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tombeej

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Everything posted by tombeej

  1. Do you see Sagan sitting 2nd wheel and not moving from there. He's doing it for a reason: 3 riders from 1 team means they can send one off on a long attack and hope the others look at each other to close the gap, allowing him to slip away (with Matthews still with a teammate). Sagan knows this and is expecting it, and he doesn't want to be sitting 3 or 4 wheels back when rider #2 loses the wheel. He's making sure he's personally covering any possible sneak attack.
  2. Good tactics - he's got 2 teammates to do that for him. GVA too. He's just sitting on the back.
  3. If the Orica boys c~~k this one up, they mustn't stop at the finish -- they must just keep riding to the airport.
  4. 3 out of the 8 riders. And wow they are really starting to take it to the others now.
  5. I think he was in the middle of trying to put it on and then they hit the crosswinds, so he had to quickly get onto G's wheel. #gottolooksharpatalltimesnow
  6. DSTV - same happened to me. Unplug and allow it to reboot. That worked for me.
  7. Jeez Gen, one insightful post after another this afternoon. What's going on here
  8. Rain is coming down now. Gaps starting to form in the break. They're not organised anymore, and it's showing with the gap coming down to 4'46" with 41 km remaining in the race. ------------------ The break is in a precarious position now as the heads of state in the main peloton start massing on the front. We daren't avert our eyes from the action now. Oh look, Phil, an old castle by the river and some fields ….
  9. 57 km to go. The course has a few bumps in the road now. Nothing big. But maybe just enough for a few of the strong ones to dismantle this large break.
  10. Think of Sagan's attack at the Richmond Worlds. Similar sort of finish.
  11. Nah, it's going to come down to this little hump a few kays from the finish. A typical spring classics finish. Short steep climb with a 3km flat to the line. The attacker has to open a gap on the sprint over the top and then hold his measly few seconds of advantage for those 3 kays (rabbit chased by the pack of hounds). It's going to be a cracker of a finish, for sure.
  12. I'm reading G's book at the moment. The best cycling book I've read, without a doubt (and I have a whole library). He's all personality (not sure if you follow his tweets - funny guy). Unlike many of the prima donnas in the sport, he's completely the opposite: doesn't take himself seriously at all. The joker of the team. He (or his ghost writer) writes brilliantly - takes you right into the middle of the madness of a sprint train, or into the mud and horizontal rain of the Belgian classics. He has a whole chapter on Cav, as well as one dedicated to Wiggo and Froome as well. Awesome guy. And tough as nails too. He started riding as a tiny tot at the Maindy outdoor cycle track near his home in Cardiff, Wales. He hasn't forgotten his roots and often goes back there:
  13. The intermediate sprint is just a few kays away now. Then it starts to get very slightly up and down in the last 55 km. I reckon the strong ones will want to start shedding the passengers from there.
  14. Yip, the age-old problem with a big break - there are always going to be passengers. Which is why a big break is often caught. The best number for everyone to be working hard and making it very difficult for a chasing bunch to close the gap is 6 - 8 riders (or thereabouts). The guys who are doing all the work are going to get pissed soon enough. And then we'll start to see the break attacking each other.
  15. It's been left completely up to them now. No other teams seem to be helping. The gap is now up to 6'35". 96 km to go.
  16. Another reminder of the riders in the break: 1. Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) 2. Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) 3. Mikel Landa (Sky) 4. Gorka Izagirre (Movistar) 5. Samuel Dumoulin (Ag2R-La Mondiale) 6. Greg Van Avermaet (BMC)7. Damiano Caruso (BMC) 8. Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) 9. Michael Matthews (Orica-BikeExchange)10. Luke Durbridge (Orica-BikeExchange)11. Daryl Impey (Orica-BikeExchange) 12. Tony Gallopin (Lotto-Soudal) 13. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data)14. Stephen Cummings (Dimension Data) 15. Sylvain Chavanel (Direct Energie)
  17. I'm sure that everyone in the main peloton are breathing a collective sigh of relief after that crazy full-gas effort at the start of the stage. Things are looking a lot more relaxed and orderly now that the break has been established, and that the teams are satisfied with its composition. So it's probably understandable they're taking a bit of a breather for the moment.
  18. The peloton are going on a sight seeing tour now. Won't be surprised to see them stopping to pick summer daisies from the fields and making each other wreathes for their helmets. They ain't racing, that's for sure. The gap balloons out to 4'40" already.
  19. The small gruppetto containing Cavendish, Greipel, Kittel, Kelderman and Rolland should be able to get back on now, with this easing up of the peloton. There'll be lots of sighs of relief there. The gap continues to open up. 3'30" now.
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