Tirreno - Adriatico 2016 09/03/16 - 15/03/16 2.UWT

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Who will win the Race of Two Seas?

  • Pinot

    Votes: 16 15.5%
  • Uran

    Votes: 3 2.9%
  • Pozzovivo

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • TJ

    Votes: 10 9.7%
  • Yates

    Votes: 4 3.9%
  • Rodriguez

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Other (Vino)

    Votes: 18 17.5%
  • Nibali

    Votes: 32 31.1%
  • Valverde

    Votes: 17 16.5%
  • Mollema

    Votes: 2 1.9%

  • Total voters
    103
Re: Re:

tweak37 said:
DNP-Old said:
Billie said:
Van Avermaet lost 27 secs to Cancellara on the timetrial last year
Different times, different measures. He didn't have a GC to fight for last year. There was no pressure at all.

The point is, I think, that even without such pressure, he did quite well.
He could thrive because of the pressure, he could crack because of it. Has GVA ever ridden a TT in similar circumstances?
 
May 17, 2013
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Great stage. Great finish. Hats off to Nibbles for trying to bridge the gap. GVA is going to have himself a great 2016.
 
Oct 23, 2009
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So Etixx' riding today kind of backfired. They gave up a really good chance of stage victory (Gaviria) and lost lots of time to the closest GC-contenders (Sagan & GVA), all so that Stybar could take a full 3 seconds on the rest of the bunch...
 
Mar 24, 2013
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Re:

Vroome.exe said:
Van avermaet, the great wheelsucker.

What a blshit. Finally somebody who is not scared to join Sagan in break and challenge him on sprint. Great rider. My second most favorite. I am so glad that Belgium has its winner again. Him and Sagan are guarantee that there is no borefest if there is at least some small chance for attackers to win.
 
Haven't seen the race but even if he wheelsucked this day, with respect to his whole career so far, Greg deserves much more respect. When he retires, who would remember him as a wheelsucker because that's the way he won one stage in Tirreno Adriatico. He's an aggressive rider, he's the most consistent rider of all throughout the year. For all his career he deserves a Tirreno win. He'd be the first Belgian to win in 39 years and he can certainly compare to the other winner style-wise. But that other Belgian winner won it 6 times. :cool:
 
Re: Re:

SKSemtex said:
Vroome.exe said:
Van avermaet, the great wheelsucker.

What a blshit. Finally somebody who is not scared to join Sagan in break and challenge him on sprint. Great rider. My second most favorite. I am so glad that Belgium has its winner again. Him and Sagan are guarantee that there is no borefest if there is at least some small chance for attackers to win.

Wait, what. Van Avermaet today was wheelsucking all the way, he almost destroyed the chance of this breakaway win and you say he entertained the race? And then someone has the stupidity to call someone like Sagan or Stybar a wheelsucker...
 
Apr 23, 2013
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Re: Re:

Vroome.exe said:
Wait, what. Van Avermaet today was wheelsucking all the way, he almost destroyed the chance of this breakaway win and you say he entertained the race? And then someone has the stupidity to call someone like Sagan or Stybar a wheelsucker...

Of course he entertained the race. If there was no wheelsucking in cycling, it would be a lot less interesting! And in this case, with two teams with three riders in the group, it would have been quite moronic for Van Avermaet to do more. As was the case for Stannard in OHN 2015 for example. In both cases, it resulted in a great race.
 
Mar 17, 2012
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I just, so the only thing avarmaet needs to get 3 monuments this year is to work with sagan in an attack. They just can't be both second :D. Together, they might even not allow fabian to leave.

Btw, sagan went a little bit too early today. Just watched the last kms and he went from like 300m, 50m before finish he was done and that's exactly when Avarmaet went past him in like 3 pedal strokes. One could start wondering, if Sagan is not playing something(like hiding in WCH or in Montreal few years back). This one is fifth consecutive duel between those two with the same result(one was actually for second in Flanders last year) that I can remember. Last year it's obvious Greg had been stronger, but it's starting to be hard to believe, that the cards have changed so much for them. Earlier, there was no way Sagan would be outsprinted by Greg in such a way, now is basically obvious that Greg is the favourite. The hard to believe part is not that Greg won, but the way he won. It looked like Sagan never stood a chance, both in Omloop and today.
 
Jun 10, 2013
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Re: Re:

classicomano said:
Vroome.exe said:
Van avermaet, the great wheelsucker.
Can he? For once? God sake. All power to Greg.

Haha, indeed!

I didn't watch the stage, but even if he did suck wheels today, how can we just dismiss the fact that he's a positive rider in most other races?

Well done.
 
Mar 13, 2015
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Re: Re:

Vroome.exe said:
SKSemtex said:
Vroome.exe said:
Van avermaet, the great wheelsucker.

What a blshit. Finally somebody who is not scared to join Sagan in break and challenge him on sprint. Great rider. My second most favorite. I am so glad that Belgium has its winner again. Him and Sagan are guarantee that there is no borefest if there is at least some small chance for attackers to win.

Wait, what. Van Avermaet today was wheelsucking all the way, he almost destroyed the chance of this breakaway win and you say he entertained the race? And then someone has the stupidity to call someone like Sagan or Stybar a wheelsucker...

That "wheelsucker" term is the most stupid term I heard for a long time, as far as cycling concerns. I would call his race today quite smart, and you can see the result. No need for him to work at all, he had Van Garderen behind plus other teams had numerical advantage in that group. He has matured as a rider, it seems... Sagan could learn thing or two from today's ride
 

KGB

Apr 16, 2015
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tomorrow said:
I just, so the only thing avarmaet needs to get 3 monuments this year is to work with sagan in an attack. They just can't be both second :D. Together, they might even not allow fabian to leave.

Btw, sagan went a little bit too early today. Just watched the last kms and he went from like 300m, 50m before finish he was done and that's exactly when Avarmaet went past him in like 3 pedal strokes. One could start wondering, if Sagan is not playing something(like hiding in WCH or in Montreal few years back). This one is fifth consecutive duel between those two with the same result(one was actually for second in Flanders last year) that I can remember. Last year it's obvious Greg had been stronger, but it's starting to be hard to believe, that the cards have changed so much for them. Earlier, there was no way Sagan would be outsprinted by Greg in such a way, now is basically obvious that Greg is the favourite. The hard to believe part is not that Greg won, but the way he won. It looked like Sagan never stood a chance, both in Omloop and today.
Soson will destroy him in ITT tomorrow :D
 
May 9, 2010
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Re:

maltiv said:
So Etixx' riding today kind of backfired. They gave up a really good chance of stage victory (Gaviria) and lost lots of time to the closest GC-contenders (Sagan & GVA), all so that Stybar could take a full 3 seconds on the rest of the bunch...
Yes, nothing they did today made any sense. They shouldn't have taken any turns in the front group. Better to hope it all gets back together to have a better chance of winning the GC with Stybar/Jungels and still having the favorite for the stage win. How they rode today is mind-boggling.

Regarding GVA today: He rode really smart. As someone else mentioned, Etixx and Tinkoff both had three riders in the front group willing to work. He was in a very good position both for the GC and the stage win, so he rode perfectly in a group as strong as this which was very likely to keep the peloton at bay. Had the front group been weaker and if Sagan and Stybar didn't have any domestiques in the group, it would make sense to take turns, but not the way the race played out.
 
Apr 12, 2009
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I didn't see this stage, but people on this forum often seem to confuse 'wheelsucking' with 'cycling tactics'

It seems to me both Sagan and Stybar had 2 teammates who were happy to do the necessairy work. GVA on the other hand has proven he can beat the guys left in the peloton, so no reason for him to do any pulls.