Tour de Yorkshire 28/04/17 - 30/04/17 2.1

[Scarponi]

Brutal move by fraile to Close that gap!

 

[Irondan]

Fraile!! Great job! Nice win.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Nice race, good win for Pauwels and a great ride by Fraile! Fraile already looked pretty strong in LBL, so I expected him to do well here and he certainly delivered on my expectation.

 

[johnymax]

Fraile bridged like it was nothing wow

 

[Alexandre B.]

Too many dead weight in that chasing group. DD played it perfectly.

 

[Orbit501]

Top move by Fraile!

First with all the blocking behind, but then again very clever bridge to deny Hivert bonus seconds on the line.
Good racing there.

 

[Gigs_98]

What an incredibly classy ride by Fraile. A textbook example for great teamwork.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Stage

 

[Bolder]

What an incredibly classy ride by Fraile. A textbook example for great teamwork.

Definitely. Surprised no one from the chase group went with him -- but having Serge up the road meant he didn't have to work quite as hard. Lovely race, hard roads.

I really hope Bouhanni is OK. He's one of my favorites.

 

[armchairclimber]

Well done DD .... thought Thwaites would have been up there ... he was in the front rank at Shibden.
Also, well done Yorkshire

 

[TourOfSardinia]

GC

 

[the asian]

Hivert 3rd on the stage and in GC !

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Also the crowds in all the towns they entered were great! Really hope to see more racing in this part of the world. I'm looking forward to the WC already.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Ned having trouble with his maths: 2 x 4seconds bonus < 10 second bonus + finishing 6 seconds ahead.

 

[Hayabusa]

Great race. Hope the race can keep building and attract more and more of the top riders over the coming years.

 

[kev1n]

Re:

Well done DD .... thought Thwaites would have been up there ... he was in the front rank at Shibden.
Also, well done Yorkshire

He was there to take over from Bernie once he pulled off and to close down any attacks, which he did when the Direct Energie lad blew it apart. Always intended to do a support role for their Ardennes Classics riders who were clearly in top shape.

 

[Squire]

Fantastic to see Pauwels get his first pro win, almost a full 8 years after what should have been it.

 

[tobydawq]

Oh, that Giro stage. Worst DS decision ever! Utterly meaningless.

Was it to help Sastre (who didn't need help) they forced him to fall back or something like that?

 

[armchairclimber]

I know it has been repeated, but astonishing crowds today. Anyway, not my video, but someone has captured the tight bend on Shibden Wall pretty well. Stick with it until you see how hard it is on a motorbike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekbsGAiIkOc

 

[Squire]

Re:

Oh, that Giro stage. Worst DS decision ever! Utterly meaningless.

Was it to help Sastre (who didn't need help) they forced him to fall back or something like that?

If memory serves me right, Sastre was alone in the favourite group and panicked because he had no teammates. I remember Sporza did a live interview with Van Poppel in the Cervelo team car, who confirmed that Pauwels was called back because of Sastre. In all the back and forth that followed, Pauwels never actually dropped back all the way to the GC group, but to the breakaway group that was originally chasing him and Bertagnolli. Pauwels of course smoked the sprint in that group, finishing 2nd behind solo winner Bertagnolli.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Re: Re:

Oh, that Giro stage. Worst DS decision ever! Utterly meaningless.

Was it to help Sastre (who didn't need help) they forced him to fall back or something like that?

If memory serves me right, Sastre was alone in the favourite group and panicked because he had no teammates. I remember Sporza did a live interview with Van Poppel in the Cervelo team car, who confirmed that Pauwels was called back because of Sastre. In all the back and forth that followed, Pauwels never actually dropped back all the way to the GC group, but to the breakaway group that was originally chasing him and Bertagnolli. Pauwels of course smoked the sprint in that group, finishing 2nd behind solo winner Bertagnolli.

And then you have the famous bottle story, Carlos was a special character in some aspects.

Gonna do a race with him in Rebild the 2nd of September, Carlos Sastre classic, a very hilly race for Danish standards (Tour of Denmark has finished there, I think Breschel won). Imagine me going up to him and tacking smack, telling him that he won the weakest TdF in the last 30 years.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

Oh, that Giro stage. Worst DS decision ever! Utterly meaningless.

Was it to help Sastre (who didn't need help) they forced him to fall back or something like that?

If memory serves me right, Sastre was alone in the favourite group and panicked because he had no teammates. I remember Sporza did a live interview with Van Poppel in the Cervelo team car, who confirmed that Pauwels was called back because of Sastre. In all the back and forth that followed, Pauwels never actually dropped back all the way to the GC group, but to the breakaway group that was originally chasing him and Bertagnolli. Pauwels of course smoked the sprint in that group, finishing 2nd behind solo winner Bertagnolli.

Oh, yeah, that's right, he didn't even get back. That was what was so outrageous about it - I had forgotten the specifics. He was really good in that Giro, Pauwels. And two years ago in the TdF he had the second best GC time from stage 7 to stage 19 or something (of course through a lot of breakaways but still pretty impressive). And last year he was close on Mont Ventoux, so yeah, it's definitely good that he finally won something.

And then you have the famous bottle story, Carlos was a special character in some aspects.

Gonna do a race with him in Rebild the 2nd of September, Carlos Sastre classic, a very hilly race for Danish standards (Tour of Denmark has finished there, I think Breschel won). Imagine me going up to him and tacking smack, telling him that he won the weakest TdF in the last 30 years.

I think that story has eluded me. I have missed a lot of gossip by not being following here regularly, it seems.

And, well, he beat Valverde, didn't he? If only he had had his shape now in that race...

 

[Valv.Piti]

Ok, its not really a story, but Sastre was known to ALWAYS ride with one bottle, not two. That makes sense when you are riding uphill, but on a flat, eventless 220 km stage through southern France, it can get a little annoying to be a teammate of his.

And yes, Sastre beat Valverde because he sucked. Lol. Sastre did nothing that whole Tour against a super mediocre field on the best team in the race, apart from attacking on one occasion and riding a brilliant TT.

 

[tobydawq]

That seems like an odd principle. I've never really understood sportspeople when it comes to their superstitions. I'm also rolling my eyes a little every time I see a rider with one of his number 13's turned up-side down.

Well, putting 2 minutes into everybody on Alpe d'Huez is hardly an unimpressive showing, though. And it's not like his competitors like Menchov, Evans, Samu, Valverde (and dare I say Kohl in that Tour) were complete slouches either. It was a very surprising Tour victory but not an undeserved one. But it would probably not have happened, if Astana had not been in bad standings with the ASO.

 

[Squire]

Posts about those years keep reminding me how much great entertainment we missed because of the bloody Puerto (pun intended ) and the Vino bust.

A similar superstition was Rasmussen and his weight-obsessing, like having hardly any handlebar tape on his bike, and of course just one bottle cage.