World Ports classic 2014 24-25 may

[gerundium]

Next to the Giro showdown there is a sprinters two day race. Weather forecasts aren't too good for Echelons i believe.

Notable riders:

Andre Greipel
Theo Bos
Gert Steegmans
Andrea Guardini

 

[Netserk]

Why did they move it? Weird timing for such a race.

 

[gerundium]

Why did they move it? Weird timing for such a race.

Yea i quite liked their positioning on the calendar in august. Greipel is the only real big name attending this year, believe they had a better line up last year.

I just hope the wind along the coast is strong enough to get some echelons.

As an aside i saw that belkin are using shimano action cams for this race like in california. Could get some good footage maybe.

 

[gerundium]

As per the forecast no major splits in the peloton.

Bunch sprint won by Greipel ahead of Porsev and Theo Bos.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

5 minutes of the race here, but I would FF a couple of minutes anyway, lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui2HRMW5xFM

Anyway congrats to Gorilla.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Failtrain by Belkin. But then Bos rides the fastest sprint out of nowhere. Funny

 

[Der Effe]

Bos winning a GC

 

[Zam_Olyas]

 

[Bernie's eyesore]

Looks like a good decision to move this race to clash with a mountainous weekend in the Giro. Clearly plenty of people enjoyed it immensely.

 

[gerundium]

Greipel just managed to avoid a car at the side of the road in the last few kms when he got forced into the curb due to some road furniture. AG2R rider behind him not so lucky though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUlDkU385FM&t=44s

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Looks like a good decision to move this race to clash with a mountainous weekend in the Giro. Clearly plenty of people enjoyed it immensely.

It did wonders for the participating field too.

Honestly I really don't understand this race. Why it exists is kind of baffling for one thing (a two-stage sprint race with no history designed just to race back and forth between two cities which have no lack of nearby cycling anyway, and where bonus seconds are the only way to affect the GC, why don't you just have a one-day race, or even two one-day races?), but the decision to move it in the calendar to now is very baffling. What exactly do the organisers hope to achieve from this move?

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Without crosswind this becomes a meaningless race with lots of crashes.

Waste of TV production money imo.

 

[roundabout]

Probably preparing a replacement for Picardie

 

[kingjr]

The sprint was great. I prefer that 10 times over some breakway coming through in the Giro. Or the Tour even for that matter.

 

[rghysens]

Probably preparing a replacement for Picardie

Wasn't that Yorkshire 3-day race scheduled for that?

 

[roundabout]

Yeah, but I was thinking

WPC -> May Picardie slot

Tour de Yorkshire -> somewhere around ToB

or not

 

[Red Rick]

someone please unsticky this thread, along with the tour of norway thread, too many stickies right now imo