"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - 2004 World Championships in Verona

What are your predictions for the elite mens TT and road race? The road race is pretty stacked this year, so is the TT (but to a lesser extent). Jan Ullrich just withdrew from the TT due to stomach problems, and his place in the RR is uncertain. Uwe Peschel replaced him for the TT. Quite sad, he was showing some excellent form lately.

Anyways, my prediction for the RR is Bettini, although I'd love to see Cunego take it.. but I bet it'll be some relatively unknown Spaniard, a la Verona in '99 (it was Oscar Freire).

For the TT I'm picking Michael Rogers, the current champ.

What I wouldn't give to be there! Any word on who may be picking this up on American television? :(

Koffee

Should be the usual suspects. It would be a hell of a way for Rebellin to finish his season. Too bad he only has one teammate.

Hopefully Ullrich can recover enough to start the RR. He's in truly fantastic form at the moment.

nope, I think ulle is out for the season, done. . . finished. . .kaput.
Bettini is my pick for RR,
TT? well Tyler's out so maybe Rogers? yah that'll work. Rogers it is. . .
(is he even riding?)

Marty

Bettini in the RR. Don't know if he's competing in the TT, but I think Cancellara could make his season come full circle after taking the Tour prologue.

I want Rebellin to win the RR sooo bad

I think it will be a relatively unknown rider to win the RR
Though I hope Bettini takes it :)

I think it will be a relatively unknown rider to win the RR
Though I hope Bettini takes it :)
Ding! My thoughts exactly.

My money's on Mick Rogers for the TT. Now that he's had a wee taste of the rainbow jersey...

http://img40.exs.cx/img40/5564/rogers.th.jpg (http://img40.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img40&image=rogers.jpg)

G'day,

I'm tipping an Auusie double (I know, i heard you all groan...again!!!).....Stuey for the RR & Mick Rogers for the T/T........might even throw in a bit of Simon Gerrans in the U23's

cheers,

Hitchy

nope, I think ulle is out for the season, done. . . finished. . .kaput.
Bettini is my pick for RR,
TT? well Tyler's out so maybe Rogers? yah that'll work. Rogers it is. . .
(is he even riding?)

Marty
Was Tyler otherwise scheduled to be there but for his suspenson by Phonak?

Let's not turn this into another ****ing Tyler Hamilton thread, please...

Devil,
No, not turning it into a Tyler thread, but up until now, given the olympics, vuelta (we won't go there) he was the man to beat.
MEB, I have no idea if he was scheduled, kind of a moot point now anyhow.

Marty

I agree with you on that, for sure.

Although with the form Ullrich has been showing lately I'd argue that he'd be the man to beat (Ullrich is a better TTer than Hamilton, I hope we can all agree on that), but unfortunately he's sick. Damnit.

Latest odds to win:

BETTINI Paolo (ITA - QSD) - 4.50
FREIRE Oscar (ESP - RAB) - 6.50
VALVERDE Alejandro (SPA - KEL) - 9.00
CUNEGO Damiano (ITA - SAE) - 10.00
VINOKOUROV Alexandre (KAZ - MOB) - 10.00
REBELLIN Davide (ARG - GST) - 11.00
ZABEL Erik (GER - MOB) - 12.00
FRIGO Dario (ITA - FAS) - 14.00
BASSO Ivan (ITA - CSC) - 16.00
ULLRICH Jan (GER - MOB) - 16.00
O'GRADY Stuart (AUS - COF) - 18.00
BOONEN Tom (BEL - QSD) - 18.00

For the mens TT: Rich, Rogers, Peschel

That's a good looking field for the RR. I'm sticking with Bettini just because I haven't seen a course profile yet. If it's a little smoother than average, perhaps Valverde or Cunego can do it. I think they're going to be a little spent after the Vuelta though. If it's steeper than average, then I'm going to go with Basso.

I think that Frigo is the dark horse of the list...

Latest odds to win:

BETTINI Paolo (ITA - QSD) - 4.50
FREIRE Oscar (ESP - RAB) - 6.50
VALVERDE Alejandro (SPA - KEL) - 9.00
CUNEGO Damiano (ITA - SAE) - 10.00
VINOKOUROV Alexandre (KAZ - MOB) - 10.00
REBELLIN Davide (ARG - GST) - 11.00
ZABEL Erik (GER - MOB) - 12.00
FRIGO Dario (ITA - FAS) - 14.00
BASSO Ivan (ITA - CSC) - 16.00
ULLRICH Jan (GER - MOB) - 16.00
O'GRADY Stuart (AUS - COF) - 18.00
BOONEN Tom (BEL - QSD) - 18.00

For the mens TT: Rich, Rogers, Peschel
Which major contender doubling both events?

That's a good looking field for the RR. I'm sticking with Bettini just because I haven't seen a course profile yet. If it's a little smoother than average, perhaps Valverde or Cunego can do it. I think they're going to be a little spent after the Vuelta though. If it's steeper than average, then I'm going to go with Basso.

I read that the course this year is similar to the course they ran in Verona a few years ago, however they have taken out a flat section making the climb come sooner each lap

Velonews lists the top three finishers (Rogers - Rich - Vinokourov).

Does anyone have a link to the complete results?

Velonews lists the top three finishers (Rogers - Rich - Vinokourov).

Does anyone have a link to the complete results?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2004//worlds04/?id=results/worlds045

I think this RR route will be very good. 285km!

Congrats to Rogers.

He won by a huge margin, too.

And another good showing for Zabriskie.

This course has Bettini and Rebellin written all over it.

Good to see Vinko medal in the TT. Seems like he's had a tough season.

Well since Rebellin's out of the RR. I'm thinking Boonen might have a decent shot. And speaking of dark horses, how about Flecha? Pretty dark I know with Friere, Valverde, Mancebo, and Nozal on the same team. But who knows.

Michael Rasmussen from Denmark for the win. The route is perfect for him. He knows the route better then nobody else( besides the italians) because he lives in Verona. If he wnats to win he has to attack on Torricelle, on the last round!

Amazingly, not one person picked "Big Georgie Hincapie." Wow. :)

If this is the World Championships, it must be Freire. :)

He was my pre-race pick. Honest.

Milan San Remo and now the Worlds. Not a bad year, eh??

And good for Zabel. He maybe deserved the rainbow more than anyone. Nothing wrong with a silver though.

How about Horner up there in 8th?
Hondo only 14th in a sprint!!! oh well, I am sure he was gassed at the end.

Wasn't it at Milan-San Remo where Zabel raised his arms in victory a little too soon... and then was beaten by Freire? A win today surely would have made up for all of his tough second place finishes this year.

Good for Freire, though! He's in some great company now: Merckx, Van Steenbergen, Binda.... And Freire. All four have won the rainbow jersey three times. Think Oscar's got a fourth in him?

I was crushed to see Bettini in such trouble today. But, so it goes - the agony and the ecstasy of one-day racing. Now on to the last of the World Cup races, Paolo! Let's go kick some Argentinian ass! :)

Nice sprint by Freire, I would really have liked to see Zabel get it though.

ok, here are my final picks.

Rogers for time trial.
Freire for the elite RR with Zabel in 2nd.

oh, wait its over, just like the TdF.

sigh, back to watching reruns of Sunday in Hell and
other classics and some TdF stages.

Marty

Hey guys,

I got to see the race in Verona this year and it was spectacular. I have pics, but I don't have any way to upload them from here in Rome, if that changes I'll put them up. I wish Americans would turn out the way the Italians, or Europeans in general do for their bike races. The amount of enthusiasm and just the sheer amount of people are the two things I took away from the race the most. I guess I'll just have to continue to wish the US could be like Europe in that regard.

As for the race itself, the course was beautiful. I hiked through the city portion, then up a dry creek bed about 3 miles to the top of the course. It was a hazy, warm day but as I said before the turnout and the racing were both spectacular.

To make a long story short I was disappointed with the Italian team. They probably had one of the strongest there, along with the Spanish and Germans, but they also had the "home team" advantage on their side. They attacked towards the end, much to the delight of the Italian crowd, but their attack was too soon, and they were quickly reigned in. The sprint to the line was classic, and to my enjoyment, an American placed in the top ten.

On a side note, while walking around the expo area after the womens race on Saturday I got to see Super Mario at the Shimano tent. It was pretty exciting to see one of the most recognizable mugs in racing, even if he may be a little past his prime. I had a chance to get a picture with him, but I wasn't aggressive enough and I kicked myself the rest of the night for not getting it. Oh well, it was still nice to see him in person.


Jaco

To make a long story short I was disappointed with the Italian team... They attacked towards the end, much to the delight of the Italian crowd, but their attack was too soon, and they were quickly reigned in...

Actually, they attacked when they had to since they had lost their #1 sprinter to injury and their only hope was for Basso or Cunego to get a big enough gap on the hill to stay away to the finish. Neither of those guys could take on Freire or Zabel in a head to head sprint and they knew that, so they attacked on the hill to try and get a gap.

After the hill, the course had lots of downhill and flat to the finish so any break would have to have a significant gap to prevent getting caught. The Italians really needed to get a gap on the penultimate lap and then increase the gap on the final climb, but they couldn't do it.

Even then, Italy only ended up with 3rd because Paolini sprints with his elbows. According to the reports I've read, Davis was passing Paolini when Paolini delivered an elbow which disrupted his sprint and kept him off the podium. Of course the officials didn't think it was important enough to change the rankings, so se la vie.

Hopefully this years race will teach the Italians(read Ballerini) that having a two pronged attack with someone of the caliber of Rebellin might have come in handy when Bettini bounced off the team car.

I think they can start calling the World Championships the Oscar Freire Memorial:

Well, if you're interested, here's a post with pictures I made from Verona. I'm at an Internet cafè, so I'm just going to link it instead of having to buy the time to post it again.

UCI Verona 2004 pics and post (http://columbuscycling.web.aplus.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=21)

Hondo only 14th in a sprint!!! oh well, I am sure he was gassed at the end.
...he launched the sprint for Zabel.