Paris-Nice 2017, 5th-12th March

[barmaher]

Can anybody remember a better week-long stage race?

 

[barmaher]

Re: Re:

I mainly think they find his fans annoying.

I've come across quite a few Sky fans that almost seem to have a personal issue with him, as though he killed their dog or slept with their wife!

I think a significant minority of Sky fans have been brain washed into thinking that Sky represented a step away from the dark ages of doping (signified by Armstrong and Contador) into a new world where a rider can work harder, hop off his shiny black bus and onto his fancy bike and marginal gain the $h1t out of the dirty foreigners.

When it turns out that Contador is actually a really nice guy who cycles with his heart, and there is a chance that their heroes may actually be not just bigger cheats than anyone, but sanctimonious hypocrites to boot.....well they get a bit aggressive.

I haven't seen much of this on this forum, but lots of it on comment sections underneath cycling articles on the main website and on websites of UK daily papers.

 

[StryderHells]

Re: Re:

Yes, amazing week of cycling. I found myself rooting for Contador, but in the end I don't really care who wins as long as the race is entertaining. I don't understand this discussion of who's the more deserving winner. Henao was the fastest and by definition he then deserved to win. If he has been the fastest and he didn't win, well that would have been undeserved.

IMO a case can be made that Contador would have been just as much of a deserving winner. Henao completed the course in the fastest time and that is what matters in the end so he is a deserving winner. Contador was the stronger rider but alas, no glory for him. I thought it was interesting that the Sporza commentators - José de Cauwer and Michel Wuyts (who has never had much sympathy for Contador) were hoping they'd miscalculated and Contador would be the winner, and when Henao's win was confirmed they called for a tie.
Seems quite sad to me that some Sky fans refuse to admit Contador would have been a deserving winner as well. Sad, but not surprising - I'm guessing Contador evokes some feelings of jealously because he is much more liked and popular than most Sky riders

I mainly think they find his fans annoying.

I find die hard fanboys/fangirls of any rider/teams annoying, they tend not to look at racing situations that go against the team/riders they support without any real objectivity and post as such which clogs threads up with utter rubbish.

 

[Forever The Best]

Anyways some very good things to remember and learn from this race:
It was an epic one, probably the best 1-week stage race in years, Course au Soleil delivered again.
Contador showed that he is a legend once again, he goes ballistic if he sees a chance of winning and that's why people are a fan of him.
A long-range attack almost worked. If it had worked it would have been even better.
Short stage off the back of some brutal stages work great once again(the last stage worked great since the previous 2 days were ridden hard and first 2 stages were brutal).
Also Henao finally gets a big win after many podiums.
Also the season has been absolutely spectacular so far. Hope it continues.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

I mainly think they find his fans annoying.

I've come across quite a few Sky fans that almost seem to have a personal issue with him, as though he killed their dog or slept with their wife!

I think a significant minority of Sky fans have been brain washed into thinking that Sky represented a step away from the dark ages of doping (signified by Armstrong and Contador) into a new world where a rider can work harder, hop off his shiny black bus and onto his fancy bike and marginal gain the $h1t out of the dirty foreigners.

When it turns out that Contador is actually a really nice guy who cycles with his heart, and there is a chance that their heroes may actually be not just bigger cheats than anyone, but sanctimonious hypocrites to boot.....well they get a bit aggressive.

I haven't seen much of this on this forum, but lots of it on comment sections underneath cycling articles on the main website and on websites of UK daily papers.

That is a very good point

 

[Pricey_sky]

Re: Re:

I mainly think they find his fans annoying.

I've come across quite a few Sky fans that almost seem to have a personal issue with him, as though he killed their dog or slept with their wife!

I think a significant minority of Sky fans have been brain washed into thinking that Sky represented a step away from the dark ages of doping (signified by Armstrong and Contador) into a new world where a rider can work harder, hop off his shiny black bus and onto his fancy bike and marginal gain the $h1t out of the dirty foreigners.

When it turns out that Contador is actually a really nice guy who cycles with his heart, and there is a chance that their heroes may actually be not just bigger cheats than anyone, but sanctimonious hypocrites to boot.....well they get a bit aggressive.

I haven't seen much of this on this forum, but lots of it on comment sections underneath cycling articles on the main website and on websites of UK daily papers.

That is the same for most sport though, and not just Sky v Contador fans. I've also found it to be vice-Versa too especially when it was between Froome v Contador supporters. If your favourite gets beaten your always going to be slightly negative with the winner at least. Just look at the reaction of some when they found out Henao won, that's sport, it plays on the emotions. Nothing wrong with that at all as long as you don't go too far.

Yesterday was one of those great days of bike racing, both riders deserved to win and tried their hearts out for it. I prefer to just say 'thank-you' for one hell of a show regardless of rider/team/nationality.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re:

Can anybody remember a better week-long stage race?

Just to get back to the point, no, I honestly don't think so. Dauphine 2014 and T-A 2013 were both great, but I think Ill go for this race. Just so unfortunate Valverde couldn't have participated as it would have brought forward yet another player for the overall.

 

[Netserk]

At best, he would have changed nothing. At best.

 

[deValtos]

Re: Re:

Can anybody remember a better week-long stage race?

Just to get back to the point, no, I honestly don't think so. Dauphine 2014 and T-A 2013 were both great, but I think Ill go for this race. Just so unfortunate Valverde couldn't have participated as it would have brought forward yet another player for the overall.

2014 Dauphine is the closest. Boy was that the race hilarious. Froome vs Contador on stage 2 was mental.

Watching nibs cruise the TDF by 7 mins latr was a let down after the dauphine had hyped it up.

Garmin won that too ... probably the last big win they had.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Listened to a danish podcast today featuring Brian Holm. As always super insightful and funny. A few interesting points he made:

- Quick Step arrived 2 days before P-N as opposed to 1 days before like they did the last years. They used that time to reckon the first stage and quickly realised the cobbles and wind could create carnage, but was hesitant due to crashes/punctures as it was a stage race opposed to a one day race. Anyways, the race splintered and the Contador/Porte-group was 18 seconds behind at one point when Contador took a monster pull/attack on the little hill in hopes of bridging the few seconds. It failed and was, according to Brian Holm, the reason the Trek-team was gone from that point on, but said Katusha unfortunately for them helped them salvage most of it.

- They tried to win the race on the last stage into Nice and was in the perfect situation. They knew Contador would attack on Peille and had Cruz in the break, everything was set up for Dan Martin to attack Henao on Col d'Eze after he had done a lot of work and then caught up to De La Cruz who then would bridge to Contador. Dan Martin simply couldn't get rid of the group hence why Cruz was allowed to go for the stage.

- Alapihlippe shouldn't be seen as a GT-rider, but a classics rider. Compared him to Vandenbroucke in terms of talent, but also a bit personality as Julian is a special person. The kind of person who walks into the bus on both hands after a hard stage, late to sleep and early up yet always extremely energetic, the type of rider who would train 260 km every day. Compared Julian to a little train that you once in a while needed to get on the right track. Needless to say, extremely talented.

- Also said that Gilbert had said to him he never had felt more 'at home' than he did now, he was very comfortable at Etixx. Also said that Gilbert still 'had it', the belief of still being able to do something great. Also obviously had huge respect for him the day Colbrelli won, he liked the sight of the Belgian NC jersey on a suicide attack without gloves while the other riders sat in the bunch a froze like puppies while not being able to change gears. Spoke very strongly about what a nice person Gilbert was. Also said that Gilbert asked to be roommate with Alaphilppe in P-N.

 

[Escarabajo]

Thanks Valv.Piti

I guess people think too much of Martin. He is not the climber that most fans think he is IMHO.

 

[Poursuivant]

Re:

Listened to a danish podcast today featuring Brian Holm. As always super insightful and funny. A few interesting points he made:

- Quick Step arrived 2 days before P-N as opposed to 1 days before like they did the last years. They used that time to reckon the first stage and quickly realised the cobbles and wind could create carnage, but was hesitant due to crashes/punctures as it was a stage race opposed to a one day race. Anyways, the race splintered and the Contador/Porte-group was 18 seconds behind at one point when Contador took a monster pull/attack on the little hill in hopes of bridging the few seconds. It failed and was, according to Brian Holm, the reason the Trek-team was gone from that point on, but said Katusha unfortunately for them helped them salvage most of it.

- They tried to win the race on the last stage into Nice and was in the perfect situation. They knew Contador would attack on Peille and had Cruz in the break, everything was set up for Dan Martin to attack Henao on Col d'Eze after he had done a lot of work and then caught up to De La Cruz who then would bridge to Contador. Dan Martin simply couldn't get rid of the group hence why Cruz was allowed to go for the stage.

- Alapihlippe shouldn't be seen as a GT-rider, but a classics rider. Compared him to Vandenbroucke in terms of talent, but also a bit personality as Julian is a special person. The kind of person who walks into the bus on both hands after a hard stage, late to sleep and early up yet always extremely energetic, the type of rider who would train 260 km every day. Compared Julian to a little train that you once in a while needed to get on the right track. Needless to say, extremely talented.

- Also said that Gilbert had said to him he never had felt more 'at home' than he did now, he was very comfortable at Etixx. Also said that Gilbert still 'had it', the belief of still being able to do something great. Also obviously had huge respect for him the day Colbrelli won, he liked the sight of the Belgian NC jersey on a suicide attack without gloves while the other riders sat in the bunch a froze like puppies while not being able to change gears. Spoke very strongly about what a nice person Gilbert was. Also said that Gilbert asked to be roommate with Alaphilppe in P-N.

Thanks, interesting insight.

I agree about Alaphillipe, he is not a GT Rider.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Thanks Valv.Piti

I guess people think too much of Martin. He is not the climber that most fans think he is IMHO.

I agree

Strange tactics by QS for the final stage. So it relied on Contador attacking on Peille, Henao getting dropped by Martin on Eze, Martin making up 30s on Henao and Martin getting back to Contador.
Much smarter would have been sending Martin off with Contador. With Martin's sprint he'd always outsprint Contador on the line and he'd have a partner to work with. But anyway, we saw he wasn't strong enough regardless.

QS have good tactics in classics and classic-type races, but for the mountains they still have a lot to learn

 

[Red Rick]

Perfect tactics. Especially the part where Martin got dropped by Henao on the Peille was masterminded perfectly

 

[rick james]

some are still hurting

 

[Forever The Best]

Re:

some are still hurting

Yes, everyone is jealous of Sky, Brits etc.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

- Alapihlippe shouldn't be seen as a GT-rider, but a classics rider. Compared him to Vandenbroucke in terms of talent, but also a bit personality as Julian is a special person. The kind of person who walks into the bus on both hands after a hard stage, late to sleep and early up yet always extremely energetic, the type of rider who would train 260 km every day. Compared Julian to a little train that you once in a while needed to get on the right track. Needless to say, extremely talented.

Seems awesome. I want to see him winning a few big ones in the Ardenns for the reaction alone

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

Thanks Valv.Piti

I guess people think too much of Martin. He is not the climber that most fans think he is IMHO.

I agree

Strange tactics by QS for the final stage. So it relied on Contador attacking on Peille, Henao getting dropped by Martin on Eze, Martin making up 30s on Henao and Martin getting back to Contador.
Much smarter would have been sending Martin off with Contador. With Martin's sprint he'd always outsprint Contador on the line and he'd have a partner to work with. But anyway, we saw he wasn't strong enough regardless.

QS have good tactics in classics and classic-type races, but for the mountains they still have a lot to learn

No, the plan was obviously to have Martin follow Contador on Peille (and hope Henao couldn't follow), then use De la Cruz up front to further distance Henao and win the race. That's like the most logical tactic in the book.

 

[rick james]

Re: Re:

some are still hurting

Yes, everyone is jealous of Sky, Brits etc.

Anglo Saxons

 

[Forever The Best]

Re: Re:

some are still hurting

Yes, everyone is jealous of Sky, Brits etc.

Anglo Saxons

Yes, the dirty Spaniards, Italians, Frenchies are jealous of the great Anglo Saxons

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

No, the plan was obviously to have Martin follow Contador on Peille (and hope Henao couldn't follow), then use De la Cruz up front to further distance Henao and win the race. That's like the most logical tactic in the book.

Yes, that's the most logical tactic in my mind as well but Valv.Piti posted that the plan was for Martin to attack on Eze.

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

No, the plan was obviously to have Martin follow Contador on Peille (and hope Henao couldn't follow), then use De la Cruz up front to further distance Henao and win the race. That's like the most logical tactic in the book.

Yes, that's the most logical tactic in my mind as well but Valv.Piti posted that the plan was for Martin to attack on Eze.

Well yes, after Martin got dropped by Contador, that was the tactic they had to resort to as plan B.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re: Re:

No, the plan was obviously to have Martin follow Contador on Peille (and hope Henao couldn't follow), then use De la Cruz up front to further distance Henao and win the race. That's like the most logical tactic in the book.

Yes, that's the most logical tactic in my mind as well but Valv.Piti posted that the plan was for Martin to attack on Eze.

Well yes, after Martin got dropped by Contador, that was the tactic they had to resort to as plan B.

Sure if you say so, but that's not what Brian Holm said according to Valv.Piti's post

 

[Escarabajo]

Re:

Perfect tactics. Especially the part where Martin got dropped by Henao on the Peille was masterminded perfectly

:lol: :lol:

 

[Flamin]

Re: Re:

No, the plan was obviously to have Martin follow Contador on Peille (and hope Henao couldn't follow), then use De la Cruz up front to further distance Henao and win the race. That's like the most logical tactic in the book.

Yes, that's the most logical tactic in my mind as well but Valv.Piti posted that the plan was for Martin to attack on Eze.

Well yes, after Martin got dropped by Contador, that was the tactic they had to resort to as plan B.

Sure if you say so, but that's not what Brian Holm said according to Valv.Piti's post

I think that's what he meant though, unless there are some major retards calling the shots at Quick Step