General race thread 2021 **spoilers**

CramCycle

hesker wrote: »

Really enjoying Chris Horner’s reviews of the Basque Country. He spared no-one on his Stage 4 review including GCN commentators. Fire EVERYONE!

Good reviews but he is so dull (to me) but he has some good analysis.

Deleted User wrote: »

I think he got a very unfair doing in online as is the norm these days and look at Bouhanni this week getting all kinds of degusting racist abuse sent to him over the incident with Jake Stewart a few weeks ago. Stewart had to go as far as far as stepping in to call it for what it was and tell those people they were not welcome in cycling despite his grievances with Bouhanni

Maybe an unpopular opinion but I can't see the difference between what Gronewegen done and what Bouhanni done. Now the results were far worse in the Gronewegen crash but I still see Bouhanni doing the same and just getting lucky it wasn't. Now the racist stuff is a separate issue and those people should be banned from the sport and charged legally for their behaviour but they are two separate issues and should in no way get Bouhanni excused for his behaviour. He should be facing the same ban as Gronewegen. Maybe my memory is bad but they both deviated into someone elses line, who was already coming past, the only thing Bouhanni has in his favour is that he wasn't at the front, Gronewegen had no excuse for the deviation but on paper, Bouhanni was boxed in on his left and he should have just took it and went the long way around, so no real excuse either.

retalivity

mewso wrote: »

Yeah looks over allright. Pity coulda been a great finish otherwise.

Could still see Pog pulling a mad one on the last climb

dahat

Astana absolutely destroyed the race for nothing it seems today.

retalivity

dahat wrote: »

Astana absolutely destroyed the race for nothing it seems today.

A Movistar special

dastardly00

Vingegaard has done a tremendous job of disrupting the cohesion of the chase group.

Hugh Carthy has blown.

Pog must be extremely p*ssed that nobody will give him any help whatsoever

at1withmyself

retalivity wrote: »

A Movistar special

At least they tried and due to Astana today we have had fantastic viewing so I say hats off to them.

People complain when the Sky train are pulling along but then when a team tries something they get knocked as well, I guess you can't win

at1withmyself

dastardly00 wrote: »

Pog must be extremely p*ssed that nobody will give him any help whatsoever

I don't understand why did one of the Bahrain riders not help, surely Landa could have helped as his team mate is higher on GC?

breezy1985

velo.2010 wrote: »

Nah, it's done. He did a shed load of work on the flat after McNulty was initially dropped on the descent. Have to agree with Smith that Pogacar should have been left to race for himself. 'Never again' will probably be uttered by Pog at the end of this stage.

It's probably worth it in the long run for Pog to throw his teammate a fairly insignificant bone like the Basque tour. I'm sure it will be appreciated come the TdF

dastardly00

I wonder will Rog contest for the win or let Gaudu take it unchallenged? Gaudu has been on the front for all of this climb

mewso

dastardly00 wrote: »

I wonder will Rog contest for the win or let Gaudu take it unchallenged? Gaudu has been on the front for all of this climb

Touch of class there in fairness.

dastardly00

mewso wrote: »

Touch of class there in fairness.

A touch of class indeed, and a wise move from Roglic as well because you never know when he might need some help in the Tour and Gaudu could return the favour

at1withmyself

dastardly00 wrote: »

A touch of class indeed, and a wise move from Roglic as well because you never know when he might need some help in the Tour and Gaudu could return the favour

The deal was made about 30km out, Roglic has been on the front for a while and spoke with the 2 lads to get help in return for a stage win.

Dodge

Didn’t see the final but wonder if that’s a lesson learned for Roglic. Some (not me by the way) had complained he was going for every stage in every race. Sounds like he didn’t compete today and that’s likely to help down the road?

breezy1985

Dodge wrote: »

Didn’t see the final but wonder if that’s a lesson learned for Roglic. Some (not me by the way) had complained he was going for every stage in every race. Sounds like he didn’t compete today and that’s likely to help down the road?

It likely helped him today. If he didn't make the deal Gaudu would sit on his wheel knowing Rog needs to make up time and would nick the stage after a free ride anyway

deise08

Only came in on the last climb. Looking forward to the highlights later.
By the sounds of it Gaudu was the right winner. Nice to see Rog not pip him. Who was the rider in the last race/tour (the one where R had the fall) that lost in the final metres to Rog after leading for ages as well? Was nice not to see a repeat. Sorry, they're all just merging at the moment.

velo.2010

at1withmyself wrote: »

The deal was made about 30km out, Roglic has been on the front for a while and spoke with the 2 lads to get help in return for a stage win.

A deal or pointing out some common sense! If they didn't work then it was likely to come back and the two lads would lose the chance of a stage victory. I think Roglic made them see sense in that respect.

breezy1985

velo.2010 wrote: »

A deal or pointing out some common sense! If they didn't work then it was likely to come back and the two lads would lose the chance of a stage victory. I think Roglic made them see sense in that respect.

It was definitely a deal

CramCycle

Dodge wrote: »

Didn’t see the final but wonder if that’s a lesson learned for Roglic. Some (not me by the way) had complained he was going for every stage in every race. Sounds like he didn’t compete today and that’s likely to help down the road?

I don't think it was for further down the road (in regards Gaudu), it was simply to guarantee the win. By doing this, it's not Gaudu he will benefit from but other riders in tours will know if Rog offers a deal, he will stick to it. They made the decision a long way out.

fat bloke

That was an enjoyable week of racing all around. Basque roads look frickin' awesome too. Ferry to Santander from Plymouth, or indeed from Cork if they continue the service, with your bike, backpack and a credit card and you can disembark right into the thick of it!

TheBlaaMan

Fantastic last stage and a riveting watch for the last 70km. The essence of the Gaudu deal was made before the final sprint bonus where Gaudu backed off to allow Rog get the 3 seconds.

What was, and will be - down the road, even more interesting is the tactics of Astana. Why did they drill it on the second descent to separate Pog and McNulty only to effectively not bother in the finale - their highest placed rider (Izagirre) finished 11th? If this was an attempt to win the stage, it failed miserably, so was it an aid to JV to allow Rog win the stage as they were quite happy to have him on board the move at that point. If there wasnt bad blood between UAE and Astane before this, there will be now.... Interesting times ahead maybe

Stage 1 of the Tour of Turkey off tomorrow due to snow.

dastardly00

152 riders started the final stage today.

Only 104 finished (103 within the time limit and one over the time limit).

TheBlaaMan

Deleted User wrote: »

Stage 1 of the Tour of Turkey off tomorrow due to snow.

Changed again..... so back on!




https://twitter.com/robhatchtv/status/1380948163142549505?s=20

retalivity

deise08 wrote: »

Only came in on the last climb. Looking forward to the highlights later.
By the sounds of it Gaudu was the right winner. Nice to see Rog not pip him. Who was the rider in the last race/tour (the one where R had the fall) that lost in the final metres to Rog after leading for ages as well? Was nice not to see a repeat. Sorry, they're all just merging at the moment.

Gino Mader at Paris-Nice

Daroxtar

fat bloke wrote: »

That was an enjoyable week of racing all around. Basque roads look frickin' awesome too. Ferry to Santander from Plymouth, or indeed from Cork if they continue the service, with your bike, backpack and a credit card and you can disembark right into the thick of it!

I've flown Dublin-Santander with Ryanair several times. Less than 90 minutes and about €200 return including the bike. You could fly to Bilbao with Aer Lingus for roughly the same.

harringtonp

CramCycle wrote: »

I don't think it was for further down the road (in regards Gaudu), it was simply to guarantee the win. By doing this, it's not Gaudu he will benefit from but other riders in tours will know if Rog offers a deal, he will stick to it. They made the decision a long way out.

You could see from the short pulls he got in Paris Nice after crashing twice on the last day and trying to catch back on that there is a good amount of bunch cred for him. Its worth keeping that going. Watched Lance Part 2 today and himself and Rog are opposite ends of the spectrum personality wise

Rog doesn't come across well in post/pre race interviews not sure why, maybe English not being his native language but he speaks fluently just seems a bit robotic. But if Paris Nice was anything to go by the man is certainly not an arsehole given the amount of pulls he got from other teams. He was telling Gaudu on the way to the podium he texted his partner and she told him they'd already started drinking to celebrate his win. Even coming along side Gaudu in the final there to maybe reassure him he wouldn't mug him is something an OK guy would to. Even could be heard telling his younger team mate he rode really well and he was proud of him.

I've gone from not really having much time for him while not begrudging him his success to actually seeing him as a decent guy too in recent weeks.

MojoMaker

Big PR move from the team following Paris Nice alright. Rog will need all the help his team can generate in the TdF.

devonp

noticed from pics from the Basque Tour ,on Steephill.tv, that POG and McNulty were on their direct mount rim braked Colnago's (V2/3-r ) ? , not that it mattered in the end mind....

fat bloke

devonp wrote: »

noticed from pics from the Basque Tour ,on Steephill.tv, that POG and McNulty were on their direct mount rim braked Colnago's (V2/3-r ) ? , not that it mattered in the end mind....

Well spotted. I hadn't copped that.