Tomorrow's stage will be another long one. As well as a flat one. Tour de Pologne, Stage 2: Torun - Warszawa (2.WT2)
Probably sprinters work again. Mezgec will be wanting to get another WT win, if he recovers from his crash. Otherwise Sinkeldam or Arndt are good bets for Giant. Hutarovich, Farrar, Ferrari, Modolo, Haller, Bos, Matthews, Swift, Lobato, Dehaes, Markus Appollonio and Maikin are some other fast guys who stand a chance. Not too sure about the form of some of them though.
The question is, how did today's stage impact the GC? Alot of people apparantly lost time today. Still pretty damn hard to predict the outcome of this race. And btw, does anyone have the gradients of the hill or mountain or whatever on 5th stage? I have no idea how hard that is.
Edited by Riis123 on 03-08-2014 21:15
Riis123 wrote:
Ahh ok, but afterall its 10 km long x3. I think it should be enough for Majka to create a decent gap
Non climbers could actually sit with the climbers on this.
It's gonna be hard for Majka or anyone else who isn't a ITT specialist to make any real gains on this stage.
Riis123 wrote:
Ahh ok, but afterall its 10 km long x3. I think it should be enough for Majka to create a decent gap
Non climbers could actually sit with the climbers on this.
It's gonna be hard for Majka or anyone else who isn't a ITT specialist to make any real gains on this stage.
Not a very impressive route this year
Yeah, you are probably right about that. It will of course come down to how the climb is ridden, but it will probably come down to a few seconds between the best. And its definetely a dull route. I think the whole design of the race is broken with the 4 first stages just being flat.
Riis123 wrote:
Ahh ok, but afterall its 10 km long x3. I think it should be enough for Majka to create a decent gap
Non climbers could actually sit with the climbers on this.
It's gonna be hard for Majka or anyone else who isn't a ITT specialist to make any real gains on this stage.
Not a very impressive route this year
Yeah, you are probably right about that. It will of course come down to how the climb is ridden, but it will probably come down to a few seconds between the best. And its definetely a dull route. I think the whole design of the race is broken with the 4 first stages just being flat.
Perhaps small differences can be made if they go from the very first time they hit it.
But i excpect a group of 15-20 riders to get to the line. I saw a similar mountain in Tour of California this year, and they where riding full speed from the buttom of the climb, and still reached the finish 10-15 riders.
And on that climb the gradient actually hit 6% once in a while. It doesn't on this one.
Ooh well, guess we can only wait and hope to be suprised on a positive note Edited by Dusen on 03-08-2014 22:44
Riis123 wrote:
Ahh ok, but afterall its 10 km long x3. I think it should be enough for Majka to create a decent gap
It's not even that 10kms x3, first two times they will only ride a shorter version ending at 1220 meters height, according to the official website of the race.
Dusen wrote:
Not a very impressive route this year
I agree but it's not easy to come up with much harder route in our country (last year was an exception because of visit in Italy). On the other hand, I imagine it was still withing possibilities of race organisers to do something better (stage in Cieszyn was always interesting IMO, but it's not here this year). Well, that's a route for Kwiatkowski, but Kwiatkowski is not here unfortunately. Polish riders haven't had any win in this race for quite a while, not even a single stage win. I believe this could play a role in what the route looks like this year.
Riis123 wrote:
And btw, does anyone have the gradients of the hill or mountain or whatever on 5th stage? I have no idea how hard that is.
It's not particularly hard. Average around 5%.
Not that hard? That climb is tough and roads (in the closing section) are even more brutal! Even more when you climb it three times...
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 04-08-2014 06:54
Riis123 wrote:
Ahh ok, but afterall its 10 km long x3. I think it should be enough for Majka to create a decent gap
Non climbers could actually sit with the climbers on this.
It's gonna be hard for Majka or anyone else who isn't a ITT specialist to make any real gains on this stage.
Not a very impressive route this year
Yeah, you are probably right about that. It will of course come down to how the climb is ridden, but it will probably come down to a few seconds between the best. And its definetely a dull route. I think the whole design of the race is broken with the 4 first stages just being flat.
That circuit around Zakopane is extremely tough too. What do you guys expect, Angliru in Poland/Slovakia ???
Avin Wargunnson wrote:
Not that hard? That climb is tough and roads (in the closing section) are even more brutal! Even more when you climb it three times...
Judging by profiles, it's not even as tough as Montevergine di Mercogliano, a mountain that saw 42 guys finishing within 30 seconds on Giro d"italia stage in 2011. 5% of average gradient is not that hard at WT level.
Tour de Pologne, Stage 2: Torun - Warszawa (2.WT2)
at least Trek improved their jerseys
