SportingNonsense wrote:
A really good ride by Ian Bibby. It would be brilliant to see Sky sign him and/or Simon Richardson - but I guess its unlikely.
Maybe a long shot for this season, but Ian Bibby certainly won't be looked over for long. They have worked with him in the MTBer area of British Cycling after all, and they do seem to like hiring guys they've worked with.
Hopefully that will be the case - but the way they handled Downing last year suggested reluctance on their part in terms of hiring domestic riders
Well, we can only hope that Downings success this season has made them reconsider their signing strategy.
doddy13 wrote:
Albasini has taken the win in Stage 3 of the Tour of Britain in Swansea
and it was absolutle chaos apparently. Awful weather + incredibly steep cobbled climb towards the finish sounds like fun viewing.
Indeed it was. I was on Constitution Hill (the incredibly steep cobbled climb) - there a few hours before hand, rained pretty much non stop - but I got the best spot.
And my photos of the action itself will be uploaded here in due course - looking forward to the highlights now to see what happened on the rest of the stage.
By the way - didnt really understand Sky's Stage 2 tactics. Thomas, Wiggins and Henderson in the decisive group, great. Thomas and Wiggins then killing themselves on the front, and dropping off with more than 1km to go? Seemed to me to be throwing away the chance of a GC victory - and even better for Sky - a British GC victory - in favour of a stage victory that was by no means guaranteed even after they had put in the effort. Henderson was always unlikely to keep the race lead through the race, as today showed.
Wow. It must have been amazing to see them going so slowly and weaving across the road. Constitution hill was definately a great addition to the route which is much tougher this year than in past years.
I just got back from Devon having seen stage 4 at 3 different points along the route and the start and finish of stage 5, despite our car breaking down in between (and no, it didn't mean speeding for the rest of the journey). Manic, but fun. Photos will be on their way soon if I have time.
1 Marco Frapporti (Ita) Colnago - CSF Inox 4:16:10
2 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:00:13
3 Lucas Sebastien Haedo (Arg) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:32
4 Iker Camano (Spa) Endura Racing
5 Michael Golas (Pol) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team
6 Pieter Ghyllebert (Bel) An Post - Sean Kelly 0:00:50
7 Dan Martin (Irl) Garmin - Transitions 0:00:51
8 Ronan Van Zandbeek (Ned) Van Vliet EBH Elshof 0:06:36
9 Pim Lighart (Ned) Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team 0:09:18
10 Stijn Neirynck (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
11 Koen De Kort (Ned) Skil - Shimano
12 Stephen Cummings (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team
13 Alexandre Blain (Fra) Endura Racing
14 Matt Brammeier (Irl) An Post - Sean Kelly
15 Gianlucia Brambilla (Ita) Colnago - CSF Inox
16 Greg Henderson (NZl) Sky Professional Cycling Team
17 Pieter Jacobs (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
18 Richie Porte (Aus) Team Saxo Bank
19 Zak Dempster (Aus) Rapha Condor - Sharp
20 Russell Downing (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team
The break stays away. Wiggins attacks first on a climb with ~10km to go. He is closely marked, but Dan Martin and Frapporti then go and get a gap. Martin out front for the 2nd consecuvtive day, and Frapporti is able to attack away for him and hold on to win - Wiggins' 2nd move on the flat with headwinds coming too late to catch him, so taking 2nd place.
Tough time for HTC to defend their lead - theyre down to just Albasini, Grabsch, Renshaw and Greipel. Today they had Greipel on the front along with Grabsch and Renshaw - but I wonder will they in the next 3 stages - which could all well be sprint finishes.
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hillis91 wrote:
SportingNonsense wrote:
2nd video from Stage 3 of the Tour of Britain - the final 10 minutes of the stage - including Constitution Hill
Nice, that user got all of the stages?
Yes, but after that - why should I upload them for you?
One of my favorite courses in the year has started Tour de Hokkaido - Prologue
1. Taiji Nisthani - Japan
2. Shih Hsin Hsiao - Taiwan
3. Yoshimitsu Tsuji - Japan
4. Kazuhiro Mori - Japan
5. Hayato Yoshida - Japan
6. Sung Baek Park - South-Korea
7. Takashi Miyazawa - Japan
8. Shinpei Fukuda - Japan
9. Shinichi Fukushima - Japan
10. Nozomu Kimori - Japan
Boring stage, boring winner. But of course, its a flat stage in a smaller stage race - Greipel's favourite
Exactly.
The problem here is that there's no credible alternative to the Vuelta. There's only a few classics as far as decent-sized races go, as preparation for the worlds.
I still don't get why they moved Poland. It was fine where it was.
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