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  • ATOC 2019

    Starts Sunday. Anyone attending any stages? It looks like I will be unable to do so but am hoping for some reports.
    PLesa excuse the tpyos.

  • #2
    I am boycotting until they come do some real climbs in the Eastern Sierra.

    Comment


    • #3
      Sagan for the stage win yesterday. That seemed like a fairly predictable result. Today is a long stage that climbs up to So Lake Tahoe, but I agree with BP that they really need to put these boys on some of the more challenging climbs in the Sierra.
      PLesa excuse the tpyos.

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by creekster View Post
        Sagan for the stage win yesterday. That seemed like a fairly predictable result. Today is a long stage that climbs up to So Lake Tahoe, but I agree with BP that they really need to put these boys on some of the more challenging climbs in the Sierra.
        Predictable result? Were there no other sprinters in the race? Sagan is really good, and I enjoy watching him surf wheels on his way to the front, but he's had a tough spring for the most part. The helicopter view at the end was interesting, with everyone going pretty much full out and when he decided to kick at 150 meters to the line, he just gapped everyone. Crazy. But he started to run out of steam and McCabe nearly caught him.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by mtnbiker View Post
          Predictable result? Were there no other sprinters in the race? Sagan is really good, and I enjoy watching him surf wheels on his way to the front, but he's had a tough spring for the most part. The helicopter view at the end was interesting, with everyone going pretty much full out and when he decided to kick at 150 meters to the line, he just gapped everyone. Crazy. But he started to run out of steam and McCabe nearly caught him.
          Who'd you think was going to beat him? A flat, short stage with a sprinter's finish. This stage was made for Sagan and I think especially because of, not in spite of, his admittedly less than ideal early season, I expected him to take it.

          As to fading at the finish, none of those guys usually hold top speed that long. Moreover, the fact that McCabe had a close but no cigar finish doesn't really detract from the predictability of Sagan's victory. Good for McCabe, but I did think Sagan would win.

          Here's a bet that Sagan will NOT win today.
          PLesa excuse the tpyos.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by creekster View Post
            Who'd you think was going to beat him? A flat, short stage with a sprinter's finish. This stage was made for Sagan and I think especially because of, not in spite of, his admittedly less than ideal early season, I expected him to take it.

            As to fading at the finish, none of those guys usually hold top speed that long. Moreover, the fact that McCabe had a close but no cigar finish doesn't really detract from the predictability of Sagan's victory. Good for McCabe, but I did think Sagan would win.

            Here's a bet that Sagan will NOT win today.
            If you had to bet on today's winner, who would you pick?
            "I think it was King Benjamin who said 'you sorry ass shitbags who have no skills that the market values also have an obligation to have the attitude that if one day you do in fact win the PowerBall Lottery that you will then impart of your substance to those without.'"
            - Goatnapper'96

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Pelado View Post
              If you had to bet on today's winner, who would you pick?
              Maybe an american Mac: Maccabe or McNulty or Porte? It would be fun to see Uran do well, too. They are on the road now and I have not seen splits so no idea how that looks.
              PLesa excuse the tpyos.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by creekster View Post
                Starts Sunday. Anyone attending any stages? It looks like I will be unable to do so but am hoping for some reports.
                My daughter’s fifth grade class has a field trip to watch tomorrow’s stage.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by creekster View Post
                  Who'd you think was going to beat him? A flat, short stage with a sprinter's finish. This stage was made for Sagan and I think especially because of, not in spite of, his admittedly less than ideal early season, I expected him to take it.
                  I haven't checked in on the field or the stage profiles. But my brother in law sent me a picture yesterday of him next to Cavendish.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by bluegoose View Post
                    I haven't checked in on the field or the stage profiles. But my brother in law sent me a picture yesterday of him next to Cavendish.
                    Cavendish is still returning from his accident injuries, I think. He barely beat the time cut yesterday.
                    PLesa excuse the tpyos.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Interesting stage yesterday due to the decision to give TJ the same finishing time as the bunch even though he was caught out just over the 3km to go mark. It was a tough day for TJ. With around 10km to go he went down all by himself. Not sure if he touched wheels or lost focus or something else, but down he goes. His bike is a bit mangled so a teammate offers him his own bike and TJ mounts up and rides off and his team drops back to pace him. A few K later he and his teammates are almost back to the peloton when the course takes a hard right corner. Apparently TJ had not realized that his teammate's bike, which he was still riding, had a reverse brake lever set up, meaning when TJ goes to brake his rear wheel to drag speed off he instead hits his front brake (or vice versa) either way it made him miss the turn completely. This puts him another 10 seconds or so back down and leaves him and his team pulling hard, again, to get back to the bunch. Then, while in sight of the 3km to go mark, there was a significant crash within the peloton resulting in a break between groups and blocking the road. TJ's group pulls up on this mess and gets delayed substantially and ends up finishing around a minute down. The race jury nonetheless awarded TJ the same time as the finishing bunch, which would have happened automatically if the last crash had happened within 3 km, but here the jury reasoned that TJ WOULD have made contact again and so they counted him as being with the lead group, or something like that. TBH it is a little hard to understand what their reasoning is. It might be as simple as they want a likeable American to stay on the leaderboard of the race. Hard to say. Bottom line, however, is that TJ retains the lead, despite three big issues, and there is another stage today.

                      Props to Mtnbiker who pointed out a few posts ago that Sagan was no longer a favorite and yesterday proved he was right. Sagan was right there in the finish sprint but couldn't push through to the lead. He finished third.

                      Final thought: I miss Paul Sherwen. Phil seems a little more restrained, like he knows he doesn't have Paul to clean up his errors and so he has to be more careful on the front end. As a result he is a little less excited and excitable and a little less fun. Bobke is doing a nice job, but being on the lead team seems to leave him acting like he is at the adults' table and there is a lot less of his oddball, off-kilter humor on display. I am sure a lot of this is in my head, and they are doing a fine job, but it just isn't the same without Paul balancing Phil.
                      PLesa excuse the tpyos.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        I wish I could see the recaps, but it comes on at 11pm my time, and I've never sprung for a dvr. It looks like NBC Sports is putting up some youtube synopses, but they're a day late.
                        Then again, I watch sumo highlights (there's a basho going on right now) on a delayed basis, too.
                        I would have liked to see the spring classic races. And the Giro is in full swing, and no regular broadcasts of it.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          No Amgen Tour next year. They're taking a break for a year and re-evaluating the costs of putting on the race. Bicycle races are on the downswing in the US right now.
                          https://www.velonews.com/2019/10/new...in-2020_502280

                          With the talk about Peter Sagan earlier in this thread, it looks like he's going to race the Giro next year, for the first time. I hope it doesn't detract too much from his racing in the spring classics. He's such a strong rider, it's fun to watch him, although I'd think he gets tired of being the marked man all the time.
                          https://www.velonews.com/2019/10/com...-heaven_502092

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by mtnbiker View Post
                            No Amgen Tour next year. They're taking a break for a year and re-evaluating the costs of putting on the race. Bicycle races are on the downswing in the US right now.
                            https://www.velonews.com/2019/10/new...in-2020_502280

                            With the talk about Peter Sagan earlier in this thread, it looks like he's going to race the Giro next year, for the first time. I hope it doesn't detract too much from his racing in the spring classics. He's such a strong rider, it's fun to watch him, although I'd think he gets tired of being the marked man all the time.
                            https://www.velonews.com/2019/10/com...-heaven_502092
                            I would be very surprised if thew ATOC comes back again. This sort of thing has happened here before. Like the COlorado Classic in the day. It's too bad because the race was fun, although I always wished they had put some stages in some of the more scenic and difficult mountains. Oh well. Just one more casualty of Armstrong's cheating, I guess. And it was always weird that the race was supported by the manufacturer of EPO. Although EPO is no longer as profitable as it once was, which may have as much to do with this decision as anything.
                            PLesa excuse the tpyos.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by creekster View Post
                              I would be very surprised if thew ATOC comes back again. This sort of thing has happened here before. Like the COlorado Classic in the day. It's too bad because the race was fun, although I always wished they had put some stages in some of the more scenic and difficult mountains. Oh well. Just one more casualty of Armstrong's cheating, I guess. And it was always weird that the race was supported by the manufacturer of EPO. Although EPO is no longer as profitable as it once was, which may have as much to do with this decision as anything.
                              I'd like to see a race where they start in California and end in Colorado. Some years start in NoCal and go through SLC and other years start in SoCal and go through southern Utah but always end in the Denver area. Spread it out over nine days. They could find some wonderful areas for some stages.

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