Slackerprince

1) Air pollution-Yuck. Makes the tour of Beijing look like big sky Montana

2) Carlton Kirby and Daniel Lloyd-Like listening to two guys watching the race on TV in a pub


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Oldan Slo

They probably are.

hueyhoolihan

hell, the way things are nowadays, they could very well be in a Jersey brothel. i think the commentators in the telecast i saw were Rob Hatch and Brian Smith. i kind of like listening to them...

i think the air conditioners may be coal powered. IDK.

Leinster

Check out some of Lloyd's GCN videos. He almost certainly is.

Slackerprince

**********Spoiler Alert!*******************







How about Degenkolb on the hilltop finish, stage 3???
Awesome for a sprinter.

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MinnMan

Apparently he sprinted up a 17% grade in the big ring. Or so he claims. That's a lot of watts.

Slackerprince

It was a grinding, mashing win. I wouldn't call it a sprint, because of the pitch, but it was truly impressive and he pulled away from of a strong bunch.

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hueyhoolihan

very short hard sprint. according to Rob Hatch and Brian Smith, the climb became increasing more difficult and terminated at 17%. another 50 yds and the rest would most likely have swallowed him up. the commentators missed it too. good race.

i wouldn't be surprised if Cavendish isn't kicking himself a little bit for not giving it a go too.

Slackerprince

Then, I guess Cav is kicking himself for stage 2, as well.


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MinnMan

OK, this is a little more harsh than perhaps it should be, but IMHO Cavendish is past his prime and mostly wants to go for the easier wins where (a) his sense of timing and positioning give him the advantage (b) his team can give him a very good leadout and (c) where Marcel Kittell and Peter Sagan are not in the race or, at least, not near the front. Winning stage 3 required a huge amount of raw power. I think Cav preferred to save his legs for another day.

Go ahead, tell me I'v'e got it wrong. I know there is really no such thing as an easy win and that Cav is still an immense talent, but he's not what he was 4--5 years ago.

MinnMan

I guess there would also be a (d) it's a major race, like a TdF stage or something like Milan-San Remo, etc.. One where there are lots of viewers and his sponsors care that he is up front competing.

LansingWes

And also (e) I heard Cav's contract is up at the end of the year, so he'll be trying to win as much/as big as possible.

Glad to see him get off to a good start.

MinnMan

I might have to eat my words pretty quickly. Great effort on the line by Cav.

No podium girls in Dubai, huh?

Slackerprince

Ouch.
I wanted Degenkolb.
FWIW, Cav did get smoked, fair and square, on stage 2.

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jyl

Degenkolb is better at lumpy courses than Cav, who exceeded expectations by only losing 10 seconds on stage 3. Giant's sprint train misfired on stage 4, but Cav is faster than Degenkolb in a flat sprint anyway.

Cav remains the fastest pure sprinter, against anyone but Kittel. He wins most of the time. The best of the young guns like Viviani are close, they beat Cav occasionally but not a majority of the time. Sagan isn't a match for Cav or the other top sprinters, in a pure flat sprint.

Against Kittel, Cav hasn't had any success so far. Kittel has the power of Griepel but seems to be able to sustain it longer. Giant also has the best lead out team, by far. Cav's lead out was not good in 2013 and if I recall he was on slightly less than top form. We never had a chance to see much of his lead out in 2014, due to his crash, and for some reason I thought he looked a little overweight in the first half of the season. The members of his train keep changing with Petacchi given the boot and only Martin and Renshaw as stable members.

My impression is that Cav is as fast as Kittel in the initial acceleration, but cannot sprint from as far out, while Kittel hasn't shown the ability to improvise when the trains get chaotic, and is even worse at climbing than Cav is. The two of them are a notch above everyone else.

Edit: I read an interview with a member of Kittel's sprint train, who said Kittel pushes 1900 watts vs Griepel's 1800. Cav has said he does 1600. Someone else, maybe Kittel's coach, said in another article that Kittel can sustain top power longer than others. Looking at photos, Kittel's position looks lower than Griepel, though not quite as low as Cav.

So if Kittel pushes well more top power, sustains it longer, and has a fairly aero position, and a great sprint train, that makes him hard to beat. If he starts at 300 m, I don't think Cav has a good chance trying to sustain a drag race side by side; he has to try to follow Kittel and come around him late. If they both get launched by their lead outs and go side by side from 150 m, I think Cav has a better chance.

Jakedatc

I think Cav just has harder competition than a few years ago. And sprint trains are much better organized by watching him. The years of him taking guys by 30' are gone but he still has wins in the legs.

Leinster

3 or 4 years ago, Cav was definitely the clear fastest man in the peloton. Now there are a couple of faster power sprinters (Greipel, Kittel), and a handful of sprinters who might not be quite as quick, but are better climbers (Sagan, Degenkolb, Kristoff) so he arrives at finishes either on flat stages with guys who are faster, or at lumpy stage with guys that little bit fresher than him. It just means he has to be a little bit smarter about how to go about picking up his wins, but he'll keep winning for a couple of seasons yet. I count 11 "1st across the line" wins (ie, not GC or (T)TT) for him last year, and 19 the year before. That's pretty good going for a man who'll turn 30 this year.

LGHT

Just finished watching the race last night and wow the power that Degenkolb put out on 2 was pretty impressive. However it seems he did suffer pretty much on the ground after the race. The finish on stage 4 was a let down. Seems like the only team that had their train in place and working efficiently was Etixx-Quick-Step.

I liked this quote which sums it up for Giant:

Giant’s road captain, Roy Curvers, said "it was both a disappointment and an education to lose the leader’s jersey."