Official National Championships thread

[theyoungest]

Castrovejo sucked in TDS, and so did LL Sanchez. So, more than anything, it shows that Contador's shape is not very promising at the moment. If Lulu wins it will be more a case of everyone else being in bad shape than him actually being good, I think.

Sanchez sucked so much in Switzerland that he wasn't even there

But yeah, it's probably Contador who is bad rather than Lulu who is strong. Not very surprising, without a single day of racing in the legs since the Giro.

 

[roundabout]

Was that downhill TT?

don't know, but it had about 2 corners

http://www.neuwied.de/fileadmin/inhalte/Veranstaltungen/RAD_DM/zeitfahren_elite.pdf

 

[Moondance]

Well, here's hoping Lulu has sorted his head out is peaking at the right time of the season.

Would be nice for him going into the Tour.

 

[roundabout]

Castroviejo beat Contador. A bit surprising this even after a Giro.

 

[Moondance]

Castroviejo beat Contador. A bit surprising this even after a Giro.

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡




He sucked in Suisse

 

[roundabout]

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

And Lulu crushed them by a minute.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Loser Leon actually won something?

Rabobank's tour team is magically coming together.

 

[Publicus]

Castroviejo beat Contador. A bit surprising this even after a Giro.

A very ominous sign. Andy is probably jumping for joy.

 

[Moondance]

Loser Leon actually won something?

Rabobank's tour team is magically coming together.

Indeed.

 

[Spine Concept]

Elated for Luisle. He needed a confidence boost regardless of the plausibility of some reasons for his win today. This is good for him right before the tour.

 

[Havetts]

Indeed.

Why the ?

Anyways good to see him actually win something, it gives some hope..

 

[theyoungest]

Indeed.

Beetroot juice has also made its way to Rabo's Spanish headquarters

Anyway, good for him. Thanks to a sucky Contador, but that goes for basically all his TT wins.

 

[roundabout]

http://a3.img.mobypicture.com/eb1078646e72c3ce31088124cefe171e_view.jpg

Can Herrada do more than TT?

I know this wasn't a flat course

 

[hrotha]

1º Luis León Sánchez (Rabobank): 56.43
2º Jonathan Castroviejo (Euskaltel): 57.44
3º Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank): 57.55
4º José Iván Gutiérrez (Movistar): 58.30
5º Jesús Herrada (Movistar): 58.53

I don't think this is surprising, really. Contador is obviously good at TT, but if they're long he needs to be in form, and he hasn't raced since the Giro so he has to be lacking a bit of extra punch (especially if he got it in a bag recently for later use).

 

[Moondance]

Why the ?

Anyways good to see him actually win something, it gives some hope..

Well, I don't think anyone on this forum actually thinks Lulu was clean in his Caisse days. Now after sucking hard for a few months he crushes the Spanish champs all of a sudden.... I'm sceptical. Hence my focus on the 'magical'

 

[roundabout]

I suppose it isn't really hugely surprising but neither of the first 2 seemed impressive when they last raced even if that racing helped them.

 

[Havetts]

Well, I don't think anyone on this forum actually thinks Lulu was clean in his Caisse days. Now after sucking hard for a few months he crushes the Spanish champs all of a sudden.... I'm sceptical. Hence my focus on the 'magical'

Fair enough I thought that already that you meant it that way. But I guess theres an other place on this forum for that . Im glad for LLS he got the win, hopefully he can continue with this form.

 

[The Hitch]

Contador wasnt all that in the Dauphine 50k tt before the Tour last year.

 

[theyoungest]

Well, I don't think anyone on this forum actually thinks Lulu was clean in his Caisse days. Now after sucking hard for a few months he crushes the Spanish champs all of a sudden.... I'm sceptical. Hence my focus on the 'magical'

Like hrotha points out, Contador not riding a great TT is not entirely unexpected or unprecedented. Castroviejo sucked very recently in Suisse, Herrada is a neo pro, and Gutierrez is an old fart. There you go, TT win for Lulu.

 

[Moondance]

Fair enough I thought that already that you meant it that way. But I guess theres an other place on this forum for that . Im glad for LLS he got the win, hopefully he can continue with this form.

I know... I might get a reprimand for that.

Maybe I should correct myself and say that I'm sure Lulu had a nice, big, juicy steak for dinner last night

 

[Descender]

Why are people so surprised? Castroviejo is in bad shape and Contador even worse...

 

[hrotha]

Why are people so surprised? Castroviejo is in bad shape and Contador even worse...

And Luisle has sucked all year. This was like the famed Rojas-Bennati-Van Avermaet sprint, only on TT bikes.

 

[Descender]

And Luisle has sucked all year. This was like the famed Rojas-Bennati-Van Avermaet sprint, only on TT bikes.

Fair enough, but he was the defending champion and a great tt-list and to be fair, he had no excuse for not winning today. The surprising thing is he hadn't done anything this year.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Luis Leon was like... 40th or something in the Dauphine ITT.

If that's Contador level in the Tour then Andy is going to cream his pants

 

[Lanark]

Luis Leon was like... 40th or something in the Dauphine ITT.

If that's Contador level in the Tour then Andy is going to cream his pants

Castroviejo finished 1.20 behind Andy's joke of a time trial in the Tour de Suisse, but I'm not sure you can really extrapolate that to the Tour