Tour of Britain - 11th to 18th September - Race Thread

[Ferminal]

It seems the first hill split them up already by about 30s between the heads of state and peloton.

But that was half an hour ago, probably got back together on the flat but the next climb is probably on about now.

 

[Jamsque]

Hey Dim, Brad didn't get dropped yesterday, he made the selection and was in the Albasini group going over Black Mountain but sat up on the descent to try and help Hendo chase back on.

 

[Anonymous]

hoogerland, martin and hayman off the front. Columbia i assume will chase that down as hoogerland is a threat. They should be about half an hour to 45 minutes away from Peak Hill.

 

[Ferminal]

1108: Martin Reimer (CTT) crashed on descent, picked up by race ambulance. Back injury assessed and he's now in a car but won't be riding

2 others crashed on the first descent as well (not named so I assume they are still up and going).

As far as I can tell, the Albasini group made it across the the breakaway, so there's now a reasonably large group holding a small gap on the peloton.

Edit: nvm that seems wrong, I think they all came back together, and the group up front is a whole new break.

To be honest I'm completely confused.

Anyhow, they have once again started racing very early - what is wrong with them? Isn't the ToB as prestigious as the TdF or ToC so they are actually allowing themselves to race it?

 

[Anonymous]

From what i can gather there are now two pelotons..

The front one and a second one about two minutes back.

HOogerland and 4 other riders have attacked off the front of the first peloton and have about a 10 second gap. Sky are driving that first peloton with Downing, Hayman, Hendo and Thomas which makes me think maybe Albasini isnt in the group.

edit: ok albasini is in the first main peloton.

gr hoogerland---30secs---- gr maillot jaune---- 2m ------ g2

 

[sublimit]

1108: Martin Reimer (CTT) crashed on descent, picked up by race ambulance. Back injury assessed and he's now in a car but won't be riding

2 others crashed on the first descent as well (not named so I assume they are still up and going).

As far as I can tell, the Albasini group made it across the the breakaway, so there's now a reasonably large group holding a small gap on the peloton.

Edit: nvm that seems wrong, I think they all came back together, and the group up front is a whole new break.

To be honest I'm completely confused.

Anyhow, they have once again started racing very early - what is wrong with them? Isn't the ToB as prestigious as the TdF or ToC so they are actually allowing themselves to race it?

haha, nice one. But i hope the riders that crashed are OK.

This race is turning out to be quite good, some decent terrain and s**t weather and plenty of attacking riders.

 

[dsut4392]

I hope the southern part features heavily in the highlights package, the area from Honiton down was a regular feature of my week for the year I lived in Exeter. Fond memories of road loops on a Tuesday evening down mostly quiet back roads, MTB most Friday nights at Woodbury Castle. Nice to see the Outer Ting Tong featured on the route, who couldn't like a road with that name?
Some of those hills are damn steep and narrow, and if the roads are wet descents could be dicey (though at least for the tob they should be free of hedge trimmings and oncoming transit vans!).

 

[Anonymous]

Same here, lived in exeter, worked in sidmouth and regularly rode parts of that loop around the river. Its actually a shame they arent doing the exmouth-teignmouth bit in reverse, its more fun that way. but of course that would be impossible.

 

[Ferminal]

Now we just need to know who the front 5 are. I'm surprised HTC let Hoogie get away.

 

[Anonymous]

why does the tob twitter feed seem convinced its not even 12 o clock yet?

Martin and bozic attack off the front, have 55 sec over the yellow jersey group

 

[JRanton]

Fantastic ride by Tony Martin yesterday. Hasn't been given enough credit for it.

 

[Ferminal]

Ok, so here's the rundown.

Hoogerland (VAC), Martin (GRM) and Hayman (SKY) have roughly a two minute lead, over a ~30man group containing Albasini, there are plenty of THR and SAX riders in this group who will be working to bring the escapees back.

They have probably just finished the final climb of the day

 

[Anonymous]

And albasini has punctured at least twice today that we know of.

 

[Ferminal]

Hoogerland and co. with only a minute or so with ~20km remaining.

Is that bump 5km out anything which could deter a sprint finish (Henderson and Greipel are both in the chasing group).

 

[Ferminal]

# 1504: Loads of action, people attacking everywhere, KOM and Yellow Jerseys both up the front end. 2.5km to go #tob half a minute ago via ÜberTwitter from Teignbridge, Devon

# 1501: Richie Porte (SAX) attacks at 5km to go 2 minutes ago via ÜberTwitter from Teignbridge, Devon

# 1459: VAC instigate attack containing 5 riders. Martin (GRM) caught by the bunch #tob

Still sounds like a bunch sprint though.

Edit: Nevermind, Hoogerland wins with a late attack! A VAC 1-2 in fact.

 

[Anonymous]

Ned Boulting is saying Wout Poels got it and not hoogerland as are cycling weekly and a few others, tob are saying "Provisionally, Jonny Hoogerland (VAC) won with Borut Bozic (VAC) 2nd. That's according to their DS and various others"

they are having to ask the vacon ds who won the race? good god..

edit: tob of britain are now saying that Poels won, provisionally.. which begs the question why are the vacon ds's saying hoogerland won.. sneaky ******s trying to get a time bonus?

And a 60 strong group are close to missing out on the cutoff time

 

[Ferminal]

Hey Dim, Brad didn't get dropped yesterday, he made the selection and was in the Albasini group going over Black Mountain but sat up on the descent to try and help Hendo chase back on.

Ned Boulting is saying Wout Poels got it and not hoogerland as are cycling weekly and a few others, tob are saying "Provisionally, Jonny Hoogerland (VAC) won with Borut Bozic (VAC) 2nd. That's according to their DS and various others"

they are having to ask the vacon ds who won the race? good god..

And a 60 strong group are close to missing out on the cutoff time

Yeh, it seems twitter just exploded in search of the winner...

So it was 1. Poels (VAC) 2. Bozic (VAC)

 

[Anonymous]

looks like poels, and looks like 60 riders need to get a move on to avoid elimination, although the tob use of the word technically sounds like they wont be.

 

[Ney the Viking]

how many VAC folks were there in the front breakaway? all six or something?

An update on the GC will be much appreciated when you get it!

 

[Anonymous]

Yeh, it seems twitter just exploded in search of the winner...

So it was 1. Poels (VAC) 2. Bozic (VAC)

provisionally

 

[theyoungest]

Haha, there's irony in all of this, as Hoogerland lashed out at national coach Leo van Vliet earlier about how Koen de Kort got selected for the Worlds and not him. Now Laurens ten Dam is out, and you know who will replace him? That's right, Wout Poels.

 

[Ferminal]

how many VAC folks were there in the front breakaway? all six or something?

An update on the GC will be much appreciated when you get it!

VAC, THR, SAX and SKY were all well represented in the front group of 30-40. It seems like a bit of a two-tiered race at the moment.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Haha, there's irony in all of this, as Hoogerland lashed out at national coach Leo van Vliet earlier about how Koen de Kort got selected for the Worlds and not him. Now Laurens ten Dam is out, and you know who will replace him? That's right, Wout Poels.

And well deserved. Poels had a great season. Finally a guy in Van Vliets selection I can agree on.

 

[Andy99]

What was the weather like down there today?

 

[theyoungest]

And well deserved. Poels had a great season. Finally a guy in Van Vliets selection I can agree on.

I do too. Although I'd still like to see Hoogerland at the Worlds, but not in favour of Poels. We all know who doesn't belong in the selection. His name rhymes with "snort".