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

[Ferminal]

I only saw 2 seconds so i had my suspicions, but the post was written sarcastically and in good humour.



Are you being sarcastic now? Katowice is without doubt the worst city in Poland. Its nothing but dull factories and pollution and crime. Some reporter who wrote a fawning book about the country and its cities, said it was the worst city hes ever been in.

I would say Poland is generally quite nice and pleasant, just not katowice.

Well from the limited helicopter shots it looked nice

But I guess I find factories and blocks of flats romantic in a way.

 

[Mellow Velo]

The Irish commentator isn't Kelly I'm not quite sure who it is though.

He isn't even Irish, but Scottish. Brian Smith. Another old pro.
Used to do a lot of work for cycling.tv. Not sure if he still does, as I don't bother with ctv anymore. (rip off)

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I only saw 2 seconds so i had my suspicions, but the post was written sarcastically and in good humour.



Are you being sarcastic now? Katowice is without doubt the worst city in Poland. Its nothing but dull factories and pollution and crime. Some reporter who wrote a fawning book about the country and its cities, said it was the worst city hes ever been in.

I would say Poland is generally quite nice and pleasant, just not katowice.

I've been to poland myself, to the south and I liked wroclaw although I stayed in the centre and I was staying in karpacz which was nice although I was shocked from the ammount of skinheads I would see at night there, in such a quiet town

 

[maltiv]

But he's not the fastest sprinter at all, so if they want him to win they have to deliver him closer to the line and they definitely have to stop leading out the entire damn peloton. I can - and I do - ask more than making the same stupid, basic mistake over and over and over again. The slower your sprinter the better your lead out should be to get him a chance at a win.

It would have been a perfect leadout if Greg Henderson were there as well! Too bad he was 2 minutes behind somehow...

 

[William H]

But he's not the fastest sprinter at all, so if they want him to win they have to deliver him closer to the line and they definitely have to stop leading out the entire damn peloton. I can - and I do - ask more than making the same stupid, basic mistake over and over and over again. The slower your sprinter the better your lead out should be to get him a chance at a win.

Expecting them to do a good enough leadout for Sutton to win is unreasonable.

Perhaps they shouldn't be wasting their effort on leadouts for mediocre sprinters, but they don't do them worse than anyone else.

 

[tgsgirl]

It would have been a perfect leadout if Greg Henderson were there as well! Too bad he was 2 minutes behind somehow...

Yeah, Hendo hasn't been that stellar lately, which is a shame because he's definitely better than Sutton.

Expecting them to do a good enough leadout for Sutton to win is unreasonable.

I'm expecting them to learn from the mistake they've made 62 times now. Even Garmin was a quicker study last year!
(ok, maybe not)

 

[que sera cera]

Hate all those coloured balloons along the road, ain't no Disneyland

Expecting a bunch sprint today. After the hilly section teams could reorganise cause the last 50 k or so is pancakeflat.

 

[William H]

I'm expecting them to learn from the mistake they've made 62 times now. Even Garmin was a quicker study last year!
(ok, maybe not)

It's the same "mistake" everyone makes constantly. You just don't notice when HTC does it because Cav wins anyway.

In this case, they really didn't make a mistake. Sutton was left in an excellent position. Would have been better 50m later, but it was fine as it was.

 

[roundabout]

Looks like an uphill finish on the cobblestones today with a lot of corners in the last 3 km

http://www.tourdepologne.pl/images/stories/internet/wysokosci3km/Cieszyn_3km_m.jpg

 

[Eyeballs Out]

Hate all those coloured balloons along the road, ain't no Disneyland

Expecting a bunch sprint today. After the hilly section teams could reorganise cause the last 50 k or so is pancakeflat.

The official site seems to suggest a bit of a ramp in the last 500m ? (5.4% average and steeper at the line). Might be one for Sagan

 

[tgsgirl]

It's the same "mistake" everyone makes constantly. You just don't notice when HTC does it because Cav wins anyway.
In this case, they really didn't make a mistake. Sutton was left in an excellent position. Would have been better 50m later, but it was fine as it was.

I'm not gonna keep saying this over and over, but. It's not the same mistake everyone makes. Sky is the only team (right now, others have done it in the past) to consistently ride 1km to 500m at the head of the peloton, leading out everyone, only to run out of riders with 200m to go. That's making it way too easy on everyone else, which you can't afford if your sprinter is just-above-average.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=worldcyclingchannel2
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=CanalF10

- Stage 1, who's at the front with one kilometre to go? Sky.
- Stage 2, who's at the front with one kilometre to go? Well, Astana, but Sky take over with 900m* to go.
- Stage 3, who's at the front one kilometre to go? Vacansoleil - that was a bad sprint by them - with Sky taking over at around 700m*.

The point is, stop doing all the work in an attempt to get the perfect train going if
A. your train has failed time and time and time again (hilarious, after those ridiculous press releases to tell us they were practising sprinting before the season began)
and
B. your last man isn't fast enough to finish it off anyway.

Try another tactic! Hatch onto someone else's train. Confuse everyone by doing what Hondo did in that stage Petacchi won in TdF. Anything. Because what they're doing right now is just tiring themselves without result.


*that's a guess, can't see any markers.

 

[taiwan]

The official site seems to suggest a bit of a ramp in the last 500m ? (5.4% average and steeper at the line). Might be one for Sagan

Well spotted!

[edit] Vacansoleil have Hoogerland, Marcato and Carrara. Probably the break today, for me.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

anyone dutch please. we need to jump germany.

 

[Pharazon]

defect in the peloton zawodonika Sky Team!!!

does that mean Sky's defective... didn't we know that already?

 

[Pharazon]

there's some really severe driveways apparently... why they're cycling up to people houses i don't quite know

 

[theyoungest]

anyone dutch please. we need to jump germany.

Johnny the Hooligan has answered your request. He's on the attack, together with Cam Meyer. 5'40" advantage on the peloton. About 50 k to go (I think).

edit: make that 70 k.

 

[royalpig180]

I couldn't really tell how difficult the climbs were going to be...
I assume the sprinters are still in the peleton?

 

[Mellow Velo]

Ooooh, lumpy bits and not crit circuit. Eurosport now live.

 

[The Hitch]

On the Polish Channel tvp, just before the stage now, they brought a guy who won the tour de pologne some 50 years ago and asked him how he won. He described it – on the final flat stage, the top 3 all so wanted to win that they kept attacking eachother, trying individual breaks, as I said on a flat stage, until they all cracked, lost 10 minutes, and he sitting in 4th won the tour.

Now thats what bikw racing should be like.

 

[The Hitch]

I've been to Poland once, to Krakow, and I gotta say, if you stick to the city center, that's one hell of a nice city. I also made the morally obligatory trip to Auschwitz, which didn't quite restore my faith in human kind.

I trust you know this, but you would be surprised by the ammount of people who think that since the camps are located in Poland, it was Poland which carried out the holocoust.

In fact Stepeh Fry (supposedly the most intelligent person in britain, well according to i think "hello" or "ok" magazines anyway ) got caught out making this mistake a few months ago and was forced to apologize.

Im putting this down in case anyone here has falling for this same mistake.

 

[The Hitch]

defect in the peloton zawodonika Sky Team!!!

does that mean Sky's defective... didn't we know that already?

zawodnik means competitor so judging by the mix of english and polish in that sentence it means that some sky rider has had a problem, puncture or some such.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I trust you know this, but you would be surprised by the ammount of people who think that since the camps are located in Poland, it was Poland which carried out the holocoust.

In fact Stepeh Fry (supposedly the most intelligent person in britain, well according to i think "hello" or "ok" magazines anyway ) got caught out making this mistake a few months ago and was forced to apologize.

Im putting this down in case anyone here has falling for this same mistake.

Meh, since theyoungest is Dutch, and we are properly educated in history, I think he knows it was the Germans and this certain mustache dude

 

[The Hitch]

Meh, since theyoungest is Dutch, and we are properly educated in history, I think he knows it was the Germans and this certain mustache dude

I knew the youngest knows this because he understood a orwell refference i made in some other thread- suggesting intelligence.

But people do make this mistake and his post about evil in the world gave me the perfect opportunity to make my point.

Anyhow, with all this discussion about Sky and stages, how many stages have they won

1 in oman or was it quatar. ttt
1 in quatar or was it oman itt- ebh
1 in giro itt - wiggins
oh and an actual road stage in dauphine - ebh.
henderson won that pre tdu sprint race.
and didnt flecha win one of the cobbled race?

Nothing else right?

 

[Jamsque]

I knew the youngest knows this because he understood a orwell refference i made in some other thread- suggesting intelligence.

But people do make this mistake and his post about evil in the world gave me the perfect opportunity to make my point.

Anyhow, with all this discussion about Sky and stages, how many stages have they won

1 in oman or was it quatar. ttt
1 in quatar or was it oman itt- ebh
1 in giro itt - wiggins
oh and an actual road stage in dauphine - ebh.
henderson won that pre tdu sprint race.
and didnt flecha win one of the cobbled race?

Nothing else right?

Not that hard to look up

16 victories this season, including 3 ITTs and 1 TTT. They also won the overall at the Tour de Wallonie and the Tour de Picardie with Downing and Swift respectively

 

[maltiv]

I knew the youngest knows this because he understood a orwell refference i made in some other thread- suggesting intelligence.

But people do make this mistake and his post about evil in the world gave me the perfect opportunity to make my point.

Anyhow, with all this discussion about Sky and stages, how many stages have they won

1 in oman or was it quatar. ttt
1 in quatar or was it oman itt- ebh
1 in giro itt - wiggins
oh and an actual road stage in dauphine - ebh.
henderson won that pre tdu sprint race.
and didnt flecha win one of the cobbled race?

Nothing else right?

Tour of Qatar TTT
Tour of Oman stage 3 (bunch sprint, excellent leadout by sutton and excellent sprint by EBH)
Tour of Oman stage 6 (ITT) EBH
Tirreno Adriatico last stage (again sutton leading out EBH)
Last stage in TDU (sutton)
tour of wallonie (1 by russel downing and 1 by Sutton I think)
Tour of Picardie (Ben Swift)
Paris-Nice stage (greg henderson)
Omloop Het Niewsblad (Flecha)
Last stage of dauphine (EBH)

that's all I can remember, but they got a decent amount of wins anyway