July 2, Stage 2: Visé - Tournai 207.5k warning, contains unmasked spoiler information

ednwireland

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tour-de-france/stage-2

Visé – Tournai

Distance: 207.5km
Highest point: 190m
Category: Flat

dougal01

it could be a good day for sprinters like cav you never now!!!!!!!!!!!

ednwireland

dougal01 wrote: »

it could be a good day for sprinters like cav you never now!!!!!!!!!!!

look for cav tryin to jump onto the back other teams leadout trains !

Darkglasses

ednwireland wrote: »

look for cav tryin to jump onto the back other teams leadout trains !

Maybe a newbie question, but would Cav be better off at a weaker team than Sky (Lotto, Vacansoleil, Rabo, etc.) in the coming years, if Sky are going to be focusing on Wiggins instead of him?

mcgratheoin

Darkglasses wrote: »

Maybe a newbie question, but would Cav be better off at a weaker team than Sky (Lotto, Vacansoleil, Rabo, etc.) in the coming years, if Sky are going to be focusing on Wiggins instead of him?

It depends on how much value he puts on having tour de France stage wins on his palmares. It's only one race and he'll get fully supported at most events he attends. At a "weaker team" he's not going to get the quality of lead out rider that he has now or had at HTC Columbia, even if he does have more numbers working for him.

elduggo

Darkglasses wrote: »

Maybe a newbie question, but would Cav be better off at a weaker team than Sky (Lotto, Vacansoleil, Rabo, etc.) in the coming years, if Sky are going to be focusing on Wiggins instead of him?

he'd be better off at Rabo for sure. Renshaw's there!

Decuc500

Sagan to win by a bike length. But hopefully somebody can give him a race today.

dastardly00

It is absolutely pan-flat today.



I reckon it's going to be a showdown between Cav and Sagan.
AFAIK they haven't really directly faced off against each other much this season. Both competed in the Tour of Oman, Sagan did very well but Cav wasn't fit at the time. Sagan also handled the Classics a lot better than Cav, finishing 4th and 5th in MSR and Tour of Flanders respectively.

But today should be a real duel between the two!!

AstraMonti

I wouldn't count out Greipel, he is very strong as well.

dastardly00

AstraMonti wrote: »

I wouldn't count out Greipel, he is very strong as well.

Oh I'm not, I'd just like to see a showdown between Cav and Sagan

BQQ

On a hilly finish like yesterday, it's Sagan all the way.

However, I don't think he will beat the best pure sprinters on a stage like today.
Greipel, Cav and Goss IMO.

Chips Lovell

If Cavendish doesn't win or come close today, then we'll know that the weight loss strategy isn't working. Dying to see the first match-up between him, Goss and Griepel.

Inquitus

BQQ wrote: »

On a hilly finish like yesterday, it's Sagan all the way.

However, I don't think he will beat the best pure sprinters on a stage like today.
Greipel, Cav and Goss IMO.

Aye Sagan has never beaten any out of Goss, Griepel, Kittel, Cav in a head to head flat sprint which has been contested by them.

Sagan vs Kittel sprint wins 1:7. Sagan's 1 Kittel didn't sprint.
Sagan vs Greipel 0:5
sagan vs Goss 0:3
sagan vs Cav 1:4 Sagan's 1 Cav didn't sprint.

Briando

I dont get why Cancerella is not a threat on a stage like this. Cant he hang with the riders till the sprint at the end? I though making a hugh sprint at the end would be right up his street.

Chips Lovell

Briando wrote: »

I dont get why Cancerella is not a threat on a stage like this. Cant he hang with the riders till the sprint at the end? I though making a hugh sprint at the end would be right up his street.

No, he's not a great sprinter at all.

Briando

Whats the difference between the talents needed to power through a short prologue like on Saturday and to burst out and sprint for the line like today?

Inquitus

Briando wrote: »

Whats the difference between the talents needed to power through a short prologue like on Saturday and to burst out and sprint for the line like today?

Diff between being able to output huge power for 200m odd and being able to output high power over 7000m odd.

Chips Lovell

Briando wrote: »

Whats the difference between the talents needed to power through a short prologue like on Saturday and to burst out and sprint for the line like today?

They're quite different. One requires a very short but enormously high output of power, a matter of seconds. The ability to accelerate is also vital. No point in being about to get up to that speed if it takes you an age to do so. A TT would require being able to sustain a certain power output for a much, much longer period.

The shorter the TT course, the more it would favour a sprinter both because of the length of effort and the ability to accelerate out of corners. However it doesn't really work the other way. A good time triallist won't by any means be a good sprinter.

mcgratheoin

Briando wrote: »

Whats the difference between the talents needed to power through a short prologue like on Saturday and to burst out and sprint for the line like today?

The difference between Usain Bolt and Mo Farah. The basic reason that the Usain Bolts of the cycling world can win on stages like today is that sitting in a group saves so much energy through sheltering from the wind that they can keep up with the guys who can ride all day at a high tempo.

Briando

So besides in TT's, what other kind of races is Cancerellea a treat?

I'm guessing he is too heavy for the mountains. These flat stages he is shafted because he cant get away from the peloton.

Inquitus

Briando wrote: »

So besides in TT's, what other kind of races is Cancerellea a treat?

I'm guessing he is too heavy for the mountains. These flat stages he is shafted because he cant get away from the peloton.

Tough day long classics where he can ride people off his wheel at the end.

dastardly00

Briando wrote: »

So besides in TT's, what other kind of races is Cancerellea a treat?

I'm guessing he is too heavy for the mountains. These flat stages he is shafted because he cant get away from the peloton.

He's excellent at the one day Classics. They are usually very long (200km+), a bit bumpy, but not mountainous.
His tactic his to turn on the afterburners with anything like 10-30km to go and try and get a gap between himself and the peloton. If other riders lose his wheel, then they generally don't catch him. That's how he won a lot of the Classics in '08-'11.
He's a marked man these days so everyone does their utmost to stay on his wheel. If there are riders with him when it comes down to a sprint finish, he is often beaten, hence his string of second and third places in Milan-San-Remo, Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders last year.

AG2R

just under 2k to go now

AG2R

Rolands has put in a huge effort now

AG2R

Cavendish gets it! he done that very well

buffalo

That was CLOSE! Eurosport call Cav, Greipel then Goss.

Half a wheel between the first two.

dastardly00

Cav can do it without the Sky train.

mahoo

love him or hate him, he's a class act. he got no help at all there but he always manages to find the right wheel

petethedrummer

dastardly00 wrote: »

Cav can do it without the Sky train.

Yeah he's shown that numerous times before but people seem to forget it.

mcgratheoin

who was the idiot on the front with about 2km to go - he went to ditch his bidon and threw it low off the barriers sending it back into the middle of the peloton.
great finish from Cav - he does look like he lacks a little bit of the top end pace he had over the last few years but to come from that far back at 1km to win was a great piece of riding.

ednwireland

oh man that was amazing, saw cav jumping in behind griepel an barging sagan about 300m out, just a class act how he does that at that speed

elduggo

It was interesting at the finish to see David Millar slow down pretty much to a crawl in the last 200m so he could watch a replay of the sprint on the big screen. Them are the kinds of things you don't really see on the telly. It wasn't cheering he was when he saw who won!

happytramp

Would love to see Sky put all their eggs in the Wiggans basket and blow it only for Cav to go and win the green jersey single handed.

corny

happytramp wrote: »

Would love to see Sky put all their eggs in the Wiggans basket and blow it only for Cav to go and win the green jersey single handed.

Thats exactly what will happen if Cav completes the tour imo but they are right to ride exclusively for Wiggins.

Raymzor

Grt win for Cav. After completing the Giro I cant see him finishing the tour. my guess is he will see 2 weeks at most.

RobFowl

I'd hate to see him pack the tour but fear he will for the feckin Olympics. Looks seriously skinny and in good shape. Would love to see him finish with 3-4 stages wins. If he does get to Paris he'll finally get a decent train as well.
Being there as simply a "bonus" confirms to me anyway that Sky is the wrong team for him. They always wanted to be a GC team and he will win so much more with a decent train.

Lumen

RobFowl wrote: »

I'd hate to see him pack the tour but fear he will for the feckin Olympics. Looks seriously skinny and in good shape

According to his trainer he's the same weight as he was in 2009. I suspect the reported 4kg loss is relative to his weight in the late afternoon of 25 December.

RobFowl

Lumen wrote: »

According to his trainer he's the same weight as he was in 2009. I suspect the reported 4kg loss is relative to his weight in the late afternoon of 25 December.

He still does look seriousy lean though.

manwithaplan

I managed to avoid hearing the result and just watched it. He was superb - I hope this shuts up the armchair experts who never sat on a bike and continually talk about the help he gets. As pete says, this is not the first time he has done this and people seem to conveniently forget. He is a good tactician as well as everything else.

That was pure class.

titan18

Even if Cav manages to finish, I think Sagan takes green. He won't beat the better sprinters in a straight finish like today, but if he gets good placings in them and in addition to the stages he'll win like yesterday where the other sprinters are nowhere, I cant see him not winning it

ednwireland

elduggo wrote: »

It was interesting at the finish to see David Millar slow down pretty much to a crawl in the last 200m so he could watch a replay of the sprint on the big screen. Them are the kinds of things you don't really see on the telly. It wasn't cheering he was when he saw who won!

probably trying to figure out where farrar was and what they are paying him for