TDU race thread

[auscyclefan94]

How long ? 17th January
Oh man, thats more than a month. That'll be another hard month. I hate it.

15th is the Down Under Classic and the Aus nationals are always entertaining. Don't have to wait too long for some good cycling.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

15th is the Down Under Classic and the Aus nationals are always entertaining. Don't have to wait too long for some good cycling.

24th Jan, I'm expecting. San Luís usually starts with a flat stage, so the 24th should be Mirador del Potrero.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

15th is the Down Under Classic and the Aus nationals are always entertaining. Don't have to wait too long for some good cycling.

I count 2 months

 

[auscyclefan94]

RadioShack Nissan Trek team for the 2012 Tour Down Under: Daniele Bennati (ITA), Linus Gerdemann (GER), Ben Hermans (BEL), Tiago Machado (POR), Hayden Roulston (NZL) Jesse Sergent (NZL), Jens Voigt (GER).


Bennati could do well in this and if Machado turns up with some decent frm he may actually win the Wilunga stage.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Wilunga will be won by fitness and form rather then ability I suspect.

it is a shame this race doesn't have a prolouge or something small.

 

[Ferminal]

Wilunga will be won by fitness and form rather then ability I suspect.

it is a shame this race doesn't have a prolouge or something small.

Yeh, ditch the stupid pre-race crit, start the race on Monday with a quick twilight prologue in Adelaide.

I'd have my money on Hermans as their best at Wilunga.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Lampre: Alessandro Petacchi (ITA), Grega Bole (SLO), Danilo Hondo (GER), Davide Cimolai (ITA), Massimo Graziato (ITA), Davide Viganò (ITA) and Matthew Lloyd (AUS).

ALE JET is coming to Down under! Yippee!

 

[hughmoore]

Yeh, ditch the stupid pre-race crit, start the race on Monday with a quick twilight prologue in Adelaide.

I'd have my money on Hermans as their best at Wilunga.

They cant, think its UCI Rules.



Hugh

 

[Tuarts]

Can't what, have a crit or have a prologue?

 

[craig1985]

I think it's the crit. Is Cav going to come back again?

 

[greenedge]

No for Cav coming to the TDU. EBH and Sutton are however. It's a pity there is no Ben Swift as well for Sky.

Glad to hear that Pettachi is coming along with Lloyd. I would love to see Bole do a good attack like in Plouay and Lloyd go up Wilunga and win.

 

[swuzzlebubble]

Can't what, have a crit or have a prologue?

A crit can only be the last race. Then there is the total number of days/stages they can race.

 

[craig1985]

It's not really a proper crit though.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

ditch one of the stages then and have a prolouge.

 

[craig1985]

Team Astana for the 2012 Tour Down Under: Dmitriy Muravyev (KAZ), Borut Bozic (SLO), Jacopo Guarnieri (ITA), Francesco Masciarelli (ITA), Assan Bazayev (KAZ), Valentin Iglinskiy (KAZ), Dmitriy Gruzdev (KAZ).

Liquigas-Cannondale: Stefano Agostini (ITA), Alan Marangoni (ITA), Federico Canuti (ITA), Kristijan Koren (SLO), Daniele Ratto (ITA), Mauro Da Dalto (ITA), Fabio Sabatini (ITA).

http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/news/33949/liquigas-and-astana-confirm-tour-down-under-starters

 

[Ferminal]

Agostini FTW!

 

[greenedge]

It's a pity that Liquigas are not sending a great team. I would not consider any of them to really be able to win a stage. Couldn't they have at least sent down Viviani/ Oss, to compete.

Bozic and Jacopo might make a good combo. Inglinksy can also help lead them out. Masciarelli if on good form could do well up Wilunga.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Why should they? TDU is only a way to get easy WT points and get some riding in the legs. This is not a big race, why should Liquigas send any of thier better riders.

ANyway the team is not bad anyway.. maybe ratto does something.

 

[greenedge]

To get WT points. Though i suppose if Basso wins the Giro they shall get enough anyways. They are also doing San Luis which might explain their team not being able to win anything.

The team is ok if you consider most of them do good domestique work but i would not say they would be able to break the tether of the peleton on a sprinters stage and no way will any of them win up Wilunga.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Liquigas will have no problem acumlating WT points through out the season, TDU in no way is make or break

 

[Libertine Seguros]

To get WT points. Though i suppose if Basso wins the Giro they shall get enough anyways. They are also doing San Luis which might explain their team not being able to win anything.

The team is ok if you consider most of them do good domestique work but i would not say they would be able to break the tether of the peleton on a sprinters stage and no way will any of them win up Wilunga.

The problem is the assumption that Liquigas care about the TDU.

For most of the European teams, it is a race like Beijing, Vattenfall, Poland this year, Eneco, Catalunya. Races to send the young guns to for experience. There are enough races in their national calendars and focal points on their season to gain the points. Liquigas' big guns don't ever go to the TDU. They do however sometimes do the Tour de San Luís. For them, these youngsters getting kilometres in a pro race under their belt is more important than sending their stars out to gain some points that they probably won't need, since they don't want to burn their stars out by the time they get to the important races.

 

[craig1985]

Do Liquigas have a demographic in Argentina or is it just purely a warm-up race for them? Obviously for Movistar it is for them, and AG2R like to race all over the world and pick up the points in the process (if you look at some of their transfers for 2012).

 

[auscyclefan94]

Lotto Belisol for the 2012 Santos Tour Down Under:

André Greipel (GER), Adam Hansen (AUS), Greg Henderson (NZL), Olivier Kaisen (BEL), Vicente Reynes (ESP), Jürgen Roelandts (BEL) and Marcel Sieberg (GER).

They will have a great leadout train with Henderson, Reynes, Roelandts and Sieberg leading out Greipel.

 

[swuzzlebubble]

Liquigas will have no problem acumlating WT points through out the season, TDU in no way is make or break

And they would not be too concerned about rankings (team car order) for the spring.

 

[El Pistolero]

And they would not be too concerned about rankings (team car order) for the spring.

They have no one for the classics, so why would they care?

They'll earn a decent amount of points at T-A and P-N.