Tour of Qatar - Stage 4: West Bay Lagoon → Al Kharaitiyat 154 km

[woodie]

I don't really know how you can tell. He's pretty much always been a leadout man, but had some opportunities of his own (he performed that role for Thor Hushovd, right? Don't know about his time at FDJ.) and in terms of CQ points or victories he doesn't look like someone who's been held back artificially.

I've been following him since he was a junior and believe me he can kick. Plus he trains for the leadouts, not sprints, which means he's training to hold a high amount of power for a longer amount of time (compared to pure sprinters) instead of that 10sec burst of absolute power and speed that sprinters train for.

He was a leadout at Credit for Thor and FDJ was more about taking the first step, learning and developing. He's always been the leadout at HTC for someone and rarely got his own chances.

 

[microdose]

Glad that Renshaw got the win - generally seems like a nice guy who works his **** off for teammates - Cav mainly but also Goss recently.
47.8 km/h avg. for the stage - not bad work in those winds...

 

[taiwan]

OK, if you know him well, you're more than entitled to your opinion. This was a nice win over some big names anyhow.

 

[sublimit]

BMC ahve actually had riders in all splits and in 3 out of the 4 break aways. Good night!

Sleep well. Anyway we are relying on you to start a stage 5 thread tomorrow, profile, wind direction, GC standings etc etc. The whole works.

 

[Anonymous]

I'll do today's profile:


S___________________

___________________________F

Profile was wrong. There was no bloke standing by a cactus. Typical ASO, cant even get the stage profiles right.

 

[TRDean]

Profile was wrong. There was no bloke standing by a cactus. Typical ASO, cant even get the stage profiles right.

Too bad the profile does not include wind...this has been a pretty exciting race...who does not love an echelon?

 

[Kwibus]

Tour of Qatar gets a + from me. The wind really makes it an interesting race.
Ofcourse half of the peloton doesn't really care what happens, but it's still fun to watch.

Nice win by Renshaw. It's good for him he gets to shine for once.

p.s. Awesome ACF drama in this thread

 

[Captain_Cavman]

Gabba Rasch talked to procycling.no about todays stage and he said their plan is to try and get rid of Renshaw in the crosswind today.

Bet he's regretting saying it now.

 

[ak-zaaf]

p.s. Awesome ACF drama in this thread

Crap, now I have to plow through the entire thread

 

[auscyclefan94]

Sleep well. Anyway we are relying on you to start a stage 5 thread tomorrow, profile, wind direction, GC standings etc etc. The whole works.

Rabobank actually won a stage?
Plus Bos and Boom both top-5 in other stages?

LOL. You are so funny when you get angry and make mistakes like this.

I was reffering to the road stages.

Maybe I was a bit over dramatic last night but I still stand by my contention. BMC have been up in the moves quite a fair bit. When the team does not have the form then what can you do? I think there have been quite a few worse teams in qatar

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I was reffering to the road stages.

Maybe I was a bit over dramatic last night but I still stand by my contention. BMC have been up in the moves quite a fair bit. When the team does not have the form then what can you do? I think there have been quite a few worse teams in qatar

Yea, but those teams don't have a guy following their every move in the forum and hyping them up. And therein lies the problem.

Lots of what BMC has actually done would flow under the radar. You go looking for it. The fact that you're constantly drawing attention to BMC also draws attention to when they aren't doing very much, so that it is noticed when they aren't doing much (much more so than any other team that contributes little to a race).

If a band releases a mediocre album, then that band is mediocre and are treated as such.
If a band releases a mediocre album but people are telling you it's fantastic and constantly going on and on about it, then that band is mediocre, but you treat it like they're absolutely goddamn awful because, compared to what everybody else is saying it is, it's way wide of the mark.

 

[Anonymous]

Lots of what BMC has actually done would flow under the radar. You go looking for it. The fact that you're constantly drawing attention to BMC also draws attention to when they aren't doing very much,.

I honestly didnt even realise they were riding in Qatar (seriously) the only teams ive really noticed are sky, garmin, htc, rabobank, and Leopard trek.

A cursory look at the top 15 says the same, dominated by garmin, sky, htc, trek, and QS riders....

until.. to my surprise.. Marcus Burghardt in 9th

You have to go to 15th before you find another rider from outside of one of those 5 teams though.

 

[stefrees]

Yea, but those teams don't have a guy following their every move in the forum and hyping them up. And therein lies the problem.

Lots of what BMC has actually done would flow under the radar. You go looking for it. The fact that you're constantly drawing attention to BMC also draws attention to when they aren't doing very much, so that it is noticed when they aren't doing much (much more so than any other team that contributes little to a race).

If a band releases a mediocre album, then that band is mediocre and are treated as such.
If a band releases a mediocre album but people are telling you it's fantastic and constantly going on and on about it, then that band is mediocre, but you treat it like they're absolutely goddamn awful because, compared to what everybody else is saying it is, it's way wide of the mark.

I really like this analogy!

 

[maltiv]

I was reffering to the road stages.

Maybe I was a bit over dramatic last night but I still stand by my contention. BMC have been up in the moves quite a fair bit. When the team does not have the form then what can you do? I think there have been quite a few worse teams in qatar

The best BMC rider is even behind TGGRWDSIAS (The Great Gabriel Rasch Who Defeated Steegmans In A Sprint) on the GC

Too bad that Kristoff's shape is so bad but it was to be expected, after all he has consistently had bad shape in the spring all his career so I told you not to expect too much from him. Definitely time for him to move out of Norway, he can't cope with the winter here (which is perfectly understandable...).

 

[ingsve]

The best BMC rider is even behind TGGRWDSIAS (The Great Gabriel Rasch Who Defeated Steegmans In A Sprint) on the GC

Ya, I just read that on todays stage Rasch punctured with 5 km to go and stayed with the lead group with a puncture until they reached the 3 km mark and only then did he stop to get help from the team car which means he got the same time as the winners.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

I was reffering to the road stages.

Maybe I was a bit over dramatic last night but I still stand by my contention. BMC have been up in the moves quite a fair bit. When the team does not have the form then what can you do? I think there have been quite a few worse teams in qatar

Ah yes, I must have forgotten prologues don't get ridden on the road Or even if they did, they don't count.
Still stays the fact that Bos and Boom finished 4th and 5th in the other stages.

Is it so hard to admit you were wrong? Seriously what is your deal?

 

[blaxland]

Congratulations to Mark...Great guy on and off the bike"

 

[The Hitch]

For some reason, my Eurosport 2 EPG is has been stuck on news for 800 minutes, so I have nil recording.
Will watch those closing 6kms later, as I'm sure they will tell most of the story.

ACF was first onto my very small ignore list. Might be an idea if a few followed suit.
Makes for less cockeyed and faster reviewing.

You have acf on your ignore list?

Your missing out. Acf is like Riccardo Ricco, annoying but entertaining

 

[NickBVK]

Renshaw looked effortless compared to the others, good on him deserves a win

 

[abbaskip]

I don't really know how you can tell. He's pretty much always been a leadout man, but had some opportunities of his own (he performed that role for Thor Hushovd, right? Don't know about his time at FDJ.) and in terms of CQ points or victories he doesn't look like someone who's been held back artificially.

Look at TDU 2008. He was at Credit Agricole then, and mainly training as a lead out (not as dedicated as he is now), and had a win, and two seconds (behind Davis and Greipel). Not a great example, but this is when he was 24, and still developing as a road rider (after years of dedication to the track).

Hard to say really how good he'd be if he trained as a sprinter, but beating guys like Haussler, Boonen and Benatti today, and then finishing 2nd in the stage of the tdf last year (behind Petacchi), you'd suggest that he'd be decent?

 

[Winterfold]

Renshaw's to lose now. I like that.

Don't ignore ACF peeps he is comedy gold

 

[auscyclefan94]

Yea, but those teams don't have a guy following their every move in the forum and hyping them up. And therein lies the problem.

Lots of what BMC has actually done would flow under the radar. You go looking for it. The fact that you're constantly drawing attention to BMC also draws attention to when they aren't doing very much, so that it is noticed when they aren't doing much (much more so than any other team that contributes little to a race).

If a band releases a mediocre album, then that band is mediocre and are treated as such.
If a band releases a mediocre album but people are telling you it's fantastic and constantly going on and on about it, then that band is mediocre, but you treat it like they're absolutely goddamn awful because, compared to what everybody else is saying it is, it's way wide of the mark.

Fair enough andyou're right but I think some of the other posters on here should acknowledge that they just try to bait me and purposefully pick on BMC. Go ahead and ignore me if you really find my posts really that insufferable. At least I am passionate and express my views freely. I am not someone who will just go with the crowd so I fit in!

 

[auscyclefan94]

btw, Someone else can make the race threads, I won't bother anymore.

 

[craig1985]

Grega Bole:

All I can say is ouch.

 

[Eric8-A]

Grega Bole:

All I can say is ouch.

Ouch is right. Good thing your tats were preserved.

Is that thing you applied on your wounds some brownish liquid?

I used something like that when I was dragged on the rocky pavement two years back