Tirreno-Adriatico and what it means...
 

Froome absolutely crushed Contador today on the first big climbs of the year. Early days, but with Porte in the lead in Paris-Nice and Froome (and Henao, and Uran) looking absolutely excellent in Italy, and Wiggo yet to put in a serious appearance, and Boasson- Hagen and Thomas apparently targeting the classics, Sky look astonishingly strong. Anybody taking bets on how many GTs and monuments they might win this year?

Am not well enough informed to speculate on Sky, but I did note with a little satisfaction that Chris Horner had a nice finish in that race. With little attention from the announcers, he finished ahead of Contador I believe. Stands 5th or 6th in the GC ... Not bad.

Yes Horner rode well, looking comfortable until Froome's final attack and going past Contador near the summit. He did get a fair bit of attention from the Eurosport commentary, largely focussed on his age!

Wonderful stage today. Froome leads, Contador second after a much improved performance. Great ride from Rodriguez to take the stage.

No defending contador but froome has 2 climbers with him all the time, not that froome climb a lot compared with other people but 2 strong climbers to tow you in the mountains helps a lot. Wiggo comes to mind.

Contador had roman K that basically is like being alone (not saying the guy is bad rider but not the same climber caliber than henao and the other colombian), same with darn horner, contador and horner were basically alone, rodriguez the same. Surprisingly this season the guys are so even that the team work will be crucial. IMO one of the main sprokets in contador's team is out for a while due to an accident (cant remember his name sorry) and you can tell he needs a pure climber to be with him all the time.

Pozzovivo was pedaling backwards today but at least he did not lose that much time as AS (15 mins lost today), looks like the race had been really fast because even evans got disconnected 7 mins back today. Contador has no team, sky as a team is phenomenal and you can't win races alone.

Tomorrow monday is a up and down circuit and anything can happen, sure sky will go to the front a full gas so they dont get any surprises, IMO the bad thing is that the race is over for contadorr. Knowing contador he will try to get some sprint here and there to get some seconds back and just wait for the best against the #2 ITT of the world (froome). The TT is basically flat and too short, maybe contador still have a chance if he can pull at least 10 secs tomorrow in bonus times.

And today something I knew was coming, f.. AS did not finish this one either. The guy has more non finishes than wins and finishes at this point. Horner is the man now.

AS needs a big bowl of HTFU soup.

Seems a bit early, but ok, why not speculate. ;)

As strong as Sky may seem, the reality is that their resources are still finite. They'll need to pick their targets carefully.

How many teams have won more than one grand tour in a season?

Today was just awesome, i wish I could have seen what the heck happened when contador and froome lost contact with nibali and purito. The only I noticed was contador going backwards in a climb the next i see is sagan catching up nibali downhill. Purito did great.

9 km?? For contador to win this one he needs like 6 secs per KM to nibali, but he can get 2nd place if he does close to 2 secs per km to froome.

so my podium tomorrow:

1st nibali or froome

3rd will be contador like for a second or 2 over rodriguez.

Sky is the only one I believe.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ultraman6970 (Post 15372062)

Sky is the only one I believe.

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No,Sky haven't done that. Faema with Merckx, Molteni with Merckx, Renault/Gitane with Hinault, La Vie Clair with Hinault, Bianchi with Coppi, Mercatone Uno with Pantani.

Admittedly these were all the achievement of exceptional riders. Can't immediately recall whether a team has won more than one GT in a year with different riders.

us postal with armstrong winning the tdf and heras winning the vuelta not so long ago...2003

Some of the riders had to walk up the hills today!!! That's awesome I thought you guys were pros, Rule #5!!!

Riding 36 x 28 for stage 6, do they even put on gearing like that for any climb in the TdF? Does Di2 have a medium cage RD? How fun (not for them).

I dont think the tdf has such a climbs at all, the vuelta a españa has nasty climbs, last year contador put a 32 i believe plus a mtb rd to be able to shift that.

The Tirreno-Adriatico organiser was quoted yesterday as saying that they had made a mistake with the route, and the hills on the penultimate day were too severe. He said if you lose half the peloton to withdrawals, you're doing something wrong, and they'll rethink it for next year.

AS needs a big bowl of HTFU soup

Do you have any idea what a fractured pelvis is?