ToB Stage 3

Ah, it's been done. My apologies. Right, so a Cav win?

If things had been right. Cav should have won stage 1 and 2. But it didn't work out.

Looking at the profile of EVERY stage. Cav could have won all 8 stages. None are that hilly, nothing much above 400 meters.

Purists would have had Cav/Farrar every stage!!

How many drand tours have people gone into stage 3 with 78.3 credits to spare!!

You couldn't go in it a grand tour because of the split 4/5 even without the split, I doubt it would happen.

But the ToB is far from being a grand tour. It might as well be a Cat 4 race for all the entertainment we've seen so far. Infact, I think a Cat 4 would give more value for money

Sprint 1 :-
1 Rowe 2 Van Poppel 3 Williams 4 Opie

Breakaway is:

Some live updates available here:

http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/road/article/roa20120911-road-Live-text...

You guys beat me to the updates

Hope you all took out Downing and Van poppel as Ive put them in

According to the live tracker (and the worst case timetable) they should be over the first and second KoM by now. Wonder when we might find out who won them? The results/live service for this race is crap

In:Handley and Rowe
Out:Farrar and Sanchez

Cavendish
Rowe
Van-Poppel
Handley
Konig
Tiernan-Locke
Wytnick
Haas
Howard

I'll suffer for being House-less

KOM 2: House, Sulzberger, Hawkins, Kreder, Williams
KOM 3: Sulzberger, House, Williams, Hawkins, Kreder

Cavendish
Rowe
Urtasun
House
Bobridge
Howard
Downing
Tiernan-Locke
Von Poppel

Back later. Got to fill in a job app now

Pablo Urtasun
Bradley Wiggins
Samuel Sanchez
Aidis Kruopis
Mark Cavendish
Jon Tiernan-Locke
Kristian House
Russell Downing
Boy van Poppel

I did look at taking Kreder in aswell. Thought tomorrow was his day

Carrara and Jarc abandoned

team today

Van Poppel(for Farrar)-obviously
Urtasun(for Bagdonas)-after stupidly taking him out for S2
Sabatini-one of the group at 11secs down
Cavendish-stage favourite and GC scorer
Basso-expect him to be a GC top 10 soon
House-probably down to he and Urtasun for the KOM
Downing-top 10 for stage today I hope and GC scorer;I always had tomorrow stage 4 for him especially if the wind gets up in Blackpool.
Rowe-GC scorer plus likely to nick a yodel or two,Cav's leadout man also
Forster-probably coming out tomorrow

My illustrious team for today is

Mark Cavendish (SKY)
Samuel Sanchez (EUS)
Adis Kruopis (GRE)
Ian Bibby (END)
Jon Tiernan-Locke (END)
Pablo Urtasun (EUS)
Boy van Poppel (UHC)
Bradley Wiggins (SKY)
Jack Bobridge (GRE)

After looking at the profile for the race i think Sanchez will be out tommorrow unless he decides to risk going for a long one when they are in Wales.

NO Vanmarke....stay where you are, you were my other man I said nah...tomorrow

I did the same, considered Kreder and Vanmarke but decided to save the transfers and see what happened, also wasn't really sure who to drop, JTL looks to be taking it easy now although he might be saving himself but every other one of my riders I wanted to keep.

Cav
from someone, then someone else, then another Sky rider.....I think it was Rowe

Just doing some Porter style commentary

Highlight of the day.....Bernie patting Cav on the shoulder and laughing as Cav punches him and smiles

Cav
Howard
Kruopis
Rowe
Bennett
Downing
Van Poppel
McEvoy
Markus
Barker

Is that your team or the results Simon?

Sorry - results - trying to type quick from the Eurosport screen.

1,3,6,7,10 for me

1,3,6,7 for me.

BUT everyone now has the same riders

1, 2, 4, 6, 7 plus some other standings points and House in the break.

I can see this race being a bit boring fantasy wise as we get further in. When does it start to get hilly? Or have they just designed a race for Cavendish?

My top tip. Forget to put a team in for stage 1 then pick the best riders from that stage with your unlimited transfers, worked for me

1,6,7 for me why isnt martias sprinting or ghyllebert or caruso

It doesn't get hilly. Thats the problem. Nothing much above 400m, which I could handle. So Cav will be fine for all stages.

As I said yesterday. If he'd won 1 and 2 he could have had all 8.

But as he's just said. He wants to stay in the rainbow and not the "gold"

My problem is doubting myself on break guys. I took in SS incase today was his last day. Thought he might hit the break and I left out Kreder

Also, why have I not taken Rowe in for simple points

Well i'm improving each day. Got 2,7,10
Reaaly hoping someone different goes on a break tomorrow and spices things up!

1 2 Mark Cavendish Sky Procycling 3h 54' 30''
2 54 Leigh Howard Orica - GreenEDGE st
3 55 Aidis Kruopis Orica - GreenEDGE st
4 6 Luke Rowe Sky Procycling st
5 122 Sam Bennett An Post Sean Kelly st
6 13 Russell Downing Endura Racing st
7 36 Boy Van Poppel UnitedHealthcare st
8 12 Jonathan McEvoy Endura Racing st
9 84 Barry Markus Vacansoleil - DCM st
10 151 Yanto Barker UK Youth Cycling st
11 142 Nathan Haas Garmin - Sharp st
12 154 Chris Opie UK Youth Cycling st
13 106 Daniel Schorn Team NetApp st
14 62 Marco Benfatto Liquigas - Cannondale st
15 76 Rony Martias Saur Sojasun st
16 113 Ben Grenda Rapha Condor st
17 24 Rico Rogers Node 4 - Giordana st
18 131 Graham Briggs Raleigh - GAC st
19 66 Paolo Longo Borghini Liquigas - Cannondale st
20 146 Steele Von Hoff Garmin - Sharp st

GC :-
1 54 Leigh Howard Orica - GreenEDGE 13h 16' 28''
2 2 Mark Cavendish Sky Procycling st
3 36 Boy Van Poppel UnitedHealthcare at 0' 4''
4 6 Luke Rowe Sky Procycling st
5 76 Rony Martias Saur Sojasun at 0' 10''
6 13 Russell Downing Endura Racing at 0' 12''
7 146 Steele Von Hoff Garmin - Sharp at 0' 16''
8 142 Nathan Haas Garmin - Sharp st
9 145 Sep Vanmarcke Garmin - Sharp st
10 122 Sam Bennett An Post Sean Kelly at 0' 17''

Sprints :-
1 26 Peter Williams Node 4 - Giordana 27
2 76 Rony Martias Saur Sojasun 12
3 111 Kristian House Rapha Condor 10
4 31 Jonny Clarke UnitedHealthcare 7
5 65 Matthias Krizek Liquigas - Cannondale 7

KoM :-
1 111 Kristian House Rapha Condor 46
2 46 Pablo Urtasun Euskaltel Euskadi 41
3 114 Richard Handley Rapha Condor 32
4 26 Peter Williams Node 4 - Giordana 32
5 132 Russell Hampton Raleigh - GAC 28

And, for gkam Points :-
1 36 Boy Van Poppel UnitedHealthcare 36
2 13 Russell Downing Endura Racing 34
3 6 Luke Rowe Sky Procycling 33
4 54 Leigh Howard Orica - GreenEDGE 29
5 2 Mark Cavendish Sky Procycling 29

Last man :-
94 31 Jonny Clarke UnitedHealthcare at 5' 8''

NonFinishers
82 Matteo Carrara Vacansoleil - DCM
104 Blaz Jarc Team NetApp

Combativity
1 111 Kristian House Rapha Condor

WOW, Most of the top 20 today enough to get you on the stage high scores with the top 2 taking the top 2 places

Thirdoverall forthestagetoday...best yetthisyezar. Sold ss

232 5th on the stage. If I hadn't had taken Howard out after stage 1 I could have saved a transfer and got someone else in like Urtasun. Got about 87 points free! Most expensive rider after Cav is Kroupis at 3.6. It's all a bit silly but I suppose I'll keep playing. They need to put some hills near the end of stages to make it a bit more unpredictable, then breaks might succeed.

Same Alan. I still have 85.2 to spend. The lack of stars has

1, made this race even more boring than the ToB is anyway
2, left everyone will around the same team
3, left the same riders scoring day in day out

Its a yawn fest

It's not just the ToB that's like this, there are a few other 'sprinter friendly' races at the same level. The problem for the ToB though is that it doesn't fit into the buildup for a bigger race meaning its kind of pointless and doesn't attract a high caliber of sprinter except for Cav for whom its an easy win (in theory) at his home race.

If the race fell in late May/early June as a TdF buildup race it might attract more big names.

It's true, Tour of Qatar and Eneco tour were similar but had better fields. Qatar has a geographical problem though, we don't. They could mix up the stages a bit more. A few hilltop or near hilltop finishes earlier on in the race, as well as some sprint stages, to open up the GC a bit. Maybe start with a timetrial in a big city to attract people going for the Worlds TT. The organisers could make it better with a little thought; it's not just the time of year although that is a problem. Don't think they could change the time of year easily either; Crit. de Dauph. and Tour de Suisse are the big TdF warm-ups - nothing is going to change that. The season is crowded. Maybe something pre-Giro? But it's probably stuck where it is; just the route could be tinkered with.

Agreed, the CdD and TdS are the big TdF warm up races for climbers, but actually, most of the sprinters go elsewhere to the smaller flatter races (that's what Greenedge did to 'perfect' their sprint train). You're right though, the calendar is crowded and unfortunately in order to move the ToB something else would have to give way and no race with a prime place in the calender is going to give that up.

I agree, making it a 'Worlds' prep race designed to give a light test to riders building up to the Worlds with both a ITT (on a flat or hilly course dependent on the Worlds course of similar length) or TTT and at least one stage that has a similar finish (uphill/lumpy/flat) to the Worlds would be sensible from the organisers.

What I fear though is that they have fallen into a rut of just designing a course to suit Cav assuming that most crowds will only be bothered to see him and Team Sky race. They know they don't have the hills for a proper mountain GC battle so they pander to Britain's other major cycling force and have a week of flat stages making the race a Cav-athon.

Without world tour status the organisers can't attract all of the top teams, can't get proper TV coverage and need to rely on British news organisations to pick up the results and publicise the race. With that in mind they need Cav to win because if you look at the BBC they only ever report on the race from a 'Cav won' or 'Cav got beaten' angle, not actually reporting on the race itself which is sad given that it's the biggest race in this country.

Its never going to get a decent slot in the calender until the organisers get their acts together....There are some great climbs in this country if put near a finish or as a finish would test even the pros...The stages are tedious and dull,the live commentary is a joke and the website results update is as speedy as me going up Alpe d`Huez.....Stage is in my hometown tomorrow....intend to pitch myself on the finish line all day....And so if you see someone throttling Hugh Porter....its not me honest...

Again, why would the ToB organisers throw in summit finishes or tough climbs if those stages are less likely to get coverage than a Cavendish win/crash/lose sprint stage?

It's a profile game for them. They need to increase the race's profile through more media coverage in order to attract teams who want to use that profile to sell their sponsors. Higher profile => bigger teams attending => better racing (in theory) => even higher profile.

In the past to get media coverage they've had to rely on British riders doing well, specifically household names. Having an exciting finish up a brutally steep climb might be good for the small TV audience but a random French/Spanish/Columbian winning won't make much impact on the BBC or in the papers, so they resort to the safe tactic of having Cavendish be able to compete in every stage finish.

Totally disagree with you...The race needs marketing and making more attractive to the top overseas teams and continental audience....With the boom in british cycling the race does not need marketing in this country as much,that will look after itself.....Its supposed to be the `Tour of Britain` not the `Tour For Cav`....

I will be at the Stoke stage and am really disapointed with the change to the finish. It was the one really testing finish they had, although the group was always together coming into the finish, it was always much to narrow and steep for a bunch finish.

Now they have changed it and it will be pretty much a flat finish on a wider road. (may have something to do with building of the new bus station) but still disapointing

However a change of route means it passes the bottom of my street so will watch it there rather than at the finish line this year

Agree with you TER about the stage finish...although I do think that the stage route looks better this year...Could see attacks around Rushton/Lask Edge area...Where abouts are you,Im in Tunstall...

Sorry, but have to disagree again.

The one big thing that the ToB has over continental races is the potential for large scale coverage in a huge media market that isn't tapped as much as mainland Europe, ie Britain.

When it comes to pro-cycling the TdF gets good coverage in Britain, as does some of the other smaller races but mainly through Eurosport, not on free-to-air TV. That means that the infiltration of the team's sponsors will always be limited by the nature of Eurosport's audience (people who are already fans of the sport, know the teams and are willing to pay for coverage). Think of it in the same terms as F1, the teams will always prefer to have the sport on free-to-air TV so that their sponsors get more coverage and therefore pay more money to sponsor the teams.

Increasing coverage of the event as a whole in Britain makes it a more attractive race for teams, not increasing coverage in Europe where they're already pretty saturated and the sponsors are visible. That means that the organisers want to extract the maximum bang for their buck from UK media outlets. Cav winning every stage will acheive that more than random breakaway winners riding for UHC, Netapp or Euskatel.

I agree that over time, on the back of the boom in cycling in this country, the race can move away from a Brit centric view to one that concentrates on quality racing (because the viewers will be more knowledgeable, more interested and more supportive of other teams/riders) but as it stands all it's trying to do is sell itself to the nation on the back of the nation's riders successes.

Audiences improve by having interesting racing,interesting commentary and not the bore festival currently on offer....You can throw as much money as you like at an event....if its not entertaining then people will not watch it....and trust me this is not entertaining....If it wasnt for my interest in the fantasy game it would be switched off....

Yeh the stage route does look better in general just the finish annoyed me.

Im in Milton