And next week we have the Tour of the Basque Country on Eurosport, and the whole of Paris-Roubaix on Sunday. The Bike Channel has the Scheldprijs op Woensdag.
Landa makes his mark after only starting his season for Sky a couple of weeks ago. Only 1100kms raced so far this season compared to over 4000kms for Thomas. Intxausti still sidelined by illness.
Originally Posted by Department_S: “I see Eurosport are showing Paris Roubaix live from the roll out at Compeignie. Starts at 09:15 CET. 7 hours of Carlton!”
I'm sure it wont just be Carlton, probably Declan or Rob back in the studio to allow him to take the odd comfort break
Brilliant win for Steve Cummings in Spain, classic opportunist leap off the front with 750m to get the win!!! Just what he did in the Tour de France last year. And beats the Belgians by 7km!!!
And Kittel just beats Cav by a tyre-breadth in the sprint. Cav having to ride solo and find his own way, but just does not have the peak speed to get past.
More like a third of a wheel, but his wait for a first sprint victory against Kittel continues (both sought a record fourth Scheldeprijs win). Barring any incidents, I still think Cav can win another TdF stage or two this year.
Cummings has become quite the opportunist during the twilight of his career...another good day for Dimension Data. Also realised that's the second time in País Vasco Gerrans won the field sprint just behind the stage winner.
Queen Stage for the overall in the Basque Country tomorrow - Henao, Quintana and Contador all going for the lead. Then Saturday is the ITT, so should be worth watching.
Lots of abandons in the Basque Country today - suspect many of them are on the plane/train to Paris though.
Domestically, the big race this weekend is the first Isle of Man Grand Prix over several loops of the classic motorbike course. Races for both men and women, quite a lot of British World Tour riders involved, including native favourite Peter Kennaugh. Should be a good one for fans to watch.
Originally Posted by Department_S: “I see Eurosport are showing Paris Roubaix live from the roll out at Compeignie. Starts at 09:15 CET. 7 hours of Carlton!”
Carlton has just said that Rob Hatch and Sean Kelly will be the commentary team for Paris-Roubaix !
Originally Posted by swingaleg: “Carlton has just said that Rob Hatch and Sean Kelly will be the commentary team for Paris-Roubaix ! Hurrah !”
Surely for seven hours of coverage ES should be considering tag teams of commentators and sidekicks? Couple of hours each with time to relax and reflect before the next stint may markedly improve the quality of what is said.
The TdF next year starting in Dusseldorf will have full live video coverage of every stage so I doubt ES can rely on one pair per repeating the feat every day with out talking bollocks (or more than usual ).
After his performance this week and in P-N, Henao is looking good for wearing pink in Turin for the Giro. Landa has not got his race stamina back.
Weather forecast for P-R is rain tomorrow evening but dry during Sunday's race with mild temperatures and tailwind: http://www.bbc.com/weather/2998324
Originally Posted by cmq2: “Surely for seven hours of coverage ES should be considering tag teams of commentators and sidekicks? Couple of hours each and time to relax and reflect before the next stint may markedly improve the quality of what is said. ”
Plugging the coverage earlier in the week I think Carlton said that they had some 'inserts' prepared to enhance the coverage.......so they'll probably leave the race every now and them for some pre-recorded filler to give the team time to get to the bog.......
Decent looking finish in Spain tomorrow. Don't think it's as clear cut Contador as others, nor that the TT will be that tough. Henao and Pinot will go close.
Basque country ITT just getting down to business now, Adam Yates is in the lead in the clubhouse, with all the big names to come in. Should take about 30 minutes.
Turned out very exciting, won't give away too much for horse racing fans who are catching up. Adam Yates got one of his best ever results, considering the extremely elite company he was in.
I looked like the Movistar mechanic was going to push Quintana all the way up the hill to make up for the sloppy bike swap.
Given the weather on that short descent it appeared a bad choice regardless of how smoothly the change went. Maybe the team felt pressurised to try something to keep Bertie at bay.
Originally Posted by cmq2: “Given the weather on that short descent it appeared a bad choice regardless of how smoothly the change went. Maybe the team felt pressurised to try something to keep Bertie at bay.”
Probably one of those things they had cooked up way in advance, then didn't rethink when it was obvious that it was going to do more harm than good in the conditions.