The 2019 UAE Tour (24/02 - 02/03)

[Lequack]

It's a shame that the only teams going in the break are the wildcard non-WT teams. And even these teams are sort of forced to do it under thread of not appearing next time. Kind of boring.

 

[sir fly]

Re: Re:

Planet, for frick's sake! You can't get in the breakaway in every (non (T)TT) stage!
Obviously, he... can...

The most combative rider on the Planet!

Spinning Planet...

 

[Lequack]

Re:

Wtf Kristoff's chainstay blew up? That's some weird advertisement for Colnago there!

I think it was a seat stay by the look of it.

 

[Lequack]

Tomorrow's climb is almost all the same gradient of 5.4%

 

[Red Rick]

Nibali working in the sprint train

 

[Salvarani]

Sarreau crashed

 

[Pricey_sky]

Great sprint, looks like Viviani gets it. Kittel, Gaviria and Bennett all there.

 

[sir fly]

Excellent sprinting!
Congrats to Viviani.

 

[Poursuivant]

Viviani a dark horse for MSR?

 

[Pricey_sky]

Watching the replay, that was a superb sprint from Viviani.

 

[DNP-Old]

So what exactly were Lotto Soudal thinking?

 

[Laplaz]

What a great sprint! Superb win by Viviani!

 

[Salvarani]

Re:

So what exactly were Lotto Soudal thinking?

They went up way too early and got lost. Cant really blame Ewan for that either. He trusted his team mates.

 

[Kwibus]

Nice close honest sprint. Gaviria bit too early and Viviani with a great accelaration coming out of the slipstream.

 

[DNP-Old]

Re: Re:

So what exactly were Lotto Soudal thinking?

They went up way too early and got lost. Cant really blame Ewan for that either. He trusted his team mates.

I didn't.

 

[Red Rick]

Re:

Viviani a dark horse for MSR?

If it's a huge bunch sprint.

But I don't see that happening.

 

[PeterB]

Re: Re:

So what exactly were Lotto Soudal thinking?

They went up way too early and got lost. Cant really blame Ewan for that either. He trusted his team mates.

When the speed went up towards the very end, Ewan almost caused a crash as he veered into another rider. A few seconds after he sat up.

 

[Red Rick]

Re: Re:

So what exactly were Lotto Soudal thinking?

They went up way too early and got lost. Cant really blame Ewan for that either. He trusted his team mates.

I never understand those teams who set up the full train and try to keep it up with 4km to go.

Full trains are dying out imo.

 

[Scarponi]

Re: Re:

So what exactly were Lotto Soudal thinking?

They went up way too early and got lost. Cant really blame Ewan for that either. He trusted his team mates.

I never understand those teams who set up the full train and try to keep it up with 4km to go.

Full trains are dying out imo.

It’s even weirder when you see smaller teams doing it 5km out.

 

[Anderis]

Damn, procyclingstats had Sean Bennett on 4th place for a while. I got a little excited only to find out that it's now got corrected to Sam Bennett.

 

[RedheadDane]

The Bennett Confusion strikes again!

 

[SafeBet]

Re:

Viviani a dark horse for MSR?

Last year he was in perfect position but couldn't even launch his sprint. I'm not sure he has the distance.

 

[Salvarani]

Re:

Viviani a dark horse for MSR?

If it is a sprint and he is there, then he has pretty good chance. He has to have something left in his legs to sprint with though. Acceleration and speed wont matter, if you are shattered when the sprint begin. Or if positioned really bad, which would normally mean you are pretty tired and have not had time to get in a good position.

 

[Brullnux]

Re: Re:

Viviani a dark horse for MSR?

Last year he was in perfect position but couldn't even launch his sprint. I'm not sure he has the distance.

He almost won at Gent-Wevelgem so I think he has the legs but needs an easier final few km than last year, or the year before. The fact they were chasing Nibali so hard meant the pace was just that bit higher, and together with the distance killed viviani.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Also, I think Gilbert and Alaphilippe are hoping for a different outcome. A lot will depend on Sagan, as usual.