Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 10/22/2014 09:51 AM |
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Nairo Quintana.
Route is tailor-made for him. AC may give him a run, but I think Quintana is well positioned for his first TdF title.
The one thing that may come back to hurt him in the last week is his ability to hold up to the rigors of a 3 week race. Pure climbers can have a tendency to break down in the later stages of a Grand Tour.
We'll see!! |
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Yo Mike
Posts:338
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| 10/22/2014 10:10 AM |
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| It would be nice for AC to have a good run at Le Tour next year. Have not looked at the route yet. Starting this year in Japan, perhaps? They DO have cobbles there, don't they? |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 10/22/2014 11:28 AM |
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The start is in the city where I spent 8 drunken years as a student, Utrecht, NL :-)
CK - well let's see now if Quintana can survive the rigours of echelon riding on the Dutch dikes and subsequently the 7 cobble stretches that have been laid down. Normandy also promises to make for nervous riding. |
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ChinookPass
Posts:809
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| 10/22/2014 11:33 AM |
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Yeah look for Valverde trying to drop Quintana in the TTT.
Methinks the French are so damn excited to finally have some climbing contenders, that they wanted to take out most of the TTs. |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 10/22/2014 12:17 PM |
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Didn't take long for Froome to don his panties.....
http://velonews.competitor.com/2014/10/news/froome-may-skip-mountainous-2015-tour-for-giro-vuelta-double_350177
And I do have to giggle a bit at the idea of this particular Tour being announced just a couple of weeks after ol' Andy hung up his cleats. 
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Inferno7
Posts:344
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| 10/23/2014 01:09 PM |
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| Stoked!! |
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79pmooney
Posts:3189
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| 10/23/2014 01:39 PM |
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OC, we will see what Quintana is made of. But he is a fighter. I'll put my bet on him doing is d***est to hang in on the cobbles and crosswinds, that he does some serious early season work to get ready. In fact, I'll bet he doesn't lose more than 1:45 to anybody that matters.
Contador knows he has to put that kind of time into Quiintana. Perhaps make an echelon split. If they hit the mountains within 2 minutes of each other, look out! This could be a great Tour!
Ben |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 10/23/2014 02:14 PM |
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| The challenge for anyone will be there's a hard first week (dike/wind riding, Mur de Huy, cobbles) and a very hard last week so where do you peak? This will be a particular challenge for anyone wanting to do the Giro-Tour double. |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 10/23/2014 02:57 PM |
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OC just inadvertly hit upon what could be the interesting factor next July....two very different types of riding for different parts of the race.
Opening week - power, positioning and team will be critical to gaining time or maintain position.
Final week - Watts / kg will be the driving factor (along with how many team members you have left).
Different racing styles, different training requirements, etc. Can one rider (Nibali?) get enough of a lead in the first week to fend of the climbers (Quintana) in the final week? Can the climbers keep the power riders close enough early, so they can lay the wood in the finale? |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 10/23/2014 03:51 PM |
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Posted By Cosmic Kid on 10/23/2014 02:57 PM
OC just inadvertly hit upon what could be the interesting factor next July....two very different types of riding for different parts of the race.
I don't care for the use of inadvertently 
There's always been different types of riding required in Le Tour. But often the GC favorites could "ease" into the race with sprint stages dominating the first week and therefore aim to peak in the 2nd half. That concept went out the door big time last year. |
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stronz
Posts:447
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| 10/23/2014 04:02 PM |
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| Here's my prediction -- one or two of the favorites will crash out in the first week on the cobbles. The rest of the race will be over after the first mountain top finish because there will be fewer to contest the top spot of the GC. The race will wind up being like this year: a snooze fest in which we wonder what would have happened if so and so hadnt been forced to abandon -- Once again the Giro and the Vuelta will be the better races. Note to Prudhomme -- stop making the peleton ride over Cobbles during the tdf. We get plenty of that in the spring classics. By insisting on these "exciting" cobble stages, he is creating a very un-exciting race. That is all.... |
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Yo Mike
Posts:338
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| 10/23/2014 04:29 PM |
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+1 Stronz
Highly likely |
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Cosmic Kid
Posts:4209
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| 10/23/2014 04:42 PM |
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I dunno. Haven't seen a lot of details about the cobbles, but they are pretty short next year (13.3KM over 7 sections) and don't seem to be the more notorious of the sections.
And since Frrome is already goin' Nancy about the Tour, they may not be an issue as far as the favorites are concerned. |
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| Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 10/23/2014 04:51 PM |
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Froome was done the stage before they hit the cobbles; the cobbles merely sealed the deal.
IMO the Tour is finally on the right track. The alternative as we saw many years is two weeks of sprinters boredome, one mountain stage and it is still done. At least now there's some initial excitement. |
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stronz
Posts:447
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| 10/23/2014 05:26 PM |
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| its bike racing in July-- we dont need no stinkin cobbles to make it fun. Mountains, twisties, and some scenery. And of course 180 crazed skinny physical outliers. IMO - the tour is completely on the wrong track. It has been the single most boring GT every year for three years running. Maybe even longer. Last good one was Cadel's win -- 2011 |
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