[Closed] World Championship Road Race (this weekend)

Not really all that excited to be honest.
7hr race of which the last 7mins may be interesting.

I'll be recording it on my sky box, fast forward x30 untill the last 10k 😆

I'm watching the whole thing, but more for the scenery and crowds than the racing

I'm praying for wind. Without it then we're looking at a procession and then a sprint. With wind you're into classics territory which could be very interesting.

No wind, we're talking sprinters, Cav, Greipel, Sagan, edit, and Gavaria. With it you add Boonen, Stannard, EBH, Terpstra even to the mix.

I'd love to see a Brit win but if not, I'd love to see EBH in the mix.

Difficult to look past the pure sprinters. Though the distance and wind could tip it in favour of the classics guys. You'll have the entire Belgian squad doing a wind dance the day before I reckon. Gaviria is a pretty good bet what with his brilliant Paris-Tours win...

I'm watching the whole thing, but more for the scenery and crowds than the racing

😆

Spotted the odd spectating camel during the ITT's.

Nah, sadly I can not get excited by any of this years World Champs. It all seems so boring, lacking any "phfzazz" and only seems to reaffirm to me that it's only the last 300mtrs that counts for anything. I can't see a break sticking, I can only see 4hours of tedium in the bunch, a few punts that come to zilch, some sand, some wind, some heat stroke and a flurry of exhaustion.
It's the wrong place to have it, simple.

The U23 race was OK once they all stopped crashing. A lot of it came down to how long people could hang on for in the heat. Messy sprint finish, couple of spills in that too.

There was a big crash in the Junior Women's race too, thankfully everyone seemed OK.

The bit around Pearl is very technical, commentary said 24 roundabouts and corners in the 15km circuit.

But yes I agree about the atmosphere, it seems a bit...dusty.

Sounds like the junior men's was a pretty good finish, won from a break.

Women under way on Eurosport 2 now.

Course looks like a model in the helicopter shots.

also on BBC red button (I'm not quite sure if it's normal red button or iPlayer - probably the latter, but the distinction is now rather blurred on my TV box)

I've been watching for the last hour or so, and it's not been totally unexciting, even if a sprint finish still seems the most likely scenario

Lots of AstroTurf...

Cool, will check out the BBC. Gotta be better than Carlton Kirby and constant adverts.

David Millar on the beeb, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your opinion of him - though even the haters must be able to recognise that he knows his stuff and is good at communicating it.

Good finish anyway.

Very well played by the Dane.

How bizarre - they are now showing the whole race on BBC1. Again I am baffled by the BBC scheduling decisions - if they're going to put the whole race on BBC1 why not show it live rather than show a recorded version immediately after it finishes? Is the exact scheduling of Bargain Hunt and Escape to the Country so important that they couldn't delay them by a couple of hours instead?

CBA putting in a complaint as it didn't really make any difference to me, it just seems bizarre.

I'm watching the whole thing, but more for the scenery and crowds than the racing

Crowds??

Good luck with that,the peloton's bigger.

Watched women's today live here in Qatar. Crowds were far from spectacular... there was at least 10 of us. Even Yorkshire Rose flag flying, so that's counts for something. Women's sprint finish was pretty sharp tho.

Crowds??

Good luck with that,the peloton's bigger.

He was being facetious.

As in the Olympics - the commentary left me baffled. Ok they have to say something but mostly stuff-and-nonsense.

In the end, despite all the talk of the Dutch and GB putting in great team performances - we had two other individuals on the podium. So who were the smart riders? What was so great about GB? How often were they riding like the Dutch? Did it even matter?

I accept that I am ignorant about the details of road racing, but was none the wiser after listening to the commentary.

Who was person who looked like a botox and eye shadow advert at the end?

I fell asleep..

rochelle gilmore

What was so great about GB?

Vos as a lead-out lady went too early, that meant the Dutch leader had to sprint harder, and the winner was able to come around her for the win. That's road racing.

Lizzie said when it came down to the sprint, she had nothing in her legs. Anyone who has ever raced has been there 😉

Still about 200k to go. Shall resume my viewing in a few hours time!

Camelback under the skinsuit FTW! That's barely tempo.

Saw that too
Did wonder abaout refilling it / swapping it mid race
You could probably start with it frozen and enjoy cold drinks for an hour or so in 30+'C
Probably increase the need to wee though
Was dull to watch , just the USA girl who put in a decent solo effort, but with a bunch of that size and quality and flat , with veiw points a solo was never going to ride off into the sunset.
Should do it like Eurovision song contest , winning country gets to host it next year

It on both BBC and Eurosplat..

I'll be surfing. This course is boring.

All getting a bit exciting, but still over 100km to go

Flicked it on to see how boring it was, Im now hooked.

Not quite as dull now. So, flat road, crosswinds, does anyone need any other tactic than follow the Belgians?

Can Rowe and Cavendish sit in until the sprint, looks like Belgium have the firepower to try and pick them off bit by bit but Cav is a bit of a master in recent years.

edit - wow, and the COL just got blown off!

strange crash that ban deep dish wheels !!! 😉

Looking at how hard the Belgians are riding on the front with 140km still to go there are going to be some spectacular blow ups in the last 50km!

what channel? 😕

Red button on BBC.

My bbc player isn't working though on tablet

BBC red button

thanks, BBC 😐 i guess Millar is commentating

Millar knows what he's talking about, and he can talk and watch at the same time.

Blimey, they're moving pretty bloody quickly

Also on iplayer if better

It's interesting. Not sure that 200k through a building site properly showcases the best that road racing has to offer..

Just spotted some spectators!

Jesus.

The commentary is make me sleepy.

[quote=hammerite ]Just spotted some spectators!

There is a bigger crowd in my street as two folk are washing their cars 😉

Still good job they put up all those barriers at the side of the road to stop incidents of crowds closing the route like in the TdF

Shaping up to be a fantastic World Cup in 2020 if they manage to keep this atmosphere.

Finish line crowd now looking bustling with half a dozen holding flags.

Qatar has 250,000 locals plus loads of expats. Also standing around outside is generally not popular, expats would father watch on tv in a hotel over brunch and a cold beer or 4. Also for locals and many expats today is a work day

How childish!

yes but entertaining given not much is happening in the race

Ha DagenKolb giving the guy two fingers.. no one.. oh...

So the procession is coming to an end lets hope the end lives up to the incredibly slow build up
Last lap ad the inevitable sprint finish is coming

Boonen has the cards but who has the legs

So, where's your money? based on the ladies race, the winner won't be Belgian so it's either Cav or Bling Matthews for me.

A race with a split and a breakaway which has been almost as boring as the whole bunch riding in to the finish. At least the last 2 hours of it I've "watched" (well it's been on the TV). John Degenkolb has provided the highlight so far - I presume he didn't have wee in that bottle though?

Is the race about to start now?

So, where's your money?

Cav. Or if not a post finish argument from Cav after he's blocked. 8)

I think he and Blythe have avoided making an effort - they've hid nicely.

Another 4-5km yet beej

And the spectator is going wild!

SAGAN wins a straight out sprint- that surprised me as i did not think he had the legs

Impressive

Who's Cav blaming do we think? Definitely had a look round to someone

Edit: probably just moaning at Bling being on his road

Unlucky Cav, got slightly held up.

Cav should have taken Blyth's wheel - it was clear that he was going quicker than Sagan at the finish, but got slightly held up on the way through

MTBer wins it!

Who's Cav blaming do we think?

Matthews. Had to laugh at him explaining the issues to those clueless looking ladies at the end, and them like " yeah, erm ok Mr famous bloke, not really sure what you are saying TBH"

Great to see Tomke back on the podium, I was plugging for him deep down.

But hey, Sagan for another year... brilliant.

Blimey. Nice way to round off a season in the stripey jersey! Sagan to make it his own over the next few years like he's done with green?

Depends on the course. If they go for hillier courses then it'll be someone else's turn. Which given the next three years will be Bergen, Innsbruck and Yorkshire they might well be hilly.

Actually looking at it the Bergen course might well be Sagan friendly too!

Froome for the TT? http://www.uci.ch/pressreleases/ling-the-spectacular-routes-for-the-207-uci-road-world-championships-bergen/

Wow, that is an unusual TT course - has there ever been a summit finish before? I don't think TM will be defending his title! It certainly looks like Froome's best ever shot at it.

I don't think there has been a summit finish for a Worlds TT before. Quite a short TT too.

In terms of distance maybe - I should think the winning time will be quite similar to this year.

Cav should have taken Blyth's wheel

I would imagine Blyth with have a few words - he rode an almost perfect race in support right up until the point that Cav thought naa I'll follow this other bloke up a blind alley.

For all Millar was saying about Cav making good split second decisions, I've watched the finish a few times and still think that was his big mistake - Blyth gave a great leadout if he'd bothered using it. Cav seemed to be too stuck with plan A.

I don't think you can criticise Cav too much as he has done similar before and its come off. Also was Blyth really going to lead out Cav in the perfect race probably not, so they might not have practiced together all that much.

Why did the UCI hold the race on a work day in Qatar, seems odd. Could they not have raced on Saturday?

[quote=dragon ]Why did the UCI hold the race on a work day in Qatar, seems odd.

Millions of francs. You could of course have missed out the "on a work day" part of that question. The mens elite road race is of course always held on a Sunday, and the UCI did at least stop short of changing the schedule. I'm not sure I saw too many spectators for the women's race yesterday anyway.

Who's Cav blaming do we think?

No-one: "[i]I am just disappointed I messed up tactically,[/i]" Cavendish told BBC Sport.

I know why they are in Qatar, for the UCI it was about the money and for Qatar it was about promotion and part of their move to position themselves in a post O&G world. But still could have put the men on Saturday and made a better effort with hospitality tents, big screens etc. Will need to significantly up their game for the World Cup.

Funny next year is an O&G city as well with Bergen.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mark-cavendish-i-feel-like-i-lost-gold-rather-than-won-silver/

Seems like cav blames himself and wishes he'd stuck with Blythe?

Would have loved another Brit winner but Happy it's Sagan out of the alternatives!