Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 21/03/2016 - 27/03/2016 2.UWT

[Velolover2]

Re:

Having a lot more racing in the legs should give Contador an edge over the other big two. Still, both Froome and specially Quintana have shown an ability to be on fire without much or any racing in their legs.

Also given the circumstances of his loss in P-N (narrow margin and cancellation of an important GC stage due to weather), he is in all likelihood hungrier for overall success in Catalunya than others.

So, for me, on the eve of the race Contador is the favourite. If Porte has recovered from his illness sufficiently , he is likely to push at least one of the big three out of the podium.

The Tejay-Porte dynamic will be interesting to follow. Hope that at least one of them will attack on the early slopes of La Molina and especially Port Ainé.

http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/article/2016/03/19/porte-and-van-garderen-race-together-catalunya

 

[Tank Engine]

Re: Re:

Sadly i don't think Froome has the race miles in the legs, he might struggle a bit.

He struggled last year and the year before and now he has had an even longer break.

The situation in Sky is somewhat similar to last year. Porte was flying and ended up winning the race, while Froome was coming back after ilness (after missing TA) and used the race as training. Hence, I think that Sky's GC threat is going to come from somewhere else (they have a couple of cards to play). Nairo will be a GC threat though (he doesn't seem to be so phased by breaks from racing). In all it's a very strong field and I just hope that the weather allows them to ride the planned course.

Hope Danny boy does something here (as is his wont).

 

[Ricco']

Re: Re:

Only one prediction is pretty safe: The queen stage will be cancelled.

No snow predicted for Thursday or the previous days. Snow on the ground isn't an issue obviously.

Looking like it's goingto be cancelled according to this.

http://www.cyclingquotes.com/news/could_the_catalunya_queen_stage_be_cancelled/#F8vozu7tcLVziAr6.97

So deflating.

The 75cm rumour started after PCS posted a photo on twitter of the Port Ainé ski station, which I understood was meant to be a joke.

Then CyclingWeekly made a story out of that tweet and now CyclingQuotes recycled the news like they always do. I would prefer another source to have some trust on that information.

 

[SevenTimeTdfChamp]

too bad Demare isnt in this race . With his new found climbing abilities he could probably win it

All jokes aside if the illness havent affected contador too much he is probably gonna win it. Hes comeing of PN in great shape while Froome and quintana havent raced for a while. Dont see where qunitana should gain an advantaged. Dont see him as a better climber than nether froome and contador

Anyways i dont think this race is gonna give any indication of the tour . Last year froome dropped 30 min i one stage, but it is gonna be interressting to watch though

 

[ferryman]

Nice to hear Geraint Thomas is OK to start after his crash in MSR. Potentially an interesting race but I wouldn't place too much faith in it for what is to come in July...

 

[Singer01]

Does anybody have any better profiles? The ones on the first page are just ugly.

 

[WheelofGear]

Swift will finally win a stage if Sky is working on dropping Bouhanni today.

 

[Samamba]

Boeckmans already abandoned due to illness.

 

[Lequack]

Live tracker (in Spanish):
http://www.voltacatalunya.cat/ca/encarrera/1/

Live tracker (Dutch):
http://sporza.be/cm/sporza/matchcenter/mc_wielrennen/Comp_Ronde_van_Catalonie_2016/1.2600625

Breakaway is 6:00 ahead with 110 km to go.

 

[Lexman]

Re:

Boeckmans already abandoned due to illness.

he was set to ride only the first two stages and then go on trainingscamp so he don't miss to much

 

[HelloDolly]

Re: Re:

Sadly i don't think Froome has the race miles in the legs, he might struggle a bit.

He struggled last year and the year before and now he has had an even longer break.

Nicolas Portal mentioning Thomas & Poels as possible leaders ...Doubt he'd do that if 100% confident in Froome

 

[metaCYCLE]

Wilco abandons

 

[Lequack]

Wilco abandons

Shame, did he crash?

 

[metaCYCLE]

Wilco abandons

Shame, did he crash?

No clue.

Volta a Catalunya ‏@VoltaCatalunya 6m6 minutes ago
(68 km) Abandona Wilco Kelderman (Lotto NL-Jumbo) #voltacatalunya

 

[Samamba]

Wilco abandons

Shame, did he crash?

No report of a crash so probably also sick.

 

[del1962]

sick according to twitter

 

[Scarponi]

Live

 

[TomLPC]

Technical difficulties, no live pictures

Plus ça change

 

[fowlyetti]

Every f'in year

 

[dacooley]

good old volta catalunya. i'll be hugely surprised if we see the stage 4 live images.

 

[Samamba]

Welcome to Catalunya

 

[Scarponi]

Come on lads you really want to hear Kirby shoot the breeze

 

[WillemS]

Maybe we can do avatars bets on how what percentage of the race within the advertised broadcasting window will actually make it to the air. We can hardly risk our precious avatars on the actual race, as we've no way of checking by watching the actual race.

 

[TomLPC]

Re:

Come on lads you really want to hear Kirby shoot the breeze

"Darwin Atapuma is here today Sean... Good boy."

 

[TMP402]

Wasn't it Catalunya last year that had a sprint finish with lamposts in the middle of the road (or something) and where the breakaway on stage 1 managed to get a huge lead because the organisers were too incompetent to communicate the size of the gap to the peloton?