Tirreno-Adriatico 2012 (with SPOILERS)

[Flying_Monkey]

The other early stage race of the season is now underway. It's generally one more oriented to the sprinters and those looking to MSR and other such one-day tests.

it kicked off with a TTT today - which GreenEdge dominated, winning their first European stage, followed by Radioshack, Garmin and then Sky.

It will be interesting to see how Cav does in this one up against Matt Goss, who he claims to fear, as well as Greipel...

 

[raindog]

Millar got dropped - must be a first in a TTT?

 

[Stockie]

Always enjoy reading your posts flying monkey you seem to have a good grip of the pro scene. What's your view on ebh for possible overall, or do you think he is there to just support cav.

 

[Stockie]

By the way only got into watching last couple of years but really think it's the best sport to watch. However knowledge I'd limitted.

 

[montage]

Getting it right for Cav has got to be the priority surely, especially with the quality of sprinters here...authority needs to be stamped - Sky have done a good job so far but it is not HTC perfect for sure. Having said that, soon or later Sky need practise shooting for both the GC and for Cav......

 

[Flying_Monkey]

you seem to have a good grip of the pro scene

Thanks, but I really don't!

 

[iLB]

"htc perfect" is a bit of a misnomer really, certainly remember them failing in terms of a pure lead out multiple times in early season last year and 2010. I think cav/sky in general are good enough to win sprint stages by going late and have maybe just two lead out men for him. In France they will want to take Yellow late (second TT) and thus hopefully avoid having too much pressure to nail it on the front day after day protecting the jersey.

 

[Aperitif]

Remember the one a few years ago, when everyone got their gear ratios a bit higgeldy-piggeldy on some ridiculous uphill section? A clip exists somewhere about this forum. Today's London sunshine is evocative of the scent of cycling - good luck to all the competitors.


Edit: I have just been trawling the tube and, while not finding the clip I was talking about, I found this beautiful, atmospheric clip of an old edition of the race...cries of "Bugno! Bugno!" I think.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Getting it right for Cav has got to be the priority surely, especially with the quality of sprinters here...authority needs to be stamped - Sky have done a good job so far but it is not HTC perfect for sure. Having said that, soon or later Sky need practise shooting for both the GC and for Cav......

There's some more info here.

 

[smutchin]

Cavendish vs Goss vs Greipel will indeed be very interesting. And there's no Feillu there to get in anyone's way.

d.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Well neither Goss nor Greipel were in the mix today... Cav wins over Freire and Farrar.

 

[raindog]

I'll have to wait for the video, but apparently Freire was right on his wheel - MSR anyone?

 

[smutchin]

Freire was hanging on to Cav's wheel - not sure if there was any danger of passing him. Farrar maybe went too early. Degenkolb went too late. Cav went at exactly the right time. That's the class of a world champion.

Were Goss and Greipel affected by the crash?

d.

 

[raindog]

Did you notice the way Cav jumped out on Farrar's left, then nipped back into his slipstream before jumping back out on his right? Giving himself options at that speed in a tight situation and still winning is pretty bloody amazing.

 

[iLB]

Any ideas why Robbie Hunter (garmin) was wearing the wrong kit today? Towards the back left in this pic