As he is building his season around the major stage races i just doubt whether he was really super motivated to give it his all in a race that does not suit him specially taking into consideration the risk of ruining his season by crashing. I am not saying he intentionally dropped back..... but , as you obviously know, at this level the margins are very small and a rider needs to be 100% committed and motivated to win..... IMO he was not motivated enough to really give it a 100% effort.
Nibali is starting the Tour of the Basque Country stage race tomorrow so therefore he only used this race as an active recovery session On a serious note I doubt whether he was really dropped.
To pick a winner here is a bit of a lottery--- there are about 20 riders who can win on the day. Kwiatkowski at 16/1 and Vanmarcke at 12/1 offer quite good value I would say.
Cavendish is a very confident and bold person and his riding (sprinting) shows exactly that.. That is probably the main reason why he is so often involved in crashes..... but also why he has won 30 TdF stages + many other races both on track and on the road.. Sprinters are often not mainstream....a bit like drummers in rock bands or goalkeepers in football....
Whether Sagan came of high altitude training or not the fact remains that he was well beaten on Saturday by a cyclo cross rider who suffered from cramps
Yip, I think it is the yellow line. Yesterday,during the PPA ride, a marshall on a motorbike became quite agitated when she instructed a rider to stay inside the yellow line and he then tried to explain the necessity of forming an echelon in crosswind conditions to her while she was riding next to him. Although his explanation was pretty accurate she was not impressed and dismissed it with a rather angry and very irritated : " I am now telling you to stay inside that line"
Don't bother to enter if you do not have a good seeding as the slower riders are going to frustrate you on the narrow singletrack. Race packs are rumoured to be good though.
The advice in posts #7 and #8 above covers just about everything... there is indeed a bit of a sting in the tail just when you think you are cruising. It seems the race will be about 3km longer this year as it will now ends at the Showgrounds and no longer at the school. Hopefully the extra 3km will be all downhill on a smooth surface
Same here... all my hopes of bragging at the next race with my better seeding out of the window in a flash Interesting to note that the 2015 West Coast race that was slightly shorter had a beta of 1.04.
