Cycling thread 2015

[Bruce Wayne]

The best stage race of the year kicks off tomorrow. Can't wait. Prefer the Giro to the Tour, and there's been some epic racing down the years. Couple of obvious standouts being the climb over the Gavia in the snow back in 1988, and the wonderful 2010 version, with the fantastic stage 7 over Strada Bianchi

[video=youtube;P4PhVBrK7Xw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4PhVBrK7Xw[/video]

 

[The Size Of A Cow]

I'm also very fond of the Giro - the organisers love to throw in something bordering on unhinged like this stage from time to time

 

[Bruce Wayne]

That's it. Because they often play second fiddle to the Tour they have license to be bolder in the parcours. I like that, although they can go a bit overboard with the mountain top finishes. The Vuelta is kinda heading that way. The 2010 version though was kinda the perfect race imo. You had epic climbs over the Mortirolo, Gavia, Stelvio etc., you had the stage over the white roads, you had the crazy stage where a huge bunch gained 30 minutes on the rest. It was fantastic.

Nice to see some big names doing it this year as well. Should be a cracking race as the climbers will be looking to take time out of Wiggins at every opportunity, coz that time trial is set up for him to gain big time over Nibali et al.

 

[Brennan]

Think of all those syringes being thrown into rubbish bins around the area...

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Plenty of other threads to be on the wind-up mate if you fancy, leave us lycra lovers to this one

 

[sbbefc]

Shame that its all been hoovered up by sky

 

[bluejock]

Shame that its all been hoovered up by sky

Sorry Bruce ffs

 

[sbbefc]

hahah

 

[davek]

I hope that wanna-be Kopite [Poor language removed] gets buried in those mountain stages.

He should be paying Froome back for his help in dragging him to TDF victory not denying him the leadership on a course suited to Froome.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I hope that wanna-be Kopite [Poor language removed] gets buried in those mountain stages.

He should be paying Froome back for his help in dragging him to TDF victory not denying him the leadership on a course suited to Froome.

Having ridden many of the climbs these fellas go over, rest assured that being sat on someone elses wheel offers pretty much no help whatsoever. Aerodynamics at climbing speed isn't really that big a deal, so it's not the case to say that you can drag someone up a mountain. You'd have more joy saying that EBH and Knees dragged them both around, as they did much more work on the lower slopes when the speeds were higher.

 

[The Size Of A Cow]

That's it. Because they often play second fiddle to the Tour they have license to be bolder in the parcours. I like that, although they can go a bit overboard with the mountain top finishes. The Vuelta is kinda heading that way. The 2010 version though was kinda the perfect race imo. You had epic climbs over the Mortirolo, Gavia, Stelvio etc., you had the stage over the white roads, you had the crazy stage where a huge bunch gained 30 minutes on the rest. It was fantastic.

Nice to see some big names doing it this year as well. Should be a cracking race as the climbers will be looking to take time out of Wiggins at every opportunity, coz that time trial is set up for him to gain big time over Nibali et al.

Will certainly be interesting to see how it pans out, the race looks pretty balanced to me, good riders and a decent variety of stages. Chances there for a few. I think it's closer than the bookies originally suggested, and haven't been surprised to see Wiggins odds drifting. I would imagine he'll go quite short after that first individual time trial.

I agree about the 2010 Giro as well - had just about everything. The stage over the Mortirolo in particular stands out in the memory.

 

[davek]

Having ridden many of the climbs these fellas go over, rest assured that being sat on someone elses wheel offers pretty much no help whatsoever. Aerodynamics at climbing speed isn't really that big a deal, so it's not the case to say that you can drag someone up a mountain. You'd have more joy saying that EBH and Knees dragged them both around, as they did much more work on the lower slopes when the speeds were higher.

That makes no sense at all. It's the role of people like Froome and Rogers to pace a leader back to any breakaway that might occur. Obviously they cant drag him up physically. To imply every cyclist is on their own, though, is nonsense. Why are teams even there if that was the case?

Amazed at that answer of yours.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

That makes no sense at all. It's the role of people like Froome and Rogers to pace a leader back to any breakaway that might occur. Obviously they cant drag him up physically. To imply every cyclist is on their own, though, is nonsense. Why are teams even there if that was the case?

Amazed at that answer of yours.

Well I suspect the main thing is a psychological one. If it was an aerodynamic advantage to have a domestique on the front up a climb then they'll be helping Nibali et al just as much as Wiggins. Given that all riders have powermeters I think the pacing element is overrated as well. After all, they pace themselves fine on a time trial, and their entire training is around putting out x watts for x minutes up a climb. They reason that if they can do that, then few clean riders will be able to beat them because it's incredibly tough to sustain a high pace for any length of time.

It's been well proven for instance that when you go up something like the Mortirolo there is pretty much no aerodynamic advantage at all. The team comes in by keeping things together on the run up to that final climb. We saw with Evans in 2011 that team mates were of little use to him, and on the Tour last year there weren't really any breaks to speak of.

That's the Tour of course. The Giro will be different because there are time bonuses on each stage. Wiggins isn't renowned for his kick so it wouldn't surprise me if Sky didn't use Uran or Henao to try and pinch some bonuses by nipping away close to the finish. I expect the Giro to be more like last years Vuelta where there are a lot of attacks with 1-2km to go in order to try and win the stage and get the bonuses. The climbers will use that to chip away at the advantage Wiggins is likely to gain in the time trial.

 

[davek]

Well I suspect the main thing is a psychological one. If it was an aerodynamic advantage to have a domestique on the front up a climb then they'll be helping Nibali et al just as much as Wiggins. Given that all riders have powermeters I think the pacing element is overrated as well. After all, they pace themselves fine on a time trial, and their entire training is around putting out x watts for x minutes up a climb. They reason that if they can do that, then few clean riders will be able to beat them because it's incredibly tough to sustain a high pace for any length of time.

It's been well proven for instance that when you go up something like the Mortirolo there is pretty much no aerodynamic advantage at all. The team comes in by keeping things together on the run up to that final climb. We saw with Evans in 2011 that team mates were of little use to him, and on the Tour last year there weren't really any breaks to speak of.

That's the Tour of course. The Giro will be different because there are time bonuses on each stage. Wiggins isn't renowned for his kick so it wouldn't surprise me if Sky didn't use Uran or Henao to try and pinch some bonuses by nipping away close to the finish. I expect the Giro to be more like last years Vuelta where there are a lot of attacks with 1-2km to go in order to try and win the stage and get the bonuses. The climbers will use that to chip away at the advantage Wiggins is likely to gain in the time trial.

But I wouldn't be so dismissive of the psychology of pacing: it was clear last Tdf for example that Wiggins was upset when Froome looked like he'd snapped the elastic between them both on a tough climb and had to motion Froome back. There it may have also have been the possibility of seeing Froome assume command in the team if he'd have shot off ahead, but the principle is true that a rider in trouble finds something by being surrounded by team mates. And the team also helps by marking breakaways; going with them but acting like a deadweight on the back of a breakaway group and not working with it.

 

[sbbefc]

Put montirolo, angliru and all the other uber climbs to one side, they're still climbing at a decent rate of 20-25km up most of the alpine climbs, even if aerodynamics is a fraction of the factor it is on the flat its still enough to make a difference.