Tirreno-Adriatico 2014, Stage 4 March 15 **contains unmasked spoilers**

dastardly00

Stage 4: Saturday 15th, Indicatore (Arezzo) - Cittareale (Selva Rotonda) 244 km

It's a big day for the GC boys. We'll finally get to see who is in good form or who isn't. It'll be interesting to see if Michael Kwiatkowski can hold on to the leader's jersey. And also if Dan will stretch his legs and attack on the climbs.

Live coverage on Eurosport1 at 1.30pm. Highlights on Sky Sports 4 at 11pm and Eurosport2 at 10.30pm.





Start:


Finish:




Last km:

MPFG

Kwiatkowski & Uran are a formidable team and have a advantage on the rest of the filed...so up to everyone else to attack

Imagine Quintana will attack early on the final climb as he does ..maybe Dan Martin will be able to go with him if his form is good ??

letape

9km to go and still a sizeable group together

letape

Kreuziger doing a great job off the front - all alone now with 3km to go

Dcully

Great stuff Contador holding off quintana at the end,Porte couldnt live with them.

letape

I think Saxo should have left Kreuziger out front instead of waiting for Contador. They could have got a 1, 2 on the stage and kept the time bonuses within the team.

pprendeville

Reading the live tracker on cyclingnews that certainly seemed like a exciting stage finish. Kreuziger is always a big gear masher. Was he mashing away again today? Good confidence booster for Contador. How did Roche do today in terms of domestiques duties?

MPFG

pprendeville wrote: »

Reading the live tracker on cyclingnews that certainly seemed like a exciting stage finish. Kreuziger is always a big gear masher. Was he mashing away again today? Good confidence booster for Contador. How did Roche do today in terms of domestiques duties?

Saw him carrying alot of bottles !!

Tinkoff/Saxo maybe a bit too wary on the climb
....would be 1st and 3rd now I think if they rode full gas
Tinkov/SAxo look in very good condition

letape

I just watched the last 30k or so and didn't see Nico. Presume he had done his work at that stage!

Kreuziger had it in the big ring all the way up the final climb - savage.

MPFG

letape wrote: »

I just watched the last 30k or so and didn't see Nico. Presume he had done his work at that stage!

Kreuziger had it in the big ring all the way up the final climb - savage.

He was in top group till about 2km I think but was doing alot of work earlier

Doc07

pprendeville wrote: »

Reading the live tracker on cyclingnews that certainly seemed like a exciting stage finish. Kreuziger is always a big gear masher. Was he mashing away again today? Good confidence booster for Contador. How did Roche do today in terms of domestiques duties?

Yes he churned the big ring then practically did track stands waiting for Contador.

Lumen

Darkglasses

Sky have mis-spelled Kwiatkowski's name at least 4 times tonight, and listed Chris Horner as South Korean

pelevin

Fail to see whatever the logic was in the sabotaging of Kreuziger out front - it's not as if he helped Contador any, & given Kreuziger is also decent in the overall it's not as if the others could afford to let him go so Contador could have just sat on whoever was doing the chasing. The kind of thing that makes race radio look a bad joke imo with riders as puppets of the men in the cars.

pprendeville

I rekon tis all about getting Contador winning and getting his confidence up. Wins certainly help that. He's the leader of the team and anything which may make him look like he's playing second fiddle (even if the win for Kreuziger were to play into Tinkof-Saxo's hands) wouldn't help. He had plenty of close calls last year with high finishes but only the one winI believe in Argentina so this will do his confidence no end of good I'd say.

What happened Cadel?

pelevin

pprendeville wrote: »

I rekon tis all about getting Contador winning and getting his confidence up. Wins certainly help that. He's the leader of the team and anything which may make him look like he's playing second fiddle (even if the win for Kreuziger were to play into Tinkof-Saxo's hands) wouldn't help. He had plenty of close calls last year with high finishes but only the one winI believe in Argentina so this will do his confidence no end of good I'd say.

QUOTE]

Good chance you're right but it's a double-edged sword. For instance if you could put the emotions on a weighing-scale, I imagine if I could put myself in Contador's & Kreuziger's places, the degree of bad feeling it would engender in K, even if deeply buried in his psyche, would go much deeper than the positive feelings in Contador.
And even if it was psychologically based, I don't think that's good management. Take the race on its merits, as Giles might say.

MPFG

In Tinkoff Saxo everything is about Contador ...he is the star and he in fairness carries the can ..Last year at the Tour Kreuziger could possibly have had a podium finish but he buried himself for Contador on team/Contador's orders....a doomed win or nothing attitude was adopted which blew Kreuziger's chances

By all accounts Kreuziger is an exceptionally nice fella and very loyal....see Insiders where he is worried about riding where he wants as may need to ride for Contador (in smaller races)

I guess if he wants to ride for GC on races he chooses he will have to leave TS in the future

Brian?

Kreuziger is paid to help Contador win races, it's as simple as that really. If he wants personal glory he's on the wrong team.

Whatever happened you can't really argue with Tinkoff/Saxo's tactics, their leader one the stage. There's no way of knowing if Kreuziger could have held off Porte and Quintana anyway.

MPFG

Well Kreuziger finished very strongly in 4th place ahead of Porte and looked like he had more in the tank

but is is all supposition which a forum is all about afterall

drogdub

MPFG wrote: »

Well Kreuziger finished very strongly in 4th place ahead of Porte and looked like he had more in the tank

but is is all supposition which a forum is all about afterall

Kreuziger I'd say will be will be happy enough if he carries that form into Ardennes week

pelevin

I'd say you can argue with Saxo's tactics. They had a man at a very reasonable distance out in front. Being called back didn't seem to do anything in terms of helping Contador & if as it looked Contador had the legs on the rest, he was going to gain time on them anyway.
Outside all the ifs and buts though, on a kind of gut level I find it very off-putting riders as radio controlled puppets, though of course that's the way it is but it doesn't mean we all have to like it.

letape

Brian? wrote: »

Kreuziger is paid to help Contador win races, it's as simple as that really. If he wants personal glory he's on the wrong team.

Whatever happened you can't really argue with Tinkoff/Saxo's tactics, their leader one the stage. There's no way of knowing if Kreuziger could have held off Porte and Quintana anyway.

The only way Kreuziger helped Bertie win yesterday by coming back - was by not taking the 10 seconds on the line / not winning himself. By leaving him out front the team would have had two cards to play and forced the others to chase Kreuziger down.

Brian?

letape wrote: »

The only way Kreuziger helped Bertie win yesterday by coming back - was by not taking the 10 seconds on the line / not winning himself. By leaving him out front the team would have had two cards to play and forced the others to chase Kreuziger down.

Kreuzigers job is I help Contador win. Job done.

Also dropping back meant he had a little energy left in the tank if anyone else had attacked.

It's fairly standard tactics, I don't understand the confusion here to be honest.

MPFG

I don't think there is confusion ...just disagreement which is allowed