World Cycling Championship Florence 22 - 29 September 2013

[deptfordmarmoset]

yes - there must have been riders with squeeky chains out there...

Phew! I only caught it in the corner of my eye and it looked like the cat, feeling cornered, leapt at the rider. And watching it on BBC Red Button, the commentators had disappeared off for coffee and cake.

 

[The Couch]

I believe Martin is considered by most the big favourite (on the Belgian "Sporza" website, he gets 62% of the surfer votes)... but if I would be a betting man, I'd go for Wiggo (the Brit is a bit underappreciated on Sporza and only gets 10% votes )

FYI:
Fabian gets 22% votes
Then again, the voters could be easily questioned since 2.5% of voters believe in Thomas De Gendt and 1.5% in Kristof Vandewalle, while only 1% in Phinney

I guess the overall public knows what it's talking about and I don't ... but hey what's new

...Then again, the 2.5% who voted for De Gendt were about 6 and a half minutes wrong and about 50 places

 

[thom]

Phew! I only caught it in the corner of my eye and it looked like the cat, feeling cornered, leapt at the rider. And watching it on BBC Red Button, the commentators had disappeared off for coffee and cake.

I think it had decided not to cross the road and just didn't hear the bike until it passed, when it reacted.
A fraction of a second earlier and it might have been messy for both cat and rider.

 

[Peter Armstrong]

LOL "Near cat-astrophe in men's time trial"

 

[beastie]

Yup Martin has this. Impressive. Wiggo silver maybe - he won't be chuffed.

I believe Wiggo rode without knowing or wanting to know any comparative times. He said something along the lines of - I have enough experience to just ride my own race, the fastest I can.- so he shouldn't be gutted if he did just that. Der Panzerwagen was just zu viel stark.

 

[Buddfox]

Lifted from the BBC website:

"A good stat from BBC Sport's Jill Douglas. Tony Martin would have finished sixth on his own in Sunday's team time trial, which the German won with his Omega Pharam-QuickStep team, with the time he set in today's individual time trial. A remarkable ride."

Incredible ride from Martin!

 

[Dayvo]

Tony Martin looks like Lord Charles:

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

Der Panzerwagen is surely worth his weight in gold. Certainly bodes well for Cav's train next year, with him, Petacchi, and now Renshaw is also back. Can't wait!

 

[Buddfox]

Der Panzerwagen is surely worth his weight in gold. Certainly bodes well for Cav's train next year, with him, Petacchi, and now Renshaw is also back. Can't wait!

Hmmm... not sure about this. Martin looked like a weak link in the OPQS train at the Tour, seemed to lose road position on a couple of occasions (including IIRC on the Champs Elysees).

 

[thom]

Hmmm... not sure about this. Martin looked like a weak link in the OPQS train at the Tour, seemed to lose road position on a couple of occasions (including IIRC on the Champs Elysees).

To be fair, he ought not to have to be involved at that point if Steegmans, Petacchi & Renshaw are around.
Stick him on the front to bring back the break & job done - priceless.

But.... can you remember what I think was the last time Cav rode for HTC to Paris ? IIRC, they sent TM up the road with the break to force everyone else to chase, then Cav wasn't that well positioned coming to the Champs Elysee, whereupon TM rocked up on his left shoulder and dragged him up the field for another victory. I never saw any other rider make a difference like that. Your quote of Jill Douglas is really something too.

Much as it would have been nice to see Brad win, TM is a TT phenomenon (and he told Lance to fark off in the 2010 TdF ;-) ) - you've got to admire his performances.

 

[smutchin]

Hmmm... not sure about this. Martin looked like a weak link in the OPQS train at the Tour, seemed to lose road position on a couple of occasions (including IIRC on the Champs Elysees).

He certainly went missing a few times this year, though to be fair he has had his injury problems - especially in the TdF. He was always Mr Reliable for Cav when they were at HTC, chugging away like a diesel on the front of the peloton for the last 20km, keeping the pace too high for anyone to attack.

[edit: cross-posted with thom...]

 

[tigger]

yes - there must have been riders with squeeky chains out there...

Made me wince that, I hit a cat at 35mph a couple of years ago = broken collarbone. I hit a rabbit the other day too although luckily I won that time. Wildlife and domestic animals don't seem to like me on a bike?

Who says TT's are boring? Really enjoyed today. Great battle between Wiggo and Spartacus. Martin, wow he was just the man today, fastest on each sector that I could tell.

 

[dellzeqq]

3.17 pm. Wiggins finishes second
4.17 pm Evans offers Sky jerseys at 40% discount
o tempora, o mores!

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

3.17 pm. Wiggins finishes second
4.17 pm Evans offers Sky jerseys at 40% discount
o tempora, o mores!

I got the ''40% off Wiggo's wardrobe'' mailing at 14:43. You can't have spent enough with them.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

Hmmm... not sure about this. Martin looked like a weak link in the OPQS train at the Tour, seemed to lose road position on a couple of occasions (including IIRC on the Champs Elysees).

I think thom is right and we shouldn't pin the blame on Martin for Cav's lost. As you can see from here at 2km out OPQS was still in control with the TT specialists having done what they needed to do, but the train fell apart with the 2nd /3rd guy, particularly Trentin (I think) who did a really short turn leaving Steegmans with far too much to do, and Cav ending up doing it solo playing catch up (which he did to his credit) but running out of road. For sure Argos Shimano did a super job winning fair and square, but I suspect (and hope) it won't be so easy for them again next year.