Tour de Romandie 2012

[BillytheKid]

Congrats to Wiggo - a well deserved victory
*horrible ITT by LuLu- WTF was he thinking with that massive gear mashing??-he's a decent TT'er with a record to support it-today he just miscalculated the effort...

The gear can work for some. His bars where set too low and he was not on them enough. It so easy to understand??

 

[Froome19]

Huh, mountain stages? When ?
I guess clement might top 5 at the tour also

Again, this race is no indication if a GT performance at all.
please keep your feet on the ground,

PS. I'm all for hyping, just not to an unrealistic measure

This race is not much of an indication but he has proved he can climb to a certain level even if it is not up to GT standards and from what Vaughters has said about him it seems like he believes that Talansky has the necessary skills to do well in a Gt (recovery etc) and Vaughters is generally reasonably well sussed about his riders (see his predictions on Martin) so I dont think he as much a long shot to surprise in the tour as you seem to make out.

 

[Gloin22]

Wiggins has more wins this year than Cav. Who needs Cav anyway

 

[cycladianpirate]

for the sake of entertainment yep.

but really, surely no once can defend this romandie course, the stages were a joke.

You realise that this is an independently run race, right?

They rely on sponsorship from towns to host stage finishes. Short of building artificial hills on the run in to the "high street", they are rather hamstrung by local topography. Sure, they could loop a route to include a local mountain or two but what would be the point if that's followed by a 40km run-in that would lead to the inevitable chase down?

It's not like week-long stage races are drowning in cash....

 

[movingtarget]

Evans was 40th, 1.45 down

Porte gained 28 places in GC today by the way
The questionable honor of losing the most places goes to Wilco Kelderman, dropped from 7th to 30th... but considering he is a 20yo neo... I forgive him

Thanks. Sky are looking good for the Tour especially if Froome and Rogers also arrive in good condition. Porte and Wiggins have looked good all year. Sanchez hit the wall a long way from home. Reminded me of a Schleck time trial. Ugly to watch.

 

[will10]

If I preferred say, Wiggins to the sport, I would agree.
To me exciting time trial is an oxymoron.

AS LS says. The most important thing is balance: something that the past half dozen Romandies have lacked, but none more so than this edition.

Off the top of my head:
Le Tour 2007 final TT
Paris Nice Wiggins vs. Westra
both TTs in Giro 2009
Sastre v Evans 2008
Schleck v Contador 2010
Armstrong v Ullrich 2003
Cancellara Worlds 2009


I'm not saying TTs are always exciting. But to say they're always dull is equally wrong.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Cancellara Worlds 2009

Exciting? You've got to be kidding me. He was so far ahead of everybody it was ridiculous. Historic, perhaps. But exciting? No way, unless you had a wager on the margin of victory.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Porte gained 28 places in GC today by the way
The questionable honor of losing the most places goes to Wilco Kelderman, dropped from 7th to 30th... but considering he is a 20yo neo... I forgive him

What does it say about a race, that 2 domestiques, who have towed the peloton around all week, finish 4th and 5th in the GC?

 

[will10]

Exciting? You've got to be kidding me. He was so far ahead of everybody it was ridiculous. Historic, perhaps. But exciting? No way, unless you had a wager on the margin of victory.

Wiggins - Martin - Larsson battle for other medals was good.

 

[movingtarget]

Off the top of my head:
Le Tour 2007 final TT
Paris Nice Wiggins vs. Westra
both TTs in Giro 2009
Sastre v Evans 2008
Schleck v Contador 2010
Armstrong v Ullrich 2003
Cancellara Worlds 2009


I'm not saying TTs are always exciting. But to say they're always dull is equally wrong.

I agree but if you said team time trials I would probably start snoring !

 

[BillytheKid]

You realise that this is an independently run race, right?

They rely on sponsorship from towns to host stage finishes. Short of building artificial hills on the run in to the "high street", they are rather hamstrung by local topography. Sure, they could loop a route to include a local mountain or two but what would be the point if that's followed by a 40km run-in that would lead to the inevitable chase down?

It's not like week-long stage races are drowning in cash....

True enough. Town sponsors want in-town finishes. The Cali will be the same. Even Mt. Baldy is just outside LA. Big Bear is a resort town at the end of a long, but modern road. They could ad at least three more Ks of some steep climbing, but the finish is in town for the crowds and the cash.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

You realise that this is an independently run race, right?

They rely on sponsorship from towns to host stage finishes. Short of building artificial hills on the run in to the "high street", they are rather hamstrung by local topography. Sure, they could loop a route to include a local mountain or two but what would be the point if that's followed by a 40km run-in that would lead to the inevitable chase down?

It's not like week-long stage races are drowning in cash....

I understand this, but this was a very poorly constructed course.

 

[goggalor]

Wiggins - Martin - Larsson battle for other medals was good.

The 2011 battle for silver was good!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

You realise that this is an independently run race, right?

They rely on sponsorship from towns to host stage finishes. Short of building artificial hills on the run in to the "high street", they are rather hamstrung by local topography. Sure, they could loop a route to include a local mountain or two but what would be the point if that's followed by a 40km run-in that would lead to the inevitable chase down?

It's not like week-long stage races are drowning in cash....

They finished a stage in Sion. They did that in 2010, but with a much better, steeper final climb of Ovronnaz. They could have done a lot more with that stage. The Charmey stage could perhaps have made itself a bit harder by doing a few loops with the final climb. The ITT was good, however.

 

[will10]

They finished a stage in Sion. They did that in 2010, but with a much better, steeper final climb of Ovronnaz. They could have done a lot more with that stage. The Charmey stage could perhaps have made itself a bit harder by doing a few loops with the final climb. The ITT was good, however.

Exactly. Look at the last road stage of Paris Nice. They've finished there so often in the past with good parcours. Then look at the abomination they served up this year.

 

[spalco]

The CN forum whines about the parcours again!!

I fancy that the truth of the matter is that you secretly yearn for the Armstrong/Ullrich days and all that entails...

I think for most commentators (no, not all) whining like that is mostly due to riders they like losing and/or riders they don't like winning.

 

[cycladianpirate]

They finished a stage in Sion. They did that in 2010, but with a much better, steeper final climb of Ovronnaz. They could have done a lot more with that stage. The Charmey stage could perhaps have made itself a bit harder by doing a few loops with the final climb. The ITT was good, however.

OK. Fair enough. I'm only saying that the organisers have more things on their mind than organising a parcours that will completely satisfy "hard core" fans. Cut them some slack.

 

[Ferminal]

They finished a stage in Sion. They did that in 2010, but with a much better, steeper final climb of Ovronnaz. They could have done a lot more with that stage. The Charmey stage could perhaps have made itself a bit harder by doing a few loops with the final climb. The ITT was good, however.

You can easily add quite a lot of difficulty to finishes in La Chaux-de-Fonds and Sion.

 

[Red Rick]

When's the next boring stage race where only the time trial matters?

Dauphine, i don't know about the Ronde van België, you should know what the parcours is like. After DL, there is the TDF ofcourse, then the Eneco, but the Eneco will have a rider that attacks when the road kicks up

 

[El Pistolero]

Dauphine, i don't know about the Ronde van België, you should know what the parcours is like. After DL, there is the TDF ofcourse, then the Eneco, but the Eneco will have a rider that attacks when the road kicks up

Tour of Belgium has 3 flat stages, a hilly stage and a 20km time trial. Sounds boring, one might think, but these flat stages in Belgium are usually very interesting because of the wind that can cause echelons. Last year 2 flat stages of the Tour of Belgium were very entertaining because of this and the hilly stage was very spectacular.

This is also the first year I'm looking forward to the Eneco Tour. For two reasons:

- The Muur in the queen stage.
- The return of Alberto Contador.

 

[movingtarget]

Thankfully we also had the relatively exciting Tour of Turkey this week and breakaway riders dropping their chain's in the last 500 metres. I think Carlton Kirby's voice may have recovered by now !

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Congratulations to Juan José Cobo (60th overall) and Chris Froome (123rd overall) - by finishing a World Tour race they both scored their first CQ points of the year, and for Cobo, his first points in nearly 17 months of racing at Abarcá.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

How fast things can go... at the foot of the climb (after the first downhill part) Mollema had the fastest split time. He lost 1 minute on the climb and never recovered.

Mollema might just be the only dutch guy who can actually descent

 

[theyoungest]

How fast things can go... at the foot of the climb (after the first downhill part) Mollema had the fastest split time. He lost 1 minute on the climb and never recovered.

Mollema might just be the only dutch guy who can actually descent

Tankink is the best Rabo descender (according to Oscar Saiz). Now if only he could climb

 

[roundabout]

Next year it will be more of the same based on the host venues.