Volta a Catalunya 2013 - Stage 2: Girona → Baynoles (160km)

[Kwibus]

Blanco superfail...Wagner alone in front with 800m to go

Wasn't hard to predict that.

 

[the asian]

Wonderful by Meersman, two in a row!

 

[Gloin22]

Meersman
Ratto
Lancaster
Dumoulin
Wagner

What a sprinting field

 

[Flamin]

wow, what a laughable sprinter field for a WT race

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Ratto was half blocked by Meersman moving over to the right.

 

[jaylew]

What a crap sprint field. Where on earth was Guardini? Was he the Astana guy that was right behind that crash?

 

[Gloin22]

What a crap sprint field. Where on earth was Guardini? Was he the Astana guy that was right behind that crash?

That was Agnoli from what I saw.

Guardini probably dropped on the ''gradients'' on the finish :L

 

[Roude Leiw]

Guardini nowhere to be seen..... the guy is way overrated, I thought the finish was harder looking at the profile, but the peloton was basically complete.

 

[Roude Leiw]

Ratto was half blocked by Meersman moving over to the right.

nevermind..

 

[BillytheKid]

What a crap sprint field. Where on earth was Guardini? Was he the Astana guy that was right behind that crash?

Catalunya has never had much in the way of them. Not unusual at all.

 

[Ruudz0r]

Davis again 10 minutes behind the peleton, and again all by himself.

 

[garyhoop1]

Videos

Check out videos from the Volta a Catalunya 2013 including today's stage 2 - http://bit.ly/116Sa6S

 

[Kwibus]

wow, what a laughable sprinter field for a WT race

It's a climbers race. This was like the only stage for a sprinter and it was still too hard for Guardini.

 

[Flamin]

It's a climbers race. This was like the only stage for a sprinter and it was still too hard for Guardini.

Stage 1, 2 and 5 are, at least on paper, for the sprinters. That's 3 out of 7, so hardly just a 'climbers race'.

 

[the asian]

With MSR held on the previous day, Catalunya was going to get a poor sprinters field. Since the majority of the stages are for climbers, Catalunya is a climbers race.

 

[Flamin]

With MSR held on the previous day, Catalunya was going to get a poor sprinters field.

Obviously. Doesn't change the fact that the sprinters field is laughable for a WT race though, which is all I said.

Since the majority of the stages are for climbers, Catalunya is a climbers race.

2 out of 7 stages is not a majority. There are more opportunities for the sprinters than climbers.

 

[Wilba60]

Davis again 10 minutes behind the peleton, and again all by himself.

From the OGE website
Q: Some people seem a bit surprised to see you up for the sprints, why has this been your role in Catalunya?

Coming into the race, I wasn’t expecting to sprint for the team. Michael Matthews had a bit of an accident with hot tea the weekend before the race. He burnt himself badly, and he couldn’t start. Allan [Davis] is quite sick, so even finishing each day of racing has been hard for him. It’s a rare situation that’s given me the opportunity to sprint yesterday and today.

Today went better than stage one. Yesterday, Simon Gerrans kept me up near the front over the climb towards the finish. Although we were close the front, we weren't on the front, and we saw 12 guys skip away. That’s was a blistering pace yesterday at the end up and down the climb, and we couldn't bring them back. I could sprint from the bunch behind, but it wasn't for the win - it was for 13th place.

 

[Wilba60]

That quote of course was from Brett Lancaster who rarely gets to take on a sprint himself.