2008 Tour of California (California, USA)
February 17-24, 2.HC
February 17-24, 2.HC
Overall Winner: Levi Leipheimer (Astana)
Stage Winners:
Prologue - Fabian Cancellara (CSC)
Stage 1 - JJ Haedo (CSC)
Stage 2 - Tom Boonen (Quick.Step)
Stage 3 - Robert Gesink (Rabobank)
Stage 4 - Dominique Rollin (Toyota-United)
Stage 5 - Levi Leipheimer (Astana)
Stage 6 - Luciano Pagliarini (Saunier Duval-Scott)
Stage 7 - George Hincapie (High Road)
Notable Events/Controversies: Besides the Return of Cipo, Cavendish's DQ for holding on to the High Road team car for too long on Stage 6.
Good race for: Riders who like bad weather, especially torrential downpours for 7 hours straight.
Bad race for: Guys who came expecting to work on the tans they started in Qatar.
Pros: Only three field sprints and a very exciting last stage. More climbs and tougher conditions than most of the other early season races.
Cons: In a word: rain.
We'll Remember it for: The return of Super Mario Cipollini. Even though Cipo didn't win any stages, he was a factor in the sprints and seems to still have a good finishing kick despite being out of competition for more than two years. And we'll remember Rollin's win after 7 hours in pouring rain and wind.
What to change for 2009: More climbs, and a bona fide killer mountain stage. California has some huge mountains, USE THEM!
Overall rating: 8/10, even though the weather sucked big time for half the week, the racing was good and the last stage was some really good stuff. Rollin's long breakaway victory on stage 4 was class as well.
2 comments:
I think if you throw in some killer mountains, then the pros will look for another race to build the early season form. Paulo B had a moan about the climbs and was saying there was no need for such biggies at this stage of the season. As it stands you get a field worthy of a GT - plenty of eye candy for US fans, but they're probably not going to race hard no matter what(unless your an American who's effectively been banned from all the big races this season).
Well said.
Post a Comment