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Tony Martin cries About the DL Prologue

Re:

Bye Bye Bicycle said:
Problem of Martin is that he's not the most articulate rider, to put it mildly. I get his point, though. A shorter, flatter, more technical prologue would have enabled a lot more riders to actually ride for the win today.

Yep, the problem with a steep mountain prologue like this one is that only about 15-20 or so riders were going flat out and had a chance of doing anything. And half of them had finished by the time the TV started. On a flatter time trial, there are three things to be interested in - the stage win, the GC battle (here it was the same thing) and also the aero technique of the top riders. So there's about 40-50 riders that it's worth following.
 
Re: Re:

perico said:
DFA123 said:
Got to agree with him. Apart from the last 5 minutes or so, it was an awful stage to watch.
A lot of that had to do with technical difficulties though with the coverage. A normal uphill TT is usually pretty fun to watch.
I agree that uphill TTs can be good to watch, but usually longer ones in the middle of a race, where some sort of context and narrative has been developed and where riders are at different levels of fatigue (like the ones they have in Pais Vasco for example). And where the best riders will be going last, one after each other, rather than spread hours apart.
 
Mountain prologues are so rare though, that it's quite a nice change of pace. Something different and unique. Perhaps they'd have been better off with a shorter, more punchy climb to give more riders the feeling they could do something and keep the time gaps small enough that more riders stay confident enough that they could get a day or two in the leader's jersey if they put in a good time, but nothing wrong with the stage in and of itself.
 
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Pantani Attacks said:
Newsflash Mr. Anthony Martin, the mountains and climbing is the essence of Cycling, whether TT, Prologue or standard stage race. Please close the door on your way out. Thanks.

This is just false.

That said, rather embarrassing tweet from Tony. Typical reaction from someone who didn't stand a chance a priori while ignoring the fact that 99% of other prologues suit him.
 
Jun 30, 2014
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And nobody wants to see his bloody scotum in an ITT...
The guy has become such a tool, he should just shut up and let his legs do the talking for him.
 
Re:

Red Rick said:
Tony Martin starting to act more and more like a c*nt

graphRiderHistory.asp


That might be a reason...
 
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Well, apparently, Tony is a bit conservative. He looks at prologues as they usually are, relatively flat and made for short TT powerhouses, sees change and automatically doesn't like it. What makes it worse is that he probably feels something is taken from him, a chance to win.

In my opinion, the fun part of bike races is that you have to deal with the terrain you're confronted with if that terrain falls within reasonable boundaries. This piece of road was well within reasonable limits, so it was suited for a bike race. You don't have to go looking for something like this for every stage, I feel diversity is important, but to make a rule to avoid a suitable piece of road because, well, you don't like it? I say get over it and deal with it. Don't whine.
 
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hrotha said:
This prologue is perfectly fine by itself, but it does come against the backdrop of the constant reduction of time-trialing stages and kilometers, which I imagine is the real problem.

Exactly. 2 years in a row the Dauphine has skipped the flat ITT, not even a prologue? Its preposterous, it really is and considering every ITT either gets shortened, abandoned or made hilly, its a real problem as it is now. Just put a 30 km ITT in and everything is fine.
 
Re: Re:

Valv.Piti said:
hrotha said:
This prologue is perfectly fine by itself, but it does come against the backdrop of the constant reduction of time-trialing stages and kilometers, which I imagine is the real problem.

Exactly. 2 years in a row the Dauphine has skipped the flat ITT, not even a prologue? Its preposterous, it really is and considering every ITT either gets shortened, abandoned or made hilly, its a real problem as it is now. Just put a 30 km ITT in and everything is fine.
Since ASO bought it out, the Dauphiné is just a Tour recce with UCI points. Hell, for a period, they were even making it exclusively that, such as in 2011-2 when they had carbon copies of Tour stages in there. So as long as the Tour is marginalizing the CLM, the Dauphiné will be too, and, like in 2012, when the Tour favours a time triallist, the Dauphiné will too.

ASO buying the Dauphiné has really harmed it as an independent spectacle I think, because now it's highly contingent on the Tour. It's always been a preparation race, but now it's thrown out any pretence to be anything more than a tune-up.
 
Re: Re:

Valv.Piti said:
hrotha said:
This prologue is perfectly fine by itself, but it does come against the backdrop of the constant reduction of time-trialing stages and kilometers, which I imagine is the real problem.

Exactly. 2 years in a row the Dauphine has skipped the flat ITT, not even a prologue? Its preposterous, it really is and considering every ITT either gets shortened, abandoned or made hilly, its a real problem as it is now. Just put a 30 km ITT in and everything is fine.
But Martin didnt complain about the lack of flat ITT's but about the fact that there is an uphill prologue. And if he complains about a problem which indeed exists by complaining about something completely different, it makes the whole comment even more stupid.
 

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