Saturday, june 16th - Tour de Suisse, stage 8: Bischofszell - Arosa 148km

[Parrulo]

Stage profile:

GC after stage 7:
1 Rui Alberto Faria Da Costa (Por) Movistar Team 26:10:55
2 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana 0:00:50
3 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:00:55
4 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:04
5 Frank Schleck (Lux) RadioShack-Nissan
6 Thomas Danielson (USA) Garmin-Barracuda 0:01:12
7 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Omega Pharma - QuickStep 0:01:15
8 Vladimir Gusev (Rus) Katusha Team 0:01:17
9 Thomas Löfkvist (Swe) Sky Procycling 0:01:22
10 Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:01:27

First of 2 opportunities to try and drop Costa on the "big" mountains. will any1 succeed or will the young Portuguese on super form manage to keep his lead?

 

[RHRH19861986]

Arosa... Wasn´t it the last time they arrived here when Horner got his first big win back in Europe?
Should´ve been 2005, him riding for Saunier Duval.
A very young Nibali for Fassa Bortolo did well this day, as far as I remember... Good memories.

 

[Modemfearer]

Looks like a monster of a mountain, but not sure what the gradients are for the last km?

 

[RHRH19861986]

Looks like a monster of a mountain, but not sure what the gradients are for the last km?

Don´t know exactly, but I think Arosa is not extremely hard, only "very hard", maybe Cat. 1-2 in the Tour de France. Can´t remember it being really very, very steep, not even in the end, but maybe I´m wrong.

 

[Dedelou]

Looks like a monster of a mountain, but not sure what the gradients are for the last km?

the climb starts a little below the 600 meter level and finishes under 1800 meters, so we are not speaking huge altitudes . with a small dowhill before the final part of the climb. That makes it quite short of a true "HC" rating , IMO compare that to the climbing they will be doing at "La route de sud " if you want Monster

 

[The Barb]

I'm a little surprised Frank Schleck is favourite - prefer Gesink and Valverde myself.

 

[manafana]

mmm, valverde not for him im afraid, rui costa has shown himself the stronger of the two this week, rui costa in top 3 anyway and pushing for stage win, gesink will probably hang on with the group and see how he feels remember he suffered alot last sunday.

think those that did the giro might be feeling bit more so expect more solid performances from those building to the tour. Velits needs a good showing to justify going for gc in france.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Gesink was not happy after the time trial. He said he might have won it if not for some things that pulled him out of concentration.

1) His chain skipped at the start of the Pfannenstiel, it took a while before it corrected itself
2) He lost his wattage meter, which is like something holy for him. He now has no idea how many watts he pushed which annoys him
3) Near the end he needed sugars, he said he forgot to take an energy gel after the warm-up and now feels stupid. He feels he should've won the ITT on a good day.

 

[el_angliru]

From the stage 7 thread:

Last 33km of tomorrows stage

The last uphill bit is 3.2km at 9.8% with maximum of 20% according to track4bikers

 

[jens_attacks]

ok how many of this do you use d_t when you talk about gesink?it must be an insane number

yep,this is for gesink i think he will drop rui costa but not by much
tomorrow it will really be the day of truth for the portuguese if frank and gesink choose to go ballistic from far out.today it should be no problem

 

[Trofinios]

Think Fränk will be dangerous today. Last 3k climb is quiet steep which should suit skinny Fränk. And lets not forget, he was strong on Verbier even if Costa finally caught him.

I see no worries for Costa today.

 

[DominicDecoco]

Break to win the stage. Favorites to win by seconds between eachother. I expect to see Rui losing nothing more than a couple of seconds.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Break to win the stage. Favorites to win by seconds between eachother. I expect to see Rui losing nothing more than a couple of seconds.

If Rui loses time at all that is

 

[theyoungest]

Break to win the stage. Favorites to win by seconds between eachother. I expect to see Rui losing nothing more than a couple of seconds.

I think Rabobank and the Shacks will chase down the break. Schleck and Gesink need every second they can get.

 

[Trofinios]

I wonder if Sagan will try it today. Last climb is 3.2k at 9.8%. Probably too long but maybe not impossible for Sagan. In Tirreno-Adriatico we saw some pretty strong climbing by Sagan.

 

[User Guide]

Gesink was not happy after the time trial. He said he might have won it if not for some things that pulled him out of concentration.

1) His chain skipped at the start of the Pfannenstiel, it took a while before it corrected itself
2) He lost his wattage meter, which is like something holy for him. He now has no idea how many watts he pushed which annoys him
3) Near the end he needed sugars, he said he forgot to take an energy gel after the warm-up and now feels stupid. He feels he should've won the ITT on a good day.

That is so Gesink, so Rabo

 

[theyoungest]

That is so Gesink, so Rabo

It's called perfectionism.

 

[SafeBet]

It's called excuses.

He should say: somebody was stronger than me today.


So naive.

 

[Lance Armstrong]

I wonder if Sagan will try it today. Last climb is 3.2k at 9.8%. Probably too long but maybe not impossible for Sagan. In Tirreno-Adriatico we saw some pretty strong climbing by Sagan.

Forget it. It's proper climb, too long for punchers.

 

[theyoungest]

It's called excuses.

He should say: somebody was stronger than me today.


So naive.

Look up the meaning of the word "naive".

 

[Der Effe]

It's called excuses.

He should say: somebody was stronger than me today.


So naive.

There's a huge difference between saying you might have won and saying you would have won. It's his right to be unhappy about it, isn't it? I do agree though that Rabobank usually is the #1 in looking for excuses.

 

[Trofinios]

Forget it. It's proper climb, too long for punchers.

Noticed that the cat 2. is fairly steep and long, Sagan will most certainly be dropped here alreday. If it was just the final 3.2k climb I wouldn't totally rule out Sagan.

 

[The Barb]

I wonder if Sagan will try it today. Last climb is 3.2k at 9.8%. Probably too long but maybe not impossible for Sagan. In Tirreno-Adriatico we saw some pretty strong climbing by Sagan.

I find Sagan as attractive as the next guy but even i think this is beyond him.

 

[Spine Concept]

It's called excuses.

He should say: somebody was stronger than me today.


So naive.

He did not say he would have won, but he could have, given the obstructions en route. It's not a far-fetched notion unless he finished outside the top 10. Do not let your gripes with Rabobank confuse you with Gesink, he's the last person to complain or look for excuses. More excuses are created for him on this forum than actually come from himself. I was surprised to even read that interview, so it shows you how much he really believed in the win and was disappointed with the hurdles along the way. Finally, I don't think naive is the word you're looking for here.

 

[LaFlorecita]

it's called excuses.

He should say: Somebody was stronger than me today.


So naive.

+1

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