Cycling 2010

[Dodge]

Yeah, its a strange one for Roche. Could he get to the level of challenging for Giro or Vuelta? Maybe Vuelta as the climbs are a little too steep for him in the Giro I'd guess. In the alst 3 years he's had 3 Grand Tours and finished 13th (08 Vuelta), 23rd (09 Tour) and now probably 15th in this tour. Thats a fine record and although he's still young, its such a huge step to be regularly in the top 10 in grand tours.

I also think he needs to start winning other races. I thought this would be the route he'd take. Become a Gilbert or Bettini type who can climb OK, but makes his mark in the Classics and picks up stages when the roads suit him. If he's out of contract this year it'll be interesting to see how things go. he's only been with Ag2r for a couple of eyars so I doubt he's very attached to them and the Gadret thing might influence him. Regardless he'll be a fairly hot property and plenty of teams will be looking for his services.

[Mr A]

Both him and Gadret are contracted to AG2R for next season. Really enjoyed the Tour again this past few years, the bit of Irish interest in it makes all the difference.

[Dodge]

Yeah, and it seems most Irish fans thought the same as there was an unreal amount of Irish tricolours in the mountain stages

Interesting point was made about Roche's 15th place. its worth 16 UCI world ranking points, which is less than the 20 points he'd get if he finsihed 8th in the Tour Down Under. He also earned €2,000 for his team. Overall the team earned somethign like €49k which works out at abouit €4,900 per rider. Thats a hard earned 5k!

[Mr A]

Roche has extended his stay with AG2R: http://www.rte.ie/sport/cycling/2010/0726/rochen.html

[Stuttgart88]

Stage win and overall lead by 20 secs for Dan Martin in the Tour of Poland.

[Dodge]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vc0sS8EiAGU

Best bits of the stage in Dutch. Unbelievable acceleration

[Macy]

And the report from cyclingnews... http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tour-de-pologne-upt/stage-5/results

[Dodge]

Martin wins the overall! Terrific result and first pro tour win for Ireland

[Dodge]

Great article on martin here

http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/08/news/daniel-martin-confirms-potential-with-tour-of-poland-victory-eyes-tour_134000

[Stuttgart88]

Thanks.

Eurosport was very funny on Saturday. His dad Neil was the co-commentator. The main commentator was saying that it was a great result for IRL but surely he (the commentator) as a Brit could at least bask in some of the glory. It was all very well intended and very magnanimous, and actually he did have a point.

(Do not merge with Player Eligibility thread!)

[Dodge]

His dad wasn't co-commentator. Some Scottish guy (who's name escapes me atm) was. The funny part of that was he said "when was the lasst time an irish or Engllish cyclist won a tour this big, was it Robert Miller?" Miller, of course, being Scottish

And yeah, he wasn't tring to be controversial

[Billsthoughts]

http://www.youtube.com/user/worldcyclingchannel2#p/u/0/54pkrR0Zfow
dan martins latest
in italian

[Dodge]

Thats a fabulous win by Martin. beating some really high calibre lads.

[Mr A]

Report: http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/tre-valli-varesine-1-hc/results

[Dodge]

BTW for those who don't know, Roche and Deignan have been confirmed for the Vuelta (making it the 7th Grand Tour in a row with Irish representation) and the 2nd Vuelta with 2 Irishmen in it


The UCI have confirmed that Ireland will have 3 riders at the World Championships too (same as GB)

Young Irish sprinter Sam bennett i scurrently riding as a stagaire witht he FDJ team. He's yet to feature but its still a great achievement for him

[Mr A]

Martin to ride the Tour of Britain: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dan-martin-to-ride-the-tour-of-britain

[Dodge]

Yeah he said similar in today's IT. Using it as a arm up for the Giro Lambardio

[Billsthoughts]

is it a sprinters world champs my mate was sayin today?
does anyone think roche has a good chance in the vuelta of challenging or is that wishful thinking? me spanish mate was sayin vuelta has a lot of dud riders/riders coastin at end of season...was in seville a couple of weeks back...can see why they are starting it at nite! scorchio!
great times at the mo for irish cycling
on another note I didnt see much in the sunday papers about either roche in tour or martin winning the tour of pologne. seems to be a bit of anti doping snobbery...altho lots on swimming silver medal despite the "problems" in that sport.

[Dodge]

Sundays are the worst of Irish journalism IMO. Completely skewed towards a certain section of Dublin society. The ones who went to schools with swimming pools co-incidently

Shane Stokes writes in the Irish Times and always manages to get a bit of news in. Roche also had his tour diary in the Indo.

I think Roche concentrated on his tour so mcuh that he mightn'thave the energy to sustain another top ten GC. but he could be freed up for stage wins.

Frank Schleck has said this is his main goal of the year and Roche won't be able to live with him (supported by Andy) in the mountains.

Cavendish was planning for World Championships so I presume tht'd be a sprinters course. He was hoping to get a big GB team there and with only 3 he's unlikely to have to many working for him. I'd hope all 3 f our protour lads take our spots

[Macy]

My reading in recent weeks is that the Worlds might not be as much a sprinters course as was initially thought, with a couple of hard enough climbs towards the end. I guess Cavendish has won San Remo, so that doesn't necessarily rule him out, but could play into either of the cousins if it comes down to a smaller group without the sprinters.

[Macy]

Philip Deignan confirmed for the vuelta.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cervelo-testteam-and-footon-servetto-confirm-teams-for-vuelta-a-espana

[Dodge]

Martin attempted to get away in the final few KMs in the GP Plaouy in France yesterday. Caught with 900m to go as he soloed into a headwind. Great attempt though.

Hopefully Deignan can get near his Vuelta form of last year

[Mr A]

Vuelta buildup: http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling-roche-and-deignan-to-take-vuelta-in-stages-2312011.html

[Dodge]

Cervelo aren't continuing past this year so Deignan is out of a job at the end of the season. His agent will be hoping his 2009 form gets him a decent ffer rather than the 2010 illness and injury plagued season

Don't think he'll be riding for Sastre in the Vuelta now

[Macy]

Pity he can't hook up with the Cervelo train that appears to be heading Garmins direction.

[Dodge]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/deignan-the-riders-are-always-the-last-to-know?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=news_headlines

More on Deignan and Cervelo

[Billsthoughts]

http://www.ciclismoafondo.es/caf/competicion/contenido/noticia/la-vuelta-2010-las-revelaciones/2c90a89c2a8affeb012a8b1509760035.html?visita=true
young riders to watch in vuelta.

[Mr A]

Roche took 6th today and climbed to 24th overall having taken a little bit of time. Seems to still be in good form. Dunno about Deignan yet as he wasn't in top 50 and the report only went that far when I looked.

Report: http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/65th-vuelta-a-espana-his/stage-3/results

[Billsthoughts]

deignan 127th 19 mins down...feckin eurosport is not video in demand'n the vuelta

[Bluebeard]

Try Cyclingfans.com (http://www.cyclingfans.com) - that's where I normally get my questionably legal live fix.

[Dodge]

RIP Laurent Fignon

[Mr A]

Another good day for Roche. 8th on stage and up to 11th overall.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/65th-vuelta-a-espana-his/stage-4/results

[passinginterest]

Roche is doing another diary for the Indo on this. Makes for interesting reading, hopefully he can make it top 5 or nab a stage win.

[Billsthoughts]

very sad when I heard this. even tho its relatively not that long since he stopped riding they almost seem from a different age now. remember he did a great talk/cycle thru of alpe duez for channel four a few years back. liked him since then.

[bennocelt]

RIP Laurent Fignon

Jeez the memories.............back in the day when Cycling was really popular in Ireland. Fignon versus Lemond, great rivalry

[Stuttgart88]

I think he organised a cycling camp in the Pyrenees until his ill health. He'd probably have won the Tour except for the rarity of the final stage being a time trial. Didn't Lemond introduce a new style of TT bike, along with aero helmet, to gain the crucial advantage? Some even say that Fignon's pony tail cost him the 8 seconds because of aerodynamics, though not sure that's true. Nice guy I'm told.

[Billsthoughts]

http://www.rtve.es/mediateca/videos/20100831/asi-gano-igor-anton-chaparral/864285.shtml what an amazing lead in to finish...

[Bluebeard]

Very sad about Fignon. Watching the Tour on Eurosport David Harmon was talking of having Fignon commentating next door to him during it, hoarse from the cancer, yet still roaring at the screen, as animated as ever. They say he knew himself it was his last Tour, which is why he made a point of commentating on it. RIP.

The stage sounded great today, thanks for the link. Roche is doing very well so far building on his good Tour, but a shame for Phil Deignan - the season really has been a write-off after last year's breakthrough. Looks like a few likely names have already slid down the GC, but all fairly open still.

[Macy]

Didn't Lemond introduce a new style of TT bike, along with aero helmet, to gain the crucial advantage? Some even say that Fignon's pony tail cost him the 8 seconds because of aerodynamics, though not sure that's true. Nice guy I'm told.
I think the aero bars were what he introduced, although I think Lemond subsequently reckoned his position cost him time too. I'd be interested to read his (Fignon's) book - must get the details and order it in to the Library.

[Dodge]

A great extract from his book was on the Guardian website alst month

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/jul/22/tour-laurent-fignon-greg-lemond

"Ah, I remember you: you're the guy who lost the Tour de France by eight seconds!"

"No, monsieur, I'm the guy who won the Tour twice."

[Dodge]

Oh and Deignan won't be joining Garmin. They've signed 6 of the Cervelo lads (included former An Post/Sean kelly rider Dan Lloyd)

[Macy]

A great extract from his book was on the Guardian website alst month
So was it the aero bars or the saddle sores? The books seems fairly reasonably priced, compared to a lot of cycling books.

A pity, but not unexpected about Deignan.

[Bluebeard]

Any clue where Deignan might be going? Personally, I think that BMC might be the best fit for him at the mo, but I fear that they have just rounded out their team.

[Dodge]

Mo clue. August is usually the month where all the deals happens so most teams will have been sorted. There's the 2 new players on the scene (Geox with Sastre and Menchov and the Schlecks new team in Luxembourg) who have plenty of space available. Rumours too of an Aussie pro tour team which would mean more spots.

His agent is Andrew McQuaid (who has Roche as another client) and he said last week he had a number of teams interested. Thats if you believe agents. I don't think he'll have too much problem fighting a spot if he's fit

[Dodge]

http://www.irishprocycling.com/news/general-website-news/irish-team-named-world-championships

No Dan martin for the Worlds. He's concentrating on Giro Lombaria. Roche, Dave McCann and Matt Brammeier to ride road race. McCann to double up with TT.

Deignan and Ronan McLoughlin named as "nominated riders" which means that if Deignan's form picks up he'll be in for McCann and McLoughlin is there as a reserve in case 2/3 drop out.

[Billsthoughts]

http://www.lemonde.fr/sport/article/2010/08/31/les-temps-forts-de-la-carriere-de-laurent-fignon_1404995_3242.html#ens_id=1405005

some clips of Fignon. Lovely one of him leading in peleton up to the final bit of the champs elycees sprint..

[Billsthoughts]

apparently todays stage will be a cracker...one bonus to the horrible weather wont feel guilty sitting watchin the vuelta all day!

[Dodge]

Yep, just had a "family day" cancelled. Likely missus will be heading to Liffey valley with the baby (and her sister) so I'll have the place to myself.

BTW I just found out that the cheap trip to spain I booked 6 weeks ago coincides with the Vuelta going by the twon I'm staying in on Tuesday so I'll get to see it live too :)

[Macy]

BTW I just found out that the cheap trip to spain I booked 6 weeks ago coincides with the Vuelta going by the twon I'm staying in on Tuesday so I'll get to see it live too :)
Say it enough times, and the missus might even believe it was coincidence! :)

[Billsthoughts]

dodge, what ya say to Schleck whne ya were over there to upset him?