Tour of Qatar - Prologue: Cultural Village 2km

[Kwibus]

keep it in the pants!

He won. woohoo

Poor Cav though. He's not very lucky this year. Looks like he had a nasty crash.

 

[palmerq]

cavendish should have had a sprint with boonen in the last 200 meters there :S...

 

[auscyclefan94]

Boom Boom Pow!

 

[ScottyMuser]

Stupid commentators, there is a different reason why they are not allowed to ride time trial bikes, just like the tour of Turkey, it is to ensure that smaller teams who cannot afford it that easy to ship two types of bikes or who do not have time trial bikes can still enter the race

thats what they said, well they did on eurosport which i have been watching

 

[Hugo Koblet]

I must be the worst sports bettor of all time

 

[Barrus]

First international Dutch win in the road racing season

 

[Ferminal]

what was pozzato's time?

Haha it was awful, 80th place or something.

2/4 for me today but ended up...

Got a couple of good results for my overall bets too though (Bos v Chicchi and GvA v Burghardt).

 

[Barrus]

thats what they said, well they did on eurosport which i have been watching

Strange, they said something different on the stream I was listening to

 

[Kwibus]

Stupid commentators, there is a different reason why they are not allowed to ride time trial bikes, just like the tour of Turkey, it is to ensure that smaller teams who cannot afford it that easy to ship two types of bikes or who do not have time trial bikes can still enter the race

Thanks for the info. I wasn't aware of this and thought that a TT bike on this technical course was a bad idea.

 

[Francois the Postman]

Are they having a podium presentation? The winner, 2 girls and am official will be the biggest group of people I have seen so far.

Excellent, strong winds tomorrow. Who needs hills!

 

[Mellow Velo]

20 CQ points for a glorified bike throwing contest.
A pity for young Alex Dowsett, as points only given to a miserly first 4.

Now all we need is a Torfeo Palma race feed.....

 

[ScottyMuser]

Strange, they said something different on the stream I was listening to

well they said something random first,but then the other commentator (can't remember which one was which) brought up the fact it was expensive to ship 2 sets of bikes out for the smaller european teams, brought up the Tour of Langkawi and the Asian teams not having tt bikes if they hadn't the money etc

 

[the student]

it would have been a bad idea... there was harly time to get in position ... and tight turning on a time trial bike is a lot harder

 

[Barrus]

well they said something random first,but then the other commentator (can't remember which one was which) brought up the fact it was expensive to ship 2 sets of bikes out for the smaller european teams, brought up the Tour of Langkawi and the Asian teams not having tt bikes if they hadn't the money etc

Aah, perhaps I zoned out after the random stuff as I was annoyed by that explanation because it made no sense what so ever

 

[Kwibus]

Strange, they said something different on the stream I was listening to

On the live stream with Museeuw as commentator they said a TT bike wasn't a good idea on this course.

 

[maltiv]

He won. woohoo

Poor Cav though. He's not very lucky this year. Looks like he had a nasty crash.

It's not only about luck. Cavendish falls so often lately that his bike handling skills can't be very impressive.

 

[hrotha]

Thanks for explaining the TT bikes thing, guys. I imagined that was the reason but I didn't catch the commentators saying anything about it.

Pity Dowsett couldn't score any CQ points.

 

[Francois the Postman]

That, or an HTC mechanic will be checking the calibration on his tyre pressure kit tonight.

 

[palmerq]

Aah, perhaps I zoned out after the random stuff as I was annoyed by that explanation because it made no sense what so ever

were you watching british eurosport.. if so i dont blame you that was a pretty bad comentary duo there :S.... I heard them ramble something about the tt bikes but they were so dull I didnt take anything in .. the next few stages will not provide great entertainment untill the end, but i am looking forward to the sprints(which is what this is all about, well and the wind sometimes)..

do they give time bonuses for stage wins in this race?

 

[Anonymous]

do they give time bonuses for stage wins in this race?

yup. 10,6,4 seconds at the finish line
and 3,2,1 seconds at intermediate sprints. so anything up to 16 seconds available each day.

 

[sublimit]

Thanks for explaining the TT bikes thing, guys. I imagined that was the reason but I didn't catch the commentators saying anything about it.

Pity Dowsett couldn't score any CQ points.

yeah, Nice start for him as A fully fledged pro rider and dissapointing no QC points. But at least i predicted the winner somehow..

 

[Ferminal]

So... of the "sprinters".

Steegmans
Boonen
Renshaw + 3"
Bole + 6"
Bos + 7"
Bennati + 7"
Bonnet + 8"
Haussler + 8"
Van Avermaet + 9"
Hondo + 10"
KRvH + 15"

Galimzyanov 16, Chicchi Guardini 17, Brownie and Cav... not sure if they are within the time limit.

 

[ScottyMuser]

It's not only about luck. Cavendish falls so often lately that his bike handling skills can't be very impressive.

not sure you can say that - his crash in the TDU was not his fault in any way, and clearly shook him up, and then today, like Bak did, he clearly wasn't happy with the bike, and slid off some slippery cobbles. In the past he hardly ever crashed (in the last 3 years I remember 2/3 crashes total, far less than a lot of other riders for instance), so you wouldn't have said he was a bad bike handler, and you don't degrade in that over the years

 

[ingsve]

So... of the "sprinters".

Steegmans
Boonen
Renshaw + 3"
Bole + 6"
Bos + 7"
Bennati + 7"
Bonnet + 8"
Haussler + 8"
Van Avermaet + 9"
Hondo + 10"
KRvH + 15"

Galimzyanov 16, Chicchi Guardini 17, Brownie and Cav... not sure if they are within the time limit.

Downing is also 6 seconds off of Boonen. He hasn't gotten the chance to sprint against top opponents so it will be interesting to see what he can do.

 

[maltiv]

not sure you can say that - his crash in the TDU was not his fault in any way, and clearly shook him up, and then today, like Bak did, he clearly wasn't happy with the bike, and slid off some slippery cobbles. In the past he hardly ever crashed (in the last 3 years I remember 2/3 crashes total, far less than a lot of other riders for instance), so you wouldn't have said he was a bad bike handler, and you don't degrade in that over the years

He caused a crash in the TDF, TDS and T-A last year too, which were, as far as I can remember, completely his own fault.