Tour de Langkawi (24.02 - 04.03.)

[Ryo Hazuki]

Rujano was dropped wasn't he? It's not like he let Serpa win.

he was dropped because he had attacked from the early slopes. he ride in typcial trentino fassion. attack until he's dead. he did the same last year in trentino also in 2005 where he finished 8th but was the best man in the race.

 

[Escarabajo]

was jackson I assume? not ochoa?

It was probably JacKson. Yesterday we were just repeating what was being printed on Twitter, because we almost never had live TV. When live TV came they never showed the riders behind Niño and Serpa.

Serpa is in great form during this time of the year. And usually in May also, but other riders step up a notch.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

serpa usually becomes sick in may. I think he only had one giro in which he didn't turn sick. taht was 2009. let's hope he stays fit so he can become great helper for rujano

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

16:30 cet is going to ba highlights? is there a stream for it?

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

http://www.rtm.gov.my/tv1/

langkawi now!

 

[Angliru]

Hint: Trolling works better if you can spell.

Nahh, he'd be lost either way.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

serpa basically wheelsucked until the final sprint and beat victor nino. hard to say which of teh 3 were best. rujano and nino imo were best probably. which is not strange as they are better climbers in general. only serpa is in better shape

 

[will10]

Do my eyes deceive me or is Rujano using a bike that's actually small enough to fit him this season?

 

[Mellow Velo]

serpa basically wheelsucked until the final sprint and beat victor nino.

Why not?
That's his usual MO for riding in Italy.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Why not?
That's his usual MO for riding in Italy.

I'm not critisizing. simply telling what I saw. serpa wasn't as strong as victor and shouldn't have worked anyway as rujano was behind him. they did as they should. was the climb some longer nino would've won I think.

 

[Escarabajo]

I can understand why Serpa wheelsucked the last kilometers. That is obvious. But He should have let Niño take the honors. That would have been probably the right thing to do since he was going to be in the lead and he already had his stage. Having said that, this is racing and every stage winner should be the best one and strongest one. In this case Serpa was probably better than Niño.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

I can understand why Serpa wheelsucked the last kilometers. That is obvious. But He should have let Niño take the honors. That would have been probably the right thing to do since he was going to be in the lead and he already had his stage. Having said that, this is racing and every stage winner should be the best one and strongest one. In this case Serpa was probably better than Niño.

ugh god no,. that is what cycling does NOT need. this is colombian cycling goddamnit. these guys don't hand out gifts. nor would victor nino want or expect it. comments like this make me really sick as they show a complete disunderstanding of what sport is supposed to be. this "andy schleck cycling" has infected cycling and it's fanbase in the past 10 or so years since the introduction of especially american cyclists and cycling fans and overall new fans of non-traditional cycling countries and has gotten progressively worse in the past few years. anothe reason why I;'m so grateful we have more and more south americans in the peloton in europe. as they won';t wait when you crash or have a flat. no damnit they will attack as this is about winning a race and not making friends.

 

[Duartista]

ugh god no,. that is what cycling does NOT need. this is colombian cycling goddamnit. these guys don't hand out gifts. nor would victor nino want or expect it. comments like this make me really sick as they show a complete disunderstanding of what sport is supposed to be. this "andy schleck cycling" has infected cycling and it's fanbase in the past 10 or so years since the introduction of especially american cyclists and cycling fans and overall new fans of non-traditional cycling countries and has gotten progressively worse in the past few years. anothe reason why I;'m so grateful we have more and more south americans in the peloton in europe. as they won';t wait when you crash or have a flat. no damnit they will attack as this is about winning a race and not making friends.

Oh come on. Gifting wins in this kind of situation goes back decades in European cycling. That's why Merckx was so unusual, because he refused to go along with it. It has nothing to do with Americans or Andy Schleck.

 

[will10]

I agree with Ryo to some extent. Gifting the queen stage of any race just doesn't feel right to me.

 

[Duartista]

I agree that it makes for dull viewing - but it as an old practice, not a new one.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Usually it's the result of some sort of pact; we work together, you get the stage I get the leader's jersey - a few from recent memory include Ribeiro and Cabreira on Senhora da Graça, Menchov and Piepoli on Cerler, Contador and Rujano on Großglockner, and perhaps most extremely Valverde and Szmyd on Mont Ventoux, when Valverde practically had to stop to let Szmyd past.

Here, it's different really; Serpa can say that Rujano is his leader and so he's not going to work to distance his own teammate, in which case he's effectively the guy playing monitor over the break to give Androni some insurance. Serpa and Niño hadn't been working together. Occasionally you will see somebody who's winning a race gift a stage in similar circumstances - last year on Monte Naranco in Asturias, Tino Zaballa attacked Javi Moreno over and over again for the win, but Moreno held on. It was the last stage, and Moreno had already won a stage, so he sat up at the sprint to let Zaballa get the stage win, on the basis that he was going to win the race and felt Zaballa deserved it.

Serpa also has his undefeated streak on this finish to defend, of course.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

they are both however ochoa finished like 6 minutes down and jackson finished 5th

indeed, I didn't watch it I was just using the information gathered from the twitter, they reported ochoa yoyoing off the back with jackson behind. That was around teh half way mark, amybe he cracked big?

Rujano was dropped wasn't he? It's not like he let Serpa win.

from the twitter it sounded like rujano attacked a lot on the earlier slopes, and ran out of legs. long climb. should have used more sense, not to matter tho.

Not peak, but the competition isnt that great and Rujano is a south American, who tend to do the opposite of the Andy Schleck strategy, and go for the win in any race they can find.

Also his tt suggests hes not going to bad atm.

he also looked slightly heavier imo, maybe that has something to do with it. Better he is not in peak form now tho.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

it's rujano's first racing days since august of 2012. if you saw today's stage review you would've sene he attacked in the beginning slopes pof the climb and then forced until only 2 riders were in his wheel. serpa and victyor nino. when nino went serpa followed and rujano dropped. serpa could also barely hang on on the steeper parts but won the sprint that was flat quite eaisly against the unexplosive victor nino

 

[Eric8-A]

serpa basically wheelsucked until the final sprint and beat victor nino. hard to say which of teh 3 were best. rujano and nino imo were best probably. which is not strange as they are better climbers in general. only serpa is in better shape

Based on the way they were pedaling in the final kilometer, I thought Serpa was looking better than Nino.

 

[hrotha]

Why does Rujano race so little in Europe?

 

[will10]

Why does Rujano race so little in Europe?

Because there's only the 3 GTs really (give or take) that are of more value to him than South American stage races. And there's no big stage races that Androni would be invited too after the Giro so it makes more sense for him to go back and prepare for the Vuelta a Colombia and the Clasica RCN

 

[frandy]

why is this a sticky the field is a joke nathan haas finished 15th on the climb says it all

 

[hrotha]

Because there's only the 3 GTs really (give or take) that are of more value to him than South American stage races. And there's no big stage races that Androni would be invited too after the Giro so it makes more sense for him to go back and prepare for the Vuelta a Colombia and the Clasica RCN

It makes more sense for him, but not for Androni.

 

[RedheadDane]

it's rujano's first racing days since august of 2012. if you saw today's stage review you would've sene he attacked in the beginning slopes pof the climb and then forced until only 2 riders were in his wheel. serpa and victyor nino. when nino went serpa followed and rujano dropped. serpa could also barely hang on on the steeper parts but won the sprint that was flat quite eaisly against the unexplosive victor nino

Pretty impressive that Rujano has already raced in August 2012.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

why is this a sticky the field is a joke nathan haas finished 15th on the climb says it all