Tour de Suisse

neris

On now on eurosport, 6km ITT to start and Ryan Mullen in 1st for now.

Great result for Mullen , 8th over all I think.

Conor Dunne in the break today.

neris

crash and one of the polish carrots has been down a while and looks goosed

neris

another crash and sagan was lucky not to be taken down in it though rohan dennis got caught in it

That CCC rider in the first one didn't look in good shape, his leg was either still attached or tangled with the bike , never a good thing to see a rider staying down making no attempt to get up

Another day in the break for Aqua Blue , glad to see Hansen's work pay off for the points. I believe they got an invite to the Vuelta this year?

Mad pace to the finish, thought Sagan was coming off there at the end , well caught but I think Matthews was just to strong on the day.

Beautiful city, added to my list of places I've seen watching pro cycling that I'll visit one day.

dastardly00

Stage 4 - A day for the GC riders

The end looks weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee then agggghhhhhhh , what % is the final climb? Looks like a 10k climb with the k standing for killer!!!!!!

dastardly00

Deleted User wrote: »

The end looks weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee then agggghhhhhhh , what % is the final climb? Looks like a 10k climb with the k standing for killer!!!!!!

The '3D' stage profiles can be a bit deceptive sometimes... but this climb should be pretty tough. First half seems harder than the end.

dastardly00

Some of the main GC guys and their current placings in the GC classifcation:



(I've included TvG for the laugh)

I'm interested to see how the winner from last year, Miguel Angle Lopez (Astana) goes. He crashed out of the 2016 Vuelta, won Milan-Torino, and then broke his leg in training during the winter. He only raced for the first time this year on June 8th.

And I'm also interested in how Betancur does! He performed well in the first round of the Hammer series. I think he has slimmed down!

Kaisr Sose

Deleted User wrote: »

Beautiful city, added to my list of places I've seen watching pro cycling that I'll visit one day.

I lived in Bern for a few years. Beautiful city alright but more Town like than big city.

Think Philip Deignan is here for Sky no? Might see him today.

neris

Aqua blue in the breakaway

https://twitter.com/tds/status/874598689343516672

dastardly00

Some bizarre scheduling from Eurosport today...

Live coverage of Stage 4 on the Eurosport Player this afternoon, while on Eurosport2 they are showing highlights from Stage 3

I suppose they advertised live Tour de Suisse coverage exclusively on the Eurosport Player so you'd be pretty pissed if they started showing it on the TV channel.

neris

Break have 7 minutes with 70km left coming up on 1st climb.

Eurosport scheduling of cycling last 2 weeks has been a joke. Again today pushing tennis. Some minor game in germany. Tds on at 3pm on the uci channel

coco0981

dastardly00 wrote: »

Some bizarre scheduling from Eurosport today...

Live coverage of Stage 4 on the Eurosport Player this afternoon, while on Eurosport2 they are showing highlights from Stage 3

I suppose they advertised live Tour de Suisse coverage exclusively on the Eurosport Player so you'd be pretty pissed if they started showing it on the TV channel.

Does anyone else find that sky series link doesn't work for the highlights on eurosport? Had to manually do it for this and same with the dauphine last week

neris

Break down to 5:30 now warbasse still in it for aqua blue

TV coverage doesn't affect me as I only have the player , only Saorview here otherwise

Buy yet again on the UCI channel it's a lottery as to whether it will have commentary, has today but there was none yesterday.

dastardly00

coco0981 wrote: »

Does anyone else find that sky series link doesn't work for the highlights on eurosport? Had to manually do it for this and same with the dauphine last week

Sorry I can't help you as I watch Eurosport using Sky Go.

Ha swiss riders talking to the TV bike, out for a spin they are

Oh come on warbasse !!!!!!!!!

Inquitus

Aqua Blue's first WT level victory, good going for the team!

Delighted , thoroughly deserved for the work they put in this week.

dastardly00

Inquitus wrote: »

Aqua Blue's first WT level victory, good going for the team!

It's their first win in any race (level) I think?

Lad is totally overjoyed there. Reporter showing a bit of class wrapping it up quickly.

neris

BMC to hold yellow till the last day but loose it ....... again

dastardly00

https://twitter.com/NI_ALLO/status/874665327434530817

Brian?

Ball sacks! I watched yesterday's stage thinking it was today's live. F you Eurosport.

Brian?

Brian? wrote: »

Ball sacks! I watched yesterday's stage thinking it was today's live. F you Eurosport.

Ahhhhh no

Highlights for today at 9 I think.

Subpopulus

dastardly00 wrote: »

It's their first win in any race (level) I think?

I thinks so too. For a while I was worried that the team had bitten off more than they could chew in going straight up to pro-conti level and competing at World Tour events in their first year but the past few days show that they belong at this level. Twill be interesting to see how they do at the Vuelta

dastardly00

50km into Stage 5 and no breakway has stuck as of yet.

Lost of attacking earlier , but the break is away

Arman Kamyshev (Astana), Ben King (Dimension Data), Jelle Wallays (Lotto Soudal), Sam Bewley (Orica-Scott), Lars Petter Nordhaug (Aqua Blue Sport) and Jesper Asselman (Roompot)

2 minutes out and peleton has eased up a little. Out to 4 minutes now as I'm typing and looking at the cycling news ticker.

Aqua Blue seem to be going through the team sending someone each day, and why not.

C3PO

No Eurosport Coverage?

buffalo

C3PO wrote: »

No Eurosport Coverage?

Looks like it starts at 15:00 - on the player at least.

15:00 on the player and 21:00 for highlights on ES 2 or pretty much what they showed live.

Route Du Sud live on ES1 on Thursday at 2pm I think and I have no idea what they plan to do with Tour Of Slovenia likely second player channel. Come tomorrow we'll have 3 races to follow till Sunday. Feast or famine I guess.

neris

Aqua blue have nordberg in the breakaway.

dastardly00

neris wrote: »

Aqua blue have nordberg in the breakaway.

You mean Nordhaug

neris

dastardly00 wrote: »

You mean Nordhaug

I was half right

68 lost souls

Is the no bottles within the last 20km rule to prevent finishers bottles being used?

68 lost souls

68 lost souls wrote: »

Is the no bottles within the last 20km rule to prevent finishers bottles being used?

The rules are on the UCI site , sorry on a phone here so too fiddly to check that but my understanding was at that stage the race is is well and truly on in most cases, say you have a break and you plan to attack guy next to you realises this and sticks his hand up for the team car for a drink? What do you do? Do you attack anyway or wait for him to come back?

I'm not sure the reason myself but I always figured it was to stop nonsense like that occurring. I know they allow people on foot to hand out drinks on really hot days etc. so it is a little flexible.

Ahhhh no. Lopez has been taken to hospital after a crash, hope he's not badly hurt. He's only back after a broken leg and had a decent ride yesterday.

68 lost souls

Thanks.

Sounds like it was a bad enough crash, who was the AquaBlue Rider in it with him?

68 lost souls

68 lost souls wrote: »

Thanks.

Sounds like it was a bad enough crash, who was the AquaBlue Rider in it with him?

It was Dan Pearson , he's got back on though.

pelevin

Sagan got very lucky there. If he wasn't way stronger than everyone else he could have been in trouble.

dastardly00

Update on the defending champion Miguel Angel Lopez from Astana...

From http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/fractured-thumb-and-stitches-for-lopez-after-suisse-crash/

López hit the deck on the descent from the Simplon Pass with some 70 kilometres left to race. He tried to continue on but climbed off before long, and was then taken to hospital for evaluation. The 23-year-old Colombian was diagnosed with a fractured right thumb and had sustained abrasions to his right side, and also required two stitches, according to Astana.

A lingering leg injury suffered in a training crash last autumn laid López low through May, forcing him to miss a scheduled start at the Tour of California and delaying his build-up for his debut Tour de France participation. Last week's GP du canton d'Argovie had been his first racing appearance of 2017.

Given this latest setback for Lopez, along with Fuglsang's recent impressive form and Aru's altered schedule due to his own injury, I wonder will Astana decide to bench Lopez for the TdF and get him to ride the Vuelta instead.

Trying to think whats between TdF and Vuelta for him to come back to before Vuelta maybe Poland depending on injury. Unless he can train some how and go Vuelta cold so to speak.

dastardly00

Deleted User wrote: »

Trying to think whats between TdF and Vuelta for him to come back to before Vuelta maybe Poland depending on injury. Unless he can train some how and go Vuelta cold so to speak.

Best stage race options would be Tour of Austria, Tour of Poland or Eneco Binckbank Tour. He could also fit in the Clásica Ciclista San Sebastian one-day classic.

dastardly00

Stage 6 Locarno - La Punt (166.7km)

So the stage profile below is deceptive and makes it look like a mountain-top finish... but it's not.
The summit of Albulapass is at 157.4km, with 9.3km remaining.
There is a descent of ~8km into La Punt followed by ~1km of flat roads to the finish line.
The stages in the Tour de Suisse that finish on a descent can often be quite hairy, so let's hope for more of the same

Tom Dumoulin is a non-starter today. Fatigue, which is understandable.

dastardly00

Deleted User wrote: »

Tom Dumoulin is a non-starter today. Fatigue, which is understandable.

It was a bit odd for him to ride the TdS in the first place, obviously because of his exploits in the Giro and then after doing the Hammer series as well.
He has plenty of time to get in some races before the Vuelta (which I presume is what he is planning on doing). He'll probably do the Bincbank Tour.

I hope he's not too fatigued for the Dutch Nationals next week.