Cycling 2010

[Mr A]

WTF? Six one news just gave Sunday's report on the Vuelta, saying Barredo won and Roche was 6th. Good old RTE!

[Billsthoughts]

rte news just gave the result from two days ago when baredo one as todays result. very poor.

[Billsthoughts]

loads of irish interest tour of britain...www.tourofbritain.co.uk

[Dodge]

Ended up not catching the Vuelta live as a French air traffic controller's strike delayed the flight by a few hours. Watched a bit of it on TV though (during siesta time) and the coverage is brutal. Didn't even show Roche crossing the line when he finished 5th. in fairness they have the results up quickly.

Roche is actually a better time trialler than most of those around him. He cold make up a small bit of time but unlikely to challenge. Saturday's stage is the big one

[Mr A]

Yeah, when I was watching the stage on Friday the coverage was poor, it was very hard to tell what was going on apart from who was in front. It wasn't helped by the fact that the roads were so packed with people, so close to the riders that even from the helicopter shots it wasn't very clear.

[Mr A]

Roche off very soon. In his Indo piece he says he'd be happy to stay 5th, but also mentions that he could gain time, especially on Schleck.

[passinginterest]

Hoping for a miracle ride and a podium place. His articles in the Independent really make for great reading. I have the live updates from cyclingnews open in the office and will be checking back regularly.

[Mr A]

Updates here too: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/cyclin...ch/406692.html

[Mr A]

Podium looks very unlikely but 4th a possibility..

Nicolas Roche is 54th after 31km, but crucially seems to be pulling back some time on Frank Schleck.

[Mr A]

Roche could be in danger from Sastre

[Bluebeard]

****e on Velits anyway. Real danger for Roche's spot.

UPDATE: Velits has gone 4th at the 31k point, Roche 5th. Hopefully Roche will pull back in the last bit, or Schleck will stumble.

[Schumi]

He gained some time on Schleck but not enough. Down to 6th overall I think.

[Mr A]

Disaster

1 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo 71:19:49
2 Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia 0:00:39
3 Peter Velits (Svk) Team HTC-Columbia 0:02:00
4 Frank Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:03:44
5 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:03:45
6 Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo Test Team 0:03:45
7 Tom Danielson (USA) Garmin-Transitions 0:03:55
8 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Ag2R-La Mondiale 0:04:03
9 Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervélo Test Team 0:04:13
10 Luis-Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 0:05:43

Friday will be all important though.

[Dodge]

Not a disaster. Made time on Schleck, lost time on those he was expected to lose time to (bar maybe Tondo). He'll get 40 seconds + on Danielson and Tondo on Friday

BTW I despise people who throw out allegations willy nilly but that Velits TT has come out of nowhere. His previous best TT at any kind of level was 10th in this years Tour of the Basque country. He was 5 secnds behinf Rodriguez then. He beat him by 6 minutes today

[Billsthoughts]

please god he gets thrown out for doping before end of tour

[Bluebeard]

The Velits TT is astounding the more I think about it - you would expect him to be watched by cameras if he were tipped.

Anyway, ignoring that until someone else like WADA looks it up, Roche is theoretically only 19s from 4th. Danielson is not likely to last in the mountains, but everyone else who is just above him, and perhaps Sastre below him has proven that they can climb this tour, including Tondo although I agree he could lose out. I think he may need to contest the odd intermediate sprint for bonus seconds (they do provide a bonus, don't they?) and pick up a few on Schleck and Sastre, who I think only had the one good climb in him this year and we saw that on Monday. I note that Rodriguez might still be on a downer after yesterday's efforts - he was completely cooked - and it wouldn't surprise me if he were to be dropped today or tomorrow as the sprints wind up.

[Mr A]

WTF? Roche has disappeared from the results lists on the official site and on Cycling News. Hoping that's just a screw up...

Edit- yes it was, phew!

[Dodge]

Roche actually made 4 seconds on some (Tondo, Sastra, Danielson)

[Mr A]

Yep, all good when the gaps are so small.

On the Velits thing- Roche seemed to feel in his daily piece that he had a bit of TT pedigree at least, albeit yesterday was an exceptional performance. That said, I immediately thought the same as you guys.

[Dodge]

I've looked up his records. He certainly doesn't have a pedigree in TT. Even when he won the world u23 road race in 2008, he finished 15th in the u23 TT