Road Cycling 2017 Discussion Thread

[heywoodu 15,145]

For those interested, a live stream of day 1 of the first edition of the Hammer Series in Limburg (NED):

http://nos.nl/livestream/2175535-wielrennen-hammer-series.html

 

A race with Velon teams (a lot of big teams and good cyclists, including Dumoulin) that consists of three stages. Every team can have 7 riders in the Series and for every stage they select 5 riders. Today is a 77km 'climbing stage', with 11 times a lap that has 2 climbs in it, tomorrow a sprint stage and Sunday a team time trial where they start with the time differences in the GC (which is a GC per team, not per rider). First team to cross the finish on Sunday wins  

[heywoodu 15,145]

Today is the 3rd and final stage of the Hammer Series, the Hammer Chase. The top-8 teams will ride in a team time trial format, but a little different: the leaders, Sky, will start first, the other teams will follow given the time differences in the standings. First team to cross the finish wins (so it's like a pursuit in biathlon, for example)

 

Top-8 teams, starting at 16:05
1.  Sky
2.  Sunweb 32s
3.  Nippo-Vini Fantini 1m00s
4.  Lotto Soudal 1m12s
5.  Movistar 1m29s
6.  Cannondale-Drapac 1m49s
7.  Orica-Scott 2m02s
8.  LottoNL-Jumbo 2m16s

 

Live stream:

 

If the stream doesn't work, there's some more links here:

http://www.wielerflits.nl/volg-hier/volg-hier-de-ploegenachtervolging-van-de-hammer-series-limburg-2017

[heywoodu 15,145]

Teams in 9th-16th place just had their Hammer Chase race and it looks promising and fun, so I'm excited for the A-race for the win  

[Agger 1,663]

45 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

Today is the 3rd and final stage of the Hammer Series, the Hammer Chase. The top-8 teams will ride in a team time trial format, but a little different: the leaders, Sky, will start first, the other teams will follow given the time differences in the standings. First team to cross the finish wins (so it's like a pursuit in biathlon, for example)

 

 

 

Personally it's a dream for me to see a pursuit in cycling.

It may be a bit too optimistic to have it in a GT, but I would really love to see it, not only on team level, but as an ITT.

Therefore it's lovely to see this here.

[heywoodu 15,145]

1 minute ago, Agger said:

 

Personally it's a dream for me to see a pursuit in cycling.

It may be a bit too optimistic to have it in a GT, but I would really love to see it, not only on team level, but as an ITT.

Therefore it's lovely to see this here.

There's pure chaos on the road because LottoNL has caught some teams and are now riding in a peloton with Cannondale, Vini Fantini, Movistar and Orica-Scott with a jury member trying to separate the teams without much luck 

[heywoodu 15,145]

Oh they've caught Lotto Soudal and they have now joined the now 6-team peloton 

[Agger 1,663]

1 minute ago, heywoodu said:

There's pure chaos on the road because LottoNL has caught some teams and are now riding in a peloton with Cannondale, Vini Fantini, Movistar and Orica-Scott with a jury member trying to separate the teams without much luck 

 

Yeah. I'm pretty impressed by that view

That of course also shows something they would need to consider if we ever saw an indiviual pursuit.

[heywoodu 15,145]

2 minutes ago, Agger said:

 

Yeah. I'm pretty impressed by that view

That of course also shows something they would need to consider if we ever saw an indiviual pursuit.

On the other hand, the formation of groups is perfectly normal in all other sports with a pursuit format. And yes, being in a group offers advantages in those sports as well, that's part of a pursuit. 

[heywoodu 15,145]

Sunweb closing in on Sky 

[heywoodu 15,145]

WOW, this finish!