Tirreno - Adriatico: Stage 1, Marina di Carrara - 16.8km, TTT

[Ryaguas]

mmmm Saxo should do it very good... they were practicing TT in Mallorca, even doing 150km of TT in one day... is pretty clear that HTC is going to win this by miles, that team is a sure bet in a TTT!

Movistar looks really solid!
Liquigas doesnt look like last year but is a really good team
Leotard-Sht... They have the c0cky c0ck so... you know...
BMC looks nice indeed!
SKY... well SKY = TT

mmmmm HTC is the easy pick but I'll go with SBS... just because

Thx for not disappoint me SBS... that was a pretty solid TTT! over La Liquigas and Leotard-sht!

Cunego - Gilbert - Evans and Gasparotto to attack but Cunego will take it...! Revenge for what happened in Strade Bianchi!!!

Leopard sucked so much it wasn't even funny.

Pretty much an ITT from Fabian and they still managed to drop their fifth rider.

I had a good laugh seeing them failing so bad...

 

[jens_attacks]

although i would kill to see basso winning this,no one can't stop gesink and the dutch terrible squad.chieti even looks great for the condor.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

na, Gilbert will win it

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

na, Gilbert will win it

Little chance of that now with such a **** poor TTT and a flat TT to come in the final.

He'll almost definately will win a stage though

 

[jens_attacks]

Little chance of that now with such a **** poor TTT and a flat TT to come in the final.

He'll almost definately will win a stage though

he probably meant the stage to chieti.and gesink would be safe with some bonus seconds.his only problem will be liquigas and basso but i don't see where ivan could destroy gesink,almost not a single long climb.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

he probably meant the stage to chieti.and gesink would be safe with some bonus seconds.his only problem will be liquigas and basso but i don't see where ivan could destroy gesink,almost not a single long climb.

I was indeed talking about Chieti Puerito will be dangerous too

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

he probably meant the stage to chieti.and gesink would be safe with some bonus seconds.his only problem will be liquigas and basso but i don't see where ivan could destroy gesink,almost not a single long climb.

Plus Basso has actually never came close to destroying Gesink on a long climb either since his return. On the contrary, he even got dropped numerous times in both Vuelta 09 and Tour 10, ofcourse he wasn't in optimal condition, but still.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Enjoy it all, while it lasts.
Rabo are awesome in their early season dominance.
Good to see them derailing the mighty sprinter trains.
However, we all know that BMC are just training until April.
At that time, they will crush all opposition, including Rabo, mercilessly.



The rest must have been too busy discussing how to pronounce their name.

Yes exactly right, the dutchies should be expecting to be crushed!

The 2nd last km I'd suggest we'll see Evans and Scarponi have a go. Gesink shouldn't lose a lot here, if anything.

Time gaps were pretty big last year... will be interesting to see how they go. DOn't really understand the talk of Gesink not being explosive...

On a completely unrelated note, it looks like ACF has changed his sig...

Wonder why that happened?

I did that earlier in the day, well before the tirreno ttt.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

So Eddy Hagen already +30 seconds down with the hilly stages still to come. Guess that's a write off then.

 

[Spine Concept]

So Eddy Hagen already +30 seconds down with the hilly stages still to come. Guess that's a write off then.

Meh. Never quite believed in his chances anyway.

 

[theyoungest]

Time gaps were pretty big last year... will be interesting to see how they go. DOn't really understand the talk of Gesink not being explosive...

Last year's finish in Chieti was different from this year's... it was harder, more conducive to opening up time gaps.

 

[Jamsque]

Meh. Never quite believed in his chances anyway.

We were always going to see more of him in the sprints than on the hills with M-SR round the corner.

Speaking of sprints, I think HTC have brought as near as dammit their best sprint train here. Eisel, Grabsch, Pinotti for the long pulls with Roulston and Renshaw for the final kilometre. I think tomorrow and the day after could be exactly the kind of racing Libertine Seguros hates, assuming Cav doesn't fall off or get dropped on a speed bump.

 

[ingsve]

So Eddy Hagen already +30 seconds down with the hilly stages still to come. Guess that's a write off then.

Ya, that's probably true though I'm not sure what his chances were anyway. One thing he has that some of the others don't is the opportunity to sprint for bonus seconds on the flat stages but that's not going to compensate for much especially with Cavendish here.

 

[El Pistolero]

If that happens hell has frozen over and the end of the world is coming.
Gesink winning a flat short TT is the same as Mauricio Soler winning Paris Roubaix

More like Soler winning Strade Bianche, E3 prijs Vlaanderen, Ronde and Paris-Roubaix in the same season.

Anyway, hopefully Gesink will win this, but the time trial will do him over I think.

 

[Ferminal]

Last year's finish in Chieti was different from this year's... it was harder, more conducive to opening up time gaps.

Last year in Chieti was a couple of loops wasn't it? Nothing really steep, Scarponi just managed to charge away (Nibali was off the front too but wasn't strong enough). This time around the finish in Chieti probably resembles the finish last year which Gasparotto won.

Edit: Looked at the profile, the climb near the finish was 3,900m at 6.7%, not a circuit, much longer though but not as steep.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Cadel's report on stage 1

Surprisingly he didn't seem overly happy with the result. But I also can see why. In the tdf they won't have Ballan, Van avermaet and probably schar in the team for the ttt who are all strong in that type of effort. They will probably have Bookwalter come into that team but will also have some climbers come in who aren't as strong in the ttt. So with this team to get 6th may appear dissapointing.