The big one: Tour of Poland, Aug 1st -7th

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Oh... Hamburg still counts? It didn't last year.

I'm pretty sure Vattenfall doesn't count.

But you never know with the UCI the change it every year.
Would be typical, Greipel winning and again 11th, and after Lombardia ofcourse the Dutch wil lbe in the top 10 again, just like last year, proving again the UCI is doing it wrong...

 

[auscyclefan94]

That sneaky Janez Brajkovic.

If only the shack were doing la vuelta!

 

[maltiv]

top 20 in poland, epic stuff for the revolutionaries

He lost 40 seconds after crashing on one of the flat stages.

I think it is quite funny though, that a guy Sky hired simply because EBH demanded it in his contract, is proving to be one of the best climbers on Sky by far

 

[theyoungest]

If only the shack were doing la vuelta!

That would be fine, in terms of World Championship teams... the points in the Vuelta don't count.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

I'm pretty sure Vattenfall doesn't count.

But you never know with the UCI the change it every year.
Would be typical, Greipel winning and again 11th, and after Lombardia ofcourse the Dutch wil lbe in the top 10 again, just like last year, proving again the UCI is doing it wrong...

meh the system is bs on a whole.
so many great races should get counted.. but they don't. Cause yeah, only PT races matter

 

[auscyclefan94]

That would be fine, in terms of World Championship teams... the points in the Vuelta don't count.

What a joke! They still count for the individual uci protour rankings?

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

What a joke! They still count for the individual uci protour rankings?

you misunderstand.
After poland/hamburg the top ten nations on the rankings are given 9 riders at the WC.
The points still count for teams, individuals and nations at the vuelta, but the nation points are meaningless.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Although it's still unclear wether Vattenfall counts or not.

Last year it didn't, this time it appearently does.
Not that it matters, as things stand now, Greipel has to ride top 4 at least.

 

[ingsve]

He lost 40 seconds after crashing on one of the flat stages.

I think it is quite funny though, that a guy Sky hired simply because EBH demanded it in his contract, is proving to be one of the best climbers on Sky by far

Yes, he certainly been one of the Sky riders that have actually ridden better than expected this year. He may turn into a solid rider for them in this type of terrain.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Nordhaug was always a decent hilly guy when he was younger at Maxbo Bianchi as well. He is still only 26.

 

[ingsve]

Nordhaug was always a decent hilly guy when he was younger at Maxbo Bianchi as well. He is still only 26.

Yes, though it's always hard to assess how good someone actually is when they have only ridden national events or 2.2 stage races. He's doing a good job stepping into the higher level of competition.

He's probably riding the Vuelta as well so it will be interesting to see if he can turn into a decent mountain domestique as well.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Yes, though it's always hard to assess how good someone actually is when they have only ridden national events or 2.2 stage races. He's doing a good job stepping into the higher level of competition.

He's probably riding the Vuelta as well so it will be interesting to see if he can turn into a decent mountain domestique as well.

A grand tour could make him 'explode' into a higher level. We saw that with Hoogerland last year.

 

[Kwibus]

Yeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhh! The great Bauke did it!!!!!!!!

Sorry, I recorded the stage and just watched it. Nice win by Bauke. Ofcourse I hoped he could gain more and more time, but too bad.

I didn't check the upcoming stages, but I think yesterday and today were decisive for the GC wasn't it?

 

[ScottyMuser]

you misunderstand.
After poland/hamburg the top ten nations on the rankings are given 9 riders at the WC.
The points still count for teams, individuals and nations at the vuelta, but the nation points are meaningless.

To clarify, this year the World Championships are based on a slightly different criteria than last:
The *ONLY* races that count are races that are either rather.HIS or .PT, and are between 1st January 2010 and 15th Augus 2010. If a race finished after the 15th, even if it starts before, it doesn't count. The 10 nations with the most riders out of these rankings get to send 9 riders *if* they have 9 riders ranked in these criteria; if not the send at either the number of riders they do have (but not necessarily the ones that are ranked), or 6 riders if they have fewer than 6 (yes, Luxembourg, I am looking at oyu).

Then for European teams not finishing in the top 10, it is determined by your position based on riders *only* riding from Pro Conti teams - so UK get to send 3 riders as the likes of Cavendish, Swift, thomas, Wiggins, Millar et al are all at ProTour teams, so none of their results in *any* race count, whereas, for instance, Poland/Lithuania/Estonia all are higher than the UK as their riders are at PRoConti teams (despite not necessarily doing as well as the British riders in general).

For clarification, the Netherlands are currently in 11th, so would *not* be able to send 9 riders, just 6 (they do have riders in ProConti teams to be the top non-top 10 team (in fact, are ahead of germany and belgium, both of whom are above them in the workld tour). Points wise, it is quite possible the Netherlands could overtake Germany in the Tour de Pologne, as Germany only really have TGreipel (and the stage winners only get 6 points), whereas The Dutch have a very good chance of having a high podium finish in the GC (with 100/80/70/60 and so on for GC).
Going into the race the Germans had a 26 point advantage over the Dutch, and both have taken identical stage points, so the Dutch need Bauek t effectively 6th or higher overall, and hope no sneaky german smeaks in for some points - in which case, the Dutch would be able to send 8 riders (not 9, as they only have 8 ranking riders) - as long as the French don't get a higher placing than the Dutch in the GC, or Bole doesn't finish 2/3 places higher than Bauke. Hope that makes sense. (the French are 6 points back, and Slkovenia 24

Its absolutely mad, as basically the UCI are trying to get teams willing to go to the PT races, what few there are, but the nations will end up, if they're not guaranteed to be in the top 10, to want their riders on ProConti teams instead so that they can send more riders to the WC. Also, National Championships do count for ProConti riders on the Europe tour, but not for PT on either - so weaker nations can get 100+ points on the likes of Spain/GB because their riders aren't on PT teams.

Another instance of how mad it is is that the UK are actually 14th in the World Tour, marginally behind France and Slovenia, yet are *21st* in Europe (marginally ahead of Austria, (who out of their 310 points, over 100 points were from their national champs, wherreas Britain received just 27)?!?! (France, due to their teams having guarantteed entrance to the tdf and becoming proconti, are actually 2nd!, with Slovenia 7th)

 

[ScottyMuser]

And to be precisxe, the wording states "The first 10 nations in the Ranking *on* 15th August"
So people's guess is as good as mine whether the rankings come out directly after the Vattenfall, so would count, or a day (or more) after, asnd wouldn't count is another topic, and 1 which could play a huge role - if Vattenfall did count, then Germany actually would be fairly strong favourites to do well in it, and re-leapfrog Netherlands (if they do get leapfrogged in Poland). Switzerland, who only lie 15-odd points above Germany would then be close to dropping out of the top 10, and would requires a decent result at Vattennfall (of course, this is assuming Bauke doesn't lose time or anything unexpected next 2 days and drop out of top 5, otherwise this is all moot.)

For a comparison, in the CQ rankings, Britain are 9th, ahead of Russia, Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Slovenia and Switzerland, AL of whom are above GB in the World rankings. And france move from 12th in the UCI rankings to 7th in the CQ ones!

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

The rankings indeed usually come a day later (16 august)

So Scotty, I think you are right.
By the way, Poland only has 1 stage remaining, not 2...

And yeah, in the CQ ranking Netherlands is 8th, France is 7th and GB 9th and they are all well ahead of nr 11

 

[taiwan]

Strictly Bole can still win through time bonuses. It's possible.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Yeah but in a real sprint like tomorrow he probably won't finish top 3 and the boni's will go to the guys in the breakaway

 

[theyoungest]

Yes, though it's always hard to assess how good someone actually is when they have only ridden national events or 2.2 stage races. He's doing a good job stepping into the higher level of competition.

He's probably riding the Vuelta as well so it will be interesting to see if he can turn into a decent mountain domestique as well.

Domestique for whom? Löfkvist?

 

[taiwan]

Yeah but in a real sprint like tomorrow he probably won't finish top 3 and the boni's will go to the guys in the breakaway

True, if he was able to take Greipel and Heado in the sprint as well as everything else, he should get four yellow jerseys, but It'll keep Lampre occupied tomorrow. The Sprint bonus is at 20k, though, so they could hold it together until then, and I don't see that Garmin have anyone to outsprint him.

This is unrealistic, but if they could force a split on the first climb (big enough group to stay away) then he could win that sprint.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

But if Lampre tries to force a split and keep everything together, then they will most certainly get attacks in the last 10km, with their entire team waisted and someone else winning

It simply doesn't work that way normally. They'd have to get a bit lucky with the circumstances in the last stage if Bole wants to win.
In a normal world, it won't happen. But who knows

 

[hrotha]

Bole and Mollema to break away with 10 km to go. Stage for Mollema, GC for Bole. It would be pretty neat.

Seriously though, Bole deserves a stage win but tomorrow is not looking good for him.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

If that happens, I'm forced to make a new video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hG2Vht00TM

 

[auscyclefan94]

you misunderstand.
After poland/hamburg the top ten nations on the rankings are given 9 riders at the WC.
The points still count for teams, individuals and nations at the vuelta, but the nation points are meaningless.

Nah, I didn't put it right. I thought they counted the rankings right up to the vuelta for the worlds. I found it stupid that they have more races worth points after the worlds but don't count them.

Back to racing, Baldato protested to the commisares that the 2 seconds should not be counted between the Albasini group and Martin group as there were crashes that caused that gap and ballan lost the 4th place. You can read more on the bmc racing team site.

It doesn't matter though as baldato won't have a job after poland. ACF94 is stepping in.

 

[Ferminal]

Awesome... I forgot to record the stage but looks like a great result for the Dutchies! Is that enough for top10?

acf lost a bet?