Volta a Catalunya 2015 - General Thread Spoiler Tags Required

dastardly00 · 23-03-2015 4:20pm #1

I haven't seen a thread for this....

2015 edition of the Volta a Catalunya starts today.

The startlist includes: Chris Froome (Sky), Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin), Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing), Fabio Aru (Astana), Rigoberto Urán (Etixx-Quick Step), Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Ryder Hesjedal (Cannondale-Garmin) and Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin).

Nico Roche is riding this as well.

There are 10-6-4 bonus seconds to the first three riders on each stage. The intermediate sprints each offer 3-2-1 bonus seconds.

7 stages in total, none are flat, but there is only one mountain summit finish.

dastardly00 · 23-03-2015 4:26pm

Stage 1: Calella - Calella (191.1km)

Completely bizarre situation going on at the moment. A three-man breakaway of Pierre Rolland (Europcar), Maciej Paterski (CCC) and Bart De Clercq (Lotto Soudal) have a 7 min 56 sec lead with 22km to go!!!

dastardly00 · 23-03-2015 4:32pm

This pretty much means that the three-man breakaway will contest the overall GC for this race..... Pierre Rolland will probably win overall, followed by De Clercq.

neris · 23-03-2015 4:38pm

dastardly00 wrote: »

Stage 1: Calella - Calella (191.1km)

Completely bizarre situation going on at the moment. A three-man breakaway of Pierre Rolland (Europcar), Maciej Paterski (CCC) and Bart De Clercq (Lotto Soudal) have a 7 min 56 sec lead with 22km to go!!!

6 minutes back @14km.

neris · 23-03-2015 4:39pm

commentator saying froome & contador be happy if they can have a gap of 4 minutes at the end of this stage :rolleyes:

quozl · 23-03-2015 4:39pm

Why does the breakaway have such a big lead?

dastardly00 · 23-03-2015 4:48pm

quozl wrote: »

Why does the breakaway have such a big lead?

Basically all the other teams in the peloton didn't bother their arses to keep the gap down. And then when the lead became so big, no one wanted to do all the work to try and catch them. They have really cocked up.

Solobally8 · 23-03-2015 4:52pm

Thanks for the updates lads. Spoilers suck though! I bet I burn extra calories having to highlight them

dastardly00 · 23-03-2015 4:56pm

Paterski wins the sprint. Start the clock now.

neris · 23-03-2015 4:59pm

2 mins 40 gap

dastardly00 · 23-03-2015 4:59pm

So Rolland has over 2min 40sec gap ahead of the other GC contenders

el tel · 23-03-2015 5:21pm

Barring some bad luck oh his part, is it a foregone conclusion that Rolland has the race in the bag

?

Darkglasses · 23-03-2015 5:28pm

el tel wrote: »

Barring some bad luck oh his part, is it a foregone conclusion that Rolland has the race in the bag
?

In my humble opinion, not at all. 2'40 is a decent head start but if Contador, Froome, Valverde, Uran or even Barguil are in top form and in the mood for it, they can make up the 2'40 and then some. Literally every stage has potential time losses for Rolland.

TheBlaaMan · 23-03-2015 6:18pm

dastardly00 wrote: »

Paterski wins the sprint.

Wow. After finishing in the higher order in MSR yesterday that's an.........er..............em...........unbelieveable performance.
:rolleyes:

MPFG · 23-03-2015 6:23pm

Well what a cock that was ...The parcour is not mountainous enough...the coverage with time gaps was dreadful (One camera on 3 leaders only relaying) , the comms was bad too ..(Kirby talk pish about Rolland and of course Roman Bardet who is his current obsession and continued to report the wrong time gap even though live online text was different ) and the teams made major mistake...SKY site saying the time went out to 14mins as teams fought about who should chase. I would have thought Movistar & Cannondale should have contributed , given Valverde& Dan Martin...serve them right if Rolland holds on to lead bit I doubt he will

MPFG · 24-03-2015 11:50am

Nico Roche's diary on the matter

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling/nicolas-roche-we-had-to-take-race-by-scruff-of-the-neck-or-it-was-all-over-31089583.html

pelevin · 24-03-2015 12:47pm

For what it's worth I hope Rolland manages to hold on for the win.

dastardly00 · 24-03-2015 1:07pm

pelevin wrote: »

For what it's worth I hope Rolland manages to hold on for the win.

Me too!

blobbie · 24-03-2015 1:13pm

Solobally8 wrote: »

Thanks for the updates lads. Spoilers suck though! I bet I burn extra calories having to highlight them

Hit CTRL+A to highlight all and voila

dastardly00 · 24-03-2015 1:13pm

Hard to predict who'll win today. It should be too hard for sprinters, but not hard enough for the big GC guys. Pierre Rolland and Bart De Clercq shouldn't lose any time here.

From cyclingquotes.com:

..... the stage has a nasty sting in its tail as the finale is a lot hillier. First the riders do a small climb before they reach the category 3 Alt de Montagut (2.1km, 4.5%, max. 7%) which summits 14.7km from the finish. After a short descent, the roads are gradually rising and the roadbook indicates that there will be a 3.8km section with an average gradient of 5.2%.
The summit comes with 6.2km to go and then there’s a short descent before the riders hit a long, mainly flat section. The final 500m are slightly descending at an average of 2%. The finale is pretty uncomplicated with just two small turns between the 3km and 2km to go marks. The final left-hand turn comes with 1300m to go and from there it is a long, straight road to the finish.

MPFG · 24-03-2015 1:15pm

Dan Martin today or OGE rider ....but breakaway may do it also

Darkglasses · 24-03-2015 1:18pm

Could be just the job for Caleb Ewan

dastardly00 · 24-03-2015 1:19pm

MPFG wrote: »

Dan Martin today or OGE rider ....but breakaway may do it also

Quite close to Girona so it would be great if Dan gave it a bash.

Solobally8 · 24-03-2015 2:21pm

blobbie wrote: »

Hit CTRL+A to highlight all and voila

Great thanks, I never knew

dastardly00 · 24-03-2015 3:53pm

Seemingly there will be no live TV coverage :mad:

NBar · 24-03-2015 3:56pm

dastardly00 wrote: »

Seemingly there will be no live TV coverage :mad:

Why what's happened

Inquitus · 24-03-2015 4:03pm

This race is always a shambles.

neris · 24-03-2015 4:09pm

what the feck is going on? they pulled this stunt aswell last year. fortunatly then it was a friday and the E3 was on the other channel

blobbie · 24-03-2015 4:10pm

NBar wrote: »

Why what's happened

Due to bad weather conditions we are unable to live broadcast the stage.

I think they will have coverage soon. On Eurosport player, one of the non commentary channels has coverage.

40kms to go with a group of 4 out front by 2'45".

Will add names when I see them.

117- GRmay,
148 - Stamsnidjer,
175 - Mas Bonet,
138 - Bewley

31kms left

MPFG · 24-03-2015 4:34pm

TV back now on Eurosport

Mugser · 24-03-2015 4:34pm

Live coverage back on now.

blobbie · 24-03-2015 4:35pm

Live coverage back.

Darkglasses · 24-03-2015 4:43pm

Gone again?

blobbie · 24-03-2015 4:44pm

Yup - and gone for the day as they go back to the live pictures ? ! ?

wirelessdude01 · 24-03-2015 4:47pm

And back again.

dastardly00 · 24-03-2015 5:00pm

So it looks like we will just have the cameras at the finish line only.

MPFG · 24-03-2015 5:01pm

Coming & going on Spanish TV...shambles

Brian? · 24-03-2015 5:05pm

Is anyone else watching a South African gentleman talking about a sportive?

dastardly00 · 24-03-2015 5:05pm

8km to go.

MPFG · 24-03-2015 5:05pm

Peloton preet big is strung out...8KM to go

dastardly00 · 24-03-2015 5:08pm

6km to go.

Brian? · 24-03-2015 5:10pm

Where are ye watching this?

dastardly00 · 24-03-2015 5:12pm

Brian? wrote: »

Where are ye watching this?

Myself and MPFG just happen to be in Spain at the moment

blobbie · 24-03-2015 5:16pm

Valverde won (I think)

Darkglasses · 24-03-2015 5:20pm

Stage results - https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CA4CBNuXEAETIMy.png

dastardly00 · 24-03-2015 5:21pm

Most random collection of riders for a bunch sprint ever (bar Valverde and Rojas)

Brian? · 24-03-2015 5:22pm

blobbie wrote: »

Valverde won (I think)

He did, in sprint finish! Seriously what the feck? How did Valverde just win a flat spint?

blobbie · 24-03-2015 5:22pm

Their petrol is cheap, 1.139 a litre. 1.189 for diesel at the finish line Carrefour.

letape · 24-03-2015 5:25pm

Brian? wrote: »

Is anyone else watching a South African gentleman talking about a sportive?

Still watching it :-)

Darkglasses · 24-03-2015 5:27pm

GC - https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CA4DVU7VEAAG8g8.png

Good to see Dan in a good position already. Nico will be working for the team leaders presumably

dastardly00 · 24-03-2015 5:30pm

Brian? wrote: »

He did, in sprint finish! Seriously what the feck? How did Valverde just win a flat spint?

He's actually really good in sprints if the pure sprinters (Cav, Kittel etc.) have been dropped. He's won a lot of one-day races and he's probably the best GC rider at sprinting.

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Volta a Catalunya 2015 - General Thread Spoiler Tags Required