UCI WorldTour and other pro cycling nonsense 2011

god, i just want to see it go BOOM!

nice asturias flag-themed shoes being sported by barredo here.

Sastre off the front (for Cobo later on?), Barredo a little off the front too (for Mollema?), Wiggins & Froome sitting comfortably near the front, just behind two Liquigas (presumably one of them is Nibali).

Anton goes for it, passes Sastre...

ugh, 19%, Wiggins surging forward...

23%

Cobo breaks away

would love it if igor could win on the two rawest grand tour mountains in 2011!

cobo e-reader looking good.

Cobo catching Anton, Nibali getting dropped

Cobo 13 secs clear, 5km to go

cobo's rolling the shoulders a bit - froome and wiggo still looking quite comfortable even though there's a gap.

did y'all hear about that story where froome enquired when the kenyan road championship was being held when he was younger and showing some promise - there wasn't one - got told that if he designed and sewed the jersey himself that HE could be the kenyan champion!

The gap's going out: 30s with 4km to go - with time bonus Cobo could take the lead

aye, Cobo in virtual red.

J-Rod dropped

Those crowds look dangerous

Froome gapping Wiggo. Go Froome! Take it!

Froome looks fucked

Wiggins done.

now Wiggins does

Show what's happening behind Cobo FFS!

did the camera following gruppe wiggo get knocked off the moto? it looked like it crashed to the ground before they cut back to cobo that last time!

Yes, think so, I wasn't sure if it took Wiggins out too

Dang, 1:10 plus bonification could be insurmountable.

Wiggo was paperboying well before any moto issues.

wouter poels!

48s Poels, Menchov, Froome

1:20 Wiggins, Anton

geox looking surprisingly solid - duarte wasn't that far back, sastre, menchov can all offer support. bit different to how they were at the giro.

Wow. That was brutal. Is Cobo assumed to be clean or not? (I ask because the only time I can remember him doing anything before was when him and (team mate) Piepoli flew off the front together in the Tour, shortly before Piepoli and Ricco were booted out)

This one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Dk1KC9DDBQ&feature=player_detailpage#t=328s

It will be interesting to see how this one plays out now. It could get very tactical with Sky still having 2nd and 3rd.

...and Geox having 1st and 6th (but I don't see the winner coming from outside of the current top four now, unless there's a major fuck up)

Is Cobo assumed to be clean or not?

smdh

Steve is that a:

-smdh at your naivety - of course he's not clean!

or

-smdh at a Brit casting aspersions on someone taking the red jersey off a British rider while assuming the Brits are clean

?

haha... column a + column b

Wiggins I'm 99% sure is clean - he's always been outspoken about doping and Sky wouldn't have touched him with a bargepole if they'd had any doubts. Froome - I honestly couldn't say. He's always been a climber, and has suffered from illness/poor form for a while but now seems better, so it's not *completely* impossible what he's doing, but it does look suspicious - especially suddenly coming second in the time trial. Cobo I've literally only come across as part of that shameful Saunier Duval debacle at the Tour in 2008, but as far as I know he's never been banned (it was Ricco and Piepoli who tested positive, but then maybe only those two (as stage winners) were tested from the team) which is why I was wondering if he was one of those riders that everyone assumes is doped, or was a good guy on a bad team at the wrong time.

Cobo has always excelled in the mountains, esp on his "home turf" (Northern Spain, not necessarily Cantabria).

The suggestion that Cobo (proven TT/climber specialist) could drop Wiggins (tracky, converting to all-arounder) as preposterous is just a little shrug-worthy.

Give Cobo some credit though. He was unaffected by those 15-23% ramps which had the GC contenders wobbly and weaving. A+ ride today.

gilsimongil Gilles Simon
Chez leopard, 11 coureurs, dont Brice Feillu, savent déjà qu'ils doivent chercher une autre équipe. Dans L'Equipe, demain.
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply

gilsimongil Gilles Simon
Leopard-Trek n'existera plus la saison prochaine. Comme prévu, Flavio Becca fait association avec RadioShack.

via googletrans:

gilsimongil Gilles Simon
In Leopard, 11 riders, including Brice Feillu, already know they should seek another team. In the team tomorrow.
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply

gilsimongil Gilles Simon
Leopard-Trek will no longer exist next season. As expected, Flavio Becca is associated with RadioShack.

Apparently Cobo had a 36-32 setup and wiggins only had 38-32

speaking of Giles Simon

gilsimongil Gilles Simon
Juan José Cobo leader de la Vuelta: un nuage noir dans le ciel du cyclisme. Qu'en pense Riccardo Ricco?

A black cloud in the sky of cycling. A pun and an accusation.

Apparently Cobo had a 36-32 setup and wiggins only had 38-32

― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Sunday, September 4, 2011 2:35 PM (8 minutes ago)

mechanical doping, how unmacho.

Wiggins I'm 99% sure is clean - he's always been outspoken about doping and Sky wouldn't have touched him with a bargepole if they'd had any doubts.

― Prejudice Capsule Hamster (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Sunday, September 4, 2011 12:20 PM (2 hours ago)

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/8426/Doping-UCI-Index-of-Suspicion-leaked-from-2010-Tour-de-France.aspx

just to add insult to injury. bit of a dick move to have the TT champs in the middle of a grand tour!

how are all these shimano teams fitting a 32 at the back, i'd like to know.

What does David Millar use? As on the tour he got his mechanic to put a top of the range hybrid rear mech on his bike when things got particularly upwards from what I remember.

ah, Sram by the looks of it.

how are all these shimano teams fitting a 32 at the back, i'd like to know.

― matte prick (haitch), Sunday, September 4, 2011 6:49 PM (Yesterday)

MTB RDs iirc

It's not looking good if teams as successful as HTC and as high-profile as Leopard-Trek are going under.

just to add insult to injury. bit of a dick move to have the TT champs in the middle of a grand tour!

― matte prick (haitch), Sunday, 4 September 2011 20:45 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

IIRC it's always been at this time it's the vuelta that moved.

To be honest, it's never normally contested by proper continental pros. In Britain there are two different national bodies for road racing and for time trials, and the body in charge of time trials is very old-fashioned and parochial. The top British time trialers nearly all just ride time trials, setting off at stupid o'clock to grind up and down a dual-carriageway somewhere every Sunday morning. They don't do road races, they work during the week, it's a different world. A guy called Michael Hutchinson wins nearly everything every year (10 miles, 25 miles, 50 miles, 100 miles, but not the 12-hour events), but in 2009 Bradley Wiggins decided to take him on in the national championships and won comfortably, then the following year he brought along Thomas and Froome as well and they took the top three spots. He probably would have defended it this year as well, as he's only doing the Vuelta because of the crash in the Tour.

Radioshack- Nissan - Trek http://leopardtrek.createsend3.com/t/ViewEmail/r/9336888E0462C091/419D4CA59AEE007DF039C523302FD418