Tour de Romandie 2012

[maltiv]

Indeed, Cav isn't bad in prolgoues. Even Hushvod can do them well ocassioanlly

Even Hushovd? At his time, he was one of the best prologue riders in the world. In 2006 he won the prologue in TDF and he has also won prologues in P-N, Dauphine, Catalunya...

 

[Gloin22]

Even Hushovd? At his time, he was one of the best prologue riders in the world. In 2006 he won the prologue in TDF and he has also won prologues in P-N, Dauphine, Catalunya...

I was joking a bit ^^ All of the sprinter guys can do great prologues, especially <3km. Farrar, Cav, Boonen, Hushvod are likes of many. Basically its not big deal if he does well. Cav couldn't do as close to as well in 10km even, so yeah ^^

 

[Mellow Velo]

Oh dear.
I rarely agree with El P, almost never over Cav, but this time he appears to be the voice of reason.
Ex-trackie sprinter that Cav is should go well on a downhill 3km course.
Heck, he's gone better and won the Romandie PL in the past.

 

[Froome19]

Even Hushovd? At his time, he was one of the best prologue riders in the world. In 2006 he won the prologue in TDF and he has also won prologues in P-N, Dauphine, Catalunya...

Yeh and (nowadays) he is barely a proper sprinter anyway, but rather a rider who is supposed to do well in cobbled classics, harder finishes (and tour mountain stages)

 

[Froome19]

Oh dear.
I rarely agree with El P, almost never over Cav, but this time he appears to be the voice of reason.
Ex-trackie sprinter that Cav is should go well on a downhill 3km course.
Heck, he's gone better and won the Romandie PL in the past.

Yeh of course but for whatever reason he does well in prologues the bottom line is that he did well and sometimes does well in them; so his talents are not solely limited to sprinting but rather to other aspects of the sport, even if he is utilising his sprinting talents.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Ex-trackie sprinter that Cav is should go well on a downhill 3km course.

Correct, he should, and he did. Yet I don't recall his name appearing once earlier in this thread when we were all naming our likely favourites. Nobody expected a result as impressive as that, but it's easy to maintain we did with hindsight, of course.

 

[pmcg76]

Correct, he should, and he did. Yet I don't recall his name appearing once earlier in this thread when we were all naming our likely favourites. Nobody expected a result as impressive as that, but it's easy to maintain we did with hindsight, of course.

You do realise it rained for all the guys at the end of the field, I think only maybe one of the last 20/30 guys finished top 10.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Oh dear.
I rarely agree with El P, almost never over Cav, but this time he appears to be the voice of reason.
Ex-trackie sprinter that Cav is should go well on a downhill 3km course.
Heck, he's gone better and won the Romandie PL in the past.

torres scored, messi missed a penalty and you agree with el p, the end of the world is nigh.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Correct, he should, and he did. Yet I don't recall his name appearing once earlier in this thread when we were all naming our likely favourites. Nobody expected a result as impressive as that, but it's easy to maintain we did with hindsight, of course.

Hindsight is wonderful.
On another forum, I picked Geraint ftw, thinking 3kms, few corners, NWR pursuit form...............then, at the last minute, changed to last year's surprise winner.

As for Cav, I thought he'd go quite well, too, but having had a break from racing......

So, in that context 3rd was a bit better than expected, but off course, the rain played a part, too.

Imo, just warming his Giro legs, this week.

torres scored, messi missed a penalty and you agree with el p, the end of the world is nigh.

I know.
Something definitely wrong, somewhere.

 

[El Pistolero]

Cav sucks.

There, I saved the world, you can thank me later.

 

[Frosty]

Any thoughts on the finish tomorrow? There is a climb with 10km to go that looks pretty steep - maybe one for a team to pile the pressure on and hope they can drop Cav and that Sky will have too much to do looking after Thomas, Wiggins etc to worry too much about bringing him back. There is a 2nd cat a bit earlier too. Then again, Cav's performance in the prologue suggests he might be in good form and that he wont be that easy to drop - if the pace is that high that the pure sprinters get dropped then maybe GT will have another chance...

Wonder how much Sky will chase to keep the jersey? They have designs on the overall so will want to remain strong for later stages but there are only 4 stages so they will probably be quite active in chasing the break down. Bound to be someone else who fancies the sprint finish and so will chase the break too. Maybe one for Meersman?

 

[Angliru]

Yeh of course but for whatever reason he does well in prologues the bottom line is that he did well and sometimes does well in them; so his talents are not solely limited to sprinting but rather to other aspects of the sport, even if he is utilising his sprinting talents.

So to you, him, a sprinter, doing well in a discipline that sprinters normally do well in is an indication of his versatility?

 

[greenedge]

Congrats to Thomas.

Nizzolo and Cav also did well.

Upset that Cadel has lost so much time.

 

[movingtarget]

Congrats to Thomas.

Nizzolo and Cav also did well.

Upset that Cadel has lost so much time.

The last thing that Evans wants is a stupid crash at this stage of the season. His team gave him the right advice and he admitted after that he would not have challenged the best riders.

 

[will10]

Yeh of course but for whatever reason he does well in prologues the bottom line is that he did well and sometimes does well in them; so his talents are not solely limited to sprinting but rather to other aspects of the sport, even if he is utilising his sprinting talents.

Most sprinters can ride good prologues - Cavendish, Boonen, Farrar, Bennati, Hushovd etc.

 

[Swifty's Cakes]

So to you, him, a sprinter, doing well in a discipline that sprinters normally do well in is an indication of his versatility?

ahh come on, you can give us Cav fans this little crumb.

 

[maltiv]

Most sprinters can ride good prologues - Cavendish, Boonen, Farrar, Bennati, Hushovd etc.

Hushovd shouldn't really be included in this context, as he originally was a time trial specialist who suddenly decided he was a sprinter.

But yes, most sprinters would have been able to do well in a 3km technical prologue. Nothing new there.

 

[roundabout]

Any thoughts on the finish tomorrow? There is a climb with 10km to go that looks pretty steep - maybe one for a team to pile the pressure on and hope they can drop Cav and that Sky will have too much to do looking after Thomas, Wiggins etc to worry too much about bringing him back. There is a 2nd cat a bit earlier too. Then again, Cav's performance in the prologue suggests he might be in good form and that he wont be that easy to drop - if the pace is that high that the pure sprinters get dropped then maybe GT will have another chance...

Wonder how much Sky will chase to keep the jersey? They have designs on the overall so will want to remain strong for later stages but there are only 4 stages so they will probably be quite active in chasing the break down. Bound to be someone else who fancies the sprint finish and so will chase the break too. Maybe one for Meersman?

Both climbs in the last 30km are reasonably steep, but not particularly long (3.7km 8.3% and 1.7km 7.4%). Normally I would say that aggressive riding would be enough to get rid of more badly climbing sprinters, but now I am less certain of that.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the last few kilometers after Le Locle are basically dead straight, so a well organized group behind should have no problems chasing down any attackers.

So all in all it's probably more of stage for people like Matthews (don't know about his form, but just going from the profile), Davis etc than Cavendish

 

[theyoungest]

Both climbs in the last 30km are reasonably steep, but not particularly long (3.7km 8.3% and 1.7km 7.4%). Normally I would say that aggressive riding would be enough to get rid of more badly climbing sprinters, but now I am less certain of that.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the last few kilometers after Le Locle are basically dead straight, so a well organized group behind should have no problems chasing down any attackers.

So all in all it's probably more of stage for people like Matthews (don't know about his form, but just going from the profile), Davis etc than Cavendish

It's the same finish where Evans and Gilbert did a tandem attack on the descent a few years ago. And where Freire won.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I think I remember that climb too. It has a very nasty steep section (way above the average 7%) and selection is very much possible. But usually there's always a group returning and good sprinters can survive.

 

[search]

It's the same finish where Evans and Gilbert did a tandem attack on the descent a few years ago. And where Freire won.

no, it's not, that year they did neither of the climbs they do today

Edit: I'm wrong, they did the 3rd category climb (wich developed to a 2nd category climb today), but not the one before

Edit 2: now i've confused myself totally...correct is: the last ~20k are the same (Le Communal was a 2nd category climb in 2009, now it's a 3rd category climb), but in 2009 they did a different climb before

 

[classicomano]

So apparently Astana got raided yesterday by UCI inspectors before the prologue on doping suspicions

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

So apparently Astana got raided yesterday by UCI inspectors before the prologue on doping suspicions

uci showing again how idiotic they are

 

[search]

Menchov and Westra already abandoned the race

 

[Fetisoff]

Menchov and Westra already abandoned the race

ME MAAAD