Paris-Nice '12: Stage 1 Dampierre-en-Yvelines - Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse (ITT), 9,4 k

[Libertine Seguros]

But Sky came into this race totally prepared to defend yellow and their team will be totally behind wiggins like they were behind Porte in Algarve.
If there was any team which I would want to defend lead it would be Sky
Porte did an 11:37 , in 16th and 17 seconds behind Wiggins, though it did dash his hopes of winning as he will probably be expected to work full out for Wiggins now.

Just because the team came into the race prepared to defend yellow doesn't mean that Montée Laurent Jalabert suddenly suits Wiggins more. Pray point me to where Wiggins has shown that he can stay with the best and defend that kind of lead on short, sharp punchy climbs?

Even in the 2011 Vuelta, probably the best form Wiggins we've seen, he lost 20" into Valdepeñas de Jaén, and 25" into San Lorenzo de El Escorial. Mende is longer than either of those; if he loses that kind of time to a guy like Valverde, with time bonuses available, then it could be hard to defend, and instead be a matter of a showdown on the Col d'Èze.

Edit:
A bit more research... Wiggins lost 6" on the Mur-de-Brétagne (neither as long nor as steep as this), and 31" on this same finish in the 2010 Tour (though that finished at the airfield, so not quite at the summit). Wiggins' best showing at La Flèche Wallonne is 66th, in 2010. I see no other results in his palmarès that can truly be considered relevant; he lost 40" on Malhão, but that was working for Porte.

 

[El Pistolero]

First 10 of the prologue: good GC men, climbers, men for the hills(and one time trial specialist pur sang of course).

11th: Tom Boonen

 

[will10]

Wiggo is in a good position but no number of strong teammates are going to stop him losing a chunk of time to Valverde et al on Mende. Unless of course Porte, Uran, Sivstov and Thomas are going to push him up it...

 

[Lexman]

Andy Schleck losing a minute in a 9K time trial to Wiggins is really poor, or is Wiggins peaking a bit too early in the season?

Or maybe Schleck is really training only, let's hope so otherwise his TDF seems compromised

 

[El Pistolero]

No way Valverde is going to win this now.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

First 10 of the prologue: good GC men, climbers, men for the hills(and one time trial specialist pur sang of course).

11th: Tom Boonen

Yeah, and yesterday I saw Cancellara destroying everyone in a much more satisfying way than every of Boonen's Qatar wins or Omloop het Nieuwsblad 2nd place.

Face it. Boonen will be outmatched, again, come april

 

[will10]

First 10 of the prologue: good GC men, climbers, men for the hills.

11th: Tom Boonen

Hope Tom will do the sprints here this week, he's actually got a chance of getting the jersey in the next couple of days on boni seconds.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Or maybe Schleck is really training only, let's hope so otherwise his TDF seems compromised

I wouldn't have a problem with that.

 

[El Pistolero]

Yeah, and yesterday I saw Cancellara destroying everyone in a much more satisfying way than every of Boonen's Qatar wins or Omloop het Nieuwsblad 2nd place.

Face it. Boonen will be outmatched, again, come april

What does that have to do with anything? Sep Vanmarcke will win Roubaix anyway.

Face it, the same was said last year about Cancellara in April and he won jack ****

 

[Mambo95]

Wiggo is in a good position but no number of strong teammates are going to stop him losing a chunk of time to Valverde et al on Mende. Unless of course Porte, Uran, Sivstov and Thomas are going to push him up it...

There seems to be some idea that Valverde is in super 'Valv.Piti' style form, but he's just lost 30s in a 9km TT, which suggests that he probably isn't.

 

[Museeuw]

Could anyone summarize what those Eurosport commentators talked about Peraud before he started?

 

[DominicDecoco]

You are both wrong though. Bak sneaks in a victory of the century.

 

[Delicato]

There seems to be some idea that Valverde is in super 'Valv.Piti' style form, but he's just lost 30s in a 9km TT, which suggests that he probably isn't.

It is generally believed that you always suffer huge perfomance decrease in TTing after return from suspension, so I won't write off Valverde just now.

 

[maltiv]

First 10 of the prologue: good GC men, climbers, men for the hills(and one time trial specialist pur sang of course).

11th: Tom Boonen

Pretty good ride by Hushovd too who was 14th.

 

[skidmark]

Luckiest win ive seen in years.

How many years? Since Konavalovas in the Giro?

 

[theyoungest]

There seems to be some idea that Valverde is in super 'Valv.Piti' style form, but he's just lost 30s in a 9km TT, which suggests that he probably isn't.

Like I said somewhere upthread, I think he lost this much time because he's simply lighter than before his suspension. He never was a great TTist on the flat, and now it's worse.

 

[maltiv]

Like I said somewhere upthread, I think he lost this much time because he's simply lighter than before his suspension. He never was a great TTist on the flat, and now it's worse.

Perhaps never great, but he was pretty good. He was almost always in the top 5 in ITTs in Vuelta.

His ITT wasn't great in Andalucia either but he won nonetheless, so he definitely has a chance still.

 

[jens_attacks]

There seems to be some idea that Valverde is in super 'Valv.Piti' style form, but he's just lost 30s in a 9km TT, which suggests that he probably isn't.

i think he is.but that's not enough to beat levi.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

What does that have to do with anything? Sep Vanmarcke will win Roubaix anyway.

Face it, the same was said last year about Cancellara in April and he won jack ****

Still he severely outmatched Boonen.

And you don't really believe Vanmarcke stands a chance against Cancellara anyway?

 

[The Hitch]

Like I said somewhere upthread, I think he lost this much time because he's simply lighter than before his suspension. He never was a great TTist on the flat, and now it's worse.

Hes won pan flat prologues, and hes done well in hilly tts on both uphill and descent, and this tt was a hill, descent and then a prologue. Id say it should suit valverde.

 

[Moviefan1203]

Great ride by my man Van Garderen. Unfortunately I don't have much hopes for his GC plans in this race unless his climbing has improved since Portugal.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Wiggo is in a good position but no number of strong teammates are going to stop him losing a chunk of time to Valverde et al on Mende. Unless of course Porte, Uran, Sivstov and Thomas are going to push him up it...

Realistically, though, how much time do Leipheimer and Taaramae need to gain before the Col d'Eze TT to stand a chance?

Valverde is a non-factor at this point, IMO. He can't TT (yet?) and the uphill TT is not one for climbers.

 

[Andy99]

Just ffwd through the coverage recorded from earlier.

Great ride by wiggo who was obviously taking it fairly gingerly through the corners.

Good to hear the voice of Sean 'certainTly' Kelly again

 

[will10]

Larsson did a great ride and would've been top 3 even if he'd started the same time as the favourites, he was out of sight of all those who started around him.

 

[Andy99]

Larsson did a great ride and would've been top 3 even if he'd started the same time as the favourites, he was out of sight of all those who started around him.

Yeahh - he certainly deserves praise. TDG going well to. I like him as a rider.