Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey 2011

[craig1985]

Starts this weekend and I can't wait, except I will be in China during the race.
Here is the official website (in English)

The site is very well organised and presented, with the teams, start lists, stage profiles and bios on each stage's start and finish towns, plus much much more. Live on Eurosport as well, so what more could you ask for? This is fast becoming one of my favourite races, and our own Joe Papp won a stage here in in 2006 (before the s**t hit the fan to say the least). I also won this race with Baden Cooke on Saxo Bank in PCM 09m with JJ Haedo being absolutely useless at the same time.

Ryo, Hitch, Libertine etc., what can we expect from Café de Colombia?

 

[roundabout]

Petacchi, Greipel, Farrar, Guarnieri, Viviani, Haedo jr, Davis, Beletti, Modolo, Guardini etc.

Lots of interest to chase breaks down.

 

[Ferminal]

Petacchi, Greipel, Farrar, Guarnieri, Viviani, Haedo jr, Davis, Beletti, Modolo, Guardini etc.

Lots of interest to chase breaks down.

But enough bumps to make it interesting.

The layout of the stages seem similar to last year, no time trial this year however. A couple for the sprinters, a couple selective ones, and the rest could go either to the bunch or the attackers.

Although it's always a bit hard to work out with these profiles.

We might need to go with individual stage threads as this race should get quite a bit of attention.

No Moncoutie, no Visconti... doesn't look quite as enticing as last year. Androni are invited but not sending their A-Team. Go Colombia!

 

[roundabout]

The only interesting stages are 3 and 4 looking at last year.

3 is likely to be difficult to win for sprinters at any rate and 4 was Highroad against ISD last year (Greipel still won the sprint behind the break). It is likely that Greipel is a better climber than an average sprinter however the course together with a deeper filed doesn't make it likely for an attacker to win if sprinter teams are interested in a sprint.

 

[The Hitch]

Dates?

Ryo, Hitch, Libertine etc., what can we expect from Café de Colombia?

Lol, i know very little about Colombian cyclists, just jumped aboard the Henao and Duarte trains, and like URan.

Neither are here though.

 

[roundabout]

24.04-01.05

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

what is the parcours like? I reckon not too much since they start here with their b squad, so no atapuma, quintana (both have returned to colombia today), cano, chalapud etc.

 

[Ferminal]

Bumpo...

Stage 1 is an early start today... 10:00 CET. Live on Eurosport.

Something to keep me entertained waiting around all day for Liege.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Just starting now. As ever, one of the quality productions of the season!
The worst weather I've seen at this race.

A basic Eurosport feed in English:
http://embed.zonein.tv/plkgftdhgfhydfyhayer.php?id=356870&w=900&h=675

There are better sopcast ones about.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Holy cow that's impressive by Guardini!

 

[palmerq]

Guardini wins?? great move, very strong I twittered him to win to Kirby but he didn't read it out, although he did say guardini would win after I posted it to him :S... very good from him, impressive win.

 

[thrawn]

Holy cow that's impressive by Guardini!

Very impressive sprint.

 

[roundabout]

Yes, that's just what i was going to write. As soon as he jumped it was almost certain that he was going to win.

 

[hrotha]

Why is a race finishing so early? No fair. Anyway, nice to see Guardini isn't a one (or five)-hit wonder.

 

[Ferminal]

Looked way too easy.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Just murdered everyone bar Cav, in the same way Cav murders everyone bar Cav.

Shame he's too young to take to the Giro, this lad is going to be very special.


Also, *CQ Dance*

 

[Hugo Koblet]

1. Guardini
2. Farrar
3. Van Hummel
4. Belletti
5. Ferrari
6. Van Dijk

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Why is a race finishing so early? No fair. Anyway, nice to see Guardini isn't a one (or five)-hit wonder.

If you want to ride in the mid-day sun in Turkey right now, be my guest...

 

[valentius borealis]

Pettachi didn't look very happy with Nacer Bouhanni.

 

[roundabout]

It looked pretty cold out there...

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

If you want to ride in the mid-day sun in Turkey right now, be my guest...

They will be the rest of the race - this was just a sensible decision to avoid competing with LBL.

 

[superconfex]

Pettachi didn't look very happy with Nacer Bouhanni.

was that the guy he punch on the back?

 

[hrotha]

If you want to ride in the mid-day sun in Turkey right now, be my guest...

It's Turkey, not Saudi Arabia. And they don't even get far from the sea, it'll be nice Mediterranean weather all the way.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

CQ incorrectly have the race down as a 2.1

Outraged email time.

 

[valentius borealis]

was that the guy he punch on the back?

yeah, looked like a pretty hard thump too