http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/heavy-rain-forecast-for-the-mens-world-championship-road-race

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/winning-the-worlds-is-a-long-shot-says-froome

very tentative over the cobbles !

that descent looks lethal 🙂

all the teams bar the Italians in tatters

That downhill hairpin looks a bit slippy, yet they mostly still whipped round it.
Cav & Wiggo pulled out now 🙁

Difficult to say without knowing the details of why, but wiggo packing after half the race is a bit, well, meh! isn’t it. I get the feeling cav’s buried himself in shit conditions for half distance and was always going to get off, but bw doesn’t come across as a team player when these things happen. Looks horrendous out there but that’s where you’re supposed to tough it out as a pro, isn’t it?

Three hours and forty minutes and just over halfway! Foul conditions.

Wiggo working hard for Froome went well then !! or has he buried himself all morning ? ive not watched yet as its so usually boring early on in these long races

Wiggo making a habit of being crap in the wet. Although a shocking day tbf. If I had to put money on I’d say Cancellara.

Wiggo has given his all to deliver team mates to the line on many occasions, I think it is well of the mark to suggest he isn’t a team player.

Wiggo gone, cav gone roche gone, evans off, cav did the 1st 100k on the front. Wiggo went to the back and was not seen again.

Looks like Dan Martin is out too. Thought he’d be in with a chance. Half the field out. As is most of the American team by the looks of it.

Really hope Cancellara or Sagan do the business. Weather is horrendous , they should have came to East lothian.

It’s pretty grim out there. I wouldn’t want to be looking at another 60 miles of it.

Away from the telly now, is Sagan still there? Last I heard was he’d dropped out of the lead group due to a bike change.

Froome out.

Froome out ,thats Kenyas chance gone then !

I know the conditions are grim, but it’s rather a poor performance by the British Team. It now sounds like Froome is out, leaving them with no chance at all.

Wiggo I can understand, having ridden the time trial, but everyone else should have been up for it.

Mikey74 – have you ridden 270km is a day before? Let alone 270km at race pace in the pissing rain with no prospect of winning?

pretty embarrassing for team GB

Mikey74 – have you ridden 270km is a day before? Let alone 270km at race pace in the pissing rain with no prospect of winning?

What I have, or have not, done is irrelevant. They are professional riders representing their country. They ride in these conditions on a regular basis. If this was a stage in a Grand Tour would they have quit?

If the British team manned-up, they would be in with a shout. As all their top riders have thrown in the towel, they’ve definitely have no hope.

Edit: For the record, I’ve ridden 120 miles in the pouring rain on the Dunwich Dynamo, which was at night. I know it’s not the same distance but then again I’m no professional.

You would rather they’d all carried on riding round after getting dropped by the bunch, to finish 45th, 79th and 101st? I don’t think the Kenyan’s chances of winning were materially affected by any of them dropping out (at the point they dropped out). To be honest their chances were always fairly speculative, and clearly either Froomey didn’t have the legs or he got caught up by the crashes – it’s not clear from what I’ve seen why he got dropped from the front group. As documented Wiggo isn’t good in the rain – he had a bit of a disaster getting dropped whilst Cav was still on the front, I guess his head wasn’t in it. Realistically nobody else would expect to still be up there at this point.

Full GB team has quit. Very poor performance by all.

If this was a stage in a Grand Tour would they have quit?

No, but that is exactly the point: this is not a stage in a stage race.

Full GB team has quit. Very poor performance by all.

Cav played a blinder to be fair….

Edit: For the record, I’ve ridden 120 miles in the pouring rain on the Dunwich Dynamo, which was at night. I know it’s not the same distance but then again I’m no professional.

Wow – you’ve done less than 200km in the rain. FWIW – I’ve ridden 300km in the pissing rain a couple of times and I don’t blame then for dropping out.

Cav played a blinder to be fair.

Only watched the live coverage. What did he do?

“You would rather they’d all carried on riding round after getting dropped by the bunch, to finish 45th, 79th and 101st?”
Yes.
Some one has to don’t they. It makes them look like fair weather riders. If the 2nd string riders can be still riding why can’t the best ones. They should be the ones still riding if only to show their faces and some respect for the event. Haven’t hear that any of the brits have actually crashed.
Having said that it hasn’t struck me that any of the Brits had a chance. No big hills for Frome.

I would assume that they have been encouraged to quit. :lol:what do we have at the moment. 2 second div riders at the front.

pmcclure – Member
Only watched the live coverage. What did he do?

Rode at the front for the first 100km. He’s a classy former champion.

If the 2nd string riders can be still riding why can’t the best ones.

Which 2nd string riders are you referring to?

I’m not sure those complaining about the Brits stopping riding after they got dropped understand the nature of the event. How many other riders who’ve been dropped do you think are still riding? It’s not like we’ve got a long tradition in this sort of race – who here has only been following road racing recently, and thinks it’s always like the race a couple of years ago Cav won?

This

who here has only been following road racing recently, and thinks it’s always like the race a couple of years ago Cav won?

made me think of this

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSdrAF1Y9aQ[/video]

Nibali down. Disastrous for the Italians who seemed to have it all going to plan.

Disastrous might be a bit strong given the current head of the field.

I don’t think Visconti is up there to take the win though. Presumably Nibali was hoping to jump across at some point. But fair enough, maybe not disastrous. Nibali back in know though.

How unfortunate for Nibali to have a mechanical which needed attention from the team car just at that point.

I think you might be right about Visconti – amazed at not only how quickly that came down, but also that Nibali managed to get back on (and right up to the head of the field) whilst they were doing it.

Something important surely has to happen soon.

This last lap is gonna be bonkers.

Here we go…

(and I posted that just a few seconds before the commentator said it)

Come on.
This is getting boring.

How difficult would It have been to have a Km;s to go icon on the screen. 😕

Still think It’s goin to be Cancellara.

Get on with it then…

Sagan….. possibly.