Highlights of 2009 Pro Season

sy

Well I have to say I really enjoyed the pro scene this year and hear are some of my mutterings in no particular order. Feel free to post your thoughts. Looking forward to hearing tonto and juniors well informed views!

Best Race: The last lap in the Worlds had everything and a very close second was the tussle between Boonen, Hushovd, Pozzato and Flecha in Paris Roubaix. Awesome stuff

Best Finish: Definitely Cavs sprint at the end of Milan San Remo. Never thought he would cover the distance.

Highlight: Phil Duignan winning stage 18 in the Vuelta and finishing 9th overall and not forgetting Roche in the Tour and of course Dan Martin

Best Rider: Quite a few come to mind, Cancellara’s ride in the Worlds TT and the road race was staggering. I never thought Big Mig could be bettered. Cavendish was head and shoulders above everyone in the sprints. Andy Schleck in Liege and Contador in his devastating attack at Verbier and not forgetting Philip Gilbert’s end of season form. Although not a big fan of Lance I have to admire what the man did and finishing third at the Tour was very impressive. So pick one of them ( also Pozzato and Haussler in the classics!)

Lows: The much hyped stage on the Ventoux, Di Luca acting the maggot again! Along with Rebellin Colom Pfannberger, Nozal Bosisio Astarloza etc etc Should be lifetime bans in my opinion.
The death of Frank Vandenbroucke one of the most talented but tormented riders in the last 10 years RIP

Predictions: Gilbert, Cancellara, Haussler, Boonen, Pozzato, Boasson Hagen and Cav to win Spring Classics.

Lance will lose about another 3 or 4 kg and be stronger than 2009.

Contador will win his 3rd Tour

Tony Martin comes of age

Another few “High Profile” riders will get caught, lets hope they are not swiss.

Irish cyclists win more stages in a Grand Tour

Roll on 2010 and Happy New Year to all of you

jwshooter

russell dowlings win in the tour of ireland .

Zipp101

A pretty mixed season all round,the usual highs,the unusual lows


Best Race: Gotta be the worlds..massive respect for Evans after that ride.Best stage race: Paris-Nice.

Best Finish: Tommy Voekler soloing to victory on stage 5 in tdf.Phillippe Gilbert out-doing Boonen and Bozic in Tours.Also Deignan beating Kreuziger. and Cav and Haussler..

Best Rider: Based on this year either Cav or Contador.

Biggest Disappointment:Gert Steegmans....also Yaroslav Popovych:He was the Eddy Merckx of Junior racing (35 victories in 2000 and 2001).A pity he couldn't establish himself fully as an elite rider.

Biggest Surprise:Bradley Wiggins!

Best Team:Columbia HTC

Most Disappointing Race:Tour of Ireland

Best Moment: Deignan winning a stage.

Worst moment:Valverde winning a Vuelta when he's supposed to be banned from riding. Farce or what?!



Lows: All the doping..all the "secret" doping (just take a look at Lance Armstrong's blood values)..all the deaths,especially the suicides..Too many controlled and boring races..Jens' crash..Dave Zabriskie's house getting knicked..the Rasmussen saga..Impey's crash..Cavendish dominating..Tour of Ireland drop-out rate etc.

Predictions:
Big things to come from:

Nicholas Roche
Philip Deignan
Bradley Wiggins
Jack Bonbridge
Edvald Boason Hagen
Tyler Farrar
Maxime Monfort
Heinrich Haussler
Tony Martin
Thomas Lovkvist
Jakob Fulgsang
Rui Costa
Rein Taaramäe
Peter Velits
Jurgen Van Den Broeck



Something major will happen to Lance..who knows what??

Contador wins the tour.
Wiggins the Giro.
Sastre or Pellizotti for Vuelta.

BIG NAME gets busted.

Sam Bennett joins Team ???


HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL!

Captain Havoc

For me it was watching Cancellera with my bottom jaw hung very low, also David McCanns effort is worthy of a special mention. Phillip Deigan winning a stage in the Vuelta (and his diary) and the watching Nicolas Roche perform brilliantly in the Tour de France was excellent (I only wish Dan Martin was there also). God :rolleyes: Lance v. Contador gave a bit of soap opera to the TdF. Oh, I also want to be a member of the Bradley Wiggins fan club.

Home:Ballyhoura

Captain Havoc wrote: »

For me it was watching Cancellera with my bottom jaw hung very low

+ 1 on that! Amazing stuff, that was one hell of a performance he put in in the World TT Champs. And a really good performance in the RR too, Cancellara is definitely one of my favourite riders.

Thor Hushovd's aggressive riding style in the mountains of the Tour to clean up any available points from Cav was impressive. How he managed to get 80+ kgs over some of those climbs simply amazed some people including me!

Biggest jawdrop was the massive crash in the Vuelta taking down nearly the whole peleton.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=586ro7-oy_I

Best moment, besides Deignans win/performance and Roches performance, was definitely Cadel Evans' attack in the worlds.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z__ZGCD9M9Y

Biggest surprise was Menchov's TT crash in the Giro and the mechanics excellent reactions (probably could be classified as jawdrop moment too but I already have one of those! )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaCpwR8G0hw

Best performance (besides two men mentioned in opening paragraph) was Contador's Tour de France stage 18 TT win, such a scrawny looking climber (looks like me!) to be able to power his was to a win against the likes of the might Fabian and other TT specialists (althought Cancellara did claim he got way too much help from the motorbikes which drafted hime to victory)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFk0jFTkyFM

Probably left out some major ones but these few just popped into my head when I stumbled across this thread!

papac

Lots of the above-But I would have to add Thor Hushovds solo break stage 17 tdf to seal the green jersey after Cavendish said it was tainted. That put manners on Cav.:)

Bet for 2010. Sastre e/w for Giro.Dark horse I know- but I reckon he is gonna go balls out to win it before he retires

Edit. Just saw that Thors climbing exhibition already mentioned.

IM0

Giro: was a great race for me (then again Ive only watched this once!) but will be coming back.

Tour: a great tour for many reasons inc the lance comeback anticipation

Cadel's World championship surprise victory - where did that come from!

low: being robbed of the true comeback pace of the texan after the crash in the early season, would have been nice to get a trouble free build up to the tour for him, so no excuses could be debated either way.