Minor Races Thread 2015 - [SPOILERS]

[rich p]

A bit slack on updates - maybe it's the post TdF hangover.
Juul Jensen wins T of Denmark.
Izagirre wins T of Poland and Joe Dombrowski leads T of Utah.
That is all

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

I see another rider, this time Matt Brammeier at Utah, was taken out by a service car. Bloody dangerous things these motorised vehicles in the middle of a bike race.

Reports are that he does not need surgery but he looks fairly beaten up:

edit: story here - http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/brammeier-hospitalised-after-colliding-with-car-during-tour-of-utah/

 

[coffeejo]

I see another rider, this time Matt Brammeier at Utah, was taken out by a service car. Bloody dangerous things these motorised vehicles in the middle of a bike race.

Reports are that he does not need surgery but he looks fairly beaten up:

edit: story here - http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/brammeier-hospitalised-after-colliding-with-car-during-tour-of-utah/

I'm fairly certain I'm not the only person wondering what the alternatives are. Can't see a return to "thy shalt fix they own bike" going down very well.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

I was just about to post about Brammeir too - the description of the accidents seems a bit unclear about exactly what happened, but that's him out for the season. As I posted in the TdF thread, there seem to have been a lot of incidents involving service vehicles this year, but I don't know if it is more than usual...

 

[rich p]

Incidentally, Tao Geoghan-Hart (soon to be of Sky) is 13th in the Tour of Utah.

 

[Pro Tour Punditry]

Eneco Tour starts tomorrow, live coverage and highlights on Eurosport. Should be a good one.

 

[Crackle]

The video of Brammeier's crash seems to have gone now but when I watched it the service car was taking the same line as the other cars and staying out of the way of the riders. Brammeier came around in a completely different line going very fast. Locked the back wheel up and went into the side of the car. It was hard to say who was at fault from what I saw of the video.

Edit: Found it again

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x30zdpa

and re-watching it, I'm not sure if he'd have made that bend at that speed.

 

[rich p]

The video of Brammeier's crash seems to have gone now but when I watched it the service car was taking the same line as the other cars and staying out of the way of the riders. Brammeier came around in a completely different line going very fast. Locked the back wheel up and went into the side of the car. It was hard to say who was at fault from what I saw of the video.

Edit: Found it again

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x30zdpa

and re-watching it, I'm not sure if he'd have made that bend at that speed.

Looks like he'd already overcooked it and locked up the brakes.

 

[rich p]

Dombrowski duly wins the Tour of Utah to give Garmin and Vaughters a boost after the pre-race favourite, Danielson, tested +ve. The dick.

 

[woohoo]

Looks like he'd already overcooked it and locked up the brakes.

I don't think he would have made that bend. It may even be that the car saved him from something worse e.g. hitting the trees or the spectators. Not nice to see.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Sky's Elia Viviani takes the sprint on the first stage of the Eneco Tour over Danny van Poppel (Trek) and Jean-Pierre Drucker (BMC). You would have put money on Greipel but he lost his train and started the sprint way too early. In fact the whole finale was all over the shop, with no team able to keep control and there was also a big crash towards the end, luckily just behind the main contenders.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

But the Gorilla makes amends today with the win.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Tom Boonen took today's stage over Demarre and Viviani. I hadn't even realised that he was in the race before this...

 

[The Couch]

The Arctic Race of Norway is starting today.

Funny fact... they have a pretty fitting alternative to the polka dot jersey (King of the Mountain)... The "Salmon jersey"

The Norwegian salmon-industry (of which you don't want to look at any of the "insider" documentaries) is one of the biggest sponsors of the race and so starting this (3rd) edition, this jersey is being introduced.
The parallel can be - somewhere - found in the fact that salmons swim upstream and the riders ride uphill

FYI, there is a nice 500kg fresh salmon award for the rider crossing the "Lavangseidet" mountain first
(which strangely isn't even the highest peak or a mountain finish)

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Kristoff predictably takes the first sprint in the Arctic Tour, but it was a much closer thing between him and EBH than one might have expected - with the two way ahead of anyone else.

At the Eneco Tour (for those still awake), Jos Van Emden (I had to say 'who?') won the TT, beating people like Malori, Boom and Keldemann, all of whom you'd have fancied.