united123 said:
definitely. would have been easy to make it the other way round Glaubenberg-Glaubenbielen with short descent to Sörenberg or leave the direction of the loop but put the finish line up to the Glaubenbielen. What a pity.
- May 28, 2012
- 2,779
- 0
- 0
Dekker_Tifosi said:
Well, as the ToC winner, he's the only top favourite for every race he'll start in this year. Of course everyone expected him to win by 5 minutes
- Feb 20, 2010
- 32,576
- 14,432
- 28,180
Leonardus said:
Don't think there was too much wrong with it. They just needed to be able to put the finish at the top of the climb rather than the 2-3km flattish afterward, OR continue out of the town for the 4km or so of climbing afterward. Either would have been fine, because bringing the finish forward would have meant an uphill finish plus justifying the earlier attacks more, and putting the extended finish on would have challenged Costa much more. As it was, Valverde basically took him through all the climbs, there was just the 700m at 8% or so left for him to suffer through - and Leipheimer led the bunch over that, with what I think was meant to be a pace to shred guys, because it wasn't a pure attack. After that, Costa just had 3km of flat to deal with, and he's more than capable of that.
- May 5, 2011
- 7,614
- 281
- 17,880
ggrrrrr, I am never home when something awesome happens..... So, what happend today. Iam to lazy to read page up and down in this thread for answers
- Feb 18, 2011
- 80
- 0
- 0
Such an aggressive fanboy, read again the other topic then.Dekker_Tifosi said:
I like Gesink, but i'm not a fanboy. When i saw him struggling on Verbier i knew that he probably wouldn't win this race, neither be a force in the last two stages. And i was right, he was struggling again, against Frank, Levi and Nieve.theyoungest said:Come on, admit it, you can't stand Gesink
- Mar 13, 2009
- 29,405
- 3,462
- 28,180
What other topic? There is no topic where anybody said Gesink was going to crush
You're simply lying. You are a liar. Maybe you understand that?
You're simply lying. You are a liar.
Maybe you understand that?
- Feb 20, 2010
- 32,576
- 14,432
- 28,180
Vino attacks everyone said:ggrrrrr, I am never home when something awesome happens..... So, what happend today. Iam to lazy to read page up and down in this thread for answers
The break went. They were almost forgotten about.
The péloton got shredded by the pace, mostly of Radioshack, on Glaubenberg. Eventually it was down to 10-15, when Nieve, then more decisively Fränk Schleck, attacked. Danielson caught him, then Fränk kicked on again, leaving us with Schleck, then Danielson, then a quintet of Costa, Valverde, Gesink, Nieve and Leipheimer. Leipheimer spent the whole time at the back, Gesink for reasons unknown on the front. Valverde and Gesink shared pacing duties for the most part. At its peak Fränk's advantage was a minute.
On the descent Fränk held firm to most of his lead at first, while Costa's group continued on their way. Apart from Nieve complaining at Leipheimer, who spent the whole descent in last place of the group, for not doing any work, nothing of great note happened. Eventually Nico Roche, and then a big group with Kreuziger, Kruijswijk and others, rode back to the quintet, who then easily gobbled up time until Fränk was forced to abort and sit up.
Chris Anker Sørensen attacked from the group on the false flat, then a group with Matthias Fränk, Robert Kiserlovski and most importantly Steven Kruijswijk got away. Kiserlovski refused to work as Tanel Kangert was up the road, while Kruijswijk was only 1'01 down on GC so Movistar had to work, whereas the Rabo guys who had been sharing the workload would stop. Alejandro Valverde rode like a champion on the front to help his teammate; the gap got to a maximum of 30 seconds but he on his own held the three of the four that were working. Eventually the final steep section 3km out finished him off, but before Costa could expend too much energy on the front Levi attempted what I think was supposed to be an attack. It basically consisted of pacing Costa up the climb whilst ensuring the pace was too high for anyone else to get away.
Of the break, Roy feigned bonking before making a break for it, but Kangert could go with him, Montaguti couldn't. Kangert won the 2-up sprint.
Costa's group finished 2 seconds shy of the Kruijswijk group.
Hot Hard Day
52 racers gave up - I'd guess before the summit of Glaubenbielen, because they for sure didn't come up Galubenberg (where I was, fried from climbing it from Luzern the 'normal route through Finsterwald).
A TT on the last day would keep the peleton big, but all in all it was a day that sorted out the flys from the buffalos.
The Break (Wetterhorn Massiv in background)
Doomed Loser
Chasers looking at each other
My Bike
52 racers gave up - I'd guess before the summit of Glaubenbielen, because they for sure didn't come up Galubenberg (where I was, fried from climbing it from Luzern the 'normal route through Finsterwald).
A TT on the last day would keep the peleton big, but all in all it was a day that sorted out the flys from the buffalos.
The Break (Wetterhorn Massiv in background)
Doomed Loser
Chasers looking at each other
My Bike
- Mar 10, 2009
- 4,707
- 47
- 15,530
Dekker_Tifosi said:What other topic? There is no topic where anybody said Gesink was going to crush
You're simply lying. You are a liar.
Hey, don't mess with Anton fanboys. I'm warning only once
To cheer you up, I suddenly think Gesink will do very well in the Tour. If it is going to unfold as we think it is, he can do a decent job in the TTs, hang on in the mountains, occasionally grabbing a few seconds in the final kms and finish in the top-5, possibly podium.
@american psycho, thanks for the photos, awesome that you were there. I admit being there live isn't gonna give you first class coverage of the race, but the atmosphere is amazing in my opinion.
- Jun 17, 2010
- 5,139
- 237
- 17,880
DominicDecoco said:
The Dauphine parcours sucked big time. ASO had too many long downhill finishes after mountain summits for my liking. But I liked the racing better, mostly because we got more of a glimpse of more of the main contenders for the Tour.
- Mar 20, 2009
- 1,273
- 2
- 10,485
Agreed but to a point. Franck needed a win and he did not get it, so that is something like a fail even though he comes out second. Radioshark continues to display bad tactics. In some way, they did the same on the last stage of TOC with Horner and in some other races. Considering they have big bucks and a high caliber of riders, they continue to show poor results , in the endcineteq said:
- Aug 5, 2009
- 15,694
- 7,939
- 28,180
on3m@n@rmy said:
The last two Tour Switzerland editions have been much better than the Dauphine editions even though the Tour contenders were more apparent at the French race.
- Jun 22, 2009
- 10,644
- 2
- 0
His TOC form whilst good was not that great (sorry but taking a minute from a 21 year neo-pro isn't top level GT climbing), Levi and TD are in better form now then they were then.
He needs to be much better then he was there to take time from the favorites.
He needs to be much better then he was there to take time from the favorites.
- Mar 10, 2009
- 9,245
- 23
- 17,530
united123 said:
It was Valverde and Rabobank setting tempo for most of the final 1/4 of the stage and Valverde virtually for the entire final climb. Setting such a tempo that no one of significance came around. He had the group strung out in single file until he ran out of gas with what around 2 km's to go. Valverde contributed to Costa's win. Costa rode a great race on his own also, showing great perseverence. Additionally when Costa was struggling Saturday it was Valverde that was pulling him along. I'd say Valverde alone did more than the RSNT mountain domestiques combined, especially yesterday considering they didn't have to do any work the entire time that Frank was on the attack. Frank's attack essentially did nothing more than result in his domestiques getting dropped.
- Feb 16, 2010
- 15,172
- 5,763
- 28,180
- Mar 20, 2009
- 1,273
- 2
- 10,485
Funny to see Franck referring to Contador.. As if he equates dropping out of the giro with winning it and then falling several times in the early part of the TDF and loosing time due to falls as being the same as not performing well .. what a farce.TourOfSardinia said:
- Aug 5, 2009
- 15,694
- 7,939
- 28,180
Angliru said:
Be very interesting to see how Valverde handles the Tour. He rode well in TDS as did Costa. Frank tried a few things and did pretty well and Leipheimer and Gesink and Kruiswijk went well. I thought Rabobank had a good race. Some good performances pre Tour.
TRENDING THREADS
-
Tour de France Tour de France 2025 Stage 12: Auch - Hautacam (180.6k)- Started by Krzysztof_O
- Replies: 1K
-
Tour de France Tour de France 2025 Stage 10: Ennezat – Le Mont-Dore (165.3k)- Started by Tricycle Rider
- Replies: 929
-
Tour de France Tour de France 2025 Stage 13: Loudenvielle – Peyragudes (10.9k, ITT)
- Started by Tricycle Rider
- Replies: 106
-
-
Tour de France Stage 6: Bayeux – Vire-Normandie (201.5k)- Started by YavorD
- Replies: 779
-
Tour de France Tour de France 2025, Stage 5: Caen – Caen (33.0k, ITT)
- Started by Tricycle Rider
- Replies: 723
-
Tour de France Tour de France 2025 Stage 7: Saint-Malo – Mûr-de-Bretagne (197.0k)
- Started by Tricycle Rider
- Replies: 538
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram