Philip Deignan confirmed for the vuelta.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cerv...uelta-a-espana
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Philip Deignan confirmed for the vuelta.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cerv...uelta-a-espana
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
Vuelta buildup: http://www.independent.ie/sport/othe...s-2312011.html
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
Pity he can't hook up with the Cervelo train that appears to be heading Garmins direction.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/deig...news_headlines
More on Deignan and Cervelo
http://www.ciclismoafondo.es/caf/com...ml?visita=true
young riders to watch in vuelta.
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/65t...tage-3/results
deignan 127th 19 mins down...feckin eurosport is not video in demand'n the vuelta
Try Cyclingfans.com - that's where I normally get my questionably legal live fix.
RIP Laurent Fignon
Another good day for Roche. 8th on stage and up to 11th overall.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/65t...tage-4/results
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.
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.
Jeez the memories.............back in the day when Cycling was really popular in Ireland. Fignon versus Lemond, great rivalryQuote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
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.
http://www.rtve.es/mediateca/videos/...l/864285.shtml what an amazing lead in to finish...
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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
A great extract from his book was on the Guardian website alst month
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010...on-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."
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)
So was it the aero bars or the saddle sores? The books seems fairly reasonably priced, compared to a lot of cycling books.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
A pity, but not unexpected about Deignan.
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.
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
http://www.irishprocycling.com/news/...-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.
http://www.lemonde.fr/sport/article/...ens_id=1405005
some clips of Fignon. Lovely one of him leading in peleton up to the final bit of the champs elycees sprint..
apparently todays stage will be a cracker...one bonus to the horrible weather wont feel guilty sitting watchin the vuelta all day!
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 :)
Say it enough times, and the missus might even believe it was coincidence! :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
dodge, what ya say to Schleck whne ya were over there to upset him?
Well, Phil Deignan is out of the Vuelta now - no word on why that I have seen. Just a bad season all around, and a particularly bad time for his to have to drop out. Any word on him getting a new team yet?
Anton was very impressive today - as the climbing started I thought it was going to be a walk in the park for Mosquera. Anton will need every second he can get for apodium finish though, as he tends to lose roughly 30-45 seconds every 10k of a time-trial.
Great performance by Roche to stay with the big boys today - finished 13th into Andorra, still 8th overall, though Frank Schleck has crept up to level on time with him.
radioshack or lotto apparentlyQuote:
Originally Posted by Bluebeard
Fantastic performance from Nic Roche today to finish 6th, moving up to 5th overall! Keeping it over the next few days will be tough, but we are looking at a possible top 10 from him.
Shame about Anton's crash - I had thought he had a very good chance of staying in the jersey up to the time trial.
today and tomorrow are the two remaining mountain stages? whats roches chances of taking time off some of the others in the TT? felt sorry for igor anton. broken arm apparently. along with gettign scraped to bits!
Don't think Roche will do much in the time trial, whatever progress he makes will probably be in the mountains.. he really is going very well indeed.
great stage todya as well. roche unreal to be still in there.
Great performance again today - it really looks like Schleck is hanging on to Roche for dear life! Shame that Velits got away and slipped into 4th, when it was looking for a little while like Roche might sneak into 4th. It would be an immense performance if he could hold onto 6th though. We'll see how tomorrow goes - another good performance, and a slip by Tondo and/or Velits (my tip to fail tomorrow) could be very good news for Nic. If he manages to put in YET ANOTHER great performance, he would have just the TT to worry about losing major time on. Fingers crossed.
Roche back up to fifth having passed Velits and Tondo but lost out to Schleck and with a decentish gap to those behind him. 3 minutes off the lead. Anybody have any idea what the rest of the top ten are like in time trials?
General classification after stage 16
1 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 70:24:39
2 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo 0:00:33
3 Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia 0:00:53
4 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:02:16
5 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Ag2R-La Mondiale 0:03:01
6 Peter Velits (Svk) Team HTC-Columbia 0:04:27
7 Tom Danielson (USA) Garmin-Transitions 0:04:29
8 Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo Test Team 0:04:43
9 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervélo Test Team 0:04:53
10 David Garcia Dapena (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia 0:06:23
Nibali strikes me as the best of the top 5. Rodriguez, Mosquera, and Roche all probably lose about 35-50s per 10k judging by previous performance, Schleck possibly more, though I don't think it will be enough for Nic to get 15s back on him. What will be key will be how they cope with the rest day, and how their position inspires them. Of the next 5, Danielson and Garcia would strike me as being the best, Tondo being the next best of them. Velits I don't know so much about - Dodge might be able to enlighten us if he is back yet? Danielson could overtake Nic if he has a bad trial. For the win on Wednesday, I'd be reckoning Bruseghin or Cancellara.
We still have the Bola Del Mundo to go on Saturday too - a very good chance of a final shake-up there.