Qatar, stage 6, Al Wakra - Doha Corniche, 123.5 km

[Anonymous]

hammond has accused sky for ruining the race for not chasing the break on stage 2, wiggo saying sky disoreintated following arvesens crash.

handbags?

http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/02/news/qatar-gold-a-gift-from-the-sky-or-the-wind_104857

Wiggo's excuse sounds like a bit of balls - it wouldn't have taken long to realise Arvesen couldn't continue, and it wasn't like he was the only Sky rider at the top of the GC. There were enough of them so that if one fell by the wayside, someone else could step in and become the leader. If it's true, it sounds like poor contingency planning, from the "experts of detail". TBH Hammond's reasoning sounds far more like it.

 

[stefrees]

Wiggo's excuse sounds like a bit of balls - it wouldn't have taken long to realise Arvesen couldn't continue, and it wasn't like he was the only Sky rider at the top of the GC. There were enough of them so that if one fell by the wayside, someone else could step in and become the leader. If it's true, it sounds like poor contingency planning, from the "experts of detail". TBH Hammond's reasoning sounds far more like it.

i might have to disagree. sky are going to make a fair few mistakes, including a fair few this week. but dont think they can be blamed by cervelo for ruining the race for the other teams.

 

[Winterfold]

I dont quite get Hammond's logic there - Sky should have not tried to win the ITT if they werent strong enough to take the MJ or if they thought there migth be no wind?

sounds like sour grapes

Sneaky win by Chicci, very good.

I think Sky have quite a bit of work to do - although I wonder how much of the bad timing of the leadouts and not getting organised in Stage 2 was down to Arvesen getting injured.

Not much they could do about EBH's puncture though, that really finished it.

 

[maltiv]

Wiggo's excuse sounds like a bit of balls - it wouldn't have taken long to realise Arvesen couldn't continue, and it wasn't like he was the only Sky rider at the top of the GC. There were enough of them so that if one fell by the wayside, someone else could step in and become the leader. If it's true, it sounds like poor contingency planning, from the "experts of detail". TBH Hammond's reasoning sounds far more like it.

Arvesen would have been the road-captain, as he was for Saxo Bank last year. Without him, I guess they were quite disoriented.

 

[Moondance]

First Dutch victory of the year. Always nice to see.

 

[Anonymous]

i might have to disagree. sky are going to make a fair few mistakes, including a fair few this week. but dont think they can be blamed by cervelo for ruining the race for the other teams.

Yes, I agree with you on that bit, if Cervelo were so concerned they could have ridden themselves. But Sky did fudge the race up for themselves.

 

[Anonymous]

Arvesen would have been the road-captain, as he was for Saxo Bank last year. Without him, I guess they were quite disoriented.

With DS's calling the shots over the radio, what exactly does a road captain do at the moment? And if they are important, why is there no vice-captain ready to step in?

 

[Bluebeard]

That is a stunning win. Cheeky Chicchi!

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

First Dutch victory of the year. Always nice to see.

haha. one step closer to a full squad at the WC

 

[Moondance]

haha. one step closer to a full squad at the WC

Ahhh... yes... Although I doubt this race will count. I think it's only the ProTour World Rankings that determine which national teams get the full 9 man complement.

 

[theyoungest]

Ahhh... yes... Although I doubt this race will count. I think it's only the ProTour World Rankings that determine which national teams get the full 9 man complement.

Yes. And I think Wouter Mol's points won't count at all, because that would mean there are stronger riders than him in NL, and I sure hope that'll be the case.

 

[Von Mises]

Holy cow chicchi was quick...

As for sky, looked like russ managed to get in edvalds way a little bit, but i think they all started sprinting too early, realised their mistake, slowed down and where in the process of starting again when chicchi blasted through...

+1 Started too early and slowed down. And all lead outs were also crap and mistimed.

 

[ingsve]

He just used the sprinters in front of him intelligently. They were ploughing away into a strong headwind. It was an impressive sprint, but don't overdo it, please.

My assessment was not based entirely on todays sprint...

 

[William H]

The Sky lead out was fine, EBH was left in a good place to start his spint, he just wasn't fast enough.

 

[Carboncrank]

That is a stunning win. Cheeky Chicchi!

Agreed!! No way it happens like that without that wide road but still it was incredible to see. I was looking at the distance between lamp posts and roughly figure he passed 23 riders in around 200 meters.

 

[palmerq]

Chichi beat cavendish in a fair sprint once:S so he should have a chance agaisnt him. If he is liquigas sprint leader at the giro the sprints there could be quite interesting.. Bennatti hasnt been doing much since he was injured if i remember right ..

 

[mr. tibbs]

Video

still processing so quality will improve.

Thanks for that link.

So fast! The others looked like they were standing still!

"That was a mugging!" lol

 

[taiwan]

Finally saw the helicopter shots of the finish, man that was an incredible jump. A pretty narrow gap as well. That's rough, Farrar must have really thought he had it. Hope none of those other riders watch that video, or they'll have some psychological work to do before their next races.

 

[auscyclefan94]

group of 4 clear 3:00 ahead 32k to go, they are kohler (bmc) ben king (trek the aussie one) gretsch (htc) terpstra (milram)

kohler is becoming a breakaway specialist!

This overall win by Wouter Mol is almost as weird as Pereiro's tour de france victory...

What money would you get on his victory?

 

[auscyclefan94]

Geez...just watched the video, sky really screwed it up and went too early in the leadout. How quick was Chicchi!. My god he was 25th place when Boonen went for home and he just blitzed them. it may just be Chicchi's year! Imagine how much he would of won by if he was leadout off the front! Nice sprint by Matt Goss.

 

[il_fiammingo]

Geez...just watched the video, sky really screwed it up and went too early in the leadout. How quick was Chicchi!. My god he was 25th place when Boonen went for home and he just blitzed them. it may just be Chicchi's year! Imagine how much he would of won by if he was leadout off the front! Nice sprint by Matt Goss.

He reminds me of Blijlevens in a way.

 

[auscyclefan94]

its not so much rejoicing at his speed, as revelling in auscycle fans predition that there are at least 30 people faster than ebh proving to be codswallop

(from stg 5 qatar thread)
dim,
stg 2 : beaten by everyone be cause he was caught napping in the crosswinds.
stg 3: beaten by all sprinters. in the main pack.
stg 4: boasson hagen 17th... beaten by all sprinters.
stg 5: 3rd, napolitano and boonen beat him.
stg 6: beaten by goss, casper, Haedo, farrar and chicchi

Its a seriously strong sky team. Stannard, Thomas, Wiggins, EbH, should be able to TT to hell..

and the leadout train of downing, stannard, thomas, wiggins, flecha, a mixture of pursuiters and sprinters, should rival any with arveson running the show.. I think EbH could seriously dominate

but of course im biased..

How wrong was that comment. Firstly when sky did lead out their riders they were all over the place and screwed it up. Boasson hagen was caught napping in the field with the leaders jersey and lost tonnes of time.

I'll give you some guys who are faster than Boasson hagen in qatar

boonen, j.j haedo, ciolek, bennati, haussler, farrar, eisel, napolitano and chicchi

I was right about 6 out of 8 riders. Then you chuck in Cooke and Phinney who beat him twice and also matt Goss who beat him.

im not saying EBH is a bad sprinter but really comparing him to some of the other sprinters in this race is wrong.

 

[Anonymous]

(from stg 5 qatar thread)
dim,
stg 2 : beaten by everyone be cause he was caught napping in the crosswinds.
stg 3: beaten by all sprinters. in the main pack.
stg 4: boasson hagen 17th... beaten by all sprinters.
stg 5: 3rd, napolitano and boonen beat him.
stg 6: beaten by goss, casper, Haedo, farrar and chicchi



How wrong was that comment. Firstly when sky did lead out their riders they were all over the place and screwed it up. Boasson hagen was caught napping in the field with the leaders jersey and lost tonnes of time.



I was right about 6 out of 8 riders. Then you chuck in Cooke and Phinney who beat him twice and also matt Goss who beat him.

im not saying EBH is a bad sprinter but really comparing him to some of the other sprinters in this race is wrong.

I entirely disagree about boonen. He may be tactically less aware than boonen, but yesterday proved he was faster, he lost through bad positioning, and today he was faster.

So cross the old man off your list please...

Now we are down to five You cant count things when riders ease up before the line, theres no way of checking. The only thing we learnt is that at the moment Cicchi is faster than anyone, and Boonen is not faster than EbH, apart from that, the jury is still out.

Your anti sky obsession is nearly as bad as your obsession to following cadel around with a pooper scooper

 

[auscyclefan94]

I entirely disagree about boonen. He may be tactically less aware than boonen, but yesterday proved he was faster, he lost through bad positioning, and today he was faster.

So cross the old man off your list please...

Now we are down to five You cant count things when riders ease up before the line, theres no way of checking. The only thing we learnt is that at the moment Cicchi is faster than anyone, and Boonen is not faster than EbH, apart from that, the jury is still out.

Your anti sky obsession is nearly as bad as your obsession to following cadel around with a pooper scooper

I have an obsession with hating sky? look who's talking... I don't hate sky, I'm just stating facts which you are obviously failing to see. A lot of people have expressed more hate for sky more than me so why don't you get your facts right. Boonen is faster than EBh. yes EBH was catching him but that was because Boonen hit the wind earlier and other riders could use him to shelter behind for a bit.

Yeah we learnt that EBH is faster than Boonen but boonen won two individual stage compared to EBH's 0

 

[pedaling squares]

Thanks for the link again Dim. The end was a bit of a mess but what great instincts by Chicci. As for who's faster than who, well we could argue that all day if we were that bored. I'll agree with acf94 in that the guy who hits the line first is the fastest no matter how quickly someone else is closing.