Tour of Britain 15/09 - 22/09/13 (2.1)

[willbick]

Lets hope they at least got some good shots of Van Hoff !

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Too many passengers in the break...

Nice try by Garmin, but way too late.

Congrats to Cav.

 

[manafana]

A bunch of cameramen sat taking photos 25 metres after the finish line directly in the path of the riders. Could have been a terrible incident. Idiots.

yeah hate that about pro cycling letting cameramen line up just after line would be much better if the road curved away at line so they could take photos from that corner rather than be on actual road.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

manx missile ...

Cav now has a new rival

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-24133410

Sebastiaan Bowier claims to have broken the record for the World Human Powered Speed Challenge in Nevada

 

[jens_attacks]

for a moment i though that the stage was ridden on galibier or some alpine pass lol. beautiful views and chapeau martin and nairito! also i kind of missed seeing wiggo closing a gap on the climbers, though it will never happen again. very good race so far

 

[VO2 Max]

Is it a mountain or a hill though?!?!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Englishman_Who_Went_Up_a_Hill_But_Came_Down_a_Mountain

That film is based in a fictionalised version of the village where I live; whenever I need to explain where we are to someone who doesn't know Wales I always reference that film, but it turns out hardly anyone has seen it! It's interesting that they call it the "first mountain in Wales" because there's some debate locally as to whether Monmouthshire to the east of here has always been Wales or was England until the last few decades. They have higher hills there but at least we can wind them up by calling them English.

[Sort of back on topic]The hill/mountain in the film is the Garth, which is the ridge on the other side of the valley from Caerphilly Mt which they race up tomorrow. I ride over that hill at least once a week but looking at the forecast I might stay in and watch it on Eurosport tomorrow...

 

[manafana]

so whos this medium stage tommorow ciolek to hang on with cav or will quintana and martin light it up?

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

Great to see the pro's racing in North Wales. There was a strong headwind up Pen-y-Pass, so thank you Dan Martin for animating the climb because I'm not sure anybody else would have tried. I was near the top so didn't see Martin going for it, but I got a good view of Bauer's attack and Sir Brad in uphill pursuit mode. It was obvious Sky had had a hard day when Hayman then Eisel rolled past minutes behind the peloton. Also cool to see Madrazo in the break.

 

[CycloAndy]

It was obvious Sky had had a hard day when Hayman then Eisel rolled past minutes behind the peloton

The amount of work Eisel was doing really made me question why they didn't pick him for a GT.

 

[willbick]

any thoughts for stage 5? i envisage a select group of about 10 riders over the top of caerphilly mtn 2nd time round. Martin, Quintana, Wiggo, Stannard, Pirazzi, Yates..... and Ciolek for the win if he can just hang on

 

[willbick]

The amount of work Eisel was doing really made me question why they didn't pick him for a GT.

i guess sky dont need so many roulers in a GT when they know the strong sprint trains are gonna do a lot of the donkey work on the flat. its in the climbs where the GTs are won and eisel is not a climber. maybe these days he's not pushing out big enough numbers for GT selection but he can still do a job in a lesser race like ToB

 

[Pricey_sky]

very close, 5 more meters and cavendish would have lost, started to early

He always kept the advantage until he sat up with a few metres to go to celebrate the win. Viviani came out of the slipstream but made no inroads so had to try and duck back into Cav's wheel again. By then it's too late and Cav wins easy.

 

[wirral]

Those cameramen have been far too close to the line and far too far out into the road on every single stage. I don't think they get it. The organisers need to make it safer.

 

[greenedge]

And Viviani almost caused Von Hoff to crash too

Martin for tomorrow?

 

[TourOfSardinia]

slightly OT but

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/video/2013/sep/18/mark-cavendish-british-cycling-video

Cav talks improvement in British cycling...

 

[willbick]

obviously Martin will have a go today but I dont think its hard enough for him to get a big enough gap to hold on to the finish. Same goes for quintana. Ciolek will win if he can hang on in touch. Might be a bit too much though for ciolek

 

[JRanton]

i guess sky dont need so many roulers in a GT when they know the strong sprint trains are gonna do a lot of the donkey work on the flat. its in the climbs where the GTs are won and eisel is not a climber. maybe these days he's not pushing out big enough numbers for GT selection but he can still do a job in a lesser race like ToB

You say that but I fancy Eisel would have saved Froome from losing that 1min 9 seconds in the crosswinds at the Tour.

EDIT - Saying that perhaps if there had been a fit Thomas and EBH had still been in the race that might have been enough. Although neither are great at positioning themselves.

 

[JRanton]

any thoughts for stage 5? i envisage a select group of about 10 riders over the top of caerphilly mtn 2nd time round. Martin, Quintana, Wiggo, Stannard, Pirazzi, Yates..... and Ciolek for the win if he can just hang on

I think Simon Yates will really show himself today. He looked really ''easy'' moving up on the last climb yesterday when the action kicked off.

 

[coinneach]

And Viviani almost caused Von Hoff to crash too

Martin for tomorrow?

Should Viviani not be sanctioned for that swerve?

 

[sucotash]

Is this the right profile of the final climb ?

 

[JRanton]

Is this the right profile of the final climb ?

Looks like it. What an absolute beast it is! L'Angliru is a piece of cake in comparison.

 

[JRanton]

Rojas abandons.

 

[Ferminal]

Nah, it's harder than that.

 

[Ferminal]

http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?Col=Caerphilly-Mountain&qryMountainID=14533

That is the steep part, there is a false flat lead in too.

 

[cocteau_ireland]

Carefully does it Dan