Tour of qatar - Stage 1 - West bay lagoon - 8.2km TTT

[auscyclefan94]

Wiggins arveson and thomas did the bulk of it.. nordhaug and downing in their first TTT did a great job early on and then just hung on for grim death with the TT'ers did their job. EbH and Brad where doing 90% of the work over the last 2km

Enjoy it now Dim, Sky's success won't be for long

Good ride by BMC

 

[mortand]

And what a great ride by Saur-Sojasun. 6th in a pretty competitive peloton, (narrowly) beating Liquigas and BMC. Such a superb effort in front of the TdF organisers probably won't hurt them. I'm looking forward to see Jimmy Casper - and possibly even a guy like Jimmy Engoulvent - in the coming days.

 

[Anonymous]

Enjoy it now Dim, Sky's success won't be for long

Arent you getting bored saying that yet? Three times now..

 

[blaxland]

Dropped by his team-mates apparently. Probably then sat up and cruised around. Obviously aiming for a late peak this season.

+1 agreed,or maybe the mountains training to become a stage racer are taking there toll....................

 

[BroDeal]

Arent you getting bored saying that yet? Three times now..

Nope. It never gets old. When the Tour rolls around, Wiggins falters on his first real mountain stage as a contende, and Garmin hits the gas as soon as they see him hurting, I will laugh and laugh and laugh.

 

[kurtinsc]

Nope. It never gets old. When the Tour rolls around, Wiggins falters on his first real mountain stage as a contende, and Garmin hits the gas as soon as they see him hurting, I will laugh and laugh and laugh.

Who from Garmin would be up at the front when Wiggins falters in the mountains?

The only one I can think might be there would be Vandevelde. It seems to me though if Wiggins were faltering, he'd probably be in "hang on" mode more then "hit the gas" mode.

I'd love to see him do it... I just think that he's probably lacking the legs more then Wiggins is.

 

[BroDeal]

Who from Garmin would be up at the front when Wiggins falters in the mountains?

The only one I can think might be there would be Vandevelde. It seems to me though if Wiggins were faltering, he'd probably be in "hang on" mode more then "hit the gas" mode.

I'd love to see him do it... I just think that he's probably lacking the legs more then Wiggins is.

Tommy D. and a revitalized Z-Man will be there laying the hurt down on Wiggins. Oh, the humanity, as Tommy D. passes Wiggo and tells him he should have had a cup of Brasstown Bald Blend instead of that English drink they make with weed leaves.

 

[kurtinsc]

Tommy D. and a revitalized Z-Man will be there laying the hurt down on Wiggins. Oh, the humanity, as Tommy D. passes Wiggo and tells him he should have had a cup of Brasstown Bald Blend instead of that English drink they make with weed leaves.

I waited for five years to see something from Tom Danielson.

I'm still waiting.

I really wish I could have your faith... I'd love to see another american challenge for an overall GT title. But while Zabriskie has improved his climbing and Danielson is becoming almost decent when he's not sick or injured (as rare as those occasions are)... I just can't see either of them still around when Wiggins loses contact. And if they are, the group will be so large at that point that I can't imagine Garmin being stupid enough to go to the front... they'll be protecting VdV as a stronger team takes the lead... not burning energy just to say "ha, ha" at Wiggins.

 

[BroDeal]

I waited for five years to see something from Tom Danielson.

I'm still waiting.

I have been touched by the light, and I believe! Do you believe? Yes, I BELIEVE!! This will be Tommy D.'s season. All those rice cakes wil finally kick in this year.

I think Wiggins will die on the way to Pau. Vaughters gave us a clue when he said Wiggins can handle a flatish stage with a climb at the end well. The implication is that a real mountain stage with multiiple passes will be beyond him.

 

[blackcat]

Enjoy it now Dim, Sky's success won't be for long

Good ride by BMC

AusCycle do you have your own team? DimSpace even is the head of the unofficial fan club of Sky, he has his own team, seems he is doing alot better than you. 3 wins in about 7 stages so far. I would like that strike rate.

 

[BroDeal]

AusCycle do you have your own team? DimSpace even is the head of the unofficial fan club of Sky, he has his own team, seems he is doing alot better than you. 3 wins in about 7 stages so far. I would like that strike rate.

I think we need to normalize the number of wins by dividing by the teams' budgets.

 

[blackcat]

do you count the payout to JV of 3 million GBP or whatever?

JV's sums are fuzzy. All contracts of riders are fungible. Rider in, rider out. I do not know where he got the market price for the buyout. If those are his sums, then riders are worth alot more when they are GC candidates. And Vaughters knew Evans was wanting out. Everyone did it. He was just greedy with Sky. I think he was greedy, cos he knew he wanted Cotadoper, and could not afford him, without the massive payout. Because he had Felt, not Specialized.

 

[BroDeal]

do you count the payout to JV of 3 million GBP or whatever?

I would say count it if there was enough time to spend it. Since the payoff occurred so late in the year, Garmin was unable to buy anyone with it, so it should be counted in next year's budget.

We need a "bang for buck" tally for all the teams. Maybe I'll get ambitious and do one once most teams have enough wins to justify doing all the teams.

 

[blackcat]

I would say count it if there was enough time to spend it. Since the payoff occurred so late in the year, Garmin was unable to buy anyone with it, so it should be counted in next year's budget.

We need a "bang for buck" tally for all the teams. Maybe I'll get ambitious and do one once most teams have enough wins to justify doing all the teams.

I don't know. Rominger was shopping Evans immediately, even during the Tour. Vaughters could have found that out, and got in at bargain basement, if he really wanted a GC guy (albeit difficult).

I think the real reason that he held for the big bucks, is if they could budge Contador. Because JV knew that every team was hamstrung, and if he had that big compensation payout, he was the only one who could come to play and hunt Contador.

Caisse just could not have afforded him, or raised the money in this economy a couple of months ago.

 

[blackcat]

re: he would have known Wiggins was leaving when he could not talk to him on the phone from August. Pretty simple calculation. Then the brinkmanship with Brailsford starts.

 

[hfer07]

any video of the stage uploaded yet?

 

[Big GMaC]

wait so what happened to spartacus? he looks pretty chunky in the photos, was he just having a bit of a chill after leading out the ttt?

 

[auscyclefan94]

Arent you getting bored saying that yet? Three times now..

No, you may find the tour a bit boring though with sky! Then Garmin with Cvd can put the hammer down and stick it up to sky!

 

[auscyclefan94]

I think we need to normalize the number of wins by dividing by the teams' budgets.

Agreed.
Sky are also sending a very strong squad in comparison to other teams. Sky are going to get owned like a bay seal to the slaughter!!!

 

[Ripper]

Tommy D. and a revitalized Z-Man will be there laying the hurt down on Wiggins. Oh, the humanity, as Tommy D. passes Wiggo and tells him he should have had a cup of Brasstown Bald Blend instead of that English drink they make with weed leaves.

That's funny!

OK, I can see VdV putting the hurt on, but not the two mental cases. Perhaps RH working for VdV, killing Wiggo, now that would make me laugh.

 

[Animal]

Brad should get a more athletic looking haircut.

A number three should do the job.

 

[blackcat]

nose and physique making him look like the single child of Belleville

 

[stefrees]

i dont think there will be any point in the tour where garmin will put the hurt on. all of this is going to benefit lofkist in my opinion, everyone will be watching wiggo and voila lofkvist is up there.

i also think sky already have more wins than bmc will manage all season

 

[Hammerhed]

Brad should get a more athletic looking haircut.

A number three should do the job.

For what, to go with his atheletic-looking body? You've seen these guys with their shirts off, right? They look like newborn flamingoes. Remember when Rasmussen was first "exposed" to the world? Everyone was sooo shocked that he looked like a concentration camp victim, but why? Our sport doesn't reward brawn or muscle. One hundred and fifty pounds is the most a guy can weigh: Spread that over a six-three frame. So a sixties rocker hair cut is entirely appropriate for these mostly unstudly (looking) heroes of ours. Besides, to me, an American, he captures the English fop thing perfectly!

 

[Ad Rock]

Who from Garmin would be up at the front when Wiggins falters in the mountains?

The only one I can think might be there would be Vandevelde. It seems to me though if Wiggins were faltering, he'd probably be in "hang on" mode more then "hit the gas" mode.

I'd love to see him do it... I just think that he's probably lacking the legs more then Wiggins is.

I think you'll see Ryder escorting VdV a little higher up in the mountains this year.... mark my words!