Road Cycling
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@chris-b There are also a few guys from the West Indies doing ok in the track cycling world, also a couple of Malaysians so things seem to be expanding from the predominantly European/Australian base that track cycling has always seemed to be. Quite a few South Americans doing well on the road too it is noted.
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Flat stage in the Catalunya last night, but cross winds near the end caught out a few of the bigger guns - Simon Yates (crashed and got caught out/attacked), Carthy, Mentjies, Hindley, Woods, Dumoulin, Storer - all lost 30-odd seconds.
George safely ensconced in the quite small leading group, with his leader, Almeida.
Richie Porte sick and withdrew.
At the end of Stage 1 Sonny Cobrelli had a cardiac arrest, but resuscitated and recovering in hospital. (Yeah - I nastily thought that too!).
Mountain stages the next couple of days.
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@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
Flat stage in the Catalunya last night, but cross winds near the end caught out a few of the bigger guns - Simon Yates (crashed and got caught out/attacked), Carthy, Mentjies, Hindley, Woods, Dumoulin, Storer - all lost 30-odd seconds.
George safely ensconced in the quite small leading group, with his leader, Almeida.
Richie Porte sick and withdrew.
At the end of Stage 1 Sonny Cobrelli had a cardiac arrest, but resuscitated and recovering in hospital. (Yeah - I nastily thought that too!).
Mountain stages the next couple of days.
Should spread the field a bit time wise. Interesting stage with three Cat1 climbs. They start going uphill right from the start with no let up for 80km. Anyone who can make a break on the second climb and can descend well will be in a great spot for the third.
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@crucial Significant time for Yates et al to make up on the big guns still in the lead group.
Almeida, Carapaz, Quintana and maybe Kruiswijk and Valverde.
UAE has George and Soler as cards to play from the lead group, as well - if they want.
A few others like Chaves, Martin and Poels maybe in the mix.
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@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
@crucial Significant time for Yates et al to make up on the big guns still in the lead group.
Almeida, Carapaz, Quintana and maybe Kruiswijk and Valverde.
UAE has George and Soler as cards to play from the lead group, as well - if they want.
A few others like Chaves, Martin and Poels maybe in the mix.
I am hoping that the first climb has a decent peleton and George can save himself to work on the second. He seems to be in the team as the the climbing pacer.
Pretty sure that will be everyone's gameplan though so the second climb may also get nullified. -
@crucial On past form, you'd think Soler would be a more dangerous rider for UAE to send ahead than George - if they were going to try that.
I'd think that the teams of the guys who have lost time will need to make the stage hard, so they should be interested in setting the early pace.
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@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
@crucial On past form, you'd think Soler would be a more dangerous rider for UAE to send ahead than George - if they were going to try that.
I'd think that the teams of the guys who have lost time will need to make the stage hard, so they should be interested in setting the early pace.
Sorry, didn't mean that George will be given space to go ahead just that his role will be to pull Almeida up one of the climbs. Just hope he gets to go deeper in the race than the first (or second) climb. In the Emirates he was going flat out to stretch the field then dropping right back job done.
One day a stage like this will go his way and he can pull on the last climb then hang in there to the end for a podium. -
@crucial I was agreeing with you in a roundabout way.
I think George will be pacing Almeida - but, if other teams do that job, he might be able to just ride along with Almeida tonight and stay high in the GC.
If UAE were going to send anyone up the road, I think they'd send Soler.
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Quite interesting stage.
The peloton stayed largely together till the final climb.
Ben O'Çonnor broke away early on the climb and maintained a 25 second lead till the final scramble, where he held on to win by 6 seconds.
A lead group of about 30 riders (including George) finished more-or-less together. George poked his nose into the breeze very briefly halfway up the climb, but otherwise sat in. A small handful of riders including Guillame Martin and Soler made brief bids to catch O'Connor.
Net result, George is 10th equal (with about 10 others), 19 seconds down on O'Çonnor. His teammate Ayuso is 2nd and Almeida 4th = - 3 seconds ahead of George.
Soler got caught and spat out the back near the finish and lost a handful of seconds, as did Chaves, Meintjes, Carthy and Woods.
Simon Yates cracked and lost 10 minutes - as did Michael Storer.
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@crucial I only watched the TV coverage and had a look at the placings.
But, I just looked - he crashed the day before - yesterday he was feeling effects of recent illness. Likely withdrawal today.
Tom Dumoulin and Michael Matthews were high profile withdrawals yesterday - Tom was sick.
Tom has been a pretty underwhelming signing for TJV so far. Not done much in their colours.
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One of George's better rides last night.
A breakaway of seven riders (including Soler) mainly got caught just before the final climb.
Bruno Almirail, however, survived and made a solo attack to lead by about 25 seconds. George then attacked and was able to ride across to Almirail. Unfortunately, never got more than about 15 seconds ahead of the main group - but, sat at that distance towing Almirail for 4-5 kms.
When the big guns started to launch about 4kms from the finish they got swallowed up.
Eventually Almeida won on the line for UAE, from Quintana and Higuita - with Carapaz a few seconds back. Ben O'Çonnor cracked a couple of kms from home.
George rode on to finish 13th on the stage, but 43 seconds down. However, good to see him have a crack.
He's now 11th overall but 56 seconds down.
Quintana is the overall leader, but Almeida has the same time. Higuita is 6 seconds down - then a bunch of guys 17-26 seconds down including Ayuso, Poels, O'Çonnor, Martin and Carapaz.
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@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
One of George's better rides last night.
A breakaway of seven riders (including Soler) mainly got caught just before the final climb.
Bruno Almirail, however, survived and made a solo attack to lead by about 25 seconds. George then attacked and was able to ride across to Almirail. Unfortunately, never got more than about 15 seconds ahead of the main group - but, sat at that distance towing Almirail for 4-5 kms.
When the big guns started to launch about 4kms from the finish they got swallowed up.
Eventually Almeida won on the line for UAE, from Quintana and Higuita - with Carapaz a few seconds back. Ben O'Çonnor cracked a couple of kms from home.
George rode on to finish 13th on the stage, but 43 seconds down. However, good to see him have a crack.
He's now 11th overall but 56 seconds down.
Quintana is the overall leader, but Almeida has the same time. Higuita is 6 seconds down - then a bunch of guys 17-26 seconds down including Ayuso, Poels, O'Çonnor, Martin and Carapaz.
What's good is that UAE have a number of numbers in the top part of the GC and they will be able to work together to protect themselves until the next opportunity arises.
I'm liking the course settings this year where they all seem to have really interesting final stages that can disrupt the leaderboard. Emirates, Paris-Nice, and hopefully this one all fantastic last days with a bit in it for everyone.
I used to hate watching TdF in the days when you'd just get a procession after an early TT or one climb part way in would determine things. Maybe the final day traditions of TdF may get a shake up one day as well. -
@crucial Yeah - looked like very smart tactics by UAE yesterday.
They had Soler in the early break, so didn't have to chase.
Then they had George sitting out in front for most of the climb, so again others had to chase (mainly Ineos), so George wasn't pulling everyone else up the climb, but still setting the pace.
They've now got Almeida and Ayuso both in prime positions and George not completely discounted.
Pretty formidable TdF squad when they've got Pogacar to come in and options like Hirschi, Formolo, Majka, Trentin, Ulissi et al to draw on.,
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Flat stage overnight, but the big guns did more than just pedal along buried in the peloton.
Most notably, Almeida and Quintana ended up sprinting for time bonuses in an intermediate sprint. Almeida came third in the sprint - picked up a one second time bonus, which leap-frogged him into the overall lead.
After that, several riders tried their luck breaking away trying to win by avoiding the sprinters. Didn't work and eventually we got a sprint finish.
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@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
Flat stage overnight, but the big guns did more than just pedal along buried in the peloton.
Most notably, Almeida and Quintana ended up sprinting for time bonuses in an intermediate sprint. Almeida came third in the sprint - picked up a one second time bonus, which leap-frogged him into the overall lead.
After that, several riders tried their luck breaking away trying to win by avoiding the sprinters. Didn't work and eventually we got a sprint finish.
Long stage though. Energy expended could be a factor over the next two days. O'Conner has done a mountain by himself where he was breathing so hard it was scary followed by trying (and cracking) to hold his lead. Does he have more?
Everyone in the top ten is comfortable on hills so it will come down to what's left in the legs at the end. -
@crucial Getting O'Çonnor's breathing from a motorbike was impressive stuff. I'm thinking they must have been on an electric bike? I haven't seen/heard that before.
Actually, if I'm reading the stage profile right, last night's flat stage still had 2,760 metres of ascending - a well as being long - and more than on the last day, which is classed as "medium mountain".
Be nice to see George move into the Top 10 over the last two days, but that won't be a huge priority for UAE.
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@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
@crucial Getting O'Çonnor's breathing from a motorbike was impressive stuff. I'm thinking they must have been on an electric bike? I haven't seen/heard that before.
Actually, if I'm reading the stage profile right, last night's flat stage still had 2,760 metres of ascending - a well as being long - and more than on the last day, which is classed as "medium mountain".
Be nice to see George move into the Top 10 over the last two days, but that won't be a huge priority for UAE.
UAE ballsed things up today and Almedia lost the GC lead Higuita & Carapaz
