[Closed] The Dauphiné

yeah, that was impressive - wierdly Martin looked like he was doing twice the speed of Wiggins, despite supposedly using huge gears

Coffee can't have hit yet, as I was expecting potatoes.

Dauphinoise, Jamie! Mange tout, mange tout! 🙂

Coffee can't have hit yet, as I was expecting potatoes.

Snap!

[img] https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRgCueO_7iYYlFmRR2BjJVVX1BUGyNRxCuM0dqO29mBLUJZyfwjVQ [/img]

Did look impressive yesterday. Has been working hard though:

[url= http://trackleaders.com/worldcyclerace/ ]Daily Telegraph[/url]

did anyone else think wiggo looked to be sitting off-centre on his saddle ?

Some interesting comments from Jens Voight on twitter yesterday which he hastily back pedaled from after cathy wiggins replies

Today's stage will be interesting

Wiggins is certainly flying... for some reason i stll don't have the confidence when it comes to the big mountains for him. I just can't see him grinding it out with Evans etc at the TDF day after day...

I do hope to be proven wrong though.

Bit of a repeat of last year, let's hope he can stay out of trouble in the Tour, so we can see what he's really got!

I think it's shaping up to be an interesting TdF actually. Schleck is a mess right now but he was a mess this time last year too (that said the course doesn't really suit him). Cuddles is looking pretty strong. Wiggins is looking good and as we've seen there are a lot of Grand Tour contenders ready to step up from other places too.

I'll be gunning for Brad, but i'll sticking a sneaky tenner on Amador if hes in this years Tour...hes looking like a bit of a dark horse, hes a great climber and can time trial pretty well also.

there's no stopping the Sky train. it's either going to make it to Paris in record time or it will derail leaving a mess of bloodied limbs and twisted metal.

It's looking good and Sky are getting lots of practice controlling the peleton. It'll be fun once Cav is added to the mix

Many bookies have Wiggo as fave for the tour now.

it is his best chance for sure and he will podium
one thing is certain evans will need to attack in the mountains as he wont win on the TT like last year so ther eis some pressure on him.
I dont think he can drop Wiggins personally and I doubt wigins can drop him. Will be close

We could have world road champion, TdF winner and Olympic gold road this year.

Imagine this 20 years ago...brilliant is all I can say even if it all ends in glorious failure we are out of the dark years

It's looking good and Sky are getting lots of practice controlling the peleton

One race doesn't mean they've won the TdF unfortunately. In the Giro they weren't controlling the peloton (although arguably that might be about sprinting not the GC) particularly. There's too many split teams, people on different programmes to say much yet. Half of people's TdF squads were in Luxembourg last week (Sky weren't that impressive, but the Radioshack lot were quite impressive when it got hilly) and are in Switzerland this week.

I'll wait for the tour to judge the tour. Luckily in the first week I can go and see the depart and 2-3 other starts and finishes without missing too much work.

Interesting to see how the mountains work out though. Other than the Giro riders, we've not seen much of the GC contenders and the money in Luxembourg is on Andy Schleck doing a big stage tomorrow to show he's got some legs. Not so sure myself though.

Rumour is that Cav won't go to Le Tour and will focus on the Olympics instead. Remember he did a full Giro, very few other sprinters did that.

he will podium

Podium is not a verb! AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH! 😉

Well Cav rarely finishes the giro if we're being honest. My guess is they'll have him for some wins at the start then he'll go home and they'll focus on the GC.

I do wonder whether sprinters who fail to complete the race should get the green/red jersey though. Or at least perhaps they should have some sprint stages after the mountains to keep them honest.

mind you is Wiggins peaking to early, Holding form for 6-7 weeks is a big ask.

One race doesn't mean they've won the TdF unfortunately

Agreed, this is really much shorter race and there isn't quite the same level of stuff to chase down. It's still good to see though.

My guess is they'll have him for some wins at the start then he'll go home and they'll focus on the GC.

Yep. Can't see him missing the Tour somehow even if only the start.

..runs off and books train for Liege for the Saturday...

do wonder whether sprinters who fail to complete the race should get the green/red jersey though

You need to finish to win any of the jerseys

Podium is not a verb!

Wiggo said when he was in yellow - first interview? that if he bombed here the press would say he was no good and if he won he had peaked to soon. He has said it was a prelude to the TdF so this is not his peak.

Yes I know spelled is wrong in case it is not clear

I doubt Cav will miss the TDF as he will want to defend his jersey and get Olympic gold to cap his year off. Team Sky were awesome in the TT yesterday, Wiggins just capped it off. I reckon he will drop Cadel and suprize us all on the mountains, hes won some good races so far this year against top GC contenders.

he will podium
Podium is not a verb! AAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

It can be, if the user wants it to be. Ask David Crystal, the world's foremost authority of English usage....It's called denominalisation....

I can't see Cav not riding the Tour, he cares about that more than anything. Fourth win in a row on Champs-Élysées?

Read an interesting article - he's been doing huge amounts of training apparently with aim of peaking for the tour and the dauphine is just being used as a run out.

He looks strong, but guess it's all down to the hills.

Be interested to know his watts/kilo

Sky/Wiggins seem to have taken a lot from last years Tour, unlike before they've pretty much been keeping toward the front of the bunch and out of trouble ever since.

He stands a decent chance this year, more so if some of the others mark themselves out.

RD - What was Jens tweeting then, not suggesting other influences was he?

Harmon was claiming that Brad overtook Cadel and the fight-back was missed by the TV. I doubt it though.

Jens Voigt ?@thejensie
@andykloedi. No need to get afraid of Bradley after his TT. As far as i exeperienced it_ the Dauphine Winner never ever won the Tour ...

Jens Voigt ?@thejensie
At least in last 10 years. If you peak for Dauphine than you are too early for the second half of " Le Tour" Believe me, seen it many times!

Catherine wiggins ?@Cathwiggins1981
@thejensie Bradley hasn't peaked yet.

Jens Voigt ?@thejensie
Ok Ok, after lots of angry and protesting answers i guess i should explain a little more...

Jens Voigt ?@thejensie
I was simply trying to keep moral and motivation high by saying this statistics.

Jens Voigt ?@thejensie
And like one of guys absolutly correctly mentioned- How scary is the tought of Brad beeing that strong now- and not even peaking yet??!!

*Although my favourite tweet of the exchange was:

Kirk Groves ?@LSVLKirk
@thejensie Being Jens fricking Voigt means never having to say sorry or explain yourself.

Haze, no, jens saying wiggins peaking too early and that schleck had it right not quite peaking yet, then cath pointed out Brad hadn't peaked yet either, followed by much back pedalling by Jens

Edit: see above

Cav wont miss the Tour he has a chance over the next few years to become the winner of most stages overtaking Merckx.He is on 20 now and I think the record is 34 .

Ah cool, thought that would have been a bit low of Jens tbh.

Jens can only pedal forwards!

mind you is Wiggins peaking to early, Holding form for 6-7 weeks is a big ask.

Much as I hate the near perpetual hype surrounding Wiggins and the "this is his year for the Tour!" I've got to feel sorry for him. If he just rolled through the Dauphine doing not a lot, everyone would say he was shit, hasn't done enough training, is never going to win the Tour...

But with him winning stages and leading it, he's peaked too soon, he's done too much training, he's not going to win the Tour. Can't win. 🙄

I suspect that Wiggins and Team Sky know more about his training and what works than a bunch of keyboard warriors and credit to Sky, they've wound down their hype a little bit since their all-singing-all-dancing launch which preceded a pretty average first year.

It really grates for me, this constant media need to big someone up and up and then when that sports person or celebrity fails to acheive the lofty heights, kick them hard.
Henman can win Wimbledon!! Oh no, he's out in the quarters, he's shit
Humperdinck can win Eurovision!! Oh no, nearly last, he's shit
England can win [insert name of wendyball tournament]. Actually, does anyone ever claim that anymore? 😉

I'd love Wiggins to win it, but I have a niggly feeling that he just isn't good enough in the high mountains. he seems to only have one pace, and is always reluctant to chase down attacks. Hopefully thats something he's been working on, and if he has then I can't see anyone else winning. If he hasn't, and is still one paced in the mountains I think the Cuddles and Frandy will put enough time into him in the mountains to cover the TTs.

I also have a sneaky suspicion Tony Martin might feature. The strongest TTer and not at all bad in the mountains, it's gonna be a cracker!!!

Not so sure about Martin, don't recall him doing very much in the mountains?

he has done in the past, 2009 went up Ventoux out in front with a radobank climber and stayed out for the whole climb, was only beaten in the sprint, so he can do it.

Your memory's clearly better than mine!

I will hold my hand up and say from the start that I am not a fan of Cav.

Surely with the form that Brad has shown so far this year, not just the Dauphine, surely this year has to be seen by Sky as their best chance so far to win the overall at the TdF.

Now no one can know about accidents, you can mitigate to a degree by riding near the front as often as possible bu they either effect you or don't so you have to work on the assumption that your GC contender will be incident free all the way through.

So Sky seem to be on the verge of something big, surely then they need to be sure of having a FULL roster of support riders for the GC rider. Can you afford then to have Cav who may not complete the full course for whatever reason and riders who can support him.

Whatever else you think of him the most successful TdF rider ever had a team every year who were there to do 1 job and 1 job only, deliver him to Paris in Yellow. History shows this to have been a pretty successful tactic. Personally, allowing for very varying form, I have always felt that Telekom/T-Mobile whatever, illustrated the problem of trying to win both the Green and Yellow jersey.

Sorry Cav I really hope David B decides you are best not going to France and concentrating on the Olympics so Wiggo can go with 8 other riders totally devoted to supporting him and no one else to give him maximum chance of being Britain's first ever winner of the TdF.

Dave B already planned for this - Wiggo's current performance is not a big surprise. No way could you bring in Cav and not have him contend the TdF green jersey.

Cav will just go for stage victories, those in Team Sky who can lead out for him will do, this will include Wiggins to a degree. He is the fastest sprinter in the world right now though, so can probably win stages without a lead out train. It is likely he will drop out before the end and recover for the Olympics RR. I can't see him going for the green jersey this year.

The team will be more focused around Wiggins and what they are doing in the Dauphine now is proof that the team is strong all-round.

This year the Tour is suited to Wiggins with their being more TT's than other years. It will be up to the climbers to attack in the mountains and gain time on him.

It will be up to the climbers to attack in the mountains and [b]try to[/b] gain time on him.

FTFY.
Wiggins can climb - he may not have the punchy acceleration of Samuel Sanchez or even the Shlecks but he can climb with the best of them and TT better than most so it's going to be interesting to watch his nearest rivals try to gain time on him in the mountains.

Indurain won all his Tours by destroying everyone in the TTs and then just holding his own in the mountains which is more or less what Cadel Evans did when he won. Hung on for grim death in the mountains and had enough in reserve from the TTs to make it.

Edit: seen today's Dauphine stage yet? One hell of an impressive team display there by Sky...

Having stood on the col d'aspin in 2010
and seen wiggo struggle, and just watched
team sky ride over the joux-plane a la team
postal in the lance era he has a massive
chance.
I will be back in the pyrenees this year to
hopefully see history being made.
Vive le tour vive lr rostbiff's 😀

I rode of the Joux Plane a couple of years a go and that brought back the memories. Its much easier to appreciate how fast they go a climb like that when you struggled up yourself at an average speed of about 6mph.

Seriously impressive stuff from Sky today. Like a few folk have said, it was reminiscent of Armstrong and US Postal.

as said by the commentary team on Eurosport today, Cav only needs Bernie to help him get over the mountains. it's not all about the leadout train and Cav can win stages without one.
the Sky team will be predominantly looking after the team leader and GC contender, Wiggo.
2 riders in the top 5 of the Dauphiné are British. That is outstanding.
I am very excited about June 30th.

it was reminiscent of Armstrong and US Postal.

I really do hope not, that's a whole different context. Sky are good at pushing as a team when they need to but in the TdLux the other week they lost the race off the back of reeling in repeated breakaways and then when they needed speed the most cracked when RSNT turned the screws on the steeper hill stages (although being the local team, they were always going to try their hardest to win).

I also share the concern that they bring Cav for some stage wins, it disadvantages the GC and they never recover. BMC is built around the GC. RSNT is built around the GC. Whilst you can question whether Cuddles and the Schlecks will be on form, their WHOLE team will pull for them. If you have to keep a couple of people back to get Cav over some of the mountains, you lose a third of the team for the sprinter. I guess if they're confident that Wiggins can win, they should leave Cav behind and let him prepare for the Olympics (and spend time with his new daughter).

Woop!

He did do rather well didn't he

[img] [/img]

Cheer up, Cuddles..... 😉

Top work, Mr Weller, a sound race! 🙂