jyl

Starting this thread so we can have a place to bemoan the withdrawal of both Froome and Kittel, and thrill at the battle of the remaining claimants to the Trident.

Oh, and what's this change of the TTT to a short ITT?!?

Leinster

Nasty weather on the coast, apparently. Probably for the best, a 22km TTT could end the race before it's even begun.

Kittel out is unfortunate. There's nobody else in the field close to his speed. If Sagan doesn't break his duck this week, he really is going to have to look at his training program.

jyl

Cavendish and Renshaw are both sick (virus), though still racing. Looking over the startlist, I don't see a ton of top sprinters. Haven't looked at the stage profiles closely, but may be a chance for Sagan, Viviani, and for the MTN-Qubeka guys?

jyl

Ouch. Cavendish's chain comes off the big ring as he starts his sprint, he lurches to the right and takes out Viviani and others, then rolls slowly over the line with his chain dangling and his right shoe unclipped.

Hmmm

Super exciting finish of stage 2. Too bad Sagan didn't have any team mates to help him out in the end, they were all lined up at 10 K to go.

jyl

I'm so pleased to see Van Avermat finally win something.

I thought Sagan looked strong, was lacking team support in the final km's and maybe mistimed his sprint just a bit, but he clearly had enough power at the end, just needed another 10 meters of road maybe?

Alas, I've only been able to watch the last 10 km or 2 km replays of each stage lately. Thank goodness for the weekend!

jyl

The much heralded shootout of the GC stars has been kind of a snooze. Froome no-start, Nibali starting slow for the season, and Contador hasn't done too much. But today . . .

Stage 5 Winning Attack (2015/tirreno-adriatico)

I think he's set well to win the GC, because stage 6 is a sprinters stage and stage 7 ITT is only 10km. He needs to hold on to 39 sec GC lead over #2 .

Leinster

You'd have to favour Quintana now. A 10km pancake flat TT with Mollema as his nearest competitor. It'd take a crash or flat for him to lose it. Definitely good climbing form, Contador wasn't able to cut the cord and get away from the group, but Q was.

jyl

Interesting that Quintana has shown strength in awful conditions. Stelvia stage in Giro last year, now this snowy Tirreno stage. He's a tough little guy, I think.

jyl

Finally, a win for Sagan! After a long dry spell. Looked like he had power to spare there.

Leinster

Funny Tinkoff leadout strategy. "Just catch the break. Let the other teams do the messy leadout train for the last 3k and I'll pick my own wheels from there." Just before the last Saxo pulled off the front you could see Sagan switch onto a MTN Qhubeka wheel, and then Sagan's mate just sat up.

jyl

I didn't see when the peloton split and the pure sprinters got shelled. Must have been earlier in the stage when there was no video due to weather. I'm speculating Cavendish has been half-sick since he started Tirreno with some sort of virus and has been a non-factor except for the one sprint where he dropped his chain.

Sagan didn't beat any big name sprinters today but he did come from 4th or 5th wheel to overtake Ciolek and Debusschere. Glad to see him get the win. Was glad to see Van Avermat win a stage, and gladdest to see Quintana win yesterday. Well done, racers, I am not dissatisfied.

Leinster

Cav must've been sick, because Sam Bennett got 8th and all evidence so far this season is that he can't climb a ladder.

jyl

Etixx-Quickstep pulls Cavendish from cold, rainy Tirreno-Adriatico | Cyclingnews.com

EQS pulled Cav and the whole sprint train out during today's stage, they were too far behind, Cav not doing well, team was scared he'd get sick(er?) before Milan-San Remo. Sandbagging for La Primavera?

Leinster

Poor Uran! How ever will he survive a 10km TT with only 2 teammates?

jyl

Uran is a useful time trialer, isn't he? Maybe he will find himself standing one step below Quintana at the end of another Italian stage race. Or maybe Quintana will again fall off his bike in a time trial.

jyl

Quintana won the GC! No surprise but I'm still happy. GC standings are Mollema 2nd, Uran 3rd, Pinot 4th and only 4 sec down on Uran, Contador 5th another 4 sec back from Pinot.

In a 10 km ITT Quintana lost 21 sec to Mollema, 17 sec to Uran, 22 sec to Pinot, 24 sec to Contador. He did start with a 39 sec cushion to Mollema and, as the last rider, he knew how much he needed to push. Still, lucky for him there is only 1 ITT of 14 km in the TDF this year?

Leinster

...and he'll have the Movistar train pulling him along in the TTT. I'm sure there was an element of "don't push it too hard" especially since some of the roads still looked a bit slick in the corners.


Come to think of it, with the ITT 1st stage replacing the TTT, Quintana's just beaten Contador and Nibali comfortably, in a stage race with more individual time trial kms in it than this year's TdF. Be afraid, everyone else, be very afraid.

hueyhoolihan

there was some talk from Sky commentators that Sagan didn't finnish the last TT within the cutoff. if true, it was said that he won't win the points jersey. never heard anymore about it. i'll have to go to Google i guess...

this from CyclingNews:

Another man with designs on Milan-San Remo is Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) and he took his emphasis on La Classicissima to extremes on Tuesday afternoon. Eager to save his legs for the Cipressa and Poggio, Sagan soft-pedalled around the course to clock the slowest time of the day, some 2:59 down on Cancellara, and risked finishing outside the time limit. The Slovak did just enough, however, to stay in the race and seal victory in the points classification.

Leinster

I'd love to ride a 40.9km/h flat TT and be accused of "soft pedalling".

What could be wrong with one 10km effort 5 days before the race? Surely they'd be doing some hill sprints or intervals here and there in the buildup week?

Ken Brown

Quintana can do well in a time trial, if it has enough climbing.

Leinster

But not too much descending.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b56rkxjw6Tc

jyl

That's not fair, his shoe was untied.