Gen Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 So back to the Giro.... I've been scratching my head at the antics of Tinkoff and Astana during this first week - but especially at the the race strategy of Tinkoff. It's all a bit mad and doesn't follow logic TBH. Almost as if a madhatter Russian playboy has taken over and is pulling the strings in the background, telling his riders to go off on all sorts of mad tangents... . I mean, what pro team sends one of their main lieutenants off the front of a stage only for the rest of his team to then try and chase him down. To what end?? Those two teams have been bashing each other over the head for the past 9 days, with not much to show for it. In my view, Sky have played the clever game and let them slug it out and burn all their matches in the first week while they hitched a free ride and waited to cover the moves. The Inner Ring shares my views. Here's his analysis - a good read (incl. the comments below): The Giro d’Italia One Week InEven Bert shares your views.. well on yesterday's stage in any case. Also I think Porte is going to battle in the high mountains IMHO
Gen Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 Not to hijack the Giro thread, but Sagan's performance on the Tour of California queen stage is one of the greatest cycling performances I've ever witnessed. The amount of pain he suffered through while out-climbing pre-race favourates like Robert Gesink and co was magical!Don't worry. I did a proper haai jack on this thread about TOC yesterday.
Bub Marley Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 Sorry for hijacking the thread yet again but is there any place I can watch or download some highlights of Sagan's incredible performance?
Gen Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 Sorry for hijacking the thread yet again but is there any place I can watch or download some highlights of Sagan's incredible performance?Try steephilltv or maybe even the official website.
Wez-O Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 So back to the Giro.... I've been scratching my head at the antics of Tinkoff and Astana during this first week - but especially at the the race strategy of Tinkoff. It's all a bit mad and doesn't follow logic TBH. Almost as if a madhatter Russian playboy has taken over and is pulling the strings in the background, telling his riders to go off on all sorts of mad tangents... . I mean, what pro team sends one of their main lieutenants off the front of a stage only for the rest of his team to then try and chase him down. To what end?? Those two teams have been bashing each other over the head for the past 9 days, with not much to show for it. In my view, Sky have played the clever game and let them slug it out and burn all their matches in the first week while they hitched a free ride and waited to cover the moves. The Inner Ring shares my views. Here's his analysis - a good read (incl. the comments below): The Giro d’Italia One Week InTo a large extent, I agree... Sky and Porte played yesterday perfectly well by refusing to do so much as a single pull either on the peloton or the 3-man leaders attack.
Mntboy Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 So back to the Giro.... I've been scratching my head at the antics of Tinkoff and Astana during this first week - but especially at the the race strategy of Tinkoff. It's all a bit mad and doesn't follow logic TBH. Almost as if a madhatter Russian playboy has taken over and is pulling the strings in the background, telling his riders to go off on all sorts of mad tangents... . I mean, what pro team sends one of their main lieutenants off the front of a stage only for the rest of his team to then try and chase him down. To what end?? Those two teams have been bashing each other over the head for the past 9 days, with not much to show for it. In my view, Sky have played the clever game and let them slug it out and burn all their matches in the first week while they hitched a free ride and waited to cover the moves. The Inner Ring shares my views. Here's his analysis - a good read (incl. the comments below): The Giro d’Italia One Week InA very good read tombeej. It'll be interesting to see how the racing goes asof tomorrow!
GrumpyOldGuy Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 I agree, that must surely have been the deepest he's ever gone and I'm sure he went to a very dark place that not many of us have ever experienced. Time must have slowed down to a point where every 10th of a second dragged out like an eternity. Takes a special kind of mental strength to stay in the moment and keep going. The only other time I've seen something similar was when Tyler Hamilton broke his collarbone in the 2003 TDF and not only did he finish 4th overall, but performed one of the greatest feats I've ever seen a human perform when he won stage 16 with a 142km solo breakaway with that broken collarbone. Sure he was a doper, but that doesn't mean he wasn't a very special rider as well. Ok, back to the Giro...Yah, maybe by modern standards, but teams have hunted down their own riders quite frequently in the past. I remember a famous break by none other than Vino when he and Jan were riding for T mobile, and Jan put everyone out in front to pull him back.Everyone frowned, but Jan was the protected rider and Vino getting into 2nd or third position might have created conflict on who the team was riding for. Basso hunted down Gilberto Simoni in the Giro one year as well, it broke Simoni's spirit and Basso actually went on to win so I dont know, Oleg said he would be in the car but not on the radio, so we have to accept it was a race managers decision, maybe they just want clear lines and no blurring. That said, Astana to me look the stronger team, Tinkoff appear to be struggling a bit and 'Berto is often left alone, if it was anyone else I would be concerned, but 'Berto is well able to look after himself and unless he suffers a mechanical I dont think he will be concerned.Sky look wishy washy to me, Kiryienka is usually a strong rider and I would have imagined Portes best support rider, but he has been disappearing quickly on the slopes lately. Maybe he will ride himself into shape because he is much better than we see now. Personally I think Mikel Landa is looking ominously strong, as good as Aru for sure and maybe a better TT proponent as well, I am not sure he is up to winning at this point but he could easily make the podium if someone falters. Sorry to see Uran so far down, he is a tough old fighter but even he would be hard pressed to get back sufficient time in the TT to podium, I think he will just see if he can take a stage win somewhere.
koukie Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 a bit off topic, but what is going on with the million Cecil Nurse ads on super sport, its super irritating, so much so that I will never buy any cecil nurse products ever!! Rant off...
Patchelicious Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 a bit off topic, but what is going on with the million Cecil Nurse ads on super sport, its super irritating, so much so that I will never buy any cecil nurse products ever!! Rant off... I like you! SS did it with some stupid MTN "do you know where coffee comes from" advert, I'm now with Vodacom!
Jay_B Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 a bit off topic, but what is going on with the million Cecil Nurse ads on super sport, its super irritating, so much so that I will never buy any cecil nurse products ever!! Rant off... And it always goes to an add at random times... like middle of the commentators sentence
tombeej Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 Yah, maybe by modern standards, but teams have hunted down their own riders quite frequently in the past..... snip, snip... The problem I have with this is that a team will sit down in the hotel/camper van and devise the plan for the day. Part of that plan is to decide if it's in the team's interests to have someone in the break and if so, who will that be. That person/people will then be required to kill themselves in the early part of the stage to make sure they're in the right break when it eventually gets away. It's not an easy thing to do, so it takes full commitment. Being in the break is not something that a rider happens to find themselves in. So if Kreuziger was in the break then surely it was part of a pre-stage race strategy. And if so, then what was the point of then forcing the whole team to chase down the break well after it had been formed? But if not, well then that means they're not meeting pre-stage to work out a coherent strategy for the day.... Anyway, that's just one example of the puzzling race tactics from Tinkoff. And in terms of Astana, lots of whispering now going on with their crazy-strong team dominating all the attacks and pulling the whole peloton around the countryside (esp. considering their dirty history). The last time I saw a team like this was a bunch of 'supermen' sponsored by a certain national postal service .
'Dale Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 Pancake tomorrowThe Gorilla for glory http://images2.gazzettaobjects.it/Giroditalia/2015/images/tappa/tappa_dettagli_tecnici_altimetria_10.jpg
American Flyers Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 I am sure the Astana team doping and they tested on B team, so that A team would not get caught. UCI could have banned them already, but I think they took bribes to stay on..
Cippo Posted May 18, 2015 Posted May 18, 2015 a bit off topic, but what is going on with the million Cecil Nurse ads on super sport, its super irritating, so much so that I will never buy any cecil nurse products ever!! Rant off...It might be irritating but they pay the bills for SS to broadcast the cycling.
Bianchisti Posted May 18, 2015 Author Posted May 18, 2015 Pancake tomorrowThe Gorilla for glory http://images2.gazzettaobjects.it/Giroditalia/2015/images/tappa/tappa_dettagli_tecnici_altimetria_10.jpgThat is seriously flat. Viviani to take it.
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.