ToC

padawan said:

Cancellara wins the prologue - was there ever any doubt? 😉

Interesting that Cavendish is the best placed sprinter and I believe within range to take the Jersey (leaders) with a 1st place tomorrow. Give High Road another thing to shoot for.

pretty decent pursuiter he is, and he won the tour of britain prologue last year amongst a few luminaries.

padawan said:

Cancellara wins the prologue - was there ever any doubt? 😉

Interesting that Cavendish is the best placed sprinter and I believe within range to take the Jersey (leaders) with a 1st place tomorrow. Give High Road another thing to shoot for.

Slipstream has four of the top ten and High Road has three. Add in two for CSC and one for Astana and you have the entire top ten occupied with teams with anti-doping programs. Hmmm. Of course they are also all big budget teams that have an incentive to perform in this event, but still. Hmmm.

Bro Deal said:

Slipstream has four of the two ten and High Road has three. Add in two for CSC and one for Astana and you have the entire top ten occupied with teams with anti-doping programs. Hmmm. Of course they are also all big budget teams that have an incentive to perform in this event, but still. Hmmm.

Isn't ToC gonna test the riders though? And the testing is not being handled by the UCI, right?

cyclingheroes said:

ToC riders diaries of Ciolek and Clarke at:
cyclingheroes.infoid1245.htmlOpen ↗

Hey CH, how is everthing going? Oh, the race! I will pick Leipheimer overall.

Great start for both Slipstream & High Rd, cool.

Wow, Cancellara manages to beat Wiggins at the mans perfect duration/distance by 4.8 seconds. Let's just pretend that Wiggins lost it in the three corners on the course. And that's he's not in great form and Cancellara is.....

Eldrack said:

Wow, Cancellara manages to beat Wiggins at the mans perfect duration/distance by 4.8 seconds. Let's just pretend that Wiggins lost it in the three corners on the course. And that's he's not in great form and Cancellara is.....

I think you would have to walk around the corners to lose 4.8 seconds.

It has been clear for a couple years that Cancellara must be doing some major Bruyneel-level doping. The time differences are ridiculous.

Bro Deal said:

I think you would have to walk around the corners to lose 4.8 seconds.

It has been clear for a couple years that Cancellara must be doing some major, Bruyneel-level doping. The time differences are ridiculous.

I diagree on one assumption.

Cancellara corners and accelerates out of the corners like MCewen, where Wiggins is more like Rass. I think there is about 3-5 seconds potentially in the start, the corners, and the finish sprint.

Wiggins has obviously perfected his start and sprint(madison) on a fixed gear, but I think he is far far behind Cancellara in these respects on the road.

But you only have to see the differences in the body, and Cancellara is carrying some heavy muscle for a guy riding 20 thousand miles a year.

thunder said:

I diagree on one assumption.

Cancellara corners and accelerates out of the corners like MCewen, where Wiggins is more like Rass. I think there is about 3-5 seconds potentially in the start, the corners, and the finish sprint.

Wiggins has obviously perfected his start and sprint(madison) on a fixed gear, but I think he is far far behind Cancellara in these respects on the road.

But you only have to see the differences in the body, and Cancellara is carrying some heavy muscle for a guy riding 20 thousand miles a year.

It's not just this prologue. It's the last year and a half. Riders like the Z-Man have fallen off the map.

You got the muscles right. He's built like a brick [censored].

thunder said:

I diagree on one assumption.

Cancellara corners and accelerates out of the corners like MCewen, where Wiggins is more like Rass. I think there is about 3-5 seconds potentially in the start, the corners, and the finish sprint.

Wiggins has obviously perfected his start and sprint(madison) on a fixed gear, but I think he is far far behind Cancellara in these respects on the road.

But you only have to see the differences in the body, and Cancellara is carrying some heavy muscle for a guy riding 20 thousand miles a year.

+1 Whether FC is doping or not, his cornering on a TT bike is pretty incredible.

I think he makes up time on most TT riders there. He seems to pedal longer (and at a steeper bike angle) through the corners than others. Supposedly good riders will clip their pedals often enough pedaling through the corners of a crit (not me though :o ). I wonder how often that happens on a TT bike.

padawan said:

+1 Whether FC is doping or not, his cornering on a TT bike is pretty incredible.

I think he makes up time on most TT riders there. He seems to pedal longer (and at a steeper bike angle) through the corners than others. Supposedly good riders will clip their pedals often enough pedaling through the corners of a crit (not me though :o ). I wonder how often that happens on a TT bike.

he throws himself and the bike into the corners, very impressive.

Millar was known for that when he was winning too.

Gung-ho dope obviously :d

Riders Diary Jonny Clarke ToC 2008 Day 1: "4 minutes of pain today..."
cyclingheroes.infoid1272.htmlOpen ↗

IMO, the most impressive performance today was a 40 year old lion - two years away from competition, flown in from Italy to a 44th place, 3 sec behind Boonen!

If Cavendish is dropped on some hill, we might be seeing Cipollini sprinting against Boasson Hagen, who was born in 1987. Cipollini won the Regio Tour that year...

RAGT said:

IMO, the most impressive performance today was a 40 year old lion - two years away from competition, flown in from Italy to a 44th place, 3 sec behind Boonen!

If Cavendish is dropped on some hill, we might be seeing Cipollini sprinting against Boasson Hagen, who was born in 1987. Cipollini won the Regio Tour that year...

Cipo could be his father, I bet Cipo slept with about one dozen podium girls at the 86 Ringerike Tour!

Farrar's ride is impressive. The best of the sprinters by a good bit. Seems he'll be contesting stage wins unless SS makes a run for the jersey gunning for hot spots. Not sure what the bonus seconds come out to be worth it or not.

Ahhh She's back.

[img]farm1.static.flickr.com112478847 7117146829.jpgOpen ↗[/img]

I heard, some spectators and riders had problems with "Birds" around Bodega Bay.

😄

lw

Looks like Boonen wants stage 1.... They're closing the gap pretty quickly now.

lw

It's closed. Boonen, Farrar, Cavendesh... Does that put Farrar in the lead?

... just checked and yes, by one second.

Interesting, they are going to pull slower riders as they come into town so they won't interfere with the sprint finish ( 3x3miles circuits to finish).

lw