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

[theyoungest]

Anyway gesink still looking pretty underdone. He won't be with best climbers at the tour IMO. Will probably keep Evans and wiggo company

I don't know, maybe he finally got his peak right. Look at the difference between this and the first stage. The rest of them stayed at about the same level (except for Costa )

 

[Trofinios]

Hats off to Fränk! He attacked on Verbier and today again. Making it exciting for us fans.

 

[Parrulo]

Is it fanboy to hope that Rui had a bad day and he'll get his Verbier legs tomorrow?

yup, i think so

 

[Broth3r]

Is it fanboy to hope that Rui had a bad day and he'll get his Verbier legs tomorrow?

Considering he pulled an awesome week and just lost under a minute in one day?

Certainly not.

 

[cineteq]

They do. Today was an obvious example.

Weak argument yet again.

 

[EderShamir]

Is it fanboy to hope that Rui had a bad day and he'll get his Verbier legs tomorrow?

That's exactly what I was thinking... Let's just hope that's the case. It would awesome to have a lusophone winner for a change.

 

[roundabout]

Why? It gives an advantage to explosive riders and makes sure attacking riders actually get a bonus for their riding style. Just like time trial climbers have an advantage in the TT.

How many attacking riders got a bonus today?

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

I don't know, maybe he finally got his peak right. Look at the difference between this and the first stage. The rest of them stayed at about the same level (except for Costa )

Maybe (I'm a natural pessimist), I really think it is gonna be hard to keep it all together after the lead up he has had this year. Hopefully he can prove me wrong anyway.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Bit of a dark horse. I'd love bottle to win and bring this place into melt down
Would be better then a wiggo win anyway

For him to win, every mountain stage will last 10 hours, while they all ride around in big circles.
The only thing potentially more boring than the expected duel, is for Limphanger to suck his way to a Paris yellow.

 

[Arnout]

How many attacking riders got a bonus today?

Albasini, Nieve and Leipheimer.

Sure, they probably didn't attack themselves, but they went with an attacking move in the mountains. That's more than we can say from the en groupe riding in the Dauphine.

 

[Parrulo]

Considering he pulled an awesome week and just lost under a minute in one day?

Certainly not.

he only has a 14 seconds lead tho.

movistar needs to let a big strong break go to get the time bonus and pray costa is stronger then today

 

[Lexman]

all respect to Frank today, did almost exclusively the job behind Albasini and then Nieve and Leip grabbed the bonus seconds , not classy that

Gesink disappointing today... if he can't follow Schleck and Leip today what will that give in 3 weeks

 

[cineteq]

Albasini, Nieve and Leipheimer.

Sure, they probably didn't attack themselves, but they went with an attacking move in the mountains. That's more than we can say from the en groupe riding in the Dauphine.

You forgot Gesink!

 

[Unkown]

Who has got a profile of the final climb tomorrow, can't seem to find one???

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I don't know, maybe he finally got his peak right. Look at the difference between this and the first stage. The rest of them stayed at about the same level (except for Costa )

Exactly. If you look what he conceded to F.Schleck on stage 1 and now the difference is huge.
Besides this climb clearly didn't suit him much. 4km is a bit short and certainly when coming straight out of downhill... I think he did pretty well considering.

Too bad tomorrow there's no 15km col-finish. But the weak Sörenberg after

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

lolwut? Since when was Gesink ever better than Frank in short steep explosive hills like this?! How did he disappoint?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

all respect to Frank today, did almost exclusively the job behind Albasini and then Nieve and Leip grabbed the bonus seconds , not classy that

Gesink disappointing today... if he can't follow Schleck and Leip today what will that give in 3 weeks

think back of Verbier and the improvement he made already. Add 2 more weeks of form...

 

[theyoungest]

he only has a 14 seconds lead tho.

movistar needs to let a big strong break go to get the time bonus and pray costa is stronger then today

Forget it, Costa will crack. He was lucky that this final was basically two shorter climbs, on the Glaubenberg tomorrow he'll lose much more time to Schleck, Leipheimer et al.

 

[roundabout]

Albasini, Nieve and Leipheimer.

Sure, they probably didn't attack themselves, but they went with an attacking move in the mountains. That's more than we can say from the en groupe riding in the Dauphine.

Woopie, I guess. Long live the bonuses, you have totally convinced me.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Also. Parrulo, did you see Gesink's sprint for 5th place?

Do you honoustly think Costa could sprint like that?

 

[Trofinios]

Btw, Fuglsang did ok today. Setting the pace for Fränk in the beginning of the final climb, and then not losing so much. Klöden on the other hand...

 

[phanatic]

Am I imagining it, or has Frank been improving since 2010 while Andy has been getting worse?

 

[Parrulo]

Also. Parrulo, did you see Gesink's sprint for 5th place?

Do you honoustly think Costa could sprint like that?

i still think costa is faster then gesink on a sprint if that's what you are asking. but god forbid some1 thinking another rider is better then gesink at anything.

 

[trevim]

Also. Parrulo, did you see Gesink's sprint for 5th place?

Do you honoustly think Costa could sprint like that?

Well Rui wouldn't outsprint Gesink after being dropped a couple of times and being completely cooked. Parrulo's theory wasn't made under those assumptions I suppose.

 

[US Patent Exploding Cyclist]

Albasini, Nieve and Leipheimer.

Sure, they probably didn't attack themselves, but they went with an attacking move in the mountains. That's more than we can say from the en groupe riding in the Dauphine.

The bold part says it all. They didn't attack themselves, so they were not attacking riders.

The time bonuses being part of the race may have lead to Frank's attack, but you can't say that time bonuses reward attacking riders, they reward riders who can hang on and have a good kick to the line, today is a great example of that.

Time bonuses are fine, but there are many instances in which they reward wheel suckers, which is lame.