Tour de Romandie 2014...Spoiler Tags required

MPFG

Tour de Romandie 2014

After weeks of dull roads and lanscape its nice to be able to feast one eyes on the beautiful scenery of Switzerland for this Tour of Romandie from Tuesday 29th Aril to Sunday 4th May 2014





Stages
Prologue: Tuesday 29th of April: Ascona - Ascona (5.57 km)
Stage 1: Wednesday 30th of April: Ascona - Sion (203.6 km)
Stage 2: Thursday 1st of May: Sion - Montreux (166.5 km)
Stage 3: Friday 2nd of May: Le Bouveret - Aigle (180.2 km)
Stage 4: Saturday 3rd of May: Fribourg - Fribourg (174 km)
Stage 5: Sunday 4th of May: Neuchâtel - Neuchâtel (18.5 km)


This is the race , won in the last three years by the rider who went on to win the Tour de France...It has no less than two time trials so favours riders who are good against the clock and while it has some tough mountain stages all end with down hill KMs to the finish, thus probably allowing non pure climbers to regain ground before the finish line

Chris Froome is riding it again this year and if in form must be favourite
Along side him is his able lieutenant Richie Porte who (if LBL is any indication) is still searching form ..

Michal Kwiatkowski , the Polish wonder kid must also be a favourite given his ability to time trial and climb ( and do about everything it seems)

Tejay van Garderen, Andrew Talansky, Vincenzo Nibali, Rui Costa, Simon Spilak, Jean-Christophe Peraud & Thibaut Pinot are all here looking to improve form on the run up to the Tour and are all very good against the clock (with maybe the exception of Pinot) so this could be won by any one of them dependent on form

Nicolas Roche, Rafal Majka, Rigoberto Uran & Ivan Basso are using this race as very last minute preparation for Giro d'Italia and it will be interesting to see how they go ( Nico is Tinkoff Saxo's team leader for this race and is reporting good form in training but has not had a lot of racing in recent weeks)


Full starting list with bib numbers here : http://www.procyclingstats.com/race/Tour_de_Romandie_2014-Startlist

Not on Eurosport as far as I can see ......but http://www.cyclingfans.com/tour-de-romandie/ is a good place to go for information/Updates/Videos, etc

dastardly00

Great preview MPFG.

I'm really surprised Nico is in this given it's so close to the Giro. Essentially it'll be 4 weeks of racing within a 5 week period. I thought he would've been better served to have entered Trentino like Cadel. Only time will tell I suppose.

Oh and there are highlights on Sky Sports each night.

MPFG

I am surprised too that most of Tinkoff Saxo team for the Giro are riding this but then again Basso and Uran are also here so its hard to know why

Only one thing I can guess is Nico needs alot of hard racign to get to form so is hoping to hit top form for week 3 of Giro

I can only hope they know what they are doing :eek:

tomdempsey200

kwiatkowski wins

-

MPFG

No the greatest TT for Nico but hasn't been riding, there was a wind change and alot of top TTers didn't do too well....Expect he will do well on Sunday though and improve over the week

Nico's diary in the Indo tomorrow for behind the scenes info

Darkglasses

Too short to reveal anything really. Only 20 seconds between 1st place and 50th. Hope Tejay's fall wasn't too bad.

MPFG

Diary today in Independent

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling/race-return-tough-but-finding-form-ahead-of-giro-my-ultimate-goal-30230128.html


Not a bit worrying to be so tired after altitude training

dastardly00

The organisers announced last night that today's stage will be shortened to 88km due to the 1st Cat. climb the Simplon Pass being covered in snow.

The revised stage will start in Brigerbad at 3:15pm local time and end as scheduled in Sion at 5:00pm.

The only difficulty in this stage is now is the 2nd Cat. climb which summits around 17km before the finish.

godtabh

MPFG wrote: »

Diary today in Independent

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling/race-return-tough-but-finding-form-ahead-of-giro-my-ultimate-goal-30230128.html


Not a bit worrying to be so tired after altitude training

Is that a question or statement?

MPFG

godtabh wrote: »

Is that a question or statement?

A question I suppose

Kwia still holding the lead ...Chris Froome lost his whole team on the climb and was isolated in such a short stage. ???...Thought Andrew Talansky looked good and Nico looked good to me on climb and descent ...mind you 24 secs off the leader.

TheBlaaMan

Stage 2 Final 10k

TheBlaaMan

This is a great pic of a very happy looking Polish fella....

godtabh

Link

Roche talking about silly mistakes again. If he sorts them out he could do ok. He seem like he is about to hit form

MPFG

Here is a Nico interview bout form,etc...Yes he is always talking about mistakes .....But I do think he has the physical ability to be right up there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rV_EGdFbD4&list=UUXgba6tOLghtJuXaD8LBHWg

MPFG

And the final of today's stage at Romandie

Albasini wins his second stage.....Nico looking to go off the front again with 10km to go .an indication of good form I'd say

godtabh

Nico's diary for the day

Link

dastardly00

Today is the Queen stage. There's a lot of climbing, and the weather isn't great. Michal Kwiatkowski was in bother from the first climb, and is GC chances are completely gone out the window. There are 30km left as I type with one climb to go. There is a small-ish enough peloton containing Froome, Nibbles, Nico, Rui Costa, Simon Spilak, Talanksy, Uran and about 15 others.

dastardly00

Froome has just turned on the afterburners with over 26km to go :eek:

Inquitus

Nibali in a world of hurt

dastardly00

Nico got shelled out the back of the leader's group when Froome attacked. Worryingly for Nico, is not that he was dropped, but that Rafal Majka was allowed to stay in the leader's group and he didn't have to go back and help Nico (I can see that happening in the Giro too).

godtabh

dastardly00 wrote: »

Nico got shelled out the back of the leader's group when Froome attacked. Worryingly for Nico, is not that he was dropped, but that Rafal Majka was allowed to stay in the leader's group and he didn't have to go back and help Nico (I can see that happening in the Giro too).

So much for being a protected rider

Pudsy33

Spilak beats Froome on the line. Both finish on the same time, about 40secs odd ahead of Nibali et al

MPFG

Rafa is co leader ...and reading the Tinkoff Saxo reports I'd say the Italian DS favours Majka.......Nico might have gotten in trouble with weather again which doesn't bode well for Giro but I am inclined to agree with Magnus Backstead when he said that where you need to be top is last 10 days of Giro and if top now might be on decline by then ...Not a good day in the office for Roche

sy

Last 6 kms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8zSyxOSbBA

gordongekko

Any update today?

MPFG

Albasini won the stage again ...He was in a breakaway that went to the end with Vockleur & Baklands ...Everyone else ended in the punch at same time ....Kwia did not start and there were a few crashes , noting major I think..... Richie Porte and a few Sky boys were ages behind everyone else .....

MPFG

Just rounding off this thread ....Chris Foome won todays TT in fantastic form....beating Tony Martin ( who seems to be losing TTs on a regular basis these days? )- Froome is looking very good for Tour. Nibali on the other hand looks way off his best ...Nico Roche had a very poor TT and there was some set to with the Tinkoff Saxo mechanic before the stage who seemingly set his bike up incorrectly ??? Form is certainly not there yet for Giro, which in itself is not too worrying as there is a week of stages that are mostly flat to ride into form ...but hope he can not get too worked up and lose his confidence which is the real danger IMO

Dcully

Are sky planning any more events this year?
I dont have sky sub anymore so depend on eurosport for my fix.

MPFG

Dcully wrote: »

Are sky planning any more events this year?
I dont have sky sub anymore so depend on eurosport for my fix.

If you Pm me I can discuss alternatives

Glass Prison 1214

After seeing Froome so strong in both the mountains and against the clock its clear to see he is as strong as last year. Contador has been flying as well so I think we are gonna have a much closer tour than the last couple of years. Good to see. Nibali has a lot of work to do and Valverde looks favourite for a podium place right now IMO.

gordongekko

Nicos diary http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/cycling/cycling-diary-tour-de-romandie-stage-4-fribourg-30243835.html

tomdempsey200

froome will win it easy wont he

been as he's been sick and he'll whup contador on the TTs

godtabh

tomdempsey200 wrote: »

froome will win it easy wont he

been as he's been sick and he'll whup contador on the TTs

I bet you a tenner he wins it.