Tour de Romandie

[micron]

And here was me thinking that Disco were the most meticulous team in the peloton - that trains the hardest, does the most thorough reccies and always has their food prepared by their own chefs to avoid such problems as 'dodgy stomachs'.

Still, the old euphemisms are the best....

 

[Bjorn P.Dal]

Hehe,
maybe someone could compile a list of teams and riders suffering from food poisoning and the old stomach bug routine ? I'm it would be date for a lot of great speculation.

 

[limerickman]

I would agree with that, Valverde is the favourite to win from a select group of climbers who drop everyone else on the last climb then head for home together. However do not count out the Liberty Seguros factor. They have at least 3 riders who can be there at the finish (Contador, Jaksche, Kasheckin) and so we could see one of them attacking the group to get a stage win as Contador did today.

I won't disagree with you there, Eld.
Liberty look pretty solid.

 

[Eldrack]

Side note about Liberty:

Pity they are sending their B team to the Giro but when it comes to the TdF they are going to cause some serious fireworks: Contador, Jaksche, Kasheckin, Redondo (showed he was a pretty good climber yesterday, not the best but as a domestique), Beloki (still good as a domestique), Luis Leon Sanchez all supporting Vino, its going to be very very messy. Thats more climbing talent on a team than USPS/DC ever had.

Thread related comment:

If Contador still has the yellow jersey at the beginning of the time trial I reckon he has the thing won, he's a pretty good ITT'er when it comes down to it. Though Valverde did do an impressive prologue the distances are quite different.

 

[bobke]

Very interesting.. please post it.

Yawn.

I thought this thread was about Romandie.

 

[micron]

And what bigger story than an entire team suddenly coming down with food poisoning? Just like PDM, Gewiss etc etc. Can't blame people for speculating as to what might have happened to cause such devastation to one team...

 

[Eldrack]

And Valverde takes the stage! Awesome attempt by Liberty with Kashechkin on the attack, so close at the finish. Sets everything up nicely for tomorrows stage..

 

[tcklyde]

And Valverde takes the stage! Awesome attempt by Liberty with Kashechkin on the attack, so close at the finish. Sets everything up nicely for tomorrows stage..

Man, Valverde is rupping things up!

Tomorrow could be the most exciting TT of the year. Will reveal a lot about Valverde's potential for the rest of the year. Contador has 6 seconds on him.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Cioni will do tomorrow. He was sitting at 11th on the GC yesterday. He seems the form to ride another pretty good Giro.

 

[Eldrack]

In the Tour of Basque country Valverde beat Contador by over 20 seconds in a similar length (24K) TT to come second on the stage and second overall so I would expect Valverde to take the overall honours unless Contador pulls something special out of the bag.

 

[bobke]

In the Tour of Basque country Valverde beat Contador by over 20 seconds in a similar length (24K) TT to come second on the stage and second overall so I would expect Valverde to take the overall honours unless Contador pulls something special out of the bag.

I think Valverde is showing he is ready to take on anybody. Cant wait for the TdF!!!

He is an excitying rider, much more so than Lance or Indurain.
More like Hinault or Lemond but even more exciting.

So now the question would be how is his team and can they do they job of protecting him!?!?

 

[Andrija]

Great stuff from Evans today! To be honest, I didn't expect that from him... He didn't look to me so smooth and powerful. Contador looked much better (because of pedaling style), but time splits were in Cadel's favor.
I also expected more from Valverde after his strong prologue showing... But it's obvious he's tired after these two weeks of intense racing for him. And it seems he didn't improve his TTing so much as I thought he did.
Main conclusion for me is that Liberty will be force at the Tour... And knowing that they have, maybe, the best DS in ProTour - anything is possible... Vino is not so far from victory .

 

[Eilert Pilarm]

if anyone picked Evans, along with the total dominance of Davitamon Lotto in this race (and I didnt ... figured CSC would dominate as they usually do these week-long stagies), then brilliant on them!

i didnt see or hear anyone go with Cadel to win the overall, much less the TT today.
nice ride today also by Bobby Julich. He still demonstrates that he is a fantastic TT'er.

 

[limerickman]

Great stuff from Evans today! To be honest, I didn't expect that from him... He didn't look to me so smooth and powerful. Contador looked much better (because of pedaling style), but time splits were in Cadel's favor.
I also expected more from Valverde after his strong prologue showing... But it's obvious he's tired after these two weeks of intense racing for him. And it seems he didn't improve his TTing so much as I thought he did.
Main conclusion for me is that Liberty will be force at the Tour... And knowing that they have, maybe, the best DS in ProTour - anything is possible... Vino is not so far from victory .

I agree Liberty look really strong : and their line up is full of tough guys prepared to slug it out.
Saiz seems to be building a team just like he did at ONCE : and if that's the case the peloton had better watch out!

Great ride by Evans - great week for Davitomon.

 

[whiteboytrash]

Great ride by Evans - great week for Davitomon.

I'm never one to speculate but where did Evans come from ? He has had some very poor form of recent... put down to Hunters sydrome (what is that ?) and bobs up and wins a big race like TdR.... hmmmmm....... I saw him TT in Tour of the Basque country and he looked bad...... thoughts anyone ?

I like him a lot and think he is a big chance to cause some problems at the tour so lets see whats happens....

Valverde needs to calm down and go back into hiding... his time will come in about 6 weeks.....

 

[Jono L]

I'm never one to speculate but where did Evans come from ? He has had some very poor form of recent... put down to Hunters sydrome (what is that ?) and bobs up and wins a big race like TdR.... hmmmmm.......

Form is bad due to sickness, sickness gone, form good! Easy.

 

[Bjorn P.Dal]

He's certainly had his issues this spring. Allan Peiper (lotto DS) said earlier speaking to cycling.tv that Evans had ridden Liege Bastogne Liege with eyesight only on one eye! He said a bunch of other things also such as why he went blind on one eye, but I didnt catch that Migrene something

 

[Eilert Pilarm]

He's certainly had his issues this spring. Allan Peiper (lotto DS) said earlier speaking to cycling.tv that Evans had ridden Liege Bastogne Liege with eyesight only on one eye! He said a bunch of other things also such as why he went blind on one eye, but I didnt catch that Migrene something

Ja-ja.....that was a good catch Bjørn---I also heard the DS on cycling.tv mention Migraine headaches that Evans had suffered from (at least i heard the words migraine headache i believe)

I've fortunately never had them, but wifey did. A normal headache is one thing, but a Migraine is almost like a fit of epilepsy imho...nauseau and the resultant vomiting, along with various problems with senses, eyesight being one of them. wifey was in the emergency room laid out on the table, unable to function.
If he was actually riding a race with a migraine then that is incredible.

and again...it was quite a tough time trial today, so well done to Cadel.

 

[Rhubarb]

Cadel Evans!! Wow what a ride! I was quietly hoping he would be able to pull something out but was really not expecting that. It now makes me very excited for his Tour prospects as it did look like he was really struggling before Romandie.

Hunter Syndrome

Definition
Hunter syndrome is a hereditary disease in which the breakdown of a mucopolysaccharide (a chemical that is widely distributed in the body outside of cells) is defective. This chemical builds up and causes a characteristic facial appearance, abnormal function of multiple organs, and in severe cases, early death.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors
Hunter syndrome is inherited as an X-linked recessive disease. This means that women carry the disease and can pass it on to their sons, but are not themselves affected.

Because girls have two X chromosomes, their normal X can provide a functioning gene even if their other X is defective. But because boys have an X and a Y, there is no normal X gene to fix the problem if the X is defective.

The metabolic abnormality that causes Hunter syndrome is a lack of the enzyme iduronate-2-sulfatase. In its absence, mucopolysaccharides collect in various body tissues, causing damage.

Affected children may develop an early-onset type (severe form) shortly after age 2 that causes a large skull, coarse facial features, profound mental retardation, spasticity, aggressive behavior, joint stiffness and death before age 20. A late-onset type (mild form) causes later and less severe symptoms.

Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_syndrome

Hunter Syndrome sounds quite serious. One of the things it can affect is the retina. I hope it is under control for Cadel.

 

[bobke]

Form is bad due to sickness, sickness gone, form good! Easy.

Yes, Evans has been out with unusual symtpoms, various diagnoses, and then a diagnosis of migraine which would allow him to take a number of pharmaceuticals. He has been eerily quiet and then blows the doors off a ITT. When was the last ITT he did well at BTW?

Here are some time comparisons:
Stage 5 2004
Tyler Hamilton (Usa-Pho) 26.29
Bradley McGee (Aus-FdJ) 0.35
Ronny Scholz (Ger-Gst) 0.53
Ivan Basso (Ita-Csc)0.58


2006

1 Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto 26.19.87 (46.485 km/h)
2 Leif Hoste (Bel) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 0.22
3 Bobby Julich (USA) Team CSC 0.38
4 Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz) Liberty Seguros-Würth Team 0.44
5 Serguei Gonchar (Ukr) T-Mobile Team 0.49
6 Jorg Jaksche (Ger) Liberty Seguros-Würth Team 0.50

So Cadel beats a group of the worlds best ITTists.
In a time better that Tyler Hamilton, who let us say was at his "peak" in Romandie in 2004, right.
Any conjectures folks?
Amazing "comeback" from Lotto.
I guess they were feeling the pressure.

 

[Eilert Pilarm]

guess Cadel took his Vegemite pills an' that