Deignan in the Giro

Dura Ace

Very good start for Philip Deignan in the Giro (just visible in the linked photo). Two top 20's so far, and keeping out of trouble towards the front of the bunch, whilst a lot of others have lost time.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2009/giro09/?id=/photos/2009/giro09/giro093/bettiniphoto_0038155_1_full

Some interesting stages coming up over the next few days, whereby we should have a better idea on the GC contenders.

jimbo32123

isnt it great how well covered the irish athletes are in the world stage NOT ONE MENTION on any RTE sourse of the intrepid Donegal Man. Or maybe there in lyes the problem the fact he isnt from DUblin!!

Whats his chances, with the mountains coming up on Day 4 maybe the little letterkenny man can cause an upset??

niceonetom

Article here about him on cyclingulster.com.

Today's the first day with a bit of climbing in it.



Shepherding Sastre through a few grand tours is probably the best experience a young climber could get, it should really stand to him in the future.

decrrrrrr

Europsort are gas too... they only have eyes for the British riders.

Kelly does not give him a mention at all. When Harmon saw him at the back of the TTT, he reckoned he was struggling..!!!!

Dura Ace

To be fair, I don't think it matters whether you're from Dublin or beyond, Irish cycling gets very little coverage.
Having looked at the last 20 stories on the cycling page on www.rte.ie, 9 out of the 20 stories are about Armstrong, so it might be fairer to say that unless you're from Austin, Texas, the press here doesn't care.

biker_joe

Hopefully Today we will see a bit more of Philip !!! and then they will have to talk about him ! I defo think he has a stage win in him, lets hope his team give the opportunity on one of these early mountain stages !!!

While today Harmon can comment on Cav swinging off the back today !!

Biker Joe.

jimbo32123

I cycled with him when doing the SLigo Letterkenny chairty cycle when he was younger, great guy and always time for the local stuff on off season!!

i think you may be right on the stage win, Sastre seems to want him to lead him up the slopes for the Giro ui suppose a test to see who his main guy will be come Tour de France time!! be great to see!!

lukester

Great to see him doing well, agree with tom, he's building invaluable experience.

I think the lack of coverage is just cycling apathy in the Irish media in general. I'm not aware of a major media source here that gives any half-decent coverage of cycling.

I'm really glad I just payed E160 to renew my TV license.

Chips Lovell

As someone who'd be happy to read about cycling all day and would do anything to get a cycling story into the newspaper, I'll say that newspapers don't have some sort of public service obligation to the sport. Cycling is still very much a minority sport and ordinary punters (99% of newspaper readers) are only interested in reading about it if Irish riders are winning. If Deignan or either of the two other Irish guys make a breakthrough, then you can start to expect the column inches to grow.

decrrrrrr wrote: »

Europsort are gas too... they only have eyes for the British riders.

The fact that it's called British Eurosport should provide a clue.

Funkyzeit

decrrrrrr wrote: »

Europsort are gas too... they only have eyes for the British riders.

Kelly does not give him a mention at all. When Harmon saw him at the back of the TTT, he reckoned he was struggling..!!!!

They've mentioned him a few times to be fair - Harmon was only yesterday talking about how much potential he had but was unlucky with injuries.
Also during the L-B-L he got several mentions about how he loked in good shape (was pullling the peleton at one stage) I think IMO British Eurosport give plenty of coverage/support to the Irish lads

In relation to the press it's not just here that has the problem - Cav barely getting a mention in a load of the Uk papers/tv.

Should be a great stage today..can't wait.

Raam

Funkyzeit wrote: »

Should be a great stage today..can't wait.

Aye, my recorder better record properly this time

lukester

Raam wrote: »

Aye, my recorder better record properly this time

UPC, oh how they toy with us.

Raam

lukester wrote: »

UPC, oh how they toy with us.

It was my fault... both times
I had set the wrong date for stage 2 and then I forgot to turn on the NTL box for yesterdays stage. Thankfully for stage 2 I could rewind the live TV so I got the last 60km of the race. God bless that function.

lukester

Raam wrote: »

I forgot to turn on the NTL box for yesterdays stage. Thankfully for stage 2 I could rewind the live TV so I got the last 60km of the race. God bless that function.

Fair enough. I never turn my box off, it's a superstition I have, although last night I had to pull the plug on it as it just froze, no picture, no functions, nada.

My gripes are a cominbation of UPC and Eurosport. The box appears to record sometimes, but when you try to play the file, it has a length of 0%. Such fun

Eurosport have chronic scheduling problems- the guide to what's on is about as accurate as a weather forecast, usually about right, often completely wrong.

Raam

lukester wrote: »

Fair enough. I never turn my box off, it's a superstition I have, although last night I had to pull the plug on it as it just froze, no picture, no functions, nada.

My gripes are a cominbation of UPC and Eurosport. The box appears to record sometimes, but when you try to play the file, it has a length of 0%. Such fun

Eurosport have chronic scheduling problems- the guide to what's on is about as accurate as a weather forecast, usually about right, often completely wrong.

We've gone way off topic, but anyway...
ES are dealing with live sports a lot of the time so they are subject to overruns. That said, I wish they would put up more acknowledgements that something is actually overrunning.

lukester

Raam wrote: »

We've gone way off topic, but anyway...

It is the boards way, no? :pac:

Raam wrote: »

ES are dealing with live sports a lot of the time so they are subject to overruns.

True enough. I've now resorted to taping an extra half hour for anything I don't want to miss on ES.


<Thread re-railed>

Raam

lukester wrote: »

I've now resorted to taping an extra half hour for anything I don't want to miss on ES.

<Thread de-railed again>

me too. A half hour either side. Cos sometimes they start early.

lukester

Raam wrote: »

me too. A half hour either side. Cos sometimes they start early.

<Thread crashes into a field>

Early? No f-ing way! Now I am utterly paranoid.

I will have to explain to she who covets the remote why I am recording ES 24/7.

Junior

Also just to note, that article on Cycling Ulster site actually appeared in The Star on Saturday, Gerard Cromwell has a column in it every week.

Raam

lukester wrote: »

<Thread crashes into a field>

Early? No f-ing way! Now I am utterly paranoid.

I will have to explain to she who covets the remote why I am recording ES 24/7.

oh man, your gonna miss the best part of all the races! The bit where they roll along and DO NOTHING AT ALL FOR TWO HOURS!

stevie_b

what time is it on eurosport today?

my box switches off and on pretty regularly - usually when something exciting is about to happen :mad:

lukester

Raam wrote: »

oh man, your gonna miss the best part of all the races! The bit where they roll along and DO NOTHING AT ALL FOR TWO HOURS!

My favourite part, Mr Kelly's dulcet tones washing over me, as I slide into a reverie where I lead an impertinent break and steal a cheeky stage win.

Chips Lovell

I think my favourite part of Kelly's commentary is the pregnant silences.

biker_joe

el tonto wrote: »

I think my favourite part of Kelly's commentary is the pregnant silences.

so are these "pregnant silences" like 9 months long or something ? LOL !!

I'd say the silence are pretty much Kelly biting his tongue listening Harmon yapping on and on and on and on about Cav ... I am sure Kelly is happy that Alejet jumped him on the Sunday Stage .....

jollylee

Poor quality streaming of todays stage on right now:

http://www.justin.tv/streampie

(Italian commentry:o)

Running Bing

Who's the guy who does the commentating with Kelly? Was he a cyclist?


Tbh I like them and I think they work well together.

petethedrummer

David Harmon
http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=6095&status=True

petethedrummer

Today's Result.

Overall Standings.

DirkVoodoo

Running Bing wrote: »

Who's the guy who does the commentating with Kelly? Was he a cyclist?


Tbh I like them and I think they work well together.

+1, I also like the scottish chap who sometimes commentates with david too. David has an infectious enthusiasm for the sport, makes the races a lot more exciting, plus the friendship between himself and Sean is quite evident.

Beats Andy Gray on sky sports anyway.

Scary thought, could anyone imagine George Hamilton commentating on cycling?

"And here is number 22, followed by 145. Both seem to be pedalling a bike, I think it's a racer".

petethedrummer

"They look somehow like cattle in a mad way - but cattle on bikes." - Alan Partridge.

DirkVoodoo

Brilliant Pete, hilarious video!

zzzzzzzz

petethedrummer wrote: »

Today's Result.

Overall Standings.

Jaysus - deignan lost over 10 mins. Didn't see that in the coverage today... Did anyone hear/see what happened him?

bunnygreen

Jaysus just fork out the €40 on a years subscriptionfor the player on Eurosport and watch all the Tours ,you all spend enough on crap for your bikes.

Junior

aidan.offbeat wrote: »

Jaysus - deignan lost over 10 mins. Didn't see that in the coverage today... Did anyone hear/see what happened him?

Deignan crashed on the Croce D'Aune climb and broke his derailleur at the bottom.

warrfla

No need to fork out the forty euros at all www.steephill.tv always has a source for video for all the classics, minor tours and grand tours,
The grand tours are normally rebroadcast eurosport coverage so you can even enjoy king kellys commentary while watching

Zipp101

aidan.offbeat wrote: »

Jaysus - deignan lost over 10 mins.

This means we'll probably see him in a breakaway in the coming days hopefully.

Chips Lovell

From the Cervelo Test Team site:

"There were some people fighting for the front, for the first climb and the guy in front of me," said Philip Deignan, "the Acqua & Sapone guy, he really moved quickly up the climb. He clipped my front wheel and I went down, there was nothing I could do. I had to stop at the beginning of the climb, my derailleur was broken and then I made a big effort to get back and I just had too much pain. Hopefully I can recover for tomorrow."

jimbo32123

Deignan to go up the road tody around the 10-15k mark!!

come on Philip, get a stage win after the crash yesterday!!

Chips Lovell

He said he was sore from yesterday's crash, so I wouldn't be surprised if he took it handy today.

jimbo32123

actually just read that aye!! main bunch finish mite be wose today, portect sastre just!!

who do you think for GC, ithink rodgers is looking lean and in form althought Di luca and Basso are on home turf and dont like to get beat in the grio!!

Chips Lovell

At the moment it looks like Basso vx Leipheimer. I don't think Leipheimer is tough enough to win a grand tour against the best, but Basso hasn't ridden a three week tour since 2006 so we have to see if he's still go it.

Rogers has had injury problems for a few years and is a bit of an unknown quantity at the moment. Other teams are talking his chances up but I think there might be a malicious motivation there. There's a press conference scheduled today about the investigation into the Freiburg clinic and I'm wondering if they aren't gambling that he'll be mixed up with it. I'd say there's a few people in the peloton who'd take a bit of pleasure seeing a top rider on a clean team like Columbia take a fall.

jimbo32123

I read abit about that 2 weeks ago and one man who could be implimented in Armstrong, they think he has strong like to the assistant in that clinic!!

altought for that matter Armstrong is ALWAYS mention in the build up to doping releases but never is implicated.

I think Di Luca will win it, good young couragious rider with a point to porve after being told in pre season he would be fit to close simones shoes!!!

Chips Lovell

I don't think Armstrong had anything to do with Freiburg, they just seemed to work with T-Mobile. Who on T-Mobile is the big question.

Can't see Di Luca doing it again this year (and at 33 he's hardly a young rider). Stronger riders can take him to the cleaners on the bigger climbs. The year he won it he didn't have as much competition. Top ten again like last year I'd say.

Junior

el tonto wrote: »

He said he was sore from yesterday's crash, so I wouldn't be surprised if he took it handy today.

I'd presume today's plan would be to get Sastre to the last climb intact. I'd see Philip losing more time today to be fair .. although it's a short enough stage.

Chips Lovell

Junior wrote: »

I'd presume today's plan would be to get Sastre to the last climb intact. I'd see Philip losing more time today to be fair .. although it's a short enough stage.

I'd agree. Helping Sastre is his job and I think getting into a break would be secondary to that.

jimbo32123

Di Luca has another 4-5 years left, i think he will push this on. He has a point to prove!! Basso is another unknown quanitity although he is hitting his peak age for the grand tours at 31, only for the ban i feel he would of wonn 2007 and possible 2008.

Philip will protect Sastre, from the interviews on Cervelo i heard Sastre seems to like working with Philip on the climbs. Will be a great learning curve for him.

Junior

el tonto wrote: »

I'd agree. Helping Sastre is his job and I think getting into a break would be secondary to that.

I think in a week or so when the GC has settled down you'll see the 'lesser' riders getting their break, but on the 2nd day of the mountains I don't think they will be letting anyone slip away.

petethedrummer

Today's Result

Overall Standings

Will probably take a little time for those links to update.

Interesting stage. All the big boys scoping each other out. Good ride by Bradley Wiggins too.

barrabus

people should look at el tonto's giro diary http://rideitlikeyoustoleit.wordpress.com/

dave2pvd

el tonto wrote: »

At the moment it looks like Basso vx Leipheimer. I don't think Leipheimer is tough enough to win a grand tour against the best

Of the 2, I'd be putting money on Leipheimer. He's had a great season so far. Plus, his gran tour placing over the previous 2 seasons (3rd in TdF, 2nd in Vuelta) have to count for something. Add to that all the wins/high placings in lesser tours like the Dauphine, TdG, ToC, etc.

If it wasn't for his age, I'd say he's now favourite. Hell, he may well be favourite - who is going to beat him in the TTs? Especially stage 12, a 60K ITT.

DirkVoodoo

barrabus wrote: »

people should look at el tonto's giro diary http://rideitlikeyoustoleit.wordpress.com/

+1: the bible for figuring out who is who and exactly what the heck is going on. The guy should definitely consider a career in journalism once he retires from being a professional fred