Eindhoven TTT

Dumb, dumb idea. Can't see it lasting more than 1 or 2 seasons.

Maybe the Eindhoven TT goes past his house??

Scrap the Pro Tour altogether, I say.

Jep it was because of the lack of protour races in holland........and what makes it stupid is that only 6 members are allowed on a team in the TTT. If 8/9 riders would be accepted all the big guns preparing for the tour would come. Now it's some silly race.....with teams sending their b-squad!

DiabloScott said:

I can't for the life of me figure out why the ProTour folks thought this would bring to the calendar. It appears the winning team will earn PT points but individuals will get nothing.

Maybe Hein V just just wanted to give Holland another race. Now they have Amstel Gold, TTT, and Tour de Benelux...

I think it's a dumb idea but it might be good spectating. A GPEddyMerckx type race would have been a better choice, with both riders splitting the points.

MJtje said:

Jep it was because of the lack of protour races in holland........and what makes it stupid is that only 6 members are allowed on a team in the TTT. If 8/9 riders would be accepted all the big guns preparing for the tour would come. Now it's some silly race.....with teams sending their b-squad!

The 6-man format comes at the request of the teams, not the organizers. I think maybe the teams were planning on sending their B-squad anyway and wanted to reduce them to a minimum also.

There's got to be a better way to acknowledge Holland's importance to bike racing than this. How about a ProTour 6-day?

Yeah what were the teams thinking......I seriously don't understand there request. And make things worse the event is broadcasted by Sporza (belgium sportschannel)........NOS (dutch) is passed. Weird to say the least!

And yes there should be a better way........but we do have a lot of good races. Olympia's tour (big tour for top amateurs and talents: T. Dekker won last year), Veenendaal-Veenendaal (E. Dekker won last year), Ster-elektro tour.......and then amstel and tour of benelux. But serious only Limburg is exciting for races, because it is has hills (same hills as amstel) for the rest Holland is flat. Ever been there.......flatter then Holland I don't know! We do have a lot of wind, but I don't like stages were there are flyers all over the place......and the strongest and smartest team wins. So like you say maybe six-day races...

DiabloScott said:

The 6-man format comes at the request of the teams, not the organizers. I think maybe the teams were planning on sending their B-squad anyway and wanted to reduce them to a minimum also.

There's got to be a better way to acknowledge Holland's importance to bike racing than this. How about a ProTour 6-day?

It is not clear to me that the teams will send their B squads. For example, here is the 6-person team that I think DC will send:

Savoldelli
Popovych
Armstrong
Hincapie
Noval
Ace

They will leave out Beltran because he is their weakest TTTist (although he is already pretty good for somebody who is a good climber). They will leave out Padrnos because he is resting from the Giro and because he is a proven powerhouse in TTTs. They will leave out one of either Ace or Chechu because they can only field a team of six. Of the two, they will probably leave out Chechu because Ace is the stronger TTTist. They want to see how their strongest TTTists work (leaving aside Padrnos) without Eki.

Noval is likely to get on because he was dropped last year and needs more practice.

Popo and Paolo get on because they are supposed to be bonding, as you can see by Bruyneel pairing them up for the Luc challenge. Bruyneel is very smart; he wants Popo and Paolo to become friends so that will control any competitiveness between them once LA leaves (not that they are that type). He will also choose Popo and Paolo because Popo has never TTT'd in the TdF, and Paolo has never TTT'd with this squad. Popo has already been using his knowledge of Italian to convey team and other useful info to Paolo, per an LA interview a few months ago.

I thought/heard armstrong opted not to come.....for the reason that teams only can field 6 riders. That't the same with other teams!

musette said:

It is not clear to me that the teams will send their B squads. For example, here is the 6-person team that I think DC will send:

Savoldelli
Popovych
Armstrong
Hincapie
Noval
Ace

They will leave out Beltran because he is their weakest TTTist (although he is already pretty good for somebody who is a good climber). They will leave out Padrnos because he is resting from the Giro and because he is a proven powerhouse in TTTs. They will leave out one of either Ace or Chechu because they can only field a team of six. Of the two, they will probably leave out Chechu because Ace is the stronger TTTist. They want to see how their strongest TTTists work (leaving aside Padrnos) without Eki.

Noval is likely to get on because he was dropped last year and needs more practice.

Popo and Paolo get on because they are supposed to be bonding, as you can see by Bruyneel pairing them up for the Luc challenge. Bruyneel is very smart; he wants Popo and Paolo to become friends so that will control any competitiveness between them once LA leaves (not that they are that type). He will also choose Popo and Paolo because Popo has never TTT'd in the TdF, and Paolo has never TTT'd with this squad. Popo has already been using his knowledge of Italian to convey team and other useful info to Paolo, per an LA interview a few months ago.

MJtje said:

I thought/heard armstrong opted not to come.....for the reason that teams only can field 6 riders. That't the same with other teams!

He had said early on that he would not come. However, I think, given his retirement, he will be unable to resist and will come nonetheless.

Further reasons I think Beltran and Chechu (and perhaps even Noval, come to think of it) would skip the Enthoven TTT is that it overlaps with the Spanish stage race Tour of the Asturias (6/17-6/21). So, perhaps Padrnos will take Noval's place in my list above.

Armstrong opted to not do Brabant Arrow (near Brussels), but he was there... It has been said Lance has been off his TT, and wants more exposure to the clock... So we'll see who is there Sunday. Personally I'm looking forward to the race, it is set up to be specator friendly, it'll be interesting to see who shows, and it is near my house. Although the Amstel and Benelux are right in my yard

Euhm I think youre referring to the wrong race you said the brabant arrow (brabantse pijl which was in march!) . But still he won't come to the TTT in eindhoven. Delli, Hincapie and 4 more riders will be there.

The amstel and Benelux are right in youre yard.......woon je in Limburg?😉

Hookyrider said:

Armstrong opted to not do Brabant Arrow (near Brussels), but he was there... It has been said Lance has been off his TT, and wants more exposure to the clock... So we'll see who is there Sunday. Personally I'm looking forward to the race, it is set up to be specator friendly, it'll be interesting to see who shows, and it is near my house. Although the Amstel and Benelux are right in my yard

[quote="MJtje"]Euhm I think youre referring to the wrong race you said the brabant arrow (brabantse pijl which was in march!) . But still he won't come to the TTT in eindhoven. Delli, Hincapie and 4 more riders will be there.

Ja! I'm an American working here in Limburg - very close to Valkenburg too, and loving it. I realize the race I mentioned was in March, but LA announced that he wasn't going to do it - but he was there plain as day chasing Eki. I did some reading about Lance being disapointed with his TT's so far this year and wanting to get more under his belt. While this one is a TTT, it may also be a fit. I hope I'm not wrong, but something tells me he'll be there.

Why are there so many peolpe negative about a team time trial, it's nice to see the teams fly trough the streets in formation, it contains team work as well as tactics. I think it's a great event.

And if Lance will ride? WHO CARES!!!!
There are more riders than Lance Armstrong!!!!

I think there are some teams really willing to win this event, so let them compete for victory.

Have fun on Sunday by watching it!

For detailled route info go to >> www.protourcycling.com

Ah is this youre marketing strategy....taking armstrong down like in the thread armstrong won't win the tour read it at protourcycling.com😉

But seriously a TTT is a nice race in itself, but the fact that teams can only have 6 members on there team is weird......especially so close for the tour. This race was build to fine-tune the TTT for teams going to the tour!

And youre right some teams are taking this very seriously. Rabo will have a mix of old guys and young talents to get a win!

protour said:

Why are there so many peolpe negative about a team time trial, it's nice to see the teams fly trough the streets in formation, it contains team work as well as tactics. I think it's a great event.

And if Lance will ride? WHO CARES!!!!
There are more riders than Lance Armstrong!!!!

I think there are some teams really willing to win this event, so let them compete for victory.

Have fun on Sunday by watching it!

For detailled route info go to >> www.protourcycling.com

pure marketing!

But I think there is more in the cyclingsport besides LA!

There are some riders competing all of the season, and doing a great job for cyclingfanatics. Riders like Vinokourov, DiLuca, Voigt, Bettini, Boonen, Salvodelli, let me enjoy watching this great sport, Not this guy hiding behind his team in TDF only.

Marketing: go to www.protourcycling.com for more detailled info about the TTT route on sunday.

Protour - without question, and that is why I am going, besides I really want to see ol' Georgie H! :-)

musette said:

It is not clear to me that the teams will send their B squads. For example, here is the 6-person team that I think DC will send:

Savoldelli
Popovych
Armstrong
Hincapie
Noval
Ace

They will leave out Beltran because he is their weakest TTTist (although he is already pretty good for somebody who is a good climber). They will leave out Padrnos because he is resting from the Giro and because he is a proven powerhouse in TTTs. They will leave out one of either Ace or Chechu because they can only field a team of six. Of the two, they will probably leave out Chechu because Ace is the stronger TTTist. They want to see how their strongest TTTists work (leaving aside Padrnos) without Eki.

Noval is likely to get on because he was dropped last year and needs more practice.

Well you got 3 out of 6.

Stijn Devolder,
Benoit Joachim,
George Hincapie,
Pavel Padrnos,
Yaroslav Popovych
Benjamin Noval

I enjoy a good TTT as much as anyone. True there's some history to this race. True it's a good warm-up to the TdF TTT. I just don't see what business it has in the ProTour, other than throwing a bone to Holland.

I'd like to see the ProTour succeed because I think it's needed for pro cycling to grow and continue to attract sponsors and reduce the relative importance of the TdF compared to other races. It needs some tweaking though, and getting rid of Eindhoven should be the first step. I don't think any team will be thinking of moving up in the ProTour standings with this race so what's the point?

protour said:

pure marketing!

But I think there is more in the cyclingsport besides LA!

There are some riders competing all of the season, and doing a great job for cyclingfanatics. Riders like Vinokourov, DiLuca, Voigt, Bettini, Boonen, Salvodelli, let me enjoy watching this great sport, Not this guy hiding behind his team in TDF only.

Marketing: go to www.protourcycling.com for more detailled info about the TTT route on sunday.

Well said.

as suspected, it was a good race! My wife and I had a great time even though we baked our brains out in the heat. It was amazing to see some of the teams come in totally spent, and others looked like they had been out on a recovery ride. Floyd Landis came in with a white ring around his mouth and chugged two bottles of water in about 2 seconds. It was good to see the TTTeven with many of the top names missing. Sturat O'Grady, and Ivan Basso did well nad where amoungst those that looked liked they had been out on a stroll instead of a race. We got several pretty good digital, and we'll see how the 35 mm did...

Damn it WAS hot today huh. It's still hot. I went to the beach in Noordwijk and it was just TOO hot. Haha it's never good for the dutch people😉

On topic again. Gerolsteiner did a good ride and rabo started very slow but in the end they were going very fast.

Hookyrider said:

as suspected, it was a good race! My wife and I had a great time even though we baked our brains out in the heat. It was amazing to see some of the teams come in totally spent, and others looked like they had been out on a recovery ride. Floyd Landis came in with a white ring around his mouth and chugged two bottles of water in about 2 seconds. It was good to see the TTTeven with many of the top names missing. Sturat O'Grady, and Ivan Basso did well nad where amoungst those that looked liked they had been out on a stroll instead of a race. We got several pretty good digital, and we'll see how the 35 mm did...

Their bus was right at the finish too, they came in like they were on fire, and straight to the bus. With Dekker there there was quite a croud, but no face time, or interviews unfortuantely.

I think the ProTour had a TTT simply because they are cool, you don't get to see them very often either. Watching the folks do the Telecom Challenge was a lot of fun too, I should have brought my bike!!

I had 91 F in the shade of undergroud the parking garage, and it felt way cooler than in the sun above ground - the wind helped push the riders to the finish, but I'm sure it helped them feel even hotter despite the speed.