Tour de San Luis 2012, 7ª Etapa: San Luis - San Luis (167 km)

[roundabout]

Something must have happened in the last 3km I would guess.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

Something must have happened in the last 3km I would guess.

If it was any other rider I wouldn't have asked. Seems a bit convenient, though. Local guy, a surprise 3rd on GC, etc.

 

[maltiv]

I think a lot of people underestimate how fast Boonen still is. Back in his glory days he could always count on a good train and leadout, the last few years he had to deal with injuries and he didn't have a train anymore. Boonen isn't the best when it comes to positioning him self in a sprint, that's why he would benefit greatly from a leadout train. Now QS have the resources to put up a great sprinting train, perhaps the strongest one in the peloton if they bring their A team. Peter and Martin Velits, Tony Martin, Francesco Chichi, Matt Brammeier, Gerald Ciolek, Gert Steegmans and Bert Grabsch can form a decent leadout train for Boonen.

I even saw some people on this forum argue that Cancellara was faster than Boonen nowadays

Tom Boonen has been very fast in the beginning of the season the last couple of years without showing anything later in the season, so I wouldn't read too much into this.

 

[Stingray34]

Hooray for Tommeke!

I just like saying Tommeke

 

[El Pistolero]

Tom Boonen has been very fast in the beginning of the season the last couple of years without showing anything later in the season, so I wouldn't read too much into this.

Did you even read my post? I explained why Boonen usually sucks in sprints. I'm not even saying Boonen will be the second best sprinter after Cavendish, I'm just saying speedwise he still belongs to the top. But his positioning skills are pretty horrible and he's afraid of sprints ever since his heavy crashes.

He didn't do much last couple of seasons because he had knee injuries and other stuff.

 

[cineteq]

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Startlingly good results for OPQS even it if is a smallish race.

 

[El Pistolero]

Startlingly good results for OPQS even it if is a smallish race.

Yeah, last year they won Nokere Koerse, stage in Qatar and G-W lol. So it's definitely an improvement to already have 5 victories in January.

(not counting nats, but they did win the French national nats and whatever country Marc de Maar now comes from)

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Did you even read my post? I explained why Boonen usually sucks in sprints. I'm not even saying Boonen will be the second best sprinter after Cavendish, I'm just saying speedwise he still belongs to the top. But his positioning skills are pretty horrible and he's afraid of sprints ever since his heavy crashes.

He didn't do much last couple of seasons because he had knee injuries and other stuff.

His explanation still fits what you posted. Speed in a sprint is relative, so the early form explanation works just as well as assuming he's very quick but **** at everything else to do with sprinting.

Personally I don't have much skin in the game, although I don't see much evidence for believing Boonen is all that quick.

Just now hoping Guardini is very very very over-weight at the moment to give himself an excuse. What with this sprint failure, and the current headline news in the clinic, Cav's exciting new competition has had a bad last couple of hours.

 

[El Pistolero]

His explanation still fits what you posted. Speed in a sprint is relative, so the early form explanation works just as well as assuming he's very quick but **** at everything else to do with sprinting.

Personally I don't have much skin in the game, although I don't see much evidence for believing Boonen is all that quick.

Just now hoping Guardini is very very very over-weight at the moment to give himself an excuse. What with this sprint failure, and the current headline news in the clinic, Cav's exciting new competition has had a bad last couple of hours.

Proof he's still quick is when he beat Bennati, Greipel and Farrar at G-W. So I think my explanation is more plausible. But don't worry, Cavendish will still beat Boonen all the time and Greipel will beat him most of the time

 

[maltiv]

Just now hoping Guardini is very very very over-weight at the moment to give himself an excuse. What with this sprint failure, and the current headline news in the clinic, Cav's exciting new competition has had a bad last couple of hours.

I doubt Guardini sheds many tears for "only" sprinting to 2nd and 3rd in January in a fairly insignificant bike race. He probably wants to peak later in the season this year.

 

[will10]

I doubt Guardini sheds many tears for "only" sprinting to 2nd and 3rd in January in a fairly insignificant bike race. He probably wants to peak later in the season this year.

+1

They've got their Giro invite, that's gotta be the goal, not Langkawi stages again

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

He didn't do much last couple of seasons because he had knee injuries and other stuff.

Yes, and he says he's now healthy (so far). So here's hoping Tommeke regains old form to win at least one classic this spring.

So the old dog gets the bone now. But later if AC is allowed to race it'll be today's dog getting AC's (or someone else's) table scraps. Anyway, nice job by Levi, who has done well by getting himself into early season form. Congrats!

 

[Richeypen]

Diaz looks evens smaller than Rujano

 

[El Pistolero]

Levi's blog:

http://www.omegapharma-quickstep.co...thanks-to-my-teammates-staff-and-argentina/87

 

[nowhereman]

Specialized Bikes take 6 out of 7 stages. Climbing (SL4), Sprinting (Venge), ITT (Shiv). Mighty impressive!

 

[Publicus]

Specialized Bikes take 6 out of 7 stages. Climbing (SL4), Sprinting (Venge), ITT (Shiv). Mighty impressive!

Contador DOESN'T ride the SL4. He's still riding the SL3 (don't know why and Specialized hasn't responded to inquiries--not that they know me from a hole in the wall ). But Specialized had a good week.

 

[greenedge]

Congrats to Levi. Levi i think is one of those riders who can cling in the mountains, then can smash in the ITT's. I think he can win P-N this year ( though the Mountain ITT might be hard )

Nice win by Boonen.

 

[Cimber]

Thats it Boonen, now go smoke Fabian and the others in april. Would really love for Boonen to get his revenge.

 

[taiwan]

9th on GC is a nice result for Chavanel at this stage in the season. Lets hope it bodes well for the classics.

OPQS come out of this looking really strong, and Martin hasn't even started racing yet...

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

9th on GC is a nice result for Chavanel at this stage in the season. Lets hope it bodes well for the classics.

OPQS come out of this looking really strong, and Martin hasn't even started racing yet...

I wouldn't get carried away.

We've just seen that Levi can win races others don't target, and Chicchi can look amazingly good in January/February - i.e. nothing new.

Unless we think this shows us that Levi is a serious contender to Alberto, or Boonen will be a top sprinter again, I'm not sure its really shown anything unexpected.

Nontheless, the squad this year is clearly a lot lot better than last year (although I don't really expect anyone other than Tony to win anything big for them).

 

[theyoungest]

Specialized Bikes take 6 out of 7 stages. Climbing (SL4), Sprinting (Venge), ITT (Shiv). Mighty impressive!

Who cares, if they rode on Ridleys the result would have been the same.

 

[trevim]

Congrats to Levi. Levi i think is one of those riders who can cling in the mountains, then can smash in the ITT's. I think he can win P-N this year ( though the Mountain ITT might be hard )

Nice win by Boonen.

I think the mountain TT is the Col d'Eze which is 9.6km@4.7%. It might be good for a Levi type of rider and not for a pure climber.

 

[theyoungest]

Congrats to Levi. Levi i think is one of those riders who can cling in the mountains, then can smash in the ITT's. I think he can win P-N this year ( though the Mountain ITT might be hard )

Nice win by Boonen.

Vuelta a España, Stage 20 : La Granja de San Ildefonso - Alto de Navacerrada I.T.T. (17.1 km) 20/09/2008

1. [USA] LEIPHEIMER Levi AST 33'06"
2. [ESP] CONTADOR VELASCO Alberto AST 31"
3. [ESP] VALVERDE BELMONTE Alejandro GCE 31"

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

New question then, if we're taking performances from a 34 year old as a guide to a 38 year old.

At what point are Levi's legs going to simply give way. He's at the age Lance just didn't have anything left now.