Worlds Copenhagen 2011

[Libertine Seguros]

Slovenia: Grega Bole.

Frankly, small, insignificant vague uphill or no small, insignificant vague uphill, we shouldn't be talking about a bunch sprint at the Worlds. This is a race that everybody wants to win and so it will likely be broken up more than your usual formulaic sprint stage. Put a GT stage on that Geelong course and the chances are a sprint ensues, but with likely a few weaker climbing sprinters shed on the last lap, but it's raced harder at the Worlds, so we got a seriously reduced bunch and only about 20 people contesting the finish.

I certainly expect the likes of Visconti to do their utmost to make this a very difficult race for the sprinters to control. If it does end up as a pure bunch sprint then the likelihood is that either the parcours or the riders' attitude was a letdown.

 

[The Hitch]

Should take:

Nobody is going to feature realistically at the business end, may as well have a bit of fun.

What they should do is send one person into the break, hope the break gets say 10 minutes as they hit the circuit, then have all their other riders stop.

Doing it under the guise of "our leader has had a puncture, we are waiting with him to bring him back" could help.

Make the guy with the "puncture" do a cadel, getting on and off the bike, testing it himself etc, before finaly deciding to get a new one.

Have the guy in the break launch an attack getting say 3 minutes, while the others stand still. Once the break rider has gone full circle, he catches up with his teammates who launch a super ttt to which he desperately hangs on.

The peloton seeing, their only chance of challenging the favourite, refuse to help forcing team Cav to do all the work themselves.

Like the Canc Hushovd conundrum in PR, Sky realise they would be killing themselves to likely hand victory to another team and refuse to work. Others try to bluff them into doing it. No one is willing to take up the task.

Eventually a few teams decide to help.

In the next 100k Team Portugal lose 13 minutes but their rider hangs on by the skin of his teeth to take the gold.

Victory is theirs.


I had been saving that for the the Polish nats, or possibly the Champs Elysee, but meh, ill let Portugal have it.

 

[Nielsa]

It would be fun to watch right up until the race director throws everyone in team Portugal - except the break guy - out of the race.

 

[trevim]

manuel cardoso isn't riding the vuelta iirc

and he has never showed anywhere that he can handle the distance. his performance in M-SR this year was awful to say the least

Ah I see now that he's listed as a reserve. Not that he had shown a classics potential but still our best sprinter

 

[Fus087]

Australia: Goss, Haussler would both be in with a good shout... anyone else? Gerrans has a good uphill sprint but not WC-worthy I think.

For what it's worth, Gerrans actually won the intermediate sprint at the Worlds finish line in this year's Post Danmark Rundt, against Bennati.
True, it was after only 50 km or so, and he had to keep one rider in check; but he still beat him.

Other than that, I agree with Libertine Seguros: There will not be a "classical" bunch sprint. If there's 20 together at the end, that is a bunch sprint for the Worlds.

And last, but not least, it's FrEIre and GrEIpel. Why do people misspell names with "ei" anyway?

 

[The Hitch]

It would be fun to watch right up until the race director throws everyone in team Portugal - except the break guy - out of the race.

What, is it against the rules?

What if they all "crash".

 

[Nielsa]

Hey I like the idea! But in the WC you'd have protests from every other team in the race, it would just be too obvious. The race director would be all over it.

Mattbrammeier85 Matt Brammeier
@bramtankink thrown off the Eneco tour for changing his bike in front of the commissaries car. New rule apparently... Joke
13 Aug

Mattbrammeier85 Matt Brammeier
News is-Tankink can start tomorrow after a successful protest
13 Aug

http://twitter.com/#!/Mattbrammeier85/status/102426036913971200

(Just to show the race directors have this kind of power.)

 

[RownhamHill]

And last, but not least, it's FrEIre and GrEIpel. Why do people misspell names with "ei" anyway?

'i before e, except after c'.

(That's the rule we're all taught as eight-year olds in English schools.)

 

[abbaskip]

'i before e, except after c'.

(That's the rule we're all taught as eight-year olds in English schools.)

Always miscorrectly taught.

The full saying is:
"I before E, except after C, when the sound is 'E' " (E said like the letter E). When you say the full saying, it explains 99% of the 'exceptions' which aren't really exceptions, just people have shortened it.

That would explain Greipel, as the sound isn't E. Though with Freire it is. But at the end of the day, they're not english words!

Explains the exceptions: seize, weird, either, height, foreign, leisure, counterfeit, forfeit, neither, atheist, their etc.

 

[woodie]

What, is it against the rules?

What if they all "crash".

If someone gets dropped and the leaders, which would be the breakaway catch them, they are normally pulled out as they are considered out of the race and cannot effect the outcome. In track races if the leader catches you after you've been dropped you can sit on but can't take turns

 

[janraaskalt]

That would explain Greipel, as the sound isn't E. Though with Freire it is.

No, there's no E sound in Freire.

Explains the exceptions: seize, weird, either, height, foreign, leisure, counterfeit, forfeit, neither, atheist, their etc.

Atheist does not really fit here. "Height" and "Greipel" truely match!

 

[shalgo]

If someone gets dropped and the leaders, which would be the breakaway catch them, they are normally pulled out as they are considered out of the race and cannot effect the outcome. In track races if the leader catches you after you've been dropped you can sit on but can't take turns

I seem to recall that in last year's Worlds road race, when the break built a huge lead before entering the circuits, that there was some talk about how the whole peloton would be eliminated if the break had completed a lap before the peloton arrived at the circuit.

 

[skidmark]

And last, but not least, it's FrEIre and GrEIpel. Why do people misspell names with "ei" anyway?

Oh crap! I know how to spell their names, I was just really tired and must have had a brain cramp. I hate that stuff as much as you do, sorry to be committing it.

 

[Fus087]

Oh crap! I know how to spell their names, I was just really tired and must have had a brain cramp. I hate that stuff as much as you do, sorry to be committing it.

Fair enough.

No, there's no E sound in Freire.

There's not?
How do you people pronounce it then (and if you don't speak Spanish, don't insist on your pronounciation being correct)?

 

[will10]

Freire as in hair.

 

[janraaskalt]

How do you people pronounce it then (and if you don't speak Spanish, don't insist on your pronounciation being correct)?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xeSAqd0qNA

 

[ingsve]

'i before e, except after c'.

(That's the rule we're all taught as eight-year olds in English schools.)

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

 

[woodie]

I seem to recall that in last year's Worlds road race, when the break built a huge lead before entering the circuits, that there was some talk about how the whole peloton would be eliminated if the break had completed a lap before the peloton arrived at the circuit.

Yeah the officials were panicking. The pelo only made it by a min and they had to hold the convoy back to go behind the break otherwise they could've just used the cars to catch them and it would've been a very boring 16 laps

 

[meandmygitane]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xeSAqd0qNA

Maybe I suck at language but they seem to say Freir-E? They say it as I thought it would be said.

 

[Mambo95]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xeSAqd0qNA

While commentary is a good guide, the commentators aren't necessarily correct. Anyone who has heard David Pleat doing football knows that.

 

[Parrulo]

While commentary is a good guide, the commentators aren't necessarily correct. Anyone who has heard David Pleat doing football knows that.

they are right don't worrie . . .

 

[ingsve]

Maybe I suck at language but they seem to say Freir-E? They say it as I thought it would be said.

No, the E-sound we're talking about is like the e sound in see. The e-sound at the end of Freire doesn't really exist in standard English.

This is the E: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Close_front_unrounded_vowel.ogg

And this pretty much is the e-sound in Freire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Close-mid_front_unrounded_vowel.ogg

 

[The Hitch]

Yeah the officials were panicking. The pelo only made it by a min and they had to hold the convoy back to go behind the break otherwise they could've just used the cars to catch them and it would've been a very boring 16 laps

What, that would have been awesome!!!!!

 

[Fus087]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xeSAqd0qNA

Well, that sounds very much like an E sound.
For the record, I consider

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Close-mid_front_unrounded_vowel.ogg

this to be an E sound,
while this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Close_front_unrounded_vowel.ogg

is most definitely an I sound.
And yes, that may not match with some English spelling rule.
But English certainly is one of the most illogical languages pronounciation-wise.

 

[mc_mountain]

this may have been addressed in the transfer rumours thread, but im bit behind in that now...

in this article

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/wiggins-primed-for-vuelta-and-time-trial-worlds

wiggins states now "I've given my word to Mark [Cavendish] that I'd do the road race for him in Copenhagen"

was this perhaps the little extra that cav got to make his decision on who to sign for?