Bicycle Racing 2012

[The Boy]

OK, so no doubt the Giro and Tour will end up with their own threads, but I figured there always seems to be enough activity on those to warrant a general bike racing thread.

So far we this season we have had the usual warm-up at the laughably WorldTour Tour Down Under, some decent racing in the windy deserts of Qatar and some minor Euro races. Boonen won the overall and points jerseys in Qatar, Cav picked up a couple of stage wins, and Renshaw has possibly cemented his status as most expensive lead-out man in the peleton.

In other news the Tour of Hangzhou has been elevated to World Tour status. No doubt be another Beijing style snooze-fest.

 

[stavros]

World Cup Classics from the Olympic velodrome starting on Friday. I don't know how many of the big guns will be there.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Apparently Hangzhou has some interesting terrain (I can't claim any personal knowledge, I've just heard other people claim this) so it could potentially have a decent parcours. It probably won't mind you.

Boonen looks like he has some early form and his team have twice as many wins in the first month and a half of this year as they managed all of last year. Andy Fenn won two races in Mallorca, for instance, which is great and proof that that the strength in depth of British cycling goes beyond Sky. Cavendish has been winning already, despite not having a proper lead out so far. He's always going to win races, because he's the fastest, but Sky would in my view be nuts not to put a proper lead out in place, to maximize the wins he gets.

Jon Tiernan Locke won the Tour Mediterranean, which is a huge result for a little known rider on a domestic British team. He looks pretty likely to make a step up to a bigger team next year.

I have to say that I'm impressed with the state of British cycling at the moment. British riders form the backbone of Sky, the domestic teams are looking stronger than before and there are good British riders at a bunch of foreign teams. An Post Sean Kelly also have a group of very young British track stars this year, which is good because they get a better race programme than the domestic teams.

 

[1927]

How is cav going to fair at Sky this year without Renshaw to lead him out? I know he had a couple of wins last week, but it aint the TdF. Can we expect good things from him this year?

 

[Nigel Irritable]

How is cav going to fair at Sky this year without Renshaw to lead him out? I know he had a couple of wins last week, but it aint the TdF. Can we expect good things from him this year?

Well, he's the fastest sprinter so he'll win plenty of races regardless of who leads him out. It remains to be seen what resources Sky will devote to his success however.

 

[The Boy]

Cav not having a very good Tour of Oman. Kittell looks like delivering on some of the promise of last season, Greipel looks to have a decent enough train at Lotto, Nacer Bouhani seems to be confirming that he is a very real prospect, and Tyler Farrar is still shit. Still early days, but all in all the sprints look like they might actually be interesting this year.

Oh, and Peter Sagan will be the best cyclist of his generation. FACT.

 

[stavros]

Pendleton and Varnish broke the team sprint world record on the new Olympic track this evening, and it wasn't the only WR that tumbled, so it looks like we could see some pretty quick stuff come August. Apparently it has very low pressure inside, although how I'm not sure.

 

[ChrisD]

Any live streaming or other ways to get news from the velodrome for folk like me without satellite channels?

 

[weepiper]

Any live streaming or other ways to get news from the velodrome for folk like me without satellite channels?

some of it's available on the red button on freeview and on the BBC website Chris

 

[ChrisD]

Ignore my post above... Just realised it's on BBC 2... Also just realised that Tapatalk app on my phone is not updating hence hadn't seen weepiper post. Ta.

 

[stavros]

I missed Hoy taking the Keirin, probably my favourite track event, but Jo Rowsell was superb to maintain her fast start and win the ITT.

 

[stavros]

Very good rider, but Lizzie Armistead is a bloody woeful pundit.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Track racing is the cycling equivalent of Sunday League football.

 

[The Boy]

Track racing is the cycling equivalent of Sunday League football.

I wouldn't go *quite* that far, but it is definitely the poor relation.

In other news, Sky dominate in the Algarve. Disappoint in Oman. In the latter, Velits takes the overall, Sagan the points classification, Tony Gallopin the young rider's jersey.

Anyone care to venture predictions for Paris-Nice?

 

[The Boy]

By the way, if anyone ever gets bored then feel free to create a fantasy cycling team over at road.cc .

I've created an Urban 75 league, ID is 75700

 

[stavros]

Track racing is the cycling equivalent of Sunday League football.

I do prefer the road, but will always have a soft spot for the track, as Chris Boardman in Barcelona '92 was the start of my cycling fandom.

 

[The Boy]

Vanmarcke wins Omloop, Cav wins Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. And Arnaud Demare takes his second pro win at Le Samyn.

Paris-Nice starts this Sunday.

 

[butchersapron]

Well done Bradders. Could be a great season.

 

[The Boy]

Figured it was a done deal so didn't bother taping today's stage. Must've been squeaky bum time.

Although I still raise an eyebrow every time someone mentions just how much weight Wiggins has dropped without any perceptible dent to his TTing abilities. Oh, and he should be shot for having 'Wiggo' on the side of his jersey.

 

[The Boy]

Possibly interesting last couple of stages in T-A too.

 

[The Boy]

Nibbles won the overall in Tirreno-Adriatico ahead of (the 40 year old) Chris Horner. La primavera this weekend for which my fantasy team seems to be full of Belgians.

 

[The Boy]

Bit of a disaster for the Volta organisers yesterday which has probably handed the overall to Albasini. E3 and Gent-Wevelgem this weekend as we hit Classics season. Cancellara vs OPQS is looking like an interesting one.

Oh, and Arnaud Demare has confirmed his status as The Next Big Thing in French cycling. Until it turns out that he isn't and we wait until the next false dawn....

 

[The Boy]

De Ronde on Sunday. OPQS vs Spartacus Vs Rest of the World. OPQS to win (imo, natch).

 

[stavros]

Anyone know if ITV4 might show the Giro at all this year? They've done the TdF, for better or worse, for about ten years now, and did the Vuelta for the first time last year, so I thought they might be willing to invest for us Freeviewers.

 

[The Boy]

No idea about ITV4 but Eurosport do. Well worth the subscription for the bicycle racing alone - not to mention the Champs League Handball, Curling, skiing with guns etc.

 

[The Boy]

OPQS to win

Granted it helped that Canc broke his collar bone.

Can't say I liked the new course much though.

 

[stavros]

The World track Champs from Melbourne are on this week.

 

[The Boy]

The World track Champs from Melbourne are on this week.

And on Eurosport

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Granted it helped that Canc broke his collar bone.

Boonen has to be the red hot favourite for Roubaix too. Good to see him back on top. He's one of the few big stars in cycling who, like Cavendish, has a bit of charisma.

 

[poului]

Yes.... it exists.

Just putting it out there, like

http://fantasy.road.cc/home