Giacomo 1 

He did make it look soooo easy, didn't he?

I really think the only guys that trouble him are Greipel and Kittel, and without them in the picture, he is pretty much unstoppable. He is on ridiculous form right now, and he should wrap-up a number of wins in this years TDF.

Hey, was anybody else surprised by Cav's good sportsmanship and ribbing on the podium with Sagan? He looked really animated, relaxed and actually having some fun, something I don't recall seeing from him to much in the past...

WCroadie

While I agree with you, some handlebar/stems are so thin that carbon ones are actually thicker/stronger. But yes, if you crack them, you don't always know unless you unwrap the bar wrap. I always use aluminum stem and bars. I have a few friends that only run carbon cockpits on their road and MTB's and swear by them. Not me.

NBCSN showed it at 7pm EDT but I found in on regular NBC mid afternoon, caught the last 20 miles of racing

jyl

Cavendish was complimenting Sagan even two years ago, I remember him saying about Sagan "he's making us all look like juniors".

Leinster

I went out for a ride about the time the race, unbeknownst to me, was starting. I got back and checked my dvr to see if anything had popped up and nothing had. I looked at Facebook, and boom, spoiler. Watched Steephill's "last 10km" link, but that wasn't really much fun.

My dvr is set to record anything with "Cycling" in the subject, so if my local nbc did show it (can't think why NBC Bay Area wouldn't) then DTV must've left that off the description.

CoachManny

Same here...I've had my DVR set for this event all week and when I popped on Facebook at the tour page I then saw the winner.

I wonder if I can set my DVR to anything Cycling.

Lazyass

I think his steerer tube snapped.

cthenn

Oh ok well that's different. You'd think if it was the bar, he'd at least have one side to sort of try and control the bike. Glad my steerer is alu too!

CoachManny

What I'm very curious about is how in the world do they recover from those hills. They could barely get off their bike after Stage 7 hills. Man that was a dramatic stage and it was awesome.

I wonder how they recovered from that???

That is serious beast mode!

hueyhoolihan

unbelievable final stage after Mt. Baldy, i was on the edge of my seat for the entire race! boy, were those Etixx Quick-Step guys pinging off the front one after another and decimating the Tinkoff riders. my heart went out to them, i thought for sure the intermediate bonus seconds would be eaten up by a breakaway. then Sagan failed to clinch the GC by just millimeters to Cav and then won it by millimeters at the finish line.

and we were then presented with the patented Sagan 12-year-old-BMX-wheelie thing at the finish line! gotta like that guy! best back to back stages i've ever seen.

jyl

On Sunday I was laboring up a 8-9% grade at, maybe, 8 mph, thinking that the pros attack each other up the same grades at, what, 2X that speed, after 100 miles of racing . . .

Paul Barnard

What an entertaining final two days of racing. Sagan would not be denied. He willed his way to victory. I found it nothing short of incredible that his previous climb of Mt Baldy saw him lose 20+ minutes, yet he lost just 40+ seconds this time. That's impressive given his non-archetypical climber build. That young Frenchman showed lots of promise. We will hear his name for years to come. I was disappointed to see Lawson Craddock lose so much time in the mountains.

Giacomo 1 

We've heard a lot of good positive comments for the TOC, which were all well deserved. But did you experience any disappointments with the tour?

My biggest disappointment was Talansky being a no-go at the start because of allergies. Goodness, that sounds so ridiculous and weak and I no longer see him being a future Grand Tour winner. Just not tough enough. And he ruined my fantasy team!

I was also disappointed with MTN Quebeka's overall performance. I know Bos got hurt, but where was everyone else? They looked good on paper, but they were never seen on the front, except for a short stint in the last stage. Farrar was really on his own here.


So, lets hear your disappointments!

WCroadie

Mine too, IDK why it wasn't recording it. I rode, came home, showered ate lunch, turned on TV and saw it was on and was like, what the...

Blood doping of course

DiabloScott

Would've been even better with a Mount Diablo summit finish.

bauhaus92

I guess the Second largest city in California doesn't exist because not once has this race touched San Diego city limits.

Andy_K 

Phil and Paul seem to like referencing riders' cyclocross backgrounds to explain their bike handling skills. One of them said this with regard to Sagan toward the end of the Mt. Baldy stage. While I do think there's something to that connection, where I really saw Sagan's cyclocross experience showing through wasn't in his ability to ride over cracked pavement but rather in the pictures of him nearly throwing up after he was helped to fall off his bike. I've felt exactly like that after many cyclocross races. If cyclocross teaches you anything it's how to keep pushing yourself after you've gone deep into the red, knowing that you've only got 60-N minutes left.

The big mistake the other GC hopefuls made was letting Sagan stick around until the last 5 miles. I don't know how hard it would have been to get rid of him sooner, but getting rid of him on that climb was obviously a lot tougher than anyone expected.

I agree with those who said it's amazing that he was able to come back and sprint the next day.

Giacomo 1 

Great point!

What is up with that? Everybody loves San Diego. Great weather, wide roads with some nice hills and nice scenery. What's not to like? Is it a local government problem?

Giacomo 1 

Yeah, I would guess for a guy who's forum moniker has "Diablo" in it, you would be disappointed in its absence!

bauhaus92

No idea. There's a million cyclists here and numerous riding clubs. They won't have a problem with turnout. The closest they have came was north county and the Palomar Mt. top finish starting in Escondido a few years back . I see no reason they can't do a Mt. Palomar finish on stage 7 then a beautiful bay side 8th Stage circuit in San Diego on Sunday. Is it the Local Politicians? Well we are on the verge of losing the Chargers so yeah I can see them screwing this up also.

Paul Barnard

I thought about that same thing as I cursed the overpass I had to climb on my Sunday ride.

Leinster

Probably just that it's easier to organise a race on the rural roads in North County area around Escondido (which has hosted the overall start and finish), Palomar etc. I doubt it's something San Diegans (Bauhaus92 excepted, obviously) themselves are too worried about, although a stage to Coronado along Silver Strand would be pretty cool.

If we got into a list of the places the ToC hasn't visited, we'd be here a long time. They've never been north of Nevada City, which leaves a LOT of state undiscovered. I do wonder why they've only done South-to-North once; are there plans to alternate that in future years the way Le Tour does with clockwise/anticlockwise?

bauhaus92

I agree, Coronado, the Strand and maybe even the Bridge would be awesome. I think Escondido's 2013 Amgen financial failures scared San Diego's city council away from bidding on the race. Escondido lost $372,000 in 2013 after making a small profit in 2009. A lot of the blame went to the city organizers' inability to get enough funding. They thought everything would fall into their lap without any heavy lifting and they were wrong. They couldn't come up with the needed sponsors.

hueyhoolihan

SD has a lot of wealthy neighborhoods that often don't want to have anything to do with a bunch of outsiders dressed up in tutus and yogi the bear costumes running around in their neighborhoods. not that there's anything WRONG with that.

of course, it's probably just those damned politicians...

Rich Gibson 

I can identify with Talansky. I suffer from allergies from the tree pollen. I've tried three times to go out and ride and each time at twenty BPM below my usual my bronchioles hurt like hell. I had to quit from the spasms. I'm 73 and ride 6000 miles a year but when spring comes I have no other choice but to ride inside. Guess many of us aren't tough enough.

Rich

Giacomo 1 

Sorry Rich, but this is his living. It's all he does, it's what he does. It's also what 1000 other pro's do for a living and I have never heard of a rider dropping out of a major tour due to allergies. Tough out the first stage and maybe it'll get better, maybe not, but at least start and see what happens. A one day race, maybe I get that, but not a multiple stage race like this. I still think it's weak. Don't pro cyclists love to suffer?

I'm a construction worker that goes to work everyday with allergies, and if you think the dust, dirt and junk I breath everyday is easy during allergy season, then you'd be wrong. But you do what you have to do. It's your livelihood.


I won't beat a dead horse any longer though, but Andrew has lost this fan. (I'm sure that worries him!)

By-the-way, nice job on that mileage Rich!