Tour of Beijing

neris

Is anyone watching this on TV/Net? Be nice to know theey have some sort of audience somewhere. Like their riding through a ghost town

pelevin

Just saw the last 6 or so km. Kind of funny to see Sky doing all the spearheading of the peloton, superficially very impressive you could say, until the last km or so when they fade to nowhere, not even a top 10, & it was all pointless. Desperately trying to get results by being in control of things.
Mezgec won the sprint handy enough after a good effort by Tyler Farrar.

dastardly00

Top 10 - Stage 1:

1. Mezgec Luka - Team Giant-Shimano
2. Ewan Caleb - Orica GreenEDGE
3. Farrar Tyler - Garmin Sharp
4. Modolo Sacha - Lampre-Merida
5. Maes Nikolas - Omega Pharma - Quick-Step
6. Hofland Moreno - Belkin-Pro Cycling Team
7. Von Hoff Steele - Garmin Sharp
8. van Poppel Boy - Trek Factory Racing
9. Appollonio Davide - AG2R La Mondiale
10. Le Gac Olivier - FDJ.fr

dastardly00

Monday's penultimate stage should be pretty interesting, it's the only mountain top finish (12.6km at 5.7%) so it should determine the winner.
You'll have the likes of Dan Martin, Uran Uran, Benat Intauxsti, Sammy Sanchez, Rui Costa, Warren Barguil, Arredondo and Philip Deignan all battling it out.

MPFG

Surely Dan Martin must be one of the favourites for this race given his Vuelta & Il Lombardia results

Others I suppose are Rui Costa & TJ Van Garderen

Will defo watch Monday morning ...stage 4

blobbie

I wonder how much of an impact the smog levels will have http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/oct/10/brazil-argentina-friendly-beijing-smog?CMP=twt_gu

Pudsy33

MPFG wrote: »

Surely Dan Martin must be one of the favourites for this race given his Vuelta & Il Lombardia results

Others I suppose are Rui Costa & TJ Van Garderen

Will defo watch Monday morning ...stage 4

He is the standout favorite according to the odds makers. Also Phillip Deignan is leading sky so it should be an interesting race for Irish fans.

Edit: he was favourite yesterday, now himself and Rui Costa ars equal odds.

at1withmyself

Shorter stage today due to an air quality alert so summit finish means some action from the main contenders today, cat 3 climb and it's cold out there!

godtabh

at1withmyself wrote: »

Shorter stage today due to an air quality alert so summit finish means some action from the main contenders today, cat 3 climb and it's cold out there!

I wonder will they get the finish? I've seen people tweeting that the smog is due to get worse close to Beijing with the Brazil/Argentina game about to be called off.

at1withmyself

The football has been cancelled and rest of race to be reviewed

godtabh wrote: »

I wonder will they get the finish? I've seen people tweeting that the smog is due to get worse close to Beijing with the Brazil/Argentina game about to be called off.

blobbie

Football is going ahead.

Seemingly the smog has cleared.

“I’m living in Beijing right now, and can confirm that the smog has pretty much cleared as of about an hour ago. A cool wind has blown it to who knows where, and the locals are expecting a bit of a storm tonight...at least the players will be able to run with coughing up a lung!”

Hopefully be clear(er) for the remainder of the TdB

MPFG

blobbie wrote: »

Football is going ahead.

Seemingly the smog has cleared.

“I’m living in Beijing right now, and can confirm that the smog has pretty much cleared as of about an hour ago. A cool wind has blown it to who knows where, and the locals are expecting a bit of a storm tonight...at least the players will be able to run with coughing up a lung!”

Hopefully be clear(er) for the remainder of the TdB

Just love the Irish....no matter where in the World ( and probably even the moon) there is always some Irish guy living there with the latest news on the ground

Daroxtar

Phillipe Gilbert won the stage today and takes the overall lead, Dan 5th and 11 seconds down overall.

dastardly00

Stage 4 is live now on the Tour of Beijing Youtube channel and on Eurosport1.

Less than 28km to go, a three-man breakaway have a lead of 2 min 50 sec over the peloton.

dastardly00

The riders have just started the final climb.

dastardly00

Clever tactics from Garmin as Hesjedal attacks.

dastardly00

Less than 2km to go, Hesjedal still in front.

blobbie

Great stuff Dan - duked it out excellently

dastardly00

Dan you legend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Daroxtar

F**k me, thats some acceleration!!

GetWithIt

I think Gilbert will still be the leader with the third place time bonus

blobbie

Gilbert should still have lead by 3s from Dan

dastardly00

Fair play to Gilbert for hanging on in there.

MPFG

The speed of Dan Martin is a amasing ...he really can turn it on....Hesejedal does great work for him IMO ...breaks up the opposition and leaves Dan free from chasing plus ready to pounce ...Martin is really top class

pelevin

Brilliant by Dan, the old Hesjedal Martin follow-up works again.

To add, it was great for one, or was it two people, to keep the security lads company there on the final climb.

Glass Prison 1214

Is there any intermediate time bonuses tomorrow than Dan could possibly pick up to win the overall?

pelevin

Glass Prison 1214 wrote: »

Is there any intermediate time bonuses tomorrow than Dan could possibly pick up to win the overall?

I think they said there's two tomorrow.

REBELSAFC

Any link to highlights of todays stage?

MPFG

REBELSAFC wrote: »

Any link to highlights of todays stage?

Hightlights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1dNd2kWRP8


Full

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjKi9_AEax4

dastardly00

Glass Prison 1214 wrote: »

Is there any intermediate time bonuses tomorrow than Dan could possibly pick up to win the overall?

As pelevin said, there are two intermediate sprints. Time bonuses are 3, 2, and 1 second.
I can't see Dan being able to pick up any of those time bonuses, or beating Gilbert in a (very) flat sprint.

Dcully

Great to see Dan hit some serious form after a run of terrible bad luck, such a shame his year didnt go to plan,he could have been well up there in the grand tours

paddy no 11

He should 100% focus on spring clasics, worlds and TDF stage wins in that order imo, forget the grand tour win. He gets ill in the third week every time and is never going to win one unless its reduced to one time trial. Even then he could lose 3 mins on a TT.

happytramp

paddy no 11 wrote: »

He should 100% focus on spring clasics, worlds and TDF stage wins in that order imo, forget the grand tour win. He gets ill in the third week every time and is never going to win one unless its reduced to one time trial. Even then he could lose 3 mins on a TT.

Agreed. But it'd be great to see him win Paris-Nice or the like.

MPFG

happytramp wrote: »

Agreed. But it'd be great to see him win Paris-Nice or the like.

Paris Nice usually has 2 TTs....

I'd like to see him win the rainbow jersey, LBL. La Fletche Wallone & Il Lombardia in one year

Also maybe have a go at MSR...not sure if he has ridden that before ???

Glass Prison 1214

MPFG wrote: »

Also maybe have a go at MSR...not sure if he has ridden that before ???

MSR really isn't for Dan. He will never be allowed to get away from the bunch and he will never beat the sprinters

Glass Prison 1214

MPFG wrote: »

Paris Nice usually has 2 TTs....

It had no TTs this year actually, so if it's like that in future editions it would be one for Dan alright.

dastardly00

MPFG wrote: »

Paris Nice usually has 2 TTs....

I'd like to see him win the rainbow jersey, LBL. La Fletche Wallone & Il Lombardia in one year

Also maybe have a go at MSR...not sure if he has ridden that before ???

Amstel Gold, La Fleche Wallone, LBL, Worlds, and Il Lombardia would be my wish

MPFG

Glass Prison 1214 wrote: »

It had no TTs this year actually, so if it's like that in future editions it would be one for Dan alright.

And actually MSR route has changed and its not always won by sprinters...put in climb this year at end but took it out due to weather

Glass Prison 1214

MPFG wrote: »

And actually MSR route has changed and its not always won by sprinters...put in climb this year at end but took it out due to weather

I know which is why the likes of Kittel don't win it. But it still isn't really tough enough for Dan i don't think, the likes of Sagan will have no issue with the climb and will always have his number in a sprint. I could see Dan getting a top ten maybe as Nibali did a couple of years ago but he would likely never win it which would be a waste to target it as there's a lot of races out there that Dan can and will win.

neris

So who wants to lease a panda

blobbie

Not cheap http://animals.io9.com/youll-never-believe-what-it-costs-to-rent-a-panda-from-1635142229

gordongekko

neris wrote: »

So who wants to lease a panda

Tis already there https://mobile.twitter.com/TourofBeijing

neris

are guiness the new isreal of europsort advertising

godtabh

Any results? Twitter says its just finished but no updates yet

neris

modolo took the sprint for lampre. gilbert won the overall dan 2nd 3 seconds down

dastardly00

Stage 5 results:

1. Sacha Modolo - Lampre
2. Greg Henderson - Lotto
3. Eddie Boasson-Hagen - Sky
4. Tyler Farrar - Garmin
5. Hofland - Blekin

Final GC:

1. Gilbert
2. Dan
3. Chavas
4. Rui Costa
5. Chernetski

EmcD123

Stage 5 coverage is on Eurosport 2 at 11 o clock.