Tour of Britain ..Stage 3 to Tumble

MPFG

So here a thread on stage 3 of the Tour of Britain

I thought I would throw it in because there is no Vuelta tomorrow and it looks like a good finish...

Nice scenery today in Wales ...some more tomorrow....not a bad field

Stage schedule

0km START, Newton 11:00
8.4km KoM, Nueadd-goch Bank, Cat 2 11:27
34.5km KoM, Knighton, Cat 3 12:04
41.7km KoM, Beggars Bush, Cat 3 12:14
80.6km Sprint, Llyswen, 13:10
115.4km Sprint, Abergavenny 13:59
138.8km Sprint, Monmouth 14:32
150km FINISH, KoM, The Tumble, Cat 1 15:31

dastardly00

Live on Eurosport1 at the moment with Matt Stevens and Magnus Backstedt.

60km remaining.

MPFG

dastardly00 wrote: »

Live on Eurosport1 at the moment with Matt Stevens and Magnus Backstedt.

60km remaining.

Also live on ITV4

Nice long tough climb at end

Most commentators opting for Wiggins , Kwai or Konig today ....Chava is in good form

Hoping the Irish boys do well

death1234567

Roche for the win?

dastardly00

Saxo are leading the peloton up the climb at the moment.

dastardly00

Nico leading at the moment!!! He's turning a massive gear.

death1234567

dastardly00 wrote: »

Nico leading at the moment!!! He's turning a massive gear.

Too big a gear. He's done for.

happytramp

death1234567 wrote: »

Too big a gear. He's done for.

Well that seemed slightly odd to say the least.

John.Icy

What a stupid decision by Roche. Would no one at Saxo not tell him to change gear? You just can't counter a move if you can't re-accelerate in a huge gear. Just way to big of a gear to try keep up, the difference between winning and 3rd.

dastardly00

1st. Zardini
2nd. Kwiatkowski
3rd. Roche

As Death1234567 said, Nico was turning a gear that was waaaaay too big. He ran out of steam but managed to hold on for 3rd. He definitely had the capability to win this stage.

simonrooneyzaga

I'm reading Nico's book at the moment. It seems to be the same old story throughout ("I went too early today").. Today was the same with a ridiculously high gear thrown into the equation.

Still, the peleton was fractured on that last climb so he'll sit nicely overall GC wise.

happytramp

Seems weird that he didn't try and settle down into a rhythm after getting the gap with the big gear.

dastardly00

simonrooneyzaga wrote: »

I'm reading Nico's book at the moment. It seems to be the same old story throughout ("I went too early today").. Today was the same with a ridiculously high gear thrown into the equation.

Still, the peleton was fractured on that last climb so he'll sit nicely overall GC wise.

He attacked at the right time...... not changing to a lower gear after he caught/passed Zardini was the fault.

MPFG

This has been the problem all year as far as I can see at TCS...Kreuziger & Contador push very big gears on the climbs and Roche now too
Gives him extra power on athe ascent but can't keep it up...especially a problem when the road levels off

He was able to win this ....he has great speed on the flat

dastardly00

Definitely an opportunity squandered

Here is the GC:
1. Zardini Edoardo
2. Kwiatkowski Michal 0:13
3. Roche Nicolas 0:17
4. Teuns Dylan 0:21
5. Wiggins Bradley 0:24
6. Lopez Garcia David "
7. Izagirre Ion 0:26
8. König Leopold "
9. Reichenbach Sebastien "
10. Visconti Giovanni 0:37

Kinet1c

Somebody needs to tell Nico that spinning is winning.

MPFG

Kinet1c wrote: »

Somebody needs to tell Nico that spinning is winning.

I just tried ...in fairness the big gear seems to be the TCS way...maybe SKY will chage that ??

Pudsy33

MPFG wrote: »

I just tried ...in fairness the big gear seems to be the TCS way...maybe SKY will chage that ??

So that's you on Twitter! Hope he pays attention.