downhill at milan san-remo

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The last two days of Trentino, and the Oñati stage of País Vasco being actually very good, not apocalyptically bad as I anticipated. Thank you to Robert Kiserlovski for providing us with some good racing.

For the most part, parcours design this year has been woeful. Castilla y León was more interesting, racing-wise, than its parcours gave it any right to be, but seriously, pretty much every major race has unveiled a terrible parcours. Ironically, the one that didn't - Catalunya - turned out to be the biggest farce of all.

 

[mr. tibbs]

-An attack on the Poggio deciding MSR
-Pippo's return in dayglo
-Tornado Tom Frites
-Europcar shenanigans
-Men's and women's Fleche Wallone
-Trentino

To only name a few. I feel sorry for any cycling fans who haven't been enjoying this season, or who can find few bright spots. I get the impression that, for many posters, results dictate whether or not they enjoyed the race, but I've enjoyed every race I've gotten to see so far.

 

[Angliru]

I don't understand all the hype regarding punta veleno. It was of course a very interesting stage, but not to be considered the highlight of the season so far.
Ridiculously steep climbs are not exciting to watch, riders scattered all over the climb, using mountain bike gear combo. Of course, it was interesting to watch, but not something out of this world.
It was an incredible performance by Pozzovivo nevertheless.

I guess it's a matter of opinion. Knowing how difficult it is to maintain momentum on steady climbs with double digit grades, I find it exciting to watch the riders eventually succumb to gravity. It's not that often that we see these elite climbers really struggle like I often do on climbs and to see them weaving across the rode with pained expressions on their faces I personally find I can truly relate to what they're experiencing. Watching Pozzavivo drop them all, and this was a high level of talent out there (Cunego, Szmyd, Kreuziger, Rujano etc...), was quite impressive and he seemed to be suffering the least by quite a bit compared to those that attempted to hold his wheel.

Plus it was great to see Pozzavivo get such a big win in the end. He had lost time in an earlier stage seemingly ruining his chances in the overall but he valiantly fought back with panache to take the win. I agree it was an incredible overall performance by him and he emphatically sealed it on the final stage by dropping all the riders that were a threat.

The Colombian Coldportes team getting their first win was icing on the cake as was Bentancur's performance. He and Atapuma have bright futures and I look forward to watching them grow.

Edit: I finally got a chance to watch stages 3 & 4 of Trentino this evening.