Tirreno-Adriatico 2014, Stage 2 March 13 **contains unmasked spoilers**

dastardly00

Stage 2: Thursday 13th, San Vincenzo - Cascina 166km

Stage 2 follows the traditional style for "The Race of the Two Seas", with some bumps in the first half of the stage, and then a flat finish. There are three categorised climbs within the first 100 km of the stage, so expect the breakaway to build up a nice lead. The peloton reach the finishing town of Cascina after 114km, and they will then ride a 20.6km long circuit twice.

With so many of the world's top sprinters taking part, there is no way that this won't end in a big bunch sprint. Take your pick from: Mark Cavendish (2014: Volta ao Algarve x 1 stage win); Andre Greipel (2014: Tour Down Under x 2; Tour of Qatar x 1; Tour of Oman x 3); Marcel Kittel (2014: Dubai Tour x 3), Peter Sagan (2014: Tour of Oman x1), Sacha Modolo (2014: Tour de San Luis x 1; Volta ao Algarve x 1), Arnaud Démare (2014: Tour of Qatar x 1) and .... Sam Bennett (2014: Clasica de Almeria winner)

Live coverage on Eurosport1 at 1.30pm. Highlights on Sky Sports 4 at 10pm and Eurosport2 at 10.30pm.

Anyone like maps? :pac:




Start:


Finish:


Last km:

pelevin

I see Ladbrokes have stage odds of:

Marcel Kittel 5/4
Mark Cavendish 7/2
Andre Greipel 4/1

That's a big change, definitively favouring Kittel now over Cavendish. Wrestling with whether to take a punt on the Isle of Man man, & if so with what financial degree of braveness.

To add, Sam Bennett's 100/1!

MPFG

C'mooooooooooooooooooooooooon Sam - give it a lash

elnino23

Dowsett Has this!!!???!!!!!

happytramp

Couple of NetApp guys caught up in the crash there. They should get back on.

elnino23

My money is on Kittel, Don't think Cav is at his best yet this year and the gorilla just lost half his train

elnino23

OOOOHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

mcgratheoin

elnino23 wrote: »

OOOOHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Well that's helpful for those of us trying to follow it on here!!

happytramp

Pelucchi wins. Crazy finish. Kittel crash, Cav nowhere to be seen, Griepel out gunned and Sam Bennett 4th in his first WT race. Nice one.

MPFG

Sam could have finished higher but was boxed in ....but beat Cav & Sagan.....only a matter of time I think

elnino23

mcgratheoin wrote: »

Well that's helpful for those of us trying to follow it on here!!

Ha ha ha sorry I didn't want to be a spoiler! That was for the Kittel crash

happytramp

MPFG wrote: »

Sam could have finished higher but was boxed in ....but beat Cav & Sagan.....only a matter of time I think

Something with some more climbing in the finale and he'll be very tough to beat.

MPFG

happytramp wrote: »

Something with some more climbing in the finale and he'll be very tough to beat.

Tomorrows stage I believe has a slight uphill finish

elnino23

OPQ Are supposed to have an amazing train yet they keep leaving Cav all alone? I didn't see Renshaw anywhere and pettachi bailed really early too, Kwiatkowski was left to lead out Cav? What are they up too?

happytramp

MPFG wrote: »

Tomorrows stage I believe has a slight uphill finish

He should be in the mix. Usually I'd say Sagan but he's been fairly poor (by his usual ridiculously high standard) so far. Hard to know what Gilbert's form is like but it looks like a good one for him if he's in decent shape.

MPFG

Was there a set to between Sam and Sacha Modelo (sic ?) after the finish....bit of argy bargy towards the end ??

dastardly00

Chapeau Sam! I'm looking forward to seeing the highlights tonight!!

mistermatthew

What site offers betting on these races?

elnino23

MPFG wrote: »

Was there a set to between Sam and Sacha Modelo (sic ?) after the finish....bit of argy bargy towards the end ??

A guy stood after the finished walked out in front of sam and he nearly smashed into him, some pretty slick bike handling was all that saved him. didn't see argy bargy other than that

ashleey

Is this good for your bike?

#KITTELENFURECIDO #tirreno https://vine.co/v/MbvuWAevgAi

MPFG

mistermatthew wrote: »

What site offers betting on these races?

cyclingbetting.co.uk

Diggabot

MPFG wrote: »

Was there a set to between Sam and Sacha Modelo (sic ?) after the finish....bit of argy bargy towards the end ??

It looked like Modolo leaned into him in the final sprint.

Darkglasses

Final kilometres

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBKDMz6qM8U

pelevin

mistermatthew wrote: »

What site offers betting on these races?

Ladbrokes do anyway though the window of the betting being open can be pretty narrow, closing at 11 am sharp for instance & maybe re-opening for a while later. Thankfully I resisted the temptation to put anything on anyone today but Bennett showed the 100/1 odds on him today were very generous, though I presume they'll quickly start coming down for him in such stages.

Henlars67

Several bookies do betting on all televised races. The odds may not appear until late the night before a race or sometimes not until the morning of a race.

You will be unable to bet after the scheduled start time of a race up until the start of the live TV coverage after which some bookies will offer betting-in-running.

Darkglasses

Sam Bennett's view of the stage today - http://www.stickybottle.com/latest-news/i-was-coming-with-speed-but-lampre-intentionally-put-me-in-the-barriers-i-wasnt-happy/

dermabrasion

I was wondering what happened Bennett, at the end as I thought he was moving well coming to the end, but I see that the Lampre rider pushed him into the barriers. I hope Bennett got in his face and let him know not to mess with him, as you can be pretty sure that the comms are not going to sanction an Italian in this race.

sy

Definitely lost a podium place. (image from Stickybottle)

Darkglasses

Hope he learns how to defend his position in the sprint a little better. Cav had it down to a tee for a long time.