Santos Tour Down Under Stage 2 Mt. Barker to Rostrevor 116.5km

[El Pistolero]

Wow, Sky even turned GT into a winner.

 

[Cavendash]

Thomas will win the TDF one day.

 

[hughmoore]

I was half expecting to see Durianrider leading on the climb, LOL.

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=12032&page=91

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blG0yF6BjTU

Check his Youtube video riding with Movistar riders up Corkscrew. Impressive! This guy is a strong rider. But apparently he eats about 30+ bananas a day, if you can believe it, with his weird vegetarian diet. Just as well he rides a lot, otherwise he'll be turning into the Michelin man real fast. Be swinging from the trees next, if you ask me. I see he says his HCT is 48, a bit high. Probably doping, ha, ha!

Anyone know what sort of time Thomas et al did up Corkscrew, as Durianrider posts his times on Strava?

I was half expecting to see Durianrider leading on the climb, with a banana sticking out of his a-hole.


Hugh

 

[Pricey_sky]

Thomas will win the TDF one day.

P+P were saying that a few times when he attacked up the final climb. I dont think he is quite that good.

 

[Flux Capacity]

Is it just me, or was the camera-work/producing lacking a little in the last few hundred metres? We obviously saw Thomas cross the line, but that was about it; we barely saw who came 3rd and 4th, and i didn't see the rest of the bunch come in.

Or did I look away again at the wrong moment?

Yeah, yeah, we get live coverage of the TDU on a digital channel, and I've got the cheek to complain about it

 

[Tigerion]

Anyone know if Gerrans was in the crash?

Greenedge twitter has just confirmed it was an off day and they are going to be hunting stage wins. So I'm guessing not

Although with 2 in the top 10 this could be good start of season points for the carrots

 

[seaby71]

Does anyone know how far back Gerrans finished?

 

[Tigerion]

Is it just me, or was the camera-work/producing lacking a little in the last few hundred metres? We obviously saw Thomas cross the line, but that was about it; we barely saw who came 3rd and 4th, and i didn't see the rest of the bunch come in.

Or did I look away again at the wrong moment?

Yeah, yeah, we get live coverage of the TDU on a digital channel, and I've got the cheek to complain about it

I think GT almost put the camera bike into the barriers when he launched his attack so that might have been why they didn't have the shots further back

 

[Flux Capacity]

^ Ha! You might be right

 

[Ferminal]

1 Geraint THOMAS GBR SKY 27 2:44:18
2 Javier MORENO BAZAN ESP MOV 29 +1
3 Ben HERMANS BEL RLT 27 +1
4 Tom Jelte SLAGTER NED BLA 24 +4
5 Tim WELLENS BEL LTB 22 +4
6 Daniele PIETROPOLLI ITA LAM 33 +4
7 Jack BAUER NZL GRS 28 +4
8 Wilco KELDERMAN NED BLA 22 +4
9 Jon IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI ESP EUS 24 +4
10 George BENNETT NZL RLT 23 +4
11 Adam HANSEN AUS LTB 32 +4
12 Kenny ELISSONDE FRA FDJ 22 +4
13 Tiago MACHADO POR RLT 28 +4
14 Jussi VEIKKANEN FIN FDJ 32 +4
15 Gorka IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI ESP EUS 26 +4
16 Jose Joaquin ROJAS GIL ESP MOV 28 +21
17 Serge PAUWELS BEL OPQ 30 +21
18 Mikael CHEREL FRA ALM 27 +21
19 Andrey KASHECHKIN KAZ AST 33 +21
20 Rafael VALLS FERRI ESP VCD 26 +21
21 Chris Anker SÖRENSEN DEN TST 29 +21
22 Lachlan David MORTON AUS GRS 21 +21
23 Ivan SANTAROMITA ITA BMC 29 +24
24 Christopher SUTTON AUS SKY 29 +40
25 Thierry HUPOND FRA ARG 29 +40
26 Manuele BOARO ITA TST 26 +40

 

[Afrank]

Does anyone know how far back Gerrans finished?

Gerrans is currently 2:43 back in GC (2:36 back on today's stage). So his chances of GC are pretty much over.

Greenedge really should have brought Matthews to the race, I have a feeling there not going to do a whole lot in their home race. Can't see Goss beating Greipel unless he crashes. And after today I'm not too sure Gerrans will be able to contend on Willunga.

 

[Ferminal]

Lucky they have Durbridge here to sit on the front of the bunch for no reason.

 

[PCutter]

Agree, I can't believe they left Matthews at home when he's in good form and finished second at the Nationals

 

[*G*K*S*]

Agree, I can't believe they left Matthews at home when he's in good form and finished second at the Nationals

Yeah....scratching my head a bit. Who's calling the shots for them?

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Oh yeah, that's some pretty nice news to wake up to. I have a pretty big bet on Thomas to win the whole thing overall @ odds 40.

 

[will10]

Gilbert seems to have crashed at least.

I guess today confirms that whenever Sky says that a rider is in good form that means said rider will win the race without even breaking a sweat, even if said rider has never won a road race before - just like Porte in Algarve last year or G here. Definitely should've put all my money on G @ 50/1 when it was said he was going to be the GC leader, but somehow I kind of didn't believe that yet another Brit would turn into a super climber/puncheur at 26.

Let's not get carried away, it's January.

 

[theyoungest]

Let's not get carried away, it's January.

Yeah, these early season races are more about form than anything else. And as pointed out by more people, Geraint Thomas could climb before today. And given his build, it's not that strange really.

 

[JRanton]

Let's not get carried away, it's January.

We said that after Porte won on Malhao last year.

Sky is without Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff) this season and Thomas could possibly fill the vital role the Australian played as road captain in mountain stages of the Tour.

"I definitely want to be there in front for a long time climbing with them," Thomas said.

"I'd love to be there going into the last climb of the day and maybe be the first guy going up that climb with them - kind of like what Mick was doing last year.

"I just want to keep improving and hopefully move forward from where I was in 2011. It would be purely riding for the team again but in the lead-up to it I definitely want to be working in the hills and working on my threshold and just try and climb better and keep moving forward there and see where that takes me."

We can't say we haven't been warned.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...homas-huge-season-ahead-back-on-the-road.html

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Does anyone know how far back Gerrans finished?

edit: Redundant answer

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Nice little kicker at the end.
Any recap video out there?

 

[maltiv]

We said that after Porte won on Malhao last year.



We can't say we haven't been warned.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...homas-huge-season-ahead-back-on-the-road.html

Great, so we'll see G climbing with the 4-5 best climbers in the world at the TDF.

Fascinating how a guy who has never done anything like that can suddenly be so confident that he can climb with the best.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Great, so we'll see G climbing with the 4-5 best climbers in the world at the TDF.

Fascinating how a guy who has never done anything like that can suddenly be so confident that he can climb with the best.

There's another forum if you want to make accusations. If you actually read the link rather than wallow in Norwegian bile, you'd note he simply states a desire and references the level he has been at before, rather than making grandiose claims.

 

[jens_attacks]

Great, so we'll see G climbing with the 4-5 best climbers in the world at the TDF.

Fascinating how a guy who has never done anything like that can suddenly be so confident that he can climb with the best.

told you to put all your money on g . seen the pics before the tdu, he looks fit as hell,skinny as ever. i'm happy for him and can't wait to download this from cyclingtorrents.


and yes it seems kash will deliver the goods this year

1 Geraint THOMAS GBR SKY 27 2:44:18
2 Javier MORENO BAZAN ESP MOV 29 +1
3 Ben HERMANS BEL RLT 27 +1
4 Tom Jelte SLAGTER NED BLA 24 +4
5 Tim WELLENS BEL LTB 22 +4
6 Daniele PIETROPOLLI ITA LAM 33 +4
7 Jack BAUER NZL GRS 28 +4
8 Wilco KELDERMAN NED BLA 22 +4
9 Jon IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI ESP EUS 24 +4
10 George BENNETT NZL RLT 23 +4
11 Adam HANSEN AUS LTB 32 +4
12 Kenny ELISSONDE FRA FDJ 22 +4
13 Tiago MACHADO POR RLT 28 +4
14 Jussi VEIKKANEN FIN FDJ 32 +4
15 Gorka IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI ESP EUS 26 +4
16 Jose Joaquin ROJAS GIL ESP MOV 28 +21
17 Serge PAUWELS BEL OPQ 30 +21
18 Mikael CHEREL FRA ALM 27 +21
19 Andrey KASHECHKIN KAZ AST 33 +21
20 Rafael VALLS FERRI ESP VCD 26 +21

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Great, so we'll see G climbing with the 4-5 best climbers in the world at the TDF.

Fascinating how a guy who has never done anything like that can suddenly be so confident that he can climb with the best.

If you think he was competing with the best climbers cycling has to offer then I am afraid your cycling knowledge is rather poor!

 

[theyoungest]

There's another forum if you want to make accusations. If you actually read the link rather than wallow in Norwegian bile, you'd note he simply states a desire and references the level he has been at before, rather than making grandiose claims.

"I could have been top-20 if I didn't pull the sprints for Edvald" is quite a grandiose claim. Anything lower than 20th in the Tour is pretty much a cr.p shoot anyway.

But maltiv, if you just look at their physique, who of EBH and Geraint would you guess to be the better climber?