On a side note, its the first time i've ever seen an entire stage from start to finish live (apart from TTTs)
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Afrank said:I know your talking about the parcours, but just got to say, no one can call the finale of today's stage tame. Pretty epic final for a sprint stage.
Well, I hope we get to see some real racing stages from start to finish then, because start to finish on a piece of crap stage like that is just overkill and a real test of the commentators' ability to waffle about the rest of the race.Viking said:I rather enjoyed this stage. I admit it had the normal, predictable, dull runup to the finale that a "sprinter's stage" generally has, but I loved the way the teams raced the last few kms. Just beautiful, really. It was just a shame Viviani couldn't come through with the win after Cannondale blasted everyone and disrupted the typical bunch sprint. Ah well. Cav' is effing dynamite even without an old Saeco-style train.
It wasn't a bad first stage at all. I really don't like the 'traditional' prologue - a chrono, which is 1) boring because there's nothing tactical that makes cycling interesting; and 2) the course is generally too short to have any significant impact on GC (barring a crash or mechanical).
Ideally, I'd like to see a grand tour start with an Amstel Gold kind of stage. Add in bonus time for the top 3 and you've got a stage that can be exciting on it's own and have real GC implications. Then again, the GC favorites would probably all sandbag and wait for that one big mountain stage just before the last rest day. That's just what you get in this type of race.
Winterfold said:Agreed.
I find this forum incredible sometimes - if you didn't like today's stage you should give up watching - you certainly shouldn't set yourself up as an arbiter of the merit, or otherwise, of stages.
That was a fantastic stage to watch.