Varese 08: Men's Elite RR on Universalsports
by Ruthann on Sep 28, 2008 7:26 AM EDT
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PrintUniversalsports has started their coverage, and we are on Lap 3, with a gap of about 5 minutes between the breakaway and the peloton. The three riders in the breakaway are Ochoa Quintero, Chuzhda, and Christian Poos.
The first, live thread, is on lap 6 or 7, Bruce says, which is a mighty Bruce Gap, perhaps the greatest one that we at the PdC have ever seen!
The weather looks great, cool and sunny. Lovkvist just got a radio change. And to complete my 75 words, Bettini has announced his retirement, I see, so I've got to think he is super-motivated to win today. I, personally, am rooting for Oscartio!, as I'd love to see him take a 4th jersey to cap off the year.
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The peloton crosses the finish line, starting Lap 4, with a gap of 8 minutes over the peloton.
Oh, crash, but they’re all back up: Barry, Roche, Gusev, a few more. It happened right after the feed zone. The peloton is still at a slow pace, so they should catch back up to the peloton.
The leaders are
Richard Ochoa (Venezuela) , Christian Poos (Luxembourg), Oleg Chuzda (Ukraine)
And Ochoa rides for Deekweegeeohvanni, but that is all I know about them…
I’m sticking with universalsports coverage, as the quality of the video is SO much better than the real=time sites I can access. I hope others will join me here, as they wake up! I might have to abandon this thread, if it gets too lonely :-)
Poos has been the LUX TT champ 7 times, Frankie says!`
I’ve also been out of touch since Friday, so this investigation about the Luxembourg team and Frank S. is news to me. He has started today.
The breakaway has crossed the start/finish line, starting Lap 5.
The gap is 10:55 so. I can see Burghardt near the front of the peloton.
Lap 5 was done at about 40kph by the breakaway. Puncture and wheel change for Sammy Sanchez.
The gap is 12' as the peloton starts Lap 5.
It’s really difficult to tell who is who without the trade team jerseys, I think. It looks like the riders have their trade team affiliations on the side of their shorts this year, which makes it a little more complicated (at least for me. The coffee is starting to kick in, though!)
They are showing Cadel, sitting with the Aussie TV commentators. Looks pretty serious.
The peloton is still taking it easy, shedding their jackets,
eating. Frankie says the peloton can easily give them a 1/2 hour gap before easily bringing them in, but I very much doubt they’ll give them 20 minutes. Of course, what do I know? :—)
Is anybody else out there? No gap time given lately, last time check was 12:55.
The video quality is just excellent on universalsports, I have to give them
props for that. I tried to access the euro-coverage, but the videostream was so bad (slide shots, really) that I had to stick with universalsports.
The weather is just gorgeous. And the crowds are huge!
The breakaway is about 1k from the start/finish line, completing
Lap 5. Hopefully we’ll get a new timecheck as the peloton crosses the line.
So, best guess, the universalsports coverage is about
an hour and 20 minutes behind the live action (on the other LIVE thread that is really live.)
The peloton is heading towards the start/finish line now,
and the gap is 14:02.
They are still taking it easy, bunched up across the road. Burghardt is still near the front, as is Robbie Hunter. More shedding of undershirts, jackets.
Hi Ruthann
I’m almost here but my Universal connection is not here. :-(
I’ll try refresh
I googled it, it must be true.
Hi! Boy,l am I glad to see you!
Same thing happened to me: try going back to the home page and entering the coverage from there….it got me in right away, after repeated attempts of entering through the cycling-schedule page….
And the peloton finally comes through the 1k point to the start/finish line,
so the gap must be more than 15 minutes now….
The commentary is driving me crazy.
Why are they talking down to people who have to seek out their coverage.
I googled it, it must be true.
The course really narrows down near the finish,
doesn’t it? Still lots of chit-chat in the peloton, still not chasing.
Frankie saying that team Columbia is "doomed" now
after this season, as they’ll never repeat the success that they’ve had this year. Geez, Frankie, “doomed?”
Duarte has some sort of controversy concerning testosterone test last year.
Don’t know if that what he was talking about.
I googled it, it must be true.
Ah! I have been off the grid for a few days, so I understand what you are saying about
Duarte. But no: Frankie was talking about Team Columbia, and now that they’ve lost a few riders like Ciolek, they’ll never be able to do as well next year as this year.
And the breakaway crosses the start/finish line to start Lap 7.
38.92 kph was the average speed of the breakaway for lap 6.
Break in the coverage! What the heck?
Did that announcer just say that you could switch to another universalsportstv site? I didn’t catch that….
Whew, it's back.
But they are starting the race over! What?
How to I get back to Lap 7 coverage? I watched this coverage 2 hours ago! This is terrible!
About an 18 minute gap, about 1/2 way through the 15 lap race.
And the Italians are picking up the pace, and are on the front of the peloton.
And another break in the action. Time to have some breakfast, I’m thinking…..
And...we're back! The breakaway is starting Lap 8.
Bruse & the Italian team is turning it up on the front of the peloton.
Avg speed 37.72kph for the breakaway on Lap 7.
There are four Italians on the front of the peloton chase now, woo hoo!
Do you think they'll ever have a World Championships on cobbles?
I think it would keep the earlier laps more exciting, especially if there was some “weather”.
I googled it, it must be true.
Ooooh, that would be fab!
Put a stretch of, say, 3k of cobbles on a 18k course? Make it 250+ks?
Of course, you’d have all the PR contenders at the finish of the race, and not too many others :-)
Agreed. And just over 200 riders started the race,
so it’s a big peloton! They’ve got their trade-teams name on the side of their shorts, near as I can figure, if that helps you? (It’s just confusing me.)
It is funny how the team kit becomes part of the rider.
It’s enough of an adjustment for me when someone switches teams—having a whole peloton in different jerseys makes really hard to identify anyone.
The Italians have turned it off, as has the rest of the peloton.
They are just about to start Lap 8, but the gap should be about 14’ now, so they did take some of the gap back…
Barriered - yes, I think so. Big crowds, lots of flags.
Darn it, another break??
There’s a large contingent of Norwegians on the right-hand (our right-hand) side of the course at the bottom of the 2nd climb; they are quite amusing! :-)
I have to say, since I've watched the coverage all this time,
that there are lots of Germans at the front of the race. Like, all of them, near the front the whole time so far. I’m just sayin…Ciolek would be a nice win. (But, imho, not Schumi…)
I don't know; depends on who's got better form, I guess.
I know the point of the race is to grind the pace out so the final selection is probably fewer than 20 riders, but I’ve read some places that a sprint finish is likely. (Rubbing hands excitedly) We’re about to see!
Yum - oatmeal and hot tea on a sunday morning
in the dark in front of my computer. Nice way to start the day.
yes. It is 6:49 am. I notice it is just starting to dawn right now.
Sun isn’t up though.
Chocolate chip muffin – sounds good too.
The peloton is starting to get stretched out now,
so the gap should be coming down. Did anyone catch that last gap?
Well, my computer just informed me it's been downloading updates
then I got audio back, but not video. Will refresh now.
They've got those barriers tht have the little feet sticking out into the road,
did you see that guy in the breakaway almost lose it on that chicane there?
Good morning
So there are two threads going because the Euro feeds and the Universal Sports feed are out of sync?
Oh. I started this thread when we were on Lap 2. ES was on Lap 7.
So, maybe 5 laps difference, then. I think.
They are really speeding along now!
An Italian has been on the front now for a lap or two. And 2 Germans. Markus Berghardt has been in the front this whole race, so far.
The first 2 hours of this race had zero breaks in the coverage.
This must be the video stream from RAI, where they take their commercial breaks, you think?
Sounds logical.
Commercial breaks without the annoyance of commercials—works for me. After all, you have to get up and refresh the coffee every once in a while.
Yeah, there are about 6 Spaniards riding directly behind (aside) the
6 or 7 Azzuri on the front. The gap is a little over 5’ now. We just had the first VV sighting a few moments ago.
There are now 6 Belgian riders behind the Italians and
there are still a few Germans up there at the front, too. Enjoy the rest of the time in the breakaway, guys, they’re coming to get you!
The pelton is still quite huge, still.
Now the Belgians and the Italians together at the front of the peloton.
This climb, I think they are on the Ronchi,
is really tearing up the legs of the peloton, which is stretched out really finely. Small gaps opening up, maybe??
So, fwiw
the race just finished. So be careful on the poking around cycling sites, if you intend to remain unspoiled :)
and just shifted my window over to the right to cover up Universal Sports' headlines
in case they post the result as a news item before the end of the race broadcast.
There's a little break trying to get away, incl
Bettini & Knees, but the peloton is chasing back, led by Cozza.
They're pretty much all together again now, the peloton.
Gap 35: to the one leader, as the other two have dropped back (I missed how that happened.)
The Polish rider is caught by the peloton,
led by Bruse, who is back on the front. They’re on the Ronchi climb again.
3 Spanish, 3 Italians, Kolobnev.
Rodriguez attacks, marked by Cunego (shit, Cunego, Ballan & Bettini in the break? Hooboy!)
They've only got a couple hundred meters ahead of the peloton,
chased by the Belgian team. They’re about to start Lap 13. 208K raced so far. Gap 12".
So, of course, time for a break.
I'm fading fast, guys, as I've now completed 4:44:24 on today's race.
Anyone still out there? The race is getting quite interesting!
I'm still here, for now.
I hate to leave with 3 laps to go, but there’s a plan brewing by the other members of the household to go do the mountain bike trail.
Joachim Rodriguez going a little ahead of the breakaway on the climb,
joined by Garate and Cunego. Rodriguez is flying!
HI guys!
I know who won, but am tempted to tune into Universal just to actually see it this time. Alt feeds were pretty bad.
"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."
by Chris Fontecchio on Sep 28, 2008 11:45 AM EDT reply actions
Big window
makes a big difference
"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."
by Chris Fontecchio on Sep 28, 2008 11:48 AM EDT up reply actions
Ok, your'e out west, and know the winner already: what does that do
to the Podium Cafe space/time continuum?
The announcers anticipate that this pace will
cause a lot of riders to abandon shortly. They have not posted a timecheck, so we don’t know what the gap is.
I think they are all back together again.
Well carry on
I should stay silent, I don’t want to spoil anything.
"If writing too much about the Classics is wrong, I don't want to be right."
by Chris Fontecchio on Sep 28, 2008 11:50 AM EDT reply actions
6 riders out front of the peloton on the climb. Garate one of them.
Paolini goes Boom. Rebellin chasing on the front of the peloton, still going up the climb of the Ronchi.
Still a little more than 2 laps to go. Pfannberger +1 chasing the 5 leaders.
The gap is still v. small, maybe 20". And: break.
All righty: I'm 5:08:30 into this race, maybe it's time for a beer?
Um, it’s only 11am here, I’d better hold off…
Yes, but it's Sunday
change it to a mimosa or bloody mary, and you can claim you’re just having brunch.
There's not much of a gap now.
And the peloton is about 1/3 the size that it was 2 laps ago! They’re crossing the start/finish line, about to start Lap 14! Gap only 8".
And J-Rod spritely jumps out the front of the
breakaway, as they are caught. They’re on the Montello climb. Paolini and Noval leave the race.
So, on the descent of the Montello now,
and the peloton is all together. There’s still quite a large group there, at least 70+ riders. With a Belgian and Spaniard at the front.
Question: if one of the retirees wins today
will no one wear the rainbow jersey next year? or would it go to whoever finishes 2nd?
Good question. I'd bet that the champion could be persuaded to un-retire :-)
Garate stops. Ciolek cramping, and pulled out to the side, stopped!
J-Rod follows him, and 3 others.
Looks like another Spaniard, a German and a Belgian there.
And “yes” about the break thing….
In the attack on the front,
Ballan, Van Avermaet, Breschel, didn’t get the rest. Still have a little gap. Wegmann in there, too. Just a little more than 1 lap to go now.
So Gesink catches the break. Cunego going backwards.
Wegmann at the front, followed by Ballan, Breschel & there are about 10 guys in there, total. The peloton is quite a bit back, they’ve got a nice gap going up the Montello.
Cunego is still up there. Breschel goes to the front,
followed by Gesink, Rebellin, and the others follow. Valverde and Bettini at the front of the peloton, with Boonen. Zabel there, too. No gap time given.
Now that the second group bridged it's really hard to tell.
Andreau really hasn’t been any help.
I googled it, it must be true.
Rebellin, Cunego, Ballan,
Breschel, Gesink, Wegmann, J-Rod, Grivko, & Lovkvist, Van Goolen & ?? in the front.
Barry and Kolobnev chasing.
Peloton has given up.
No time gaps given. They are on the descent of the Montello, heading towards the last climb of the Ronchi.
Ballan attacks out the front, with J-Rod following.
Still 6 guys, with 3 of them Italian. And, a break again. Gah!
I know the breaks are only a few minutes long, but...boy, they are
coming at me too fast to keep track of the action, it’s confusing.
So Pfannberger attacks now.
With six chasing him and another 10 riders fallen behind from the front group. Ballan and Cunego still up there. The peloton has sat up, big time.
Rebellin, Cunego taking turns attacking,
J-Rod is there, final 4k of the race! Ballan is still there, too, at the back. Ballan goes!
No one helping Sorenson in the back, Ballan is goind to do it, he looks so
strong!!! Vai Alessandro!!!
Ballan has time to post-up and celebrate! Bettini is happy, in the back!
I think Italy took 2nd, too?
Ballan wins, then
Cunego, Breschel, Rebellin, Grivko, JRod, Wegmann, Pfannberger, Nuyens. Bettini getting a HUGE round of applause as he finishes.
Ballan looks fantastic in the rainbow stripes.
I can’t wait for the Ronde and Paris-Roubaix…is it April yet? :-)
Oh, ZoeRochelle, no worries! Feel better soon, dear. Remember: tea with lemon and honey.
And my grandma always said a little shot of brandy in there is good for the soul. :-)
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