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

[MatParker117]

Unleash the froome dawg!

Would love to have seen him on that stage actually.

 

[Rollthedice]

Very funny! I bet he demanded his name to be written like that.

Indeed, it seems he's making sure everybody calls him Sir at press conferences.

 

[EnacheV]

Would love to have seen him on that stage actually.

The TdF Froome not the Colorado one

Indeed, it seems he's making sure everybody calls him Sir at press conferences.

is that for real or you are being sarcastic?

 

[JRanton]

Wiggins on Tour of Britain: 'It was only 5 years ago you could sit in the bar every night til 2am. Wouldn't get away with that now.'

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Great win for Bennett. I thought he'd had his chance on the stage where he came second to Ciolek.

I never knew he could climb this well. I knew he could sprint, but had thought he was strictly a flat stage kind of rider. Turns out he maybe should focus on the kind of races where there are enough hills to get rid of most other sprinters.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

so what about stage 6 here:

Looks pretty good on paper.

Martin FTW.

 

[del1962]

Great win for Bennett. I thought he'd had his chance on the stage where he came second to Ciolek.

I never knew he could climb this well. I knew he could sprint, but had thought he was strictly a flat stage kind of rider. Turns out he maybe should focus on the kind of races where there are enough hills to get rid of most other sprinters.

Still only 22, so plenty of time ahead of him, wonder where he will be next season?

He managed to lighten up his interview aswell

 

[hayzer114]

Great win by Sam Bennett today, this lad is no joke and is going to do great things in the coming years. When he turned the bend it was always his for the taking with the field that was there. Very promising future ahead of him and riding the worlds next week will bring him on leaps and bounds. I think we will see him going to at least pro-conti level next year if not to the world tour. With Dan Martin in good form, Roche doing brilliantly in the Vuelta and Brammeier also getting a win today hopes have to be high of a strong Irish showing in the worlds next week. If only we had two more riders in the team with Deignan and either Lavery/McLaughlin/Downey we could have a had a right cut at winning the jersey.

 

[William H]

You can always trust that Sky will ruin a good race.

Wiggins trying desperately to keep up his streak of never having put his nose in the wind in any of the stage races he has won ever.

heh
"I didn't have to hit the front once really so it was a perfect day"
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...r-bradley-wiggins-in-the-tour-of-britain.html

 

[webvan]

so what about stage 6 here:

Looks pretty good on paper.

Martin FTW.

A 5k climb apparently, should be interesting!

 

[Ruudz0r]

Great win by Sam Bennett today, this lad is no joke and is going to do great things in the coming years. When he turned the bend it was always his for the taking with the field that was there. Very promising future ahead of him and riding the worlds next week will bring him on leaps and bounds. I think we will see him going to at least pro-conti level next year if not to the world tour. With Dan Martin in good form, Roche doing brilliantly in the Vuelta and Brammeier also getting a win today hopes have to be high of a strong Irish showing in the worlds next week. If only we had two more riders in the team with Deignan and either Lavery/McLaughlin/Downey we could have a had a right cut at winning the jersey.

Deignan was already certain of a spot in the team but he has a broken collarbone (crash in the ITT in the tour of britain)

 

[gooner]

Great win for Bennett. I thought he'd had his chance on the stage where he came second to Ciolek.

I never knew he could climb this well. I knew he could sprint, but had thought he was strictly a flat stage kind of rider. Turns out he maybe should focus on the kind of races where there are enough hills to get rid of most other sprinters.

Just watched a recording of the stage and I'm as surprised as you by his performance on a course like this. He looks a more rounded rider than I first thought myself. This must have been why Cycling Ireland held off in the first place from naming Brammeier as the 4th rider for the worlds.

Still only 22, so plenty of time ahead of him, wonder where he will be next season?

He managed to lighten up his interview aswell

Shane Stokes did say a number of teams are looking at him but nothing concrete yet. He will definitely at some stage be the next Irish rider at WT level but like you said, where and when is the question.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

After watching again on Eurosport, it seems that Bennett is both in top form and cocky as hell. He was the rider who followed Quintana when the Colombian attacked on the second last big climb. He gave up and drifted back to the group before the end of the climb, but it was still pretty bizarre to see a sprinter follow a Quintana attack on a climb.

He clearly does have an unusual ability to deal with hills. Certainly by the low standards of sprinters.

 

[greenedge]

Great win by Sam Bennett today, this lad is no joke and is going to do great things in the coming years. When he turned the bend it was always his for the taking with the field that was there. Very promising future ahead of him and riding the worlds next week will bring him on leaps and bounds. I think we will see him going to at least pro-conti level next year if not to the world tour. With Dan Martin in good form, Roche doing brilliantly in the Vuelta and Brammeier also getting a win today hopes have to be high of a strong Irish showing in the worlds next week. If only we had two more riders in the team with Deignan and either Lavery/McLaughlin/Downey we could have a had a right cut at winning the jersey.

Dan Martin is your only card (FTW- i doubt Roche could), your other 3 can protect him adequately/ leave him there on the last few laps. There is still a chance.

 

[gooner]

Dan Martin is your only card (FTW- i doubt Roche could), your other 3 can protect him adequately/ leave him there on the last few laps. There is still a chance.

Deignan's injury could hit them badly though. On his current form he would have been a great boost for Martin's hopes. That's where the optimism came from as the support around him was better than previous years and with an extra place. Judging by Nico's tweet a couple of weeks back, he is more than willing to work for Martin's chance for the win.

 

[Pricey_sky]

A 5k climb apparently, should be interesting!

5.8km @ 5.9%. Someone could do some damage on this one especially if the stage is raced aggressively.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

5.8km @ 5.9%. Someone could do some damage on this one especially if the stage is raced aggressively.

Given that one or both of them has attacked on pretty much every significant hill, and even on some insignificant hills, there has to be a 95% chance that Martin and Quintana will go for it again.

 

[The Hitch]

so what about stage 6 here:

Looks pretty good on paper.

Martin FTW.

Didn't the hill stages in the TOB used to finish after some descents?

Was this race designed before or after stage 7 of this years giro

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Didn't the hill stages in the TOB used to finish after some descents?

All joking aside, unfortunately, the Queen stage did exactly that today. Well, unfortunately in a sense because I'm glad Bennett won, but it would have been fun to see Martin and Quintana shoot it out for the stage win too.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Didn't the hill stages in the TOB used to finish after some descents?

Was this race designed before or after stage 7 of this years giro

I believe it was the organisers decision after last year to have a summit finish to add to the Caerphilly stage. With the race being promoted to .HC next year they do need at least 1 uphill finish.

 

[The Hitch]

All joking aside, unfortunately, the Queen stage did exactly that today. Well, unfortunately in a sense because I'm glad Bennett won, but it would have been fun to see Martin and Quintana shoot it out for the stage win too.

A descent finish after this, or a few laps around it, would probably still have them fighting for the win.

I believe it was the organisers decision after last year to have a summit finish to add to the Caerphilly stage. With the race being promoted to .HC next year they do need at least 1 uphill finish.

**** me, as if I hadn't heard of enough ridiculous UCI rules.

Looks a lot harder on the above profile than the one in your OP though.

IMO TOB should just have one full out Ardennes stage every year. I don't care if the other 6 are sprints. 20 mur d huy level climbs. Maybe even laps of some hard circuit like the Tour of Poland does every year.

Being a race with no wt points on offer, such a stage would be so much more likely to produce carnage, since teams wont go on the front to defend that 10th place.

 

[Pricey_sky]

Looks a lot harder on the above profile than the one in your OP though.

IMO TOB should just have one full out Ardennes stage every year. I don't care if the other 6 are sprints. 20 mur d huy level climbs. Maybe even laps of some hard circuit like the Tour of Poland does every year.
.

Yes it does look harder in the above profile but it averages less than 6% for the whole climb.

I agree with you regarding the classics type stage, you could have this located in Cumbria, South Wales, Exmoor or Dartmoor and would feature some very tough climbs. I won't hold my breath for this to ever happen though especially as the usual suspects of London, Guilford and Stoke ect keep pumping the money in.

 

[Frosty]

Yes it does look harder in the above profile but it averages less than 6% for the whole climb.

I agree with you regarding the classics type stage, you could have this located in Cumbria, South Wales, Exmoor or Dartmoor and would feature some very tough climbs. I won't hold my breath for this to ever happen though especially as the usual suspects of London, Guilford and Stoke ect keep pumping the money in.

You could make a classics style stage in the Surrey hills and finish in Guildford.

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

You could make a classics style stage in the Surrey hills and finish in Guildford.

They could have had a fantastic classics style stage today with the climbs around Widecombe, Poundsgate and Dartmeet, thankfully for the organisers they have designed a stage which the Sky train should be able to control fairly easily. Martin will outsprint Quintana for the stage win today but there shouldn't be big gaps as the climb isn't hard enough.

 

[willbick]

I wouldn't be too hard on the ToB for being too easy for Sir Brad and Sky to control. Dont forget they did exactly the same thing in the tour de france last year, and they've got the alps and pyranees to play with!