Looks like he's still with the group though it's hard to tell. Reports of Basso climbing off.
edit: Basso abandon confirmed.
Bicycle Racing Thread 2013
- Thread starter The Boy
- Start date
Looks like he's still with the group though it's hard to tell. Reports of Basso climbing off.
edit: Basso abandon confirmed.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Weirder still, it looks like Pinot has actually gone with an attack group on the descent. He may be shitting it, but he's apparently willing to try to overcome it.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Basso is indeed gone. LL Sanchez too. Valverde has been dropped it seems.
Meanwhile it looks like Ratto just has to stay on his bike to take the stage. Which he might not do, judging by the way he's going around those corners.
Meanwhile it looks like Ratto just has to stay on his bike to take the stage. Which he might not do, judging by the way he's going around those corners.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
No idea where Horner, Roche, Purito are. The coverage is total chaos because of the weather.
It's fucking impossibly to get any real idea of what is going on atm. There are FdJ riders in the leader's group, and one of them seems to have pinged off the front on the descent here but no idea who it is. Valverde is, apparently, 40 odd secs back but no idea if that is because of a mechanical or what.
Ratto up front, but no idea who is between him and the peloton or how far back etc. Looks like the stage is his though as long as he doesn't blow a gasket on the final climb.
Pretty sure I saw Horner behind Nibbles a few minutes ago./
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Hard to see anyone challenging Nibali from here.
sleaterkinney
Well-Known Member
Tough day today, and another one tomorrow.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Another fun stage. Great ride by Geniez.
Pinot was a bit too aggressive for his own good.
Pinot was a bit too aggressive for his own good.
Indeed he was. Think he was trying to chase down Roche though - was only thirty seconds behind him on GC at the start of the day. Probably a bit of inexperience showing tbh.
Speaking of Roche though, any idea what the plan was for today? As much as I like to see someone giving something a try, it looked like a but of a silly move. Awful lot of effort to gain just a few seconds.
Would have been nice if the broadcasters could have shown us a bit more of what was happening between Geniez and the leader's group. Lost a bit of the sense of how scattered everything was.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
I think it had a dual purpose: if the leaders weren't particularly fast up the final climb and he had good legs he could take quite a bit of time. If he wasn't good, he'd at least have a headstart and be able ride his own pace.
I think it was smart on balance. And apparently the leading five were pretty fast up the climb in comparison to previous races, so although the gain on the five ahead of him was small, he could easily have been luckier and got more. Also, he increased the gap on those behind him by a more considerable amount.
Marginally faster than Contador and Rasmussen in 2007 apparently...
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Which is all the more remarkable given that it came at the end of a very tough stage and immediately after an absolute hell of a day.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Barguil is a beast.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
What a fucking finish! Everything went nuts.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Barguil says in his interview that the DS told him to hang back in the peloton and save himself for next week, but he decided to attack anyway.
Barguil was ice fucking cold. Horner is very fucking old.
edit: I was musing before work whether we would see a repeat of Fuente De or a day where the favourites sat about saving themselves. Thought it was the latter when I tuned into highlights, but it really did go crazy at the end there.
It's been a pretty good year for exciting bike racing all things considered.
edit2: Photo finish on a mountain stage
edit: I was musing before work whether we would see a repeat of Fuente De or a day where the favourites sat about saving themselves. Thought it was the latter when I tuned into highlights, but it really did go crazy at the end there.
It's been a pretty good year for exciting bike racing all things considered.
edit2: Photo finish on a mountain stage
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
I really like the cut of Barguil's jib. It's incredibly rare to see a rider his age win repeatedly by being the smartest rider at the finish.
Whoever at Argos was responsible for signing him deserves one hell of a pat on the back. Even with no support whatsoever, he can win races for them that they would never have any significant role in otherwise.
Whoever at Argos was responsible for signing him deserves one hell of a pat on the back. Even with no support whatsoever, he can win races for them that they would never have any significant role in otherwise.
It's interesting that they even bothered signing him in the first place - Geniez left Argos at the end of last year precisely because he didn't think it was a good fit for a climber. Sure I mentioned earlier though that they do seem to be signing a lot more interesting riders this year.
edit: you might also want to take a look at inrng's column about him if you have't already seen it.
http://inrng.com/2013/09/warren-barguil/
Last edited:
Sigmund Fraud
893 all the way.
Can't see it making much of a difference on the final result.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
I don't think it will change too much for many of the contenders but it helps climbers and puncheurs and hurts sprinters. It's hard to see a Cavendish (or any other out and out sprinter) ever winning again on the new course for instance.
With just about any other race I'd be all for that, but I really do think that a sprinter who really works for it should be in with a chance at MSR.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Another suprisingly good stage today, thanks to Saxo creating echelons and Mollema's sneaky move at the end.
