Pro Cycling Thread

[Magrat Garlick]

Yay for sprinters.

Shame about Zabriskie abandoning. No TT points for me. :/

 

[Matteh]

Vino rode out of his skin for that win, but he's still too far back in the GC for mine. Cadel Evans looks in an ideal position for the win now though.

 

[Dark Hunter]

Vino rode out of his skin for that win, but he's still too far back in the GC for mine. Cadel Evans looks in an ideal position for the win now though.

And he's showing the after effects now, dropped off the back of the peleton, and looks like he's really badly struggling.

 

[PhoenixFire]

Yeah he's been given some painkillers by the doctor, the rabbobank (are they called that anymore) riders are doing well at the front of the Peloton.

 

[Matteh]

After yesterday's TT:

Håkon Mørk 375 (32nd) [10]
Mathew Mitchell 364 (87th) [29]
Neil Pickup 313 (324th) [18]
Manjunath Reddlapalli 291 (391th) [30]
Craig Walsh 252 (492th) [24]
Greg Thomas 219 (552th) [21]
jeff rangers 171 (596th) [36]

 

[Matteh]

Rasmussen looks like he's really gunning for the overall now with Contador looking solid for a podium. I think Soler may just about sneak in for the KoTM win by the time the race leaves the Pyrenees.

 

[Matteh]

After today's stage:

Mathew Mitchell 389 (42nd) [25]
Håkon Mørk 384 (66th) [9]
Neil Pickup 329 (346th) [16]
Manjunath Reddlapalli 309 (412th) [18]
Craig Walsh 263 (528th) [11]
Greg Thomas 252 (548th) [33]
jeff rangers 199 (597th) [28]

Moerk loses the top spot for the first time in literally ages. Geg did rather well tbh.

 

[Johnners]

How good a Time Trialler is Contador? I assume he can't be all that bad if he stayed in 3rd position after Saturday. Anyway, after todays stage, i'd nearly reckon he could beat both Evans & Rasmussen with a decent time trial

 

[alternative]

Slowly catching up to Neil now.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

How good a Time Trialler is Contador? I assume he can't be all that bad if he stayed in 3rd position after Saturday. Anyway, after todays stage, i'd nearly reckon he could beat both Evans & Rasmussen with a decent time trial

Contador has been very good at short time trials and hilly time trials where something has been at stake. However, tour-style 50-km flat time trials are rare - he did drop a couple of minutes to Evans, Chavanel and Vinokourov during the Dauphine Libere time trial, which was a 40km with a couple of small hills. Generally, 61-kg riders such as Contador don't have the muscle strength to power for an hour.

Edit: hoping for big breaks to make it.

 

[Matteh]

Vino, Kirchen, Menchov, Arroyo and Zubeldia have all gone up the road and have an 8 min advantage.

 

[Bobisback]

Have to say, im starting to fall in love with Contador, such a gun

 

[PhoenixFire]

Top ride from Vino, especially after yesterday. Average day for Rasmussen, and Contador pushed him all the way to the finish, such a gun.

 

[Matteh]

Mathew Mitchell 398 (40th) [9]
Håkon Mørk 394 (58th) [10]
Neil Pickup 336 (359th) [7]
Manjunath Reddlapalli 316 (432th) [7]
Craig Walsh 285 (508th) [22]
Greg Thomas 257 (561th) [5]
jeff rangers 205 (600th) [6]

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Yay. Another nonsensical breakaway on Wednesday, please, preferably with a lot of semi-decent climbers.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

Why are Astana sponsored by Kazakhstan Railways? I can understand the Kazakh connection and everything, just not the motives for the sponsor. T-Mobile advertise, T-Mobile have more users. Discovery Channel advertise, Discovery Channel have more viewers. Seems fairly logical. Kazakhstan Railways advertise, Kazakhstan Railways...

Surely the only people who use Kazakhstan Railways are the local population, who have little choice regardless of how much the company advertises itself, or tourists, who have similar reasons for doing so.

I wish I could get a Kazakhstan Railways-sponsored t-shirt actually. Shame Astana only tell the jerseys.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Why are Astana sponsored by Kazakhstan Railways? I can understand the Kazakh connection and everything, just not the motives for the sponsor. T-Mobile advertise, T-Mobile have more users. Discovery Channel advertise, Discovery Channel have more viewers. Seems fairly logical. Kazakhstan Railways advertise, Kazakhstan Railways...

Surely the only people who use Kazakhstan Railways are the local population, who have little choice regardless of how much the company advertises itself, or tourists, who have similar reasons for doing so.

I wish I could get a Kazakhstan Railways-sponsored t-shirt actually. Shame Astana only tell the jerseys.

Simple really.

The whole reason Astana exists is because Vinokourov is chummy with Nazarbayev, the not-entirely-democratically-elected ruler of Kazakhstan (indeed, he was First Secretary of the local commies under Gorbachev, and OSCE regularly criticise elections of Kazakhstan). He forks up the money required to run a professional cycling team (something around four million quid a year); in return, the government of Kazakhstan want the name of the country associated with slightly different things than Borat, so they put the name on the jersey and get free press in Europe.

However, in order to avoid direct intervention (which may not be allowed under UCI rules? Not quite sure on this one, I suspect they may be banned in order to prevent one team from one country becoming the "national" team and the others feeling mistreated), they tell the state-owned railway company to sponsor them. (Indeed, their official name is Қазақстан темір жолы - but of course they won't use that because no one in Europe will recognise the strange Cyrillic)

In return, Vinokourov and his Kazakh cycling chums travel around the country and tell what a great leader Nursultan Nazarbayev is, just in time for more elections.

Politics, what a lovely thing.

 

[Matteh]

There's also a small ad for Kazakh Air on the bicep area of the sleeves as well.

 

[Jungle Jumbo]

There's also a small ad for Kazakh Air on the bicep area of the sleeves as well.

As well as gas, electricity etc etc.

Thanks for the details Hakon, interesting stuff. Surely there are other companies that could be advertised though (airlines makes sense - someone might actually be inspired to buy into the product; railways less so). Even if they were non-governmental organisations (if they exist much over there?) that would surely be a better marketing ploy?

Anyway, Kazakhstan Railways logo is the first change of avatar since I joined here, replacing the classic zebra look. It will be missed.

 

[Matteh]

Anyway, Kazakhstan Railways logo is the first change of avatar since I joined here, replacing the classic zebra look. It will be missed.

IMO.