Paris-Nice 2017, 5th-12th March

[Irondan]

Re:

No idea why Bahrain did all that work to sprint for 4th

To beat Matthews? Idk....

 

[El Pistolero]

Re:

De la Cruz will be very proud of what's done, very proud... F*ing wheelsucker.

De La Cruz did nothing wrong.

 

[trevim]

Sky will be bankrupt if they have to pay everyone who has chased Contador over the past two years for no reason in P-N.

 

[Publicus]

Re: Re:

Really despise everyone in the chase group

To be fair if they all worked together they could have closed the gap completely and fought for the stage win. Was only 19 seconds at the end.

To be fair, they had nothing to race for IMO. They saved Henao's jersey. And folks please stop with the "brave ride" from Henao. It wasn't. He held on with an assist from Bahrain.

The big take away is Contador's recovery is better than everyone's (in this race).

 

[Scarponi]

Re:

Great stuff from Contador, but you have to respect Henao's win. It was more or less mano a mano for the last 40km (with Contador getting the odd pull from de la Cruz, and Henao a bit of help from Bahrain).

Fully deserved first big win of his career imo.

Did you watch the race? Sky were pulling until the col eze. Contador did every km by himself, one did 5km of a climb and 5km descent the other did 40

 

[Baldinger]

If Soler and Cruz had taken only a few pulls at the front...

 

[Jelantik]

Re:

No idea why Bahrain did all that work to sprint for 4th

maybe it's good for their palmares...

 

[Forever The Best]

Re: Re:

Pretty pathetic bit of riding by Bahrain in my opinion

Yeah how dare they keep trying to reel the break back in so Colbrelli could have a shot at the stage win

They were definitely gonna close 40 seconds in 5 km

 

[Irondan]

Re: Re:

De la Cruz will be very proud of what's done, very proud... F*ing wheelsucker.

De La Cruz did nothing wrong.

Nope, he rode a great race and deserved the stage win..

 

[StryderHells]

Re:

De la Cruz will be very proud of what's done, very proud... F*ing wheelsucker.

Another thing to call it is smart racing

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Re: Re:

Pretty pathetic bit of riding by Bahrain in my opinion

Yeah how dare they keep trying to reel the break back in so Colbrelli could have a shot at the stage win

You have to admit, that they were never going to get back 45 seconds in 5 km's anyway. But ofcourse, they had an (if really small) interest. Cannot blame them. Just too bad that De La Cruz won the stage.

 

[Melo]

Re: Re:

Cancerous chase group helping Henao for no apparent reason than getting to the team bus half a minute earlier.

Why? That's racing. There was still a very outside chance of a stage win - gap was only 20 seconds or so in the end. Not like they were 5 minutes back.

Are you serious? There was no way in hell they could catch the front group.

 

[Publicus]

Re: Re:

De la Cruz will be very proud of what's done, very proud... F*ing wheelsucker.

De La Cruz did a lot of work and deserved the win. Don't be so salty...

Agreed. No issue with De La Cruz taking the win here. He worked.

 

[BigMac]

Congratulations to Henao, he gave it all and did a terrific ride.

My head can't accept how Contador loses this. Same scenario as last year, same, or nearly the same gap...

All the race circumstances and pawns were after him. Not saying on purpose, but it's really frustrating how everything unfolds against him once again.

 

[Scarponi]

Re: Re:

Pretty pathetic bit of riding by Bahrain in my opinion

Yeah how dare they keep trying to reel the break back in so Colbrelli could have a shot at the stage win

If that's so why did they wait so long to start the chase?

 

[TourOfSardinia]

soler didn't remember what Alberto did for quintana last year
short memory
these days

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Great stuff from Contador, but you have to respect Henao's win. It was more or less mano a mano for the last 40km (with Contador getting the odd pull from de la Cruz, and Henao a bit of help from Bahrain).

Fully deserved first big win of his career imo.

Bahrain did more chasing than Henao...

Were you expecting Henao to brake?

Henao was on the front the whole way up the last two climbs and a lot of the descent. Of course he's not going to break - but he pulled back around 30 seconds in the last 40km. For a rider who looked to be broken, that was an amazing effort.

Contador would have been a deserving winner as well for his riding in the last two stages - but Henao deserves huge credit and fully deserves the overall for me.

 

[TomLPC]

Cobrelli and henao are both huge rugby fans from what I hear, don't be so salty

 

[deValtos]

This happens every Contador attack where people complain about the chase group.

The chase group spent the entire climb attacking henao, if they'd worked together from 30km out they'd easily have closed that down and been fighting for the win. In the end even with just one other guy Izaguirre they clsoed it down to 19s.

 

[Derry]

why, why did Sunweb and Bahrain started riding in the last kilometers when they had 0 chance of getting that gap closed.

 

[janraaskalt3]

Re: Re:

Cancerous chase group helping Henao for no apparent reason than getting to the team bus half a minute earlier.

Why? That's racing. There was still a very outside chance of a stage win - gap was only 20 seconds or so in the end. Not like they were 5 minutes back.

Are you serious? There was no way in hell they could catch the front group.

The other way around: for what reason was Matthews pulling together with Contador? Did he really expect to stick with Contador on the Col d'Eze?

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

Pretty pathetic bit of riding by Bahrain in my opinion

Yeah how dare they keep trying to reel the break back in so Colbrelli could have a shot at the stage win

If that's so why did they wait so long to start the chase?

Probably because Colbrelli was hanging on at the limit on the climb. Recovered a bit and then started working when he realised he was strongest sprinter and would probably have won the stage if the break could have been reeled in.

Come on, let's be objective here. Not everyone is out to get Contador.

 

[rick james]

loving all the hate when other teams have the audacity to win a bike race

 

[Publicus]

Re: Re:

Pretty pathetic bit of riding by Bahrain in my opinion

Yeah how dare they keep trying to reel the break back in so Colbrelli could have a shot at the stage win

They had no shot.

 

[spalco]

Re:

he looks like he is going to burst into tears in the interview, i feel the same. he is one of a kind and will be terribly missed. i wish we had got to see peak contador v peak froome at some point. but his older, slower self is still better than 99.9% of all stage racers.

Would be nice to at least get a healthy, non-crashy Contador at the Tour once again.