No show from Roche and Deignan in Giro irish stages

coppinger

Anyone else disappointed with the lack of attacking riding from the Irish boys on the giro stages in ireland? I stood on the side of the road in clontarf at the 10km to go sign and watched the bunch roll by nice and handy - plenty of opportunity for the irish to have a dig. They will probably never again have the opportunity to race in ireland again - a once in a career chance to compete in front of family and friends - and nothing. Deignan said he's not on top form after his collarbone, Roche punctured with 8km to go, but still, not even a 30 second dig off the front for the tv - its the clontarf road, not the alpe de huez.
Memories of Kelly and Roche Snr turning themselves inside out during the nissan to get the win,only a one week race, but fought with ferocity and bravery. Where are they now?

Chips Lovell

I would have been disappointed if they had engaged in pointless attacks.

wirelessdude01

It is kinda an un-written rule that those kind of stages are left to the sprinters.

dastardly00

Lusk_Doyle

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

I would have been disappointed if they had engaged in pointless attacks.

Exactly. It would have been the "at least he tried" moral victory approach. Not interested!

lennymc

didnt FDJ have the irish lads marked? (I think I read that in the post by the guy who rode in the car). Im sure most teams would have had them, marked. its a lot more tactical than people realise. Even leaving the lone rider out front to discourage attacks in the last few km.

Lumen

All breakaways on sprint stages are technically pointless, but this is professional sport and putting on a show is important.

Nico was joint leader so there's no way he would have been allowed in a break. Would there have been any harm in putting Deignan up the road?

fixie fox

That's called 'showboating' - a lot of people would have been laughing at them if they had put on that show for you.

Trojan

A load of riders try and break on the final day of the Tour. The French always go for it on Bastille Day. I don't see how one of the lads going for it here would have been such a bad thing.

conor t

In fairness to them Roche was going for overall and deignan was trying to mind the legs until the last week when he'd actually have a chance of doing something meaningful

neris

you not think it was bad enough that we lost 1 barely 15 minutes into his giro then the other 2 acting the idiots just to keep a flag wavers happy

Lusk_Doyle

Lumen wrote: »

All breakaways on sprint stages are technically pointless

Not all are. A recent stage race (Turkey or California. I can't remember which.) left it too late to get the catch effort going properly and the break stayed away. Oh, it was California.

In the TDF last year the lad from Trek held the bunch off to take the stage and the yellow jersey. Nothing technically pointless about that!

SomeFool

If either rider was similar in style to Chavanel or Cancellara I'd be disappointed they didn't have a dig, but given how chaotic the first stages of any grand tour can be coupled with how Dan Martin went out it's hard to blame them for biding their time until a more suitable parcours presents itself.

el tel

They could have done a friggin wheelie or something :-P

Beasty

Definitely think they should have tried to break away on the "hill climb" out of Skerries (well it feels liek a hill-climb to me!!!) and given me a bit more exposure on the TV .....:pac:

Junior

el tel wrote: »

They could have done a friggin wheelie or something :-P

Surely they could have done a skid ?

dastardly00

el tel wrote: »

They could have done a friggin wheelie or something :-P

Junior wrote: »

Surely they could have done a skid ?

Or autographed some boobies at least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq8rX75IwVs

Lusk_Doyle

Beasty wrote: »

given me a bit more exposure on the TV .....:pac:

The sport needs to attract people to it, not scare them away!

fat bloke

On this, is anyone else sick of the thought of another 2 weeks listening to RTE sport hourly bulletins telling us that Roche is now in 75th place and Deignan in 3,749th place, showing absolutely no understanding of how the giro has gone and how it will go from here?

ThisRegard

Junior wrote: »

Surely they could have done a skid ?

Someone would have had to leave a piece of cardboard or plastic on the ground in order to get a really spectacular one. An election poster would have been ideal.

DaveR1

What about the No Show from all the main GC contenders at the weekend? Pozzovivo (Ag2R are better off with him than Roche) showed that it can be done easily and with Evans' lead being so large you'd think others would have attacked. The overall contest for the grand tours has just become boring, everyone leaving it as late as possible, last 1k of a stage and last 2 stages of the race.

nak

DaveR1 wrote: »

What about the No Show from all the main GC contenders at the weekend? Pozzovivo (Ag2R are better off with him than Roche) showed that it can be done easily and with Evans' lead being so large you'd think others would have attacked. The overall contest for the grand tours has just become boring, everyone leaving it as late as possible, last 1k of a stage and last 2 stages of the race.

Maybe that's the result of a cleaner peloton?

Raam

fat bloke wrote: »

On this, is anyone else sick of the thought of another 2 weeks listening to RTE sport hourly bulletins telling us that Roche is now in 75th place and Deignan in 3,749th place, showing absolutely no understanding of how the giro has gone and how it will go from here?

The RTE is the last place I expect to get a decent cycle race report from.

Spokes of Glory

DaveR1 wrote: »

The overall contest for the grand tours has just become boring, everyone leaving it as late as possible, last 1k of a stage and last 2 stages of the race.

The advent of power meters and race radios has made stage racing essentially a numbers game dictated by sports scientists and the team DS. Riders won't (aren't allowed ?) attack until they know they can maintain X number of watts for Y minutes. Watching Froome on the Ventoux last year and how often he was speaking into his mic, it seemed pretty obvious to me he was getting the "all-clear" each time to make his moves. Unfortunately the genie is out of the bottle now. It's why I prefer the classics.

Raam

DaveR1 wrote: »

What about the No Show from all the main GC contenders at the weekend? Pozzovivo (Ag2R are better off with him than Roche) showed that it can be done easily and with Evans' lead being so large you'd think others would have attacked. The overall contest for the grand tours has just become boring, everyone leaving it as late as possible, last 1k of a stage and last 2 stages of the race.

The hardest stages are yet to come. This Giro is back-loaded. I am hoping that Quintana goes for it.

Chips Lovell

Spokes of Glory wrote: »

Riders won't (aren't allowed ?) attack until they know they can maintain X number of watts for Y minutes.

If only bike racing were as easy as this. It ain't.

godtabh

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

If only bike racing were as easy as this. It ain't.

Its not that easy but it is probably a lot more controlled than it used to be. Gone are the days of feeling good and just going for it

rckfld

lennymc wrote: »

didnt FDJ have the irish lads marked? (I think I read that in the post by the guy who rode in the car).

Big time, all afternoon it was "Roche, Roche, Roche from the DS" Expected something from Malahide/Contarf"

Would be interesting to see where FDJ where at that stage of the race, my guess would be front of the peloton.

YeahOK

Spokes of Glory wrote: »

The advent of power meters and race radios has made stage racing essentially a numbers game dictated by sports scientists and the team DS. Riders won't (aren't allowed ?) attack until they know they can maintain X number of watts for Y minutes. Watching Froome on the Ventoux last year and how often he was speaking into his mic, it seemed pretty obvious to me he was getting the "all-clear" each time to make his moves. Unfortunately the genie is out of the bottle now. It's why I prefer the classics.

This is precisely the problem. Race radio should be banned imho. They should all have to resort to the Mavic chalkboard for gaps updates etc. Power meters should be banned as well during racing. It should all be done on "sensation" & "feel":)

fat bloke

Raam wrote: »

The RTE is the last place I expect to get a decent cycle race report from.

Well feckin Newstalk are at the same craic. I have to be on the ball with the off-button cos they keep spoiling the stage results before I get home to me UPC box of lovely recordings.:(

doozerie

godtabh wrote: »

Gone are the days of feeling good and just going for it

I very much doubt that.

I'm not sure why people are so keen to believe that riders are letting their power meter displays entirely dictate how they race. When reliable speedometers became commonplace amongst pro riders, did all riders switch from riding on feel to following the numbers? What about when HRM's came into common usage?

Sure, it's all extra data that can inform their decision of whether they'll blow if they launch an attack, but not everyone uses that data, not everyone needs it, and some riders clearly can't use it very well either. If you are going to draw a line and say that power meters should be banned, you should probably also consider banning bike computers of any form, pre-race knowledge of the race route, etc.

godtabh

doozerie wrote: »

I very much doubt that.

I'm not sure why people are so keen to believe that riders are letting their power meter displays entirely dictate how they race. When reliable speedometers became commonplace amongst pro riders, did all riders switch from riding on feel to following the numbers? What about when HRM's came into common usage?

Sure, it's all extra data that can inform their decision of whether they'll blow if they launch an attack, but not everyone uses that data, not everyone needs it, and some riders clearly can't use it very well either. If you are going to draw a line and say that power meters should be banned, you should probably also consider banning bike computers of any form, pre-race knowledge of the race route, etc.

I wasnt referring to power meters. The peloton seems to conservative that attacks arent happening when fans would have otherwise expected them.

I'm all in favour of technology in sports btw.

doozerie

godtabh wrote: »

I wasnt referring to power meters. The peloton seems to conservative that attacks arent happening when fans would have otherwise expected them.

I'm all in favour of technology in sports btw.

Ah right, sorry.

I imagine there is more stringent and constant team management control over the riders these days which gives individual riders less freedom to do what they want when they want during a race. I guess there are many possible reasons for that, including greater focus on overall team results so each rider is dedicated entirely to helping the team leader, greater pressure from (reduced numbers of) sponsors seeking to be associated with the overall win rather than a stage win, etc.