Winners and Losers: (Re)-Inaugural edition!

by Douglas Ansel on Feb 21, 2012 6:50 PM EST

So. Many. Races. And it's only February! I tried to make sense of them in my head, but it's tough, ya know? But, I tried to help you make sense of it.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Winners and Losers. We've had a lot of fun with these things before, so we thought - why not bring them back? So, on Tuesdays, I'll do this little chit chat thingie and you can read, laugh (hopefully), tell all of us who you thought winners and losers were, and more. Really, this could be a lot of fun!

Winners

Road racing fans: The incessant stream of cyclocross posts on the front page is over (for reals, I promise I'm not writing any more til September...) and the racing has kicked off in full force. My youtube home is overflowing with videos of the last 5-10km of races thanks to CanalF10. By the way, you're the best, dude. Anyways, we only have one week of pre-cobbles anxiety to get through, then the season is ON!

Bradley Wiggins: Wiggo the twiggo made a serious deposit into his bank of self confidence over the past week. He helped destroy the field in route to setting his teammate Richie Porte up for victory on the queen stage of the Vuelta ao Algarve. Then he beat Tony Martin in the time trial two days later. Not many people get to beat Tony in TTs, even if it was by less than a second. And! Not only did Wiggins win the TT, he also helped ensure a teammate owes him some payback come July. That's going to make him feel more confident for sure, especially with having to compete with Marky Cavendish for support in le Tour.

Johnathan Tiernan Locke: Who??? Well, we all know the answer to that question thanks to the past week and half of domination by the rider on the continental Endura Racing team. The dude is simply methodical in how he rips people's legs off. Plus, he has a very pleasing bone structure, which is an important part of star quality, no?

Cuddles the Cobble: Now that all of those pesky training races are out of the way, Chris is going to be giving Cuddles a lot of love in the next few months. "It's about time!" says Cuddles, who has reportedly been feeling rather forlorn since last April.

Losers

Mark Cavendish: Isn't winning a stage at Qatar enough to show you're on track for the spring? No? Well, if you're the World Champion, evidently it is not. Now we wonder if Griepel is going to wipe the floor with him at Milan-San Remo because Cav might have lost his mojo. Horrors! See, Mark, you should learn to be like Tom Boonen. You should sandbag before Oman starts, saying it's just training. And if you get a result(s), it's just gravy!

Vincenzo Nibali: But... NIbbles won the queen stage of Oman up Green Mountain, you say! But I counter with: He still managed to loose the overall to Peter Velits. How does that happen? I could hazard guesses about time bonuses and the like... but it sucks, period. Don't you agree?

Simon Clarke: Possibly one of the first, inevitable casualties of the shift to electronic shifting. Clark was riding along happily in the final breakaway of the second day of Haut Var when the power source for his Dura Ace shifting system died. First, the insult: Clarke had to ride the final km in his 39x19, spinning madly at about 150rpm on the run into the final climb. The injury part came in the last km - Clarke had to climb the 26% ramps of the last climb without his granny gear. And still managed to finish fifth. Dude can only be wondering what could have been...Really, I don't envy the Green Edge mechanic who was there right now...

If you want to see exactly what happened, we are lucky enough to have video. Yay!

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Comments

I like the position Wiggins is putting himself in.

Helping your team mates be better racers and winners can only help later on.

by flying dog on Feb 21, 2012 7:23 PM EST reply actions

My team is hoping for Gorilla to be a cloud that won't let you see the rainbow all season..

MSR is not enough..!

Strava...? We are going for the TOP 10 this year...! Are you going to be part of something great or not?

by pablo777 on Feb 21, 2012 7:50 PM EST reply actions

Hey!

As Velits’ owner in the Ed’s League I resent the implication. Sheesh…

De cross gaat out that door.

by Chris Fontecchio on Feb 21, 2012 8:19 PM EST reply actions

Hah, have no doubt, I am happy for the peter

But I just feel bad for the nibbles.

I NEED MOAR MUD

by Douglas Ansel on Feb 21, 2012 8:38 PM EST up reply actions

"Winners and losers ...

turn the pages of my life…"

Sorry bu this thread required some Social D

~ The photographer formerly known as Fred

by Christopher See on Feb 21, 2012 9:09 PM EST reply actions

which one will i be today?

~ Gavia ~

by Jen See on Feb 21, 2012 9:19 PM EST up reply actions

Cav will be fine

He always is

by Aly Edge on Feb 21, 2012 9:26 PM EST reply actions

+1

He will get his share of the wins.
Still, it will be interesting to see how Sky manages the Yellow + Green jersey plan.

by Uphill on Feb 22, 2012 3:45 AM EST up reply actions

I wonder if he will follow the remarkable pattern he's set out

of tanking the first sprint in each Grand Tour, only to dominate (at least most of) the rest. Setting aside the ’11 Vuelta when he was unwell..

’11 Tour – 5th behind Farrar in stage 3, later winning stages 5, 7, 11, 15, and 21 (he did also lose out on stage 10, to Greipel)

’11 Giro – 2nd to Petacchi in a bit of a argy-bargy sprint in stage 2, later winning stages 10 and 12 (yeeeeeeeah…that accounted for all the straightforward sprints in this race)

’10 Vuelta – his was one of many jaws to hit the floor when Hutarovich won stage 2. He also uncharacteristically missed out on stage 5, to Farrar, but later won stages 12, 13, and 18, and the points jersey. He lost the Madrid sprint to Farrar, but he may have had a flat tire.

’10 Tour – caught behind the Stockeu massacre, Cav was unable to contest the first sprint against Petacchi due to bad luck, but he was nowhere to be seen in the second, either. He then won stages 5, 6, 11, 18, and 20.

The ‘09 Tour is actually the most recent GT at which Cav won the first sprint (he didn’t ride the ’09 Vuelta nor the ’10 Giro). Winner of stages 2, 3, 10, 11, 19, and 21 howdidhenotwinthegreenjersey.

But the pattern held at the ’09 Giro, too – Petacchi schooled him in the first two sprints, only for Cav to take 3 later on in the race. Anything before that is really before we knew to expect a whole lot from him.

It’s borderline uncanny how he (nearly) always FAILs the first sprint only to assert his dominance later.

by Aly Edge on Feb 22, 2012 4:42 AM EST up reply actions

Interesting.

Perhaps he thrives on pressure, anger and frustration and when he has momentum it goes on and on.

by Uphill on Feb 22, 2012 4:53 AM EST up reply actions

I don't think Cav would've been anywhere near the business end of the Stockeu stage anyway

And he caused the crash on stage 1, he didn’t lose it because of bad luck (he was bad luck).

Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger...

by TheFigurehead on Feb 22, 2012 5:10 AM EST up reply actions

I had the two stages reversed

Stockeu was stage 2, but there were also crashes in stage 1.

by Aly Edge on Feb 22, 2012 2:46 PM EST up reply actions

To clarify

Stage 1: crashed
Stage 2: did not crash, but caught behind. The culprit was Francesco Gavazzi.

by Aly Edge on Feb 22, 2012 2:49 PM EST up reply actions

I just have a need to argue

But if a motorcycle crashes while avoiding to hit a rider, the driver of that motorcycle is doing something wrong (like not keeping a safe distance). One can’t blame the other rider’s crashes on Gavazzi.

And I seem to remember Cav got dropped on the climb.

Badger, badger, badger, badger, badger, badger...

by TheFigurehead on Feb 22, 2012 3:22 PM EST up reply actions

Well even if you're right, it just proves the pattern all the more

Bungled the first sprint, had no business in the second, won all the others.

by Aly Edge on Feb 23, 2012 12:44 AM EST up reply actions

I kind of hate to say it

but Valverde is a winner as well. Then again, as a believer in 2nd chances and 3rd chances too, I don’t hate to say it; I simply wish him well. It of course, remains to be seen if he will be the force he once was, but he certainly has caught my attention.

Except for guys that got hurt, too early for losers I think.

Anyway, I look forward to the ‘winners and losers’ posts, Douglas. Sounds like fun.

by sebastiandeluded on Feb 21, 2012 10:50 PM EST reply actions

I feel the same about Valverde too

I’ve always liked him. I just wish I knew it was for real. Either way, the second half of April just got a lot more exciting…

I NEED MOAR MUD

by Douglas Ansel on Feb 22, 2012 12:12 AM EST up reply actions

Yeah.

I like the way he rides. Suspect that it’s at least mostly genuine talent. But one never knows… Not sure how I feel about him being quite this strong without any racing for a year. Those horrible nagging doubts.

by Ed K on Feb 23, 2012 12:14 AM EST up reply actions