Tour Méditerranéen Cycliste Professionnel 2014 (2.1), Feb 13 - 16

[Cyivel]

Cummings a second up on Zoidl at the intermediate.

 

[jens_attacks]

and cummings, no surprise, has the best time at the finish

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Chava behind at Int.

 

[jens_attacks]

ludvigsson, my pick , 5th very good but not super

 

[Cyivel]

Chava goes 3rd fastest.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Lulu collapsed.

Zoidl the big surprise for me

 

[Cyivel]

1 CUMMINGS Steven GBR BMC Racing Team 00:24:27
2 ZOIDL Riccardo AUT TREK FACTORY Racing 00:24:31
3 CHAVANEL Sylvain FRA IAM Cycling 00:24:37
4 PERAUD Jean-Christophe FRA AG2R - LA MONDIALE 00:24:42
5 SEPULVEDA Eduardo ARG BRETAGNE - SÉCHÉ 00:25:01
6 LUDVIGSSON Tobias SWE GIANT - SHIMANO 00:25:02
7 JUNGELS Bob LUX TREK FACTORY Racing 00:25:04
8 HERMANS Ben BEL BMC Racing Team 00:25:10
9 ROY Jérémy FRA FDJ.fr 00:25:11
10 DEGAND Thomas BEL WANTY - Groupe GOBERT 00:25:13
11 DELAPLACE Anthony FRA BRETAGNE - SÉCHÉ 00:25:16
12 PHINNEY Taylor USA BMC Racing Team 00:25:17
13 SICARD Romain FRA Team EUROPCAR 00:25:18
14 SANCHEZ GIL Luis Leon ESP CAJA RURAL - Seguros RGA 00:25:20
15 SILIN Egor RUS Team KATUSHA 00:25:22
16 PIRAZZI Stefano ITA BARDIANI - CSF 00:25:23
17 FELLINE Fabio ITA TREK FACTORY Racing 00:25:23
18 GENIEZ Alexandre FRA FDJ.fr 00:25:28
19 EIJSSEN Yannick BEL BMC Racing Team 00:25:29
20 PREIDLER Georg AUT GIANT - SHIMANO 00:25:30
21 LARSSON Gustav Erik SWE IAM Cycling 00:25:31
22 FEDRIGO Pierrick FRA FDJ.fr 00:25:35
23 BRUTT Pavel RUS Team KATUSHA 00:25:37
24 ROUX Anthony FRA FDJ.fr 00:25:39
25 GERARD Arnaud FRA BRETAGNE - SÉCHÉ 00:25:40

 

[Dazed and Confused]

1 CUMMINGS Steven GBR BMC Racing Team 00:24:27
2 ZOIDL Riccardo AUT TREK FACTORY Racing 00:24:31
3 CHAVANEL Sylvain FRA IAM Cycling 00:24:37
4 PERAUD Jean-Christophe FRA AG2R - LA MONDIALE 00:24:42
5 SEPULVEDA Eduardo ARG BRETAGNE - SÉCHÉ 00:25:01
6 LUDVIGSSON Tobias SWE GIANT - SHIMANO 00:25:02
7 JUNGELS Bob LUX TREK FACTORY Racing 00:25:04
8 HERMANS Ben BEL BMC Racing Team 00:25:10
9 ROY Jérémy FRA FDJ.fr 00:25:11
10 DEGAND Thomas BEL WANTY - Groupe GOBERT 00:25:13

Peiper pep talk and detective Julich at work.

Sets up the Faron stage very nicely.

 

[Bakhjulet]

Good ride Ludvigsson! 6th place for the youngster, he is steadily improving.

 

[Kazistuta]

This one will be Zoidls tomorrow ..... hopefully

I think only the first four have a chance for the overall. Sepulveda and Zoidl are the best "pure" climbers, but how will the diesel boys Cummings and Chavanel hold up?

 

[Dazed and Confused]

This one will be Zoidls tomorrow ..... hopefully

I think only the first four have a chance for the overall. Sepulveda and Zoidl are the best "pure" climbers, but how will the diesel boys Cummings and Chavanel hold up?

Not sure I would put Zoidl in the "pure" climber category, but I haven't seen him much on TV.

Last stage:

Starts 11:00 (CET) and ends around 16:00.

 

[Bakhjulet]

Peraud is in a good position, he can win this.

 

[Arredondo]

Betancur already good with his current condition. He will be in shape for the classics.

 

[hoerpi]

Ludvigsson got a flat tyre and had to do the last 7 kilometers on a road bike. He sure is in good form!

 

[maltiv]

Ludvigsson got a flat tyre and had to do the last 7 kilometers on a road bike. He sure is in good form!

Woah, that's insane

 

[Bakhjulet]

Ludvigsson got a flat tyre and had to do the last 7 kilometers on a road bike. He sure is in good form!

Oh ****! Bike change and a road bike. He would have been around Chava's time otherwise I guess. Impressed.

 

[Bakhjulet]

From Giant-Shimano homepage:

Tobias Ludvigsson finished the stage 4 time trial of the Tour Méditerranéen in sixth but it could have been a lot better had he not punctured and changed bikes.

He had to take drastic action to avoid crashing on a descent in the second half of the race. He went through the first time check second fastest and looked to challenge for the win but a puncture from his near miss and a subsequent bike change saw him lose vital seconds.

Despite riding the last 7km on his road bike, Tobias finished in sixth just 35 seconds behind stage winner Stephen Cummings (BMC).

Georg Preidler rode a strong race to finish in 20th and Dries Devenyns made it three Team Giant-Shimano riders in the top 30. John Degenkolb finished in 41st position and passes the leader’s jersey to Cummings.

“I’m really disappointed because I felt great, the bike felt super fast and I was in a really good rhythm,” said Tobias after the stage.

“I went a bit too fast round one of the corners on the descent but hit something. I managed to stay up but my wheel was flat immediately. It’s hard to get back into it after a bike change, but that’s racing. I still have to overall to go for tomorrow though so it’s not over yet.”

“That was a real shame because I really think that Tobias could have won that,” said coach Marc Reef. “He was going really fast but nearly lost on one of the corners and hit something.

“He only lost 30 seconds between the bike change with 7km to go and the finish, and that was riding a road bike. That shows how strong he was. It is great to see that all the hard work put in by both Tobias and the team’s coaches and experts over the winter is paying off.”

http://www.teamgiantshimano.com/2014/02/tobias-ludvigsson-6th-tour-mediterraneen-time-trial/

 

[Arredondo]

Oh ****! Bike change and a road bike. He would have been around Chava's time otherwise I guess. Impressed.

He could have won, because he was only 1/2 seconds slower then Cummings when the accident happen.

 

[Kwibus]

He could have won, because he was only 1/2 seconds slower then Cummings when the accident happen.

He could've won it indeed, but he was the one almost crashing in a corner which caused the flat. So it's kind of his own fault.

Despite he's showing great promiss this year. Last year he did well, but didn't show glimpses of greatness. This year he does, allthough it's still early in the season.

 

[Arredondo]

He could've won it indeed, but he was the one almost crashing in a corner which caused the flat. So it's kind of his own fault.

Despite he's showing great promiss this year. Last year he did well, but didn't show glimpses of greatness. This year he does, allthough it's still early in the season.

Depends on what your definition is of greatness. For some people, finishing 4th on a tough Giro-stage like Firenze, is just as good as winning Besseges.

 

[jens_attacks]

wow i knew that normally he should have done better pure bad luck

 

[roundabout]

This one will be Zoidls tomorrow ..... hopefully

I think only the first four have a chance for the overall. Sepulveda and Zoidl are the best "pure" climbers, but how will the diesel boys Cummings and Chavanel hold up?

Nice pun there.

 

[Christian]

Well, that was a very long day, but a lot of fun. First ride I did in a long time and I suffered like a pig but it was worth every minute.

First about the race: sadly I missed the morning stage, it had already finished when I arrived in St. Rémy shortly before noon. I had made an unintentional detour, otherwise I think I would have made it. Anyways I didn't miss much, though it's always nice to see the ceremony after. At first my plan was to watch on the climb, because I thought there might be some attacks or a breakaway, but later in the day a guy showed me some footage that he'd shot on the climb in the morning, and the peloton was all together "en file indienne" as they say in France.

In general I must say I completely overestimated this climb, respectively underestimated pro cyclists' capabilities, even if they are not climbers. Basically this was a piece of cake for most of them. I was on the climb in the afteroon for the time trial, and I was really impressed because it was the first time I have seen a professional race on a longer climb (at all the other races I've been to, I was never on a climb). Light-speed compared to my snail-speed.

For the results, it is an odd mixture but I suppose that is to be expected for an early season race. I think it will be hard to beat Cummings tomorrow - after all, he is "the guy who beat Contador that one time". Unless Zoidl is in really good shape, which his great result suggests.

 

[Christian]

What was nice was that most riders did a warm-up/recon lap of the TT. I was going up on the side where they descended, so I came across quite a few. Was pretty cool.

There were a lot of people on the climb, which was also nice. Nothing compared to Alpe d'Huez of course, but for an unimportant February race it was definitely a lot. I had a nice spot, where an official photographer and his moto-driver also made camp. They gave us a list of who was starting when, and the moto driver even got updates about the times through the radio on his moto. There was also a group of funny old french cyclists, and I met a lady who said her brother rode four Tours with Bernard Hinault, and was currently in Qatar because he now works as a driver for Hinault.

Well I didn't stay that long because I had to go on to Arles to catch my train back home and I wasn't sure how long that would take me. Turns out it wasn't long at all. But also it was quite windy and a little cold. I was surprised to see so many riders choose discs because especially at the top of the climb it was very windy. But I guess that must have been the only windy part then.

So I only saw the first 30 riders or so I would say. Some "famous" riders that I saw were Thomas Voeckler (crowd went wild), Thor Hushovd and Christophe Kern.

 

[Christian]

This is where I stood (village of Les Baux in the background)

Riders came by every now and then who were training, before the racing started

The race is on

Some riders chose not to use a disc