Author Topic: Tour de France 2012  (Read 143085 times)

Toady

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1000 on: 22 July, 2012, 08:14:09 pm »
I will admit to shouting "Cav's gone too early" but it seemed he went at the perfect moment.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't quite a few recent Cavendish wins been from going earlier than "usual".  (Incl the World champs??)  Could it be no coincidence?  Perhaps going late, with HTC, was just by virtue of the quality of his leadout with HTC?

robgul

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Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1001 on: 22 July, 2012, 08:21:01 pm »
LOL at the closing music to the ITV4 highlights!

... and with music - there's the Abba Dancing Queen spoof of "Lance is King"  ... any ideas for adapting a song for Wiggo?

Rob

IanDG

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Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1002 on: 22 July, 2012, 08:27:23 pm »
LOL at the closing music to the ITV4 highlights!

... and with music - there's the Abba Dancing Queen spoof of "Lance is King"  ... any ideas for adapting a song for Wiggo?

Rob

Here Wiggo round the mulberry bush?

IGMC

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1003 on: 22 July, 2012, 08:30:53 pm »
It does seem hard that they will have to hold back from a big knees-up because the Olympics are so close.

Has Christian been selected for the German Team? Riders like him, who do a lot of the unseen spade-work for victory, are often overlooked.

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1004 on: 22 July, 2012, 08:38:11 pm »
Bring on the Olympics!

Also, Froomey indicated he'd ride the Vuelta. Then he could get in on the act and become the first Kenyan South African British rider to win that!
Those wonderful norks are never far from my thoughts, oh yeah!

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1005 on: 22 July, 2012, 09:23:48 pm »
It does seem hard that they will have to hold back from a big knees-up because the Olympics are so close.

Has Christian been selected for the German Team? Riders like him, who do a lot of the unseen spade-work for victory, are often overlooked.

like you, I certainly noticed him!

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1006 on: 22 July, 2012, 09:27:31 pm »
Incredible TDF for the whole of Sky; Winner GC, 2nd overall, 6 stage wins.  Incredible for Bradley, particularly as so many scoffed when his TDF ambitions were evident, first with Garmin and then with Sky. Incredible for Cav to win again in Paris, be voted the best sprinter ever in the TDF and have 23 stage wins under his belt.

I’m hoping Chris Froome will have the support and freedom to win the Vuelta, and hopefully be given a crack at the TDF next year, particularly if it is biased far more towards the mountains in which he appears to be far stronger than Bradley.  Some say he could win a mountainous TDF all by himself such are his climbing talents.

Very happy and looking forward to the Olympic RR and TT.

Charlie Boy

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Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1007 on: 22 July, 2012, 09:33:11 pm »
Mr. Bridger would be most pleased.

I believe you may be getting confused with the Giro.  ;)
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citoyen

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Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1008 on: 22 July, 2012, 10:16:35 pm »
Has Christian been selected for the German Team?

No, but Bert Grabsch has - one of the unsung workhorses/heroes of Cav's train at HTC.

d.


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Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1009 on: 22 July, 2012, 10:20:56 pm »
Well done Stanley Wiggins… who?  ::-)


Please tell me you shopped that!  :o  :D
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citoyen

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Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1010 on: 22 July, 2012, 10:22:40 pm »
I’m hoping Chris Froome will have the support and freedom to win the Vuelta,

I'd love to see Froome win the Vuelta but he's just finished three gruelling weeks of the TdF, and he's got the Olympics road race and TT to come...

Will there be enough left in the tank for the Vuelta too?

d.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1011 on: 22 July, 2012, 10:26:04 pm »
Don't know about the Vuelta, but I'd have thought if he stays with Sky their machine would be capable of delivering another British (with colonial accent) yellow next year. Well, we can hope.
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Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1012 on: 22 July, 2012, 10:30:48 pm »
With all this excitement in France, Sky also had a 3rd overall in the Tour of Poland that finished last week. Sergio Luis Henao Montoya of Colombia, top Brit was 34th, which is rather better than the top Pole in the TdF. The Sky machine has width as well as depth.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

citoyen

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Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1013 on: 22 July, 2012, 10:56:42 pm »
:thumbsup:

Henao has had a great season - did a cracking job in the Giro too. I'd expect him to be one of Froome's lieutenants at the Vuelta.

d.
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IanDG

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Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1014 on: 22 July, 2012, 11:08:19 pm »
1st story on the news, they even dragged David Cameron out to say how good the boy had done  :sick:

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1015 on: 22 July, 2012, 11:22:37 pm »
(b) Lesley Garrett WTF?

Yeah, save all the faux jingoism for the last night of the proms, love. Whoever dreamt that stunt up were out of their minds.  All it did was steal the opportunity for a unique (to date!) opportunity for Bradley and the British crowd  to sing along to the national anthem on the champs elysees. I feel robbed...

Judging by the photo on the Telegraph sports section's Twitter feed, Wiggins feels sick.

http://twitter.com/TelegraphSport/status/227081999691706369/photo/1/large
"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1016 on: 23 July, 2012, 02:57:57 am »
What an emotional finish. There was even a bit of wetness in the Woolly one's eye when we saw Bradley leading out Cav. Sniff! A simply fantastic Tour.

(And is it just me, or does Wiggo not bear a remarkable resemblance to our very own Sgt Pluck when he's got his poker face on? Perhaps it's the black socks...)

Basil

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Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1017 on: 23 July, 2012, 07:48:52 am »
Heard a quote from a newspaper last night on R4.
"Previously, a British win in the TdF seemed as likely as the French winning the Ashes"

 ;D
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Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1018 on: 23 July, 2012, 07:58:37 am »
"We're just about to draw the raffle numbers"  - wonder how many miles of footnotes this will bring about in the extra-Britain press
I can only find one and that's from ITV4's TdF programme web site.
For those who missed it
http://www.itv.com/tourdefrance/news/winner-wiggins-makes-amusing-podium-speech/

fuzzy

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1019 on: 23 July, 2012, 08:17:28 am »
Watched it live on the telly wishing I was on the Champs Elysee. Wow! Nothing else covers it.

Just packed away the stuff after a celebratoruy BBQ fuelled by Belgian beer bought for just this outcome at a supermarket in Liege during the Depart.

Chuffing well don to Brad, Dave and all the boys that make up the rider and support roster for team Sky :thumbsup:

My head hurts ;D

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1020 on: 23 July, 2012, 08:41:48 am »
I really don't get it, before the dust has even settled and they've had time to enjoy their success  there is already talk of who's going to be riding for who next time, this morning on the interweb reports of "Cav can leave if he wants to", bit demoralising I feel, or is this a push before he jumps anyway ?
typical brits got to start fiddling, if it ain't broke leave it alone, I would have thought it would be better to get the olympics out of the way first, then sit down and discuss who's doing what, just my opinion :))

Tigerrr

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Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1021 on: 23 July, 2012, 09:22:42 am »
I guess if you have a team in which there is so much top talent in its own right it cant hold. It was a fantastic achievement to keep it all together so well and Brailsford must take huge credit.
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Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1022 on: 23 July, 2012, 09:52:25 am »
I really don't get it, before the dust has even settled and they've had time to enjoy their success  there is already talk of who's going to be riding for who next time, this morning on the interweb reports of "Cav can leave if he wants to", bit demoralising I feel, or is this a push before he jumps anyway ?
typical brits got to start fiddling, if it ain't broke leave it alone, I would have thought it would be better to get the olympics out of the way first, then sit down and discuss who's doing what, just my opinion :))

I don't think that's Sky's doing, it's just the media pushing and pushing for a story - and in this case it's about Cav being 'trapped' in Sky. Bullshit, but they need an angle and they nagged Brailsford until he either looked like a jailor or said of course Cav could go if he wanted to.

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1023 on: 23 July, 2012, 10:14:40 am »
Cav is a top sprinter, unfortunately as the team was riding for the GC they chose on some 'sprint' stages to let the break survive as it was not a threat for the GC.

If Cav was on a team not riding for the GC they would have ridden hard on those days to bring the break back for a sprint finish. No other sprinting team felt that confident in their sprinters to put in the effort, unlike in previous years when HTC did and would. Cav himself said it was 'like asking Rooney to play in defence'.

Further once the GC was safe in the two last road stages Sky showed that the other teams were correct not to have the confidence in their sprinters as a committed Sky leadout train put Cav into an unbeatable possition given his tallents.

If Cav stays at Sky they are going to continue to ride for the GC with Wiggo, Froome and Thomas etc. for the next n years and the Green Jersey will not be the target only a bonus.

Cav needs to choose, is he a loyal super domestic who will win any sprint the team chooses to generate for him or is he a team leader who will chase sprint wins and will build a team to soley set him up.

If Sky had woken up in the first week to the fact that the safest place in the peleton in the last 10km is on the front and run a leadout train for Cav rather than try to keep Brad out of trouble they could have taken more stages and kept Brad safe.

This tour has seen Wiggo have sterling domestics from the rainbow jersey as bottle fetcher, to the Norwegian Champion and the No. 2 in the GC.

LEE

Re: Tour de France 2012
« Reply #1024 on: 23 July, 2012, 11:59:03 am »

If Sky had woken up in the first week to the fact that the safest place in the peleton in the last 10km is on the front and run a leadout train for Cav rather than try to keep Brad out of trouble they could have taken more stages and kept Brad safe.


SKY seemed to do OK in the Tour.  Just my opinion of course.

GC (Brit)
3 Stages for Cav (Brit)
2 Stages for Wiggins (Brit)
A stage for Froome. (Brit)

I think we'd all have settled for that before the start.

We don't know what the effects would have been if Wiggins had been involved in countless Leadout trains.  Possible weakened himself for the mountains and TT.  It was clear that, once the GC was in the bag, Wiggins felt free to have some fun and help Cav but it was too risky to do this between Mountain stages.