Cycling 2011

Those 5 UCI points could come in very handy. If we're ranked 15th (as were are now) on November 1st, Ireland will get 4 places in the 2012 Olympic road race

Before the Vuelta we're on 163.
Slovakia 152 (Sagan, Velits x 2 - Sagan and Martin Velits in Vuelta)
Slovenia 139 (Brajkovic, Bole, Bozic - Brajkovic in Vuelta)
Czech Republic 136 (Kreuziger - not in Vuelta)

So our 5 points are a big help.

Races left -
GP Ouest (Brammeier for us, Bozic & Bole for Slovenia)
GP Quebec
GP Montreal (Sagan 2nd last year)
Tour of Beijing
Giro Lombardia (Martin loves this race, Brajkovic was 2nd a couple of years ago)

A top 10 by Martin and maybe a stage win by one of the lads in the Vuelta would be a huge help

Roche a good 8th today. 8 seconds down on winner Rodriguez. Martin will be disappointed with his 30th place finish, losing 29 seconds.

Martin’s now 18th on GC (1:04 behind), Roche is 25th (1:48)

Was on cyclingnews that Martin had a bad nights sleep at altitude , and he wasn't sure he'd have the energy for the finish. Was on the live updates so I dont have a link - might explain his poor finish?

Dan Martin, incredible stage win today. Roche 19th 40something seconds down. They attacked together with about 5k to go so at one point it was an Irish 1-2 but Roche just didn't have the legs to stay with him.

Great stuff from Martin.. 16 points for Ireland there.

Bole won GP Ouest though so 80 points there, and Sagan has had a 1st and 2nd since I posted that...

Brilliant stuff by Martin. His Attack split the stage wide open, when Nibali and then Wiggins caught him, he just waited and then powered home to claim the stage

Last kilometer from today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVmc1UTMe6c

So UCI country ranks after GP Ouest (but nothing from Vuelta yet)

13 Kazakhstan 234
14 Slovenia 219
15 Denmark 217
16 Ireland 163
17 Slovakia 152
18 Czech Republic 136

From the Vuelta we've got 21 points, and Slovakia have got 24.

Just to mention as well that Martin leads the KOM classification and will wear the polka dot jersey for a few days!

Bit of a disaster for Dan today. 98th on the ITT. Lost time to all the GC boys. He lies in 24th place now 4' 58'' down on Froome

Roche is in 17th, 3' 47'' down

Aye, poor from Dan really. He'll have to improve that to be a genuine contender, although it was relatively long by recent grand tour standards. Respectable performance by Nico - maybe some sign of improvement?

Yeah- I think it was decent from Roche. Poor from Martin- maybe he left a lot on that climb yesterday.

Still, that's that out of the way. Hopefully Roche can finish well and maybe Martin can take another stage.

Podium is probably beyond either of them, but I think both could still get top 10. Martin should get a bit more freedom - he won't be immediately chased down by the top gc guys now, so another stage could be a real possibility.

Good interview with Matt Brammeier where he talks about declaring for Ireland. The good news is he has secured a team for next season, although it does not say who.

http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-n...-pro-contract/
http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-n...ro-contract-2/

We should find out today (when all the transfers can be revealed)

Roche with another 5th place on a stage. Making up about 1.30 on the GC too. Up to 14th overall and less than 30 seconds outside top 10, 2.15 down on lead. Martin 23rd 4.44 off lead.

Didn't seem like he fancied it at the end/had to legs to sprint.

Still if it hasn't taken too much out of him that could be an important 92 seconds

I was only looking at the text updates. I was thinking he must have a chance of the win. They were suggesting that the break had to work incredibly hard and that it will have taken an awful lot out of them for the next stages. Hopefully Roche is coming into enough form that he can recover.

Yeah, but break was pushed by Euskatel (4 in it) and Geox (3 in it) more than Roche. (Moreno too, moved into 9th overall)

With so many in it. it may not have been tto taxing but we'll see

Live coverage here: http://www.sportlemon.tv/v-2/8/126/v-292770.html of today's stage, not on eurosport live today.

Roche dropped, Martin in contention.

Gotta say, Cobo yesterday was one of those things that'd make you go "hmmmmm".

Good performance from Martin - a winter working on the time trialling, he could be a genuine GC contender.

And I dunno Macy, he's always beena good climber and for the first time ever is the protected rider. Obviously his previous teams don't help

Froome is the 'break out' star but I'd be confident in him too.

I'd like to see Mrtin finish in the top 10. Top 10 and a stage win is a great, great GT performance

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dodge

And I dunno Macy, he's always beena good climber and for the first time ever is the protected rider. Obviously his previous teams don't help

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Always been a good climber, except the period when he wasn't with his current organisation!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dodge

Froome is the 'break out' star but I'd be confident in him too.

I'd like to see Mrtin finish in the top 10. Top 10 and a stage win is a great, great GT performance

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Yeah, I'd still have faith in the "clean" teams like Sky and Garmin. I'd never be 100% shocked either, but I wouldn't buy "they're all doping" like the goons on some forums.

Hard to see Martin make top 10 - no real long climb left for him to make up the time. Time trialling is something that's technique though, that could be worked on - half the 6 minutes he lost and he's solid top 10.

Don't forget his stoopid 40 second penalty too.

Defo been a good tour for him regardless of where he finishes, but Top 10 has a lovely ring to it.

(BTW I remember Sean Kelly on eurosport 2 years ago about Deignan (on the day he was in the break) saying "Top 10 doesn't matter. if you're not on the podium then its not a major achievement. Now if he wins this stage, and finishes top 10, then he can say he's had a great performance"

Vaughters made a comment about Martin last week on that subject saying Dan would rather win a stage and finish 20th in every other stage than finish top 5 on every stage - he's a born winner"

I think that shows the difference between Roche and Martin tbh

I had forgotten that time penalty actually - and agree regarding the comparison to Roche.

Leopard Trek and Radioshack to merge and become Radioshack Nissan Trek.. not sure where this will leave Deignan.

jaysus I forgpt cobo wsas 2nd on that Piepoli stage a few years gao (when Ricco was going nuts)

All benefit of doubt out the window...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dodge

jaysus I forgpt cobo wsas 2nd on that Piepoli stage a few years gao (when Ricco was going nuts)

All benefit of doubt out the window...

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Even the ex-pro's are on the case - Jean Francois Bernard . I believe that Kelly was a bit barbed during the eurosport commentary too.

Martin takes 2 points with a 4th place today.

Wiggins letting me down badly.. thought he was going to be my second grand tour winner bet in a row to come in. Oh well, as long as he stays in the top three I'm still ahead.

Martin had another go today. Ended up 4th, and up to 11th overall. A few cracked. Roche finished 17th on stage but up to 14th overall. Martin is 16 seconds behind Chris Anke Sorenson in 10th

Brilliant finish to the stage. Froome rode away from Cobo and looked like reding into overall lead. Cobo cam back and caught him with 50 metres to go and then passed him. Frrome dived up the inside of final turn to snatch the stage win

He's now only 13 seconds down on Cobo (and he lost about 40 seconds last week riding for Wiggins!)

Good day for Martin and Roche.. sitting 13th and 16th now. They're also confirmed for worlds.. http://twitter.com/#!/irishcycling/s...89519493652481

Seems like there's a lot of people having doubts about Cobo... http://twitter.com/#!/irishcycling/s...86306695663617

Having trouble squaring my doubts about Cobo and not doubting Froome - sky don't even seem that convincing on his "numbers" to be honest.

Another brilliant won for Gilbert in Quebec. Deignan was in two breaks where he did a bunch of the work, 36th in the end.

Just to follow up on the rankings and the quest for Olympic places. With only the Giro di Lombardia and the Tour of Beijing left, Ireland are now in 15th place in the national rankings.

Those within reach are
13 Denamrk 285
14 Kazakhstan 234
15 Ireland 219
16 Slovenia 219
17 Slovakia 208
18 Colombia 175
19 Portugal 163

Not sure why Ireland is placed above Slovenia but we are. Impossible to call, but will be very tight for Ireland unless Martin or Roche can dig a result out of Lombardia
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Martin is ranked 18th individually BTW

Roche confirms he's riding Tour of BEijing, Giro di Lombardia, as well as the World Championships

Brammeier to join Quick Step

A lot more to come on this story: Italian newspaper reveals details of Ferrari investigation

Armstrong, Menchov and Scarponi implicated to varying degrees.

Deignan joins United Healthcare.

Bit of a step backwards in one way, but if they use him as a team leader it could be interesting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mr A

Bit of a step backwards in one way, but if they use him as a team leader it could be interesting.

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Probably means no grand tours, but iirc they were in a good few decent european races, as well as the US ones. If he's a leader and/or given some freedom it could work out to be a great move for him.

With radioshack and HTC folding, jobs were at a minimum. A couple of other Europeans have been linked with them recently

An Post's Andrew Fenn has just won bronze for GB in the World U23 road race. Irish lads involved in crash with 2k to go