Tour of Britain 'Spoilers'

[Slaav]

Just watching the highlights from yesterday and something absolutely jumped out at me....

In the Vuelta, it felt as rare when we saw Team Sky doing its stuff - i.e. all lined up and controlling things. Pretty much most stages in this ToB, it always seems to be there. With Brad sitting at the back or one up from the back with a nice Sky 'train' ahead of him.

Casting back to Froome and TdF, we didn't see the Sky 'monster' working at full chat that often either.

Is it simply the fact that ToB is a much shorter race and therefore not as challenging (terrain flatter and not as hard either it seems) which allows more team mates to stick together?

Or is it the 'Brad factor' ?

And lastly, from what I have seen, Stannard is a brute of a SD? The guy is awesome in the work he pumps out totally selflessly?

 

[Mattonsea]

Just watching the highlights from yesterday and something absolutely jumped out at me....

In the Vuelta, it felt as rare when we saw Team Sky doing its stuff - i.e. all lined up and controlling things. Pretty much most stages in this ToB, it always seems to be there. With Brad sitting at the back or one up from the back with a nice Sky 'train' ahead of him.

Casting back to Froome and TdF, we didn't see the Sky 'monster' working at full chat that often either.

Is it simply the fact that ToB is a much shorter race and therefore not as challenging (terrain flatter and not as hard either it seems) which allows more team mates to stick together?

Or is it the 'Brad factor' ?

And lastly, from what I have seen, Stannard is a brute of a SD? The guy is awesome in the work he pumps out totally selflessly?

Stannard is the linchpin of the team, all ways there .

 

[gavroche]

Just watching the highlights from yesterday and something absolutely jumped out at me....

In the Vuelta, it felt as rare when we saw Team Sky doing its stuff - i.e. all lined up and controlling things. Pretty much most stages in this ToB, it always seems to be there. With Brad sitting at the back or one up from the back with a nice Sky 'train' ahead of him.

Casting back to Froome and TdF, we didn't see the Sky 'monster' working at full chat that often either.

Is it simply the fact that ToB is a much shorter race and therefore not as challenging (terrain flatter and not as hard either it seems) which allows more team mates to stick together?

Or is it the 'Brad factor' ?

And lastly, from what I have seen, Stannard is a brute of a SD? The guy is awesome in the work he pumps out totally selflessly?

I think you are right there, shorter hills, and flatter terrain, also only a few top riders present and only 1 week long.

 

[Noodley]

At this years Tour Team Sky had a few injuries and mishaps early on which impacted on their ability to control the race from the front e.g. Thomas crashed in stage 1, Stannard picked up a back injury before leaving Corsica, Kennaugh ended up in a ditch...which I think all combined to Porte burning himself out and losing his second place on the stage where he lost over 15 minutes (stage 8 or 9 I think) as he was doing the work of many.

After that Kennaugh and Porte rode well for Froome whilst the others did as much as they could, although there were a few poorer than expected performances from some of the team.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

Whilst I'm very happy that its likely Brad's going to win.....it feels a bit of a let down that it was quite simply a short time trial that won the Tour, so early on.

Or is it this that has made others try that bit harder for stage wins and Sky have let them go, as long as they weren't GC contenders?

 

[Kies]

The tour is too short imo, and doesn't really capture the essence of a national tour. Guess it will take time for it to be an established event

 

[Firestorm]

The tour is too short imo, and doesn't really capture the essence of a national tour. Guess it will take time for it to be an established event

Isnt it a standard length for anything other than a big 3 Grand tour ?
As for getting established it , the Milk race went on for a while without going longer than a week

 

[Kies]

I'm unfairly comparing it to the tdf or Vuelta is guess.
The British countryside has so much to offer,I wish we could see more of it on a televised British bike race

 

[Noodley]

Whilst I'm very happy that its likely Brad's going to win.....it feels a bit of a let down that it was quite simply a short time trial that won the Tour, so early on.

Or is it this that has made others try that bit harder for stage wins and Sky have let them go, as long as they weren't GC contenders?

That's how stage races work sometimes. In fact that's how it works most times.

 

[400bhp]

That's how stage races work sometimes. In fact that's how it works most times.

aye, could pretty much say the same for Brad's TDF win.

And it's not all down to the TT as Brad has been in the lead groups all the time.

I wonder, if the TT was drier, whether the TT would have been closer?

Looking to seeing Yates in GT in a few years.

 

[Froome with a view !]

I think there might be a way. If you know what time you took the photo (most digital cameras record that) then you can go to the Tour of Britain website and find the finishing times of all the riders. You can also download the start list and then you can just back track to find out who finished at round about the time you took the photo, and there's a teams section on the website so you can compare the coloured jerseys with the one in your photo.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for that mate,but having visited the ToB site last night and looking at the various times of the riders, I think that will be a little complex,for me anyway ! so I wouldn't hold your breath on that one,I'll try the 'colour' option instead !

 

[Noodley]

That's how stage races work sometimes. In fact that's how it works most times.

I should also have added that in order for a TT to matter in the GC, that a rider needs to be consistent throughout a stage race - e.g. Tony Martin could potentially put minutes into some of the GC contenders and still be 20 minutes behind on GC as he's not consistent in flat or mountain stages.

 

[Rohloff_Brompton_Rider]

I should also have added that in order for a TT to matter in the GC, that a rider needs to be consistent throughout a stage race - e.g. Tony Martin could potentially put minutes into some of the GC contenders and still be 20 minutes behind on GC as he's not consistent in flat or mountain stages.

Yep, I suppose your right, whilst it seems boring watching Sky stranglehold a race..it also needs to be admired that putting in consistent rides day after day must be tiring. So why do more than you need.

It has been an exciting race, it's a pity Quintana didn't do as well as he did in the TdF.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I wonder, thinking back to the Olympic road race, whether Sky decided to be more selective about when the train gets in motion - other teams were relying on simply drafting them.

 

[on the road]

This isn't a very good photo but I'm showing it anyway because it clearly shows that Ian Stannard suffered an injury somewhere on the time trial. If he crashed during the time trial and still managed to finish second then he must have been really bombing it.