Paris Nice

Slideshowbob

Good to see 3 irish riders taking part

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2009/mar09/parisnice09/?id=startlist

Contador looks favourite but Pinotti (last year's Tour of Ireland winner) might be a good outside bet

Dura Ace

Although, it doesn't seem that Deignan is taking part after all, according to the roster on Cervelo's website. He's not in Tirreno either, which is a pity as he seems to be in good form

http://www.cervelo.com/calendar.aspx

Esroh

Anyone have a link where it can be watched.
Thanks
Es

shapez

Esroh wrote: »

Anyone have a link where it can be watched.
Thanks
Es

Eurosport, everyday.

Dura Ace

I think it will be on

www.rtbf.be or

www.cyclingfans.com will be able to provide a link

Caroline_ie

France3

double-clique pour le full-screen.

Starts at 2:10 Irish time I think.

Raam

Is it safe to talk about results?

Slideshowbob

why wudnt it b

they were history a few hours ago

1 Contador in TT

Raam

Slideshowbob wrote: »

why wudnt it b

they were history a few hours ago

1 Contador in TT

Fair nufski.
He fairly demolished the rest of them. Vandevelde had a heavy crash and finished way down.

Chips Lovell

Looks like Contador might be serious about going for it. I had wondered if it wasn't too early in the season for him. Let's see how he goes in the mountains when some of the hungrier guys get giddy.

Vande Velde had a nasty bit of road rash on his shoulder.

TinyExplosions

Anyone find it a little suspect that he finished 7 seconds up on Wiggins... I don't want to start dragging the tone down, but for someone who's not particularly a TT specialist, it was a very fast time...

Can't see Astana being beat though

E@gle.

Slideshowbob wrote: »

Good to see 3 irish riders taking part

Only 2 irish taking part Philip Deginan was replaced by Dan Fleeman

Caroline_ie

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Anyone find it a little suspect that he finished 7 seconds up on Wiggins...

Kelloggs Frosties ...

TinyExplosions

Caroline_ie wrote: »

Kelloggs Frosties ...

That or Bran Flakes

Caroline_ie

TinyExplosions wrote: »

That or Bran Flakes

You're right, however I don't think Sir C.H. would recommend Bran fakes on a long day racing ...

Raam

So, putting "suspicions" aside... can anyone pull this back from Alberto?
There are a couple of sprint finishes coming up and then some nice hilly ones and even a summit finish. He's bound to make a statement there.

TinyExplosions

Raam wrote: »

So, putting "suspicions" aside... can anyone pull this back from Alberto?
There are a couple of sprint finishes coming up and then some nice hilly ones and even a summit finish. He's bound to make a statement there.

Can't see it happening, not only is he in great form, he has clearly the best team, and will just do enough to keep in the lead, he's miles ahead of anyone at the moment, and I suspect will just keep getting further ahead -this could be a play for being the team lead at Astana imo

RobFowl

This is being discussed on veloriders.co.uk

http://www.veloriders.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=80845

This is the first post !!!!!
"Right, how long before he's busted? He's just getting greedy now, making it all a bit obvious so the UCI will be forced to crack down to maintain a semblence of credibility I reckon.

I reckon he'll be busted in June, just before the Tour, having won pretty much every race he enters until then."

RobFowl

Slightly off topic but Ullrich as well seems to be about to come clean

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2009/mar09/mar09news

"Ullrich to discuss doping in a book?

Jan Ullrich will answer the question "Did you dope?" in a book he wants to write, saying, "This question is not easy to answer." In an interview with the German tabloid BILD am Sonntag, he also indicated a possible doping usage when he rode, when he said, "Whoever still can't put one and one together about what happened in cycling is beyond my help."
Ullrich retired in February 2007, after being suspected of involvement with Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes. Blood taken during the Operacion Puerto was matched to him via DNA testing.
Ullrich's manager, Wolfgang Strohband, said not to look for the book any time soon. "I know that he has not yet started working on this book," he told the dpa press agency.
The 35-year-old German, who lives in Switzerland, said that he had been offered "millions" to confess, but that he wasn't interested. He agreed with the characterization of those who have confessed, such as Jörg Jaksche or Patrik Sinkewitz, as hypocrites, noting, "They only said what would help them." Jaksche disagreed with that, saying "What does it help me when I am now unemployed? At least I was honest about my past.""

Diarmuid

Raam wrote: »

So, putting "suspicions" aside... can anyone pull this back from Alberto?

Can't see it happening, the last few stages are made for him. All he needs are a couple of team-mates who can help him out in the mountains and it should be his.

EDIT:
Interesting stats I compiled:
Position|Rider|Weight
1|Contador|62
2|Wiggins|76
3|Sanchez|74
4|Martin|75
5|Millar|76
6|Posthuma|76


In an flat time trial!

paddy's hill

Maybe he is clean and is just better than everybody else. I'll believe that until there is evidence to the contrary. Winning is evidence of winning and nothing else.

Chips Lovell

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Anyone find it a little suspect that he finished 7 seconds up on Wiggins... I don't want to start dragging the tone down, but for someone who's not particularly a TT specialist, it was a very fast time...

Can't see Astana being beat though

Well, he's beaten Wiggins before against the clock, in the 2007 Tour for example. So it's not uncharacteristic for his results. Having said that, I've always been very surprised at how strong a TT rider he is, especially for stages like yesterday, which was almost short enough to be a prologue. You'd expect chronmen like Wiggins to clean up. Then again, I seem to remember Lance winning a few prologues in his day.

So, remember folks, he's one of the most tested athletes on the planet and he's never failed a drug test. Anyone who says Berto is a doper is pro-cancer.

Diarmuid

paddy's hill wrote: »

Maybe he is clean and is just better than everybody else. I'll believe that until there is evidence to the contrary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operación_Puerto_doping_case

Winning is evidence of winning and nothing else.

I think you missed the third column, in a time trial absolute power is the key (not power to weight), he would have had to be "better" by over 10%. Do those margins exist at the top of any sport?

Considering the history of cycling I think I'm entitled to my suspicions but I'll leave it at this.

Raam

It's a pity that this is where professional cycling has landed us. Any victory out of the supposed norm is treated with extreme suspicion.

TinyExplosions

paddy's hill wrote: »

Maybe he is clean and is just better than everybody else. I'll believe that until there is evidence to the contrary. Winning is evidence of winning and nothing else.

Ricco, Kohl, Schumacher, Sella, all people that performed better than expected by a long way, all guilty... I think with the margin he won by, there can be doubt.

el tonto wrote: »

Well, he's beaten Wiggins before against the clock, in the 2007 Tour for example. So it's not uncharacteristic for his results. Having said that, I've always been very surprised at how strong a TT rider he is, especially for stages like yesterday, which was almost short enough to be a prologue. You'd expect chronmen like Wiggins to clean up. Then again, I seem to remember Lance winning a few prologues in his day.

So, remember folks, he's one of the most tested athletes on the planet and he's never failed a drug test. Anyone who says Berto is a doper is pro-cancer.

That's fair enough, but to win by 7 seconds! It's the margin more than the fact he won that has me suspicious, see the list above -all (excepting maybe Kohl) won stages they should have won (as in Ricco is a gifted climber, Schumacher a TT guy), but the margin was what raised suspicions.

If me thinking Bertie is dirty makes me pro cancer, so be it

Chips Lovell

TinyExplosions wrote: »

That's fair enough, but to win by 7 seconds! It's the margin more than the fact he won that has me suspicious, see the list above -all (excepting maybe Kohl) won stages they should have won (as in Ricco is a gifted climber, Schumacher a TT guy), but the margin was what raised suspicions.

All I'm saying is that it isn't out of the ordinary for him, but his TT riding has always been a bit out of the ordinary.

I think anyone who wants to make their own mind up about Berto should have a good read of the reporting that came out of Operation Puerto, in particular the documents relating to Liberty Seguros.

penfold83

What about Seán Kelly? He won a few races a while back didn't he?

Drugs then, must have been the drugs...

I think it's a terrible attitude to be immediately suspicious of an impressive ride. Fair enough there's been plenty of idiots (Ricco, Schumacher etc.) who've justified this attitude. But I for one will continue to be impressed by an impressive ride until I should be given reason to believe otherwise. So there'll be no negative nelly attitude from me. Fair play Contador.

Vélo

TinyExplosions wrote: »

Ricco, Kohl, Schumacher, Sella, all people that performed better than expected by a long way, all guilty... I think with the margin he won by, there can be doubt.

So what were you on when you beat Blorg up Glandon?;)

Raam

penfold83 wrote: »

What about Seán Kelly? He won a few races a while back didn't he?

Drugs then, must have been the drugs...

I think it's a terrible attitude to be immediately suspicious of an impressive ride. Fair enough there's been plenty of idiots (Ricco, Schumacher etc.) who've justified this attitude. But I for one will continue to be impressed by an impressive ride until I should be given reason to believe otherwise. So there'll be no negative nelly attitude from me. Fair play Contador.

I don't think it's terrible at all. It's just reality.

http://www.tribune.ie/archive/article/2000/jan/09/sean-kellys-positive-tests/

Edit: but the suspicion does but a dampner on everything, for me.

TinyExplosions

el tonto wrote: »

All I'm saying is that it isn't out of the ordinary for him, but his TT riding has always been a bit out of the ordinary.

And I'm not saying that his winning is what's suspicious, it's the margin -he's not been that far ahead before iirc, that's what makes me wonder..

penfold83 wrote: »

What about Seán Kelly? He won a few races a while back didn't he?

Drugs then, must have been the drugs...

I think it's a terrible attitude to be immediately suspicious of an impressive ride. Fair enough there's been plenty of idiots (Ricco, Schumacher etc.) who've justified this attitude. But I for one will continue to be impressed by an impressive ride until I should be given reason to believe otherwise. So there'll be no negative nelly attitude from me. Fair play Contador.

Raam has the article link, but I suspect it's fair to say that King Kelly, like most of the other riders back then, took stuff to help him win. It's a terrible double standard, but that was the norm back then, so I don't think it diminishes his achievements.

There's impressive (like Mancebo on the ToC), and there's "impressive" (like Landis on the '06 Tour).... I happen to think yesterday was one of the second kind

Aquinas73 wrote: »

So what were you on when you beat Blorg up Glandon?;)

Crystal Meth, and a tow off a car

dave.obrien

this all reminds me of that comedian,

"let them all take whatever they like, then we've an honest race again. if they're all on something, no-one has a competitive advantage. then it's a race between men again. cyclist vs cyclist, phamacist vs pharmacist."

i wish i could remember the name of that comedian, he was funny...

Funkyzeit

Raam wrote: »

Fair nufski.
He fairly demolished the rest of them. Vandevelde had a heavy crash and finished way down.

Well done Funkyzeit - inevitable kiss of death

Funkyzeit wrote: »

As for a winner.... Finger in the air.... Vande Velde...
.

Unreal time by Bertie...them flapjacks working wonders...

Nick Le Roche and Martin both finishing 49 seconds adrift.

niceonetom

To the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles.

Funkyzeit

niceonetom wrote: »

To the people who don’t believe in cycling, the cynics and the sceptics. I'm sorry for you. I’m sorry that you can’t dream big. I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles.

Ha Ha....An actual LOL moment....

Caroline_ie

ARGH ,,, my eurosport player won't work from ... work ( ahem ... )

RobFowl

http://www.rtbf.be/sport/cyclisme/autres-courses/vivez-la-2e-etape-de-paris-nice-en-direct-videeo-30892

Live 7k to go all together

Chips Lovell

We discussing today's stage?

Slideshowbob

As original poster on this thread - ill say - Ya

It's over

Was on Eurosport and results on cyclingnews.com

It's history

Discuss away

I can't understand people who don't want results of footie matches either because they want to watch highlights.

Chips Lovell

Well, it wasn't mentioned on Eursport anyway, so the folks waiting on the highlights needn't worry. Dan Martin had a bad day, finishing 10 minutes back. I believe he's running a temperature. Roche is still in the hunt.

paddy's hill

Diarmuid wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operación_Puerto_doping_case

I think you missed the third column, in a time trial absolute power is the key (not power to weight), he would have had to be "better" by over 10%. Do those margins exist at the top of any sport?

Considering the history of cycling I think I'm entitled to my suspicions but I'll leave it at this.

As is stated by this page you link to

" Alberto Contador - received a document clearing them of links to Operación Puerto" by a Spanish court.
Not enough evidence for the Spanish legal system.

To say it is absolute power I think is a bit simplistic. If that was the case Backstead would have been the best at time trial for the last decade. A lighter rider with unique cardio vascular ability could be faster.
I'll believe he is clean until there is evidence to prove otherwise.

Chips Lovell

Some things to bear in mind if people are discussing Operation Puerto:

1. It was a judicial investigation, not something launched by the Spanish cyling federation.

2. At the time doping was not a criminal offence in Spain. No cyclist could thus ever come before the Spanish courts for doping.

2. Prosecutors went after the doctors and team directors involved instead and charged them with a crime known as endangering public health. The judge presiding over the case decided that it couldn't be proven and the investigation was closed for a few years (although they reopened it again recently).

3. The judge also refused to hand over any evidence collected to the Spanish cycling federation, which meant it couldn't investigate.

4. The reason the Italians got their hands on the evidence from Puerto for their recent Valverde investigation was that it was criminal investigation.

In short, Puerto was probably the biggest drug bust in cycling history, but was an utter disaster from a sporting point of view because cycling governing bodies were hampered in getting their hands on the evidence and doling out suspensions.

A few riders were suspended because courts in their own countries were proactive enough about requesting evidence from Spain. Some other riders have been blacklisted or relegated to obscure teams because enough leaked out in the press to make it impossible for big teams to hire them. But there is a whole raft of riders who got away scot free because of it.

Raam

Nicolas Roche in 5th position in the young rider

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2009/mar09/parisnice09/?id=results/parisnice092

Young rider

1 Heinrich Haussler (Ger) Cervélo TestTeam 4.45.01
2 Tom Veelers (Ned) Skil-Shimano
3 Romain Feillu (Fra) Agritubel
4 Sébastien Turgot (Fra) BBox Bouygues Telecom
5 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale
6 Tony Martin (Ger) Team Columbia - Highroad
7 Francesco Gavazzi (Ita) Lampre - NGC
8 Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Liquigas
9 Steven Cozza (USA) Garmin - Slipstream
10 Jürgen Roelandts (Bel) Silence-Lotto

Chips Lovell

Looks like Roche is picking up where he left off in the Vuelta being up there in the top twenty at the end of every stage.

Haussler was just awesome today. He went off the front like a shot off a shovel. When you saw the aerial shot it really illustrated how he left everyone for dead. He's having a great season so far, as is the new Cervelo team.

Anyone else notice Sean Kelly referring to him as "Hustler".

ba

did anyone have the joy of watching Hausslers turn of pace live on eurosport?? it was incredible.

Raam

Didn't realise how far ahead he was until they did the overhead shot. He won by a mile!

Hermy

penfold83 wrote: »

Fair enough there's been plenty of idiots (Ricco, Schumacher etc.) who've justified this attitude.

And how many of these idiots are you willing to put up with before you say enough is enough?

TinyExplosions

paddy's hill wrote: »

A lighter rider with unique cardio vascular ability could be faster.
I'll believe he is clean until there is evidence to prove otherwise.

So you'd rather believe in a "unique cardio vascular ability" rather than a little helping hand?

+1 on Haussler, the ariel shot showed him go like sh*t off a shovel -bloody impressive... maybe he's... (no, even I'm not going to go there!)

RobFowl

TinyExplosions wrote: »

So you'd rather believe in a "unique cardio vascular ability" rather than a little helping hand?

+1 on Haussler, the ariel shot showed him go like sh*t off a shovel -bloody impressive... maybe he's... (no, even I'm not going to go there!)

Isn't it awful that it's always lurking in the back of your mind when you see an impresive performance these days

Very good sprint, though it looked more like he got a jump on the bunch and held on, tactically very good result.

Raam

I'd like to state that I called a Cervelo win to the missus from about 5km out. Never mind that I also mentioned Steegmans and Columbia in the same breath :rolleyes:

Funkyzeit

Anyone know where can I buy them turbo bikes that Haussler was using?:eek:

Chips Lovell

Martin didn't start today. He still has a fever.