Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (2.1) February 3-7

[Arredondo]

Re:

Geez do you guys hate cycling or what? Nothing but complaints.....I actually enjoyed it!

Really? I mean, i'm normally one of the guys who's quickly satisfied, but this was just boring as hell.

 

[classicomano]

Re:

Geez do you guys hate cycling or what? Nothing but complaints.....I actually enjoyed it!

Nothing to enjoy really, everyone was having a nice Sunday afternoon stroll in the sun up a pleasant Spanish hill slowly cradling each other to sleep, Dan Martin woke up first and before anybody else realised the finish line was just up ahead he was gone.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

Geez do you guys hate cycling or what? Nothing but complaints.....I actually enjoyed it!

Really? I mean, i'm normally one of the guys who's quickly satisfied, but this was just boring as hell.

+1

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Good to see Martin get a win after his 2015 of all the crashes. Also it's always nice for a rider to win immediately after moving to new team.

 

[JRanton]

I thought Martin was in shape because that was a decent TT by his standards yesterday.

No time bonuses here?

 

[JRanton]

Re:

Good to see Martin get a win after his 2015 of all the crashes. Also it's always nice for a rider to win immediately after moving to new team.

That's both him and Kittel off the mark now. Good news for EQS.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

It's the friggin' 4th of February - first race for virtually all the riders here. What do you expect?

 

[staubsauger]

The best thing about this stage actually was Martin (& Poels) wearing a true cycling cap at the podium ceremony!

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

I thought Martin was in shape because that was a decent TT by his standards yesterday.

No time bonuses here?

Someone on twitter just pointed out that this is the earliest in the year Martin has ever won a race by more than a month and a half. Looks like he wants to impress the new team.

 

[jens_attacks]

I expected him for xorret de cati
Now he will probably crack there

 

[staubsauger]

Re:

It's the friggin' 4th of February - first race for virtually all the riders here. What do you expect?

Yeah, eventually you're right of course. The real season starts with Ruta del Sol & Omloop / KBK. It's pleasure enough to have back an additional race with some tradition now even before that. Instead of those retort races around nowadays.

Still it ain't been a too great stage, at all . But at least it's cycling again.

I guess most of us still remember Hazallanas & Allanadas from last year. Froome and Contador simply killed it there. Which actually was a perfect season opener to get fully hooked into the upcoming cycling season. At least for me it certainly was!

 

[May0maniac]

Re: Re:

It's the friggin' 4th of February - first race for virtually all the riders here. What do you expect?

Yeah, eventually you're right of course. The real season starts with Ruta del Sol & Omloop / KBK. It's pleasure enough to have back an additional race with some tradition now even before that. Instead of those retort races around nowadays.

Still it ain't been a too great stage, at all . But at least it's cycling again.

I guess most of us still remember Hazallanas & Allanadas from last year. Froome and Contador simply killed it there. Which actually was a perfect season opener to get fully hooked into the upcoming cycling season. At least for me it certainly was!

They had something like a first peak for that race, the climbing times were impressive as hell and both riders weren't as impressive in the next few one week races.

 

[HelloDolly]

There are really some misery guts know it alls on here with no idea of fair play...The race was fine and the win was a great attack by Martin
If it was so easy then why didn't the guys you lot pointed out or supported win then?
Some of you showing yourselves up with sour grape comments

 

[dicanio_michael]

Re:

There are really some misery guts know it alls on here with no idea of fair play...The race was fine and the win was a great attack by Martin
If it was so easy then why didn't the guys you lot pointed out or supported win then?
Some of you showing yourselves up with sour grape comments

Agree, feel sour in every words.

btw what did anyone expect from a 2.1 race ?

 

[happytramp]

" Wa Wa that rider I like didn't win, this race is boring"...........moderators any chance you could just ban everyone who said anything resembling this on the last page.... I swear to God I cannot put up with another season of painful painful whining by these people.

 

[trevim]

Re: Re:

W/e Campenaerts is the TT specialist Belgium has been waiting for, he says he'll make the Giro the goal of his season and I can't wait to see him in action!

What makes you think he can make the jump and be better than guys like Rosseler, Vermote or Vandewalle just some mention some of the last few pure TT specialists from Belgium?
Just asking, I don't know much about him.

Impressive result for Poels, wondering how Landa will TT this year,

He has better results so far in pros than guys like Vermote. He is very all rounder, and that benefits him for hilly time trials that are very frequent in modern cycling. He is also strong in prologues and short tts because of the fact that he usually make some track competition in belgium( he was second in the national individual pursuit recently)
I believe that he has potential for the mid-mountains and 1 week minor races, specially if he lose some weight(he is 1,73 and 72,5 kgs).

Seems like he can turn into someone like Monfort...

 

[Arredondo]

" Wa Wa that rider I like didn't win, this race is boring"...........moderators any chance you could just ban everyone who said anything resembling this on the last page.... I swear to God I cannot put up with another season of painful painful whining by these people.

You're competing for an Oscar?

Relax. Season has just begun. Down Under was great. This stage was horribly boring. Tomorrow there's another day. And that's it really.

 

[jens_attacks]

it wasn't that boring. i actually thought that herrada might make it
and dan was great

chill people, xorret de cati will be epiiiiiiic. diego rosa raping team sky.

 

[johnymax]

I was also expecting more from this stage, but it's ok. The climb was just too easy. Congrats to Dan Martin for the win.

 

[gooner]

To be fair, looking at the strava link up thread, should we have been surprised with the way the stage transpired. Initially seeing the profile, I thought it would be more selective but seeing the strava link yesterday, I braced myself for the stage turning out like it did. It was always going to come down to a short finale.

In that, Dan Martin deserves credit for his win.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Re: Re:

W/e Campenaerts is the TT specialist Belgium has been waiting for, he says he'll make the Giro the goal of his season and I can't wait to see him in action!

What makes you think he can make the jump and be better than guys like Rosseler, Vermote or Vandewalle just some mention some of the last few pure TT specialists from Belgium?
Just asking, I don't know much about him.

Impressive result for Poels, wondering how Landa will TT this year,

He has better results so far in pros than guys like Vermote. He is very all rounder, and that benefits him for hilly time trials that are very frequent in modern cycling. He is also strong in prologues and short tts because of the fact that he usually make some track competition in belgium( he was second in the national individual pursuit recently)
I believe that he has potential for the mid-mountains and 1 week minor races, specially if he lose some weight(he is 1,73 and 72,5 kgs).

Seems like he can turn into someone like Monfort...

Monfort is more like a climber, btw Campenaerts crashed in the opening TT. Perhaps he could've finished second. Also last year he was the only who could follow Terpsta in the tour of Wallonia.

 

[staubsauger]

The last great Belgian tt specialist was Rik Verbrugghe wasn't he!?

 

[manafana]

Re:

it wasn't that boring. i actually thought that herrada might make it
and dan was great

chill people, xorret de cati will be epiiiiiiic. diego rosa raping team sky.

good racing what else do people want, herrada did very well too

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Who was the BMC who jumped after Martin and then just got rode off his wheel? I couldn't work it out when watching with Spanish commentary and no close up shots. It was one of those "I have great legs... wait a second... no I don't" moments.

 

[Jakob747]

Re:

Who was the BMC who jumped after Martin and then just got rode off his wheel? I couldn't work it out when watching with Spanish commentary and no close up shots. It was one of those "I have great legs... wait a second... no I don't" moments.

I'm pretty sure it was Nicolas Edet of Cofidis who tried his luck!