Tour of Britain 2015 the Racing (may contain **SPOILERS**)

[jarlrmai]

Just find the strava segment for the climb.

 

[Hacienda71]

Strava is saying 3% for the last .8 of a mile and 6% for a little bit.

 

[HF2300]

ITV's Porter+Smith commentary makes P&P sound good and Boulting+Millar sound like a dream team Is Ant McCrossan doing something else?

And are we loving the exhortations to watch Froome try to win La Vuelta?

Porter: "And that's an attack by Lotto Soudal"

Smith "I think that's the Swiss national champion riding for BMC"

Porter "Yes Brian, for a moment there that red and white jersey looked like the BMC colours"

I'm already getting relay bored with 'tapping out the rythm', 'being attentive', 'dancing on the pedals' and 'that's the style of the man'.

I'm finding it difficult to follow what's going on in the highlights, as well; think it's a combination of few time gaps displayed, poor coverage, poor commentary and poor editing. I'm obviously not the only one, given Matt Barbet had to do a voiceover at one point.

The trailers for Froome in the Vuelta made me life - has no-one realised? They were even showing them during the Vuelta highlights!

 

[HF2300]

It was a really gutsy ride by Petr Vakoc to hold off the pelloton all the way to the finish. There were a lot of people out in Colne to see him come in.
This is him powering up the finishing straight with about 70m to go;
View attachment 103073

Great photo

 

[HF2300]

And great ride by Vakoc

 

[SWSteve]

[QUOTE 3895251, member: 9609"]I was nearby so I went to take a look - never seen as many police motorbikes, plus lots of other motorbikes, I wasn't sure I had arrived at the right event, but then all of a sudden woosh and they all whizzed by followed by an astonishing melee of cars all jockeying for position and blowing their horns at each other.

so anyway here they are pedalling through the borders.

[/QUOTE]


Loving how we one of the Novo-Nordisc (sp?) riders is in plain shot in this.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Porter: "And that's an attack by Lotto Soudal"

Smith "I think that's the Swiss national champion riding for BMC"

Porter "Yes Brian, for a moment there that red and white jersey looked like the BMC colours"

I'm already getting relay bored with 'tapping out the rythm', 'being attentive', 'dancing on the pedals' and 'that's the style of the man'.

I'm finding it difficult to follow what's going on in the highlights, as well; think it's a combination of few time gaps displayed, poor coverage, poor commentary and poor editing. I'm obviously not the only one, given Matt Barbet had to do a voiceover at one point.

The trailers for Froome in the Vuelta made me life - has no-one realised? They were even showing them during the Vuelta highlights!

I spotted my first ''race face'' of the summer today. I was disappointed, though, that he failed to use ''egress'' today. He used it yesterday when they were leaving a town. I expected them to egress England.

Meanwhile, this Viviani - is he the same person as the track cyclist in the endurance events who everybody feared? Or another Viviani? I missed his signing to Sky. There was real power in his finishing sprint today.

 

[mjr]

Once again, a crash changes the race lead when it wouldn't have if it had been 500m later. If they're going to keep the crash-neutralisation rule, to stop all the GC teams getting up front in the finish, shouldn't there be some sort of tapering introduction? So if you're held up 3-5k out, you get your group's time plus a small percentage, then increasing percentage up to 15k or so, then outside that you're on your own. The sprint teams are pushing to be up front well before 3k on most races.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Meanwhile, this Viviani - is he the same person as the track cyclist in the endurance events who everybody feared?

Yes

 

[SWSteve]

I spotted my first ''race face'' of the summer today. I was disappointed, though, that he failed to use ''egress'' today. He used it yesterday when they were leaving a town. I expected them to egress England.

Meanwhile, this Viviani - is he the same person as the track cyclist in the endurance events who everybody feared? Or another Viviani? I missed his signing to Sky. There was real power in his finishing sprint today.

The very one. He is tremendous

 

[ColinJ]

A day late because I didn't want to come into this thread until I had finished watching the coverage of yesterday's stage ...

I rode out to watch the second KoM at Bleara Moor above Earby and then rode down into the town/village(?) afterwards so I could ride back up the climb to get a taste for how tough it was. Answer: damn hard!

Most of the pros made it look pretty easy, but it was reassuring to see a few of them busting a gut to stay up near the front. Wiggo looked very relaxed as he cruised by. Cav wasn't far behind but seemed to be trying a bit harder. Some of the stragglers looked pretty wasted!

The Forest of Bowland/Pendle district roads of stage 2 are some of my favourites and I know how hard they are so it was impressive to watch how hard the pros raced yesterday. [PS I am organising THIS FORUM RIDE to take place out there on September 19th, so if you liked the look of yesterday's scenery and fancy a relaxed tour round there, check out 'Recreational rides' later! ]

I think the ToB is getting better year by year. I didn't think much of it the first couple of years.

Here are a few photos that I took yesterday ...

Brad: "Just a nice little training ride ..."

Cav (a few yards further back): "Brad, Brad, wait for me, Brad!"

Unknown straggler: "Dropped *again* ... So much for those bloody gym sessions to make my legs stronger!"

 

[HF2300]

Meanwhile, this Viviani - is he the same person as the track cyclist in the endurance events who everybody feared? Or another Viviani? I missed his signing to Sky. There was real power in his finishing sprint today.

Yes, as @Marmion and @ItsSteveLovell have already said, same guy. Signed to Sky late last year for this season, having been with various incarnations of Cannondale - ISTR he won a TOB stage or two with them as well. He won stage 2 of the Giro this year, and he's had other Giro and Vuelta top 3 stage placings.

He used to split road and track work but I guess that might stop now he's with Sky. I think he's really good - seen him do some great stuff on the track. As with many, though (Cav), I wonder if he'll get a bit stifled at Sky as his aims won't fit with their GT / GC ambitions, leaving him hunting stages on more minor races.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Unknown straggler: "Dropped *again* ... So much for those bloody gym sessions to make my legs stronger!"

Paulius Šiškevičius, Champion of Lithuania, riding for An Post ChainReaction

 

[rich p]

Stannard does an extraordinary amount of work on the front

 

[youngoldbloke]

Finally couldn't take it any more - I pressed the MUTE button