Drive Reversal: Perform a counterattack while blocking an opponent’s attack.Drive Rush from a parry costs 1 Drive Stock, while Drive Rush from a normal attack costs 3 Drive Stocks. Drive Rush: Perform a quick rush forward from a Drive Parry or a cancelable normal attack.These are the same attacks as EX Special Moves in past games. Overdrive: Press two of the same button type instead of one when performing a special move to turn it into an Overdrive Art.Perform a Perfect Parry by parrying just before an opponent’s attack hits you. Drive Parry: Automatically repel an opponent’s attack and replenish Drive when performed successfully. Perform this on an opponent backed into the corner to induce a wall splat, even if they block the attack. Drive Impact: A powerful strike that can absorb an opponent’s incoming attack.Sometimes the sprint finish is so close that officials must replay the finish line camera to make a call on who won.Ī sprint finish isn’t about extending the time gaps, it’s about glory, and there is no cycling glory greater than here, this month, in this race. If it goes well, crashes are narrowly averted and one man comes to the line inches ahead of his competitors. RELATED: Fight Breaks Out at Pro Criteriumīikes fly toward the finish, just millimeters apart, nanoseconds from complete disaster. Elbows may be thrown or bumped, sometimes so much so that it leads to punches being thrown after the racing is officially over. You’ll see the lead-out men peeling off the front and falling back out of contention as they use up their last bits of power to place their sprinters. It’s confusing if you focus on too many teams and riders at once, so pick one team and watch each of its riders do his job in the final kilometers.įor viewers, the final seconds are often the most exciting. When you’re watching a sprint stage, try to figure out who is the sprinter on a team and look for his teammates to bring him toward the front of the pack near the end of the stage. A team’s efforts can make or break the sprint and the sprinter. “In this day and age, sprint trains are so well-organized,” says King. Having a strong team is just as important as being a strong sprinter. If you’re a top sprinter, you slowly move toward the front of the speeding peloton with help from your lead-out train-your teammates tasked with making your sprint successful-as they burn themselves out one by one to get you into the ideal position for the final push to the line. “With 20km to go is when your team starts to get its riders in the right place within the peloton,” says King, “because trying to work your way up to contest the sprint anytime after that point is just wasting energy.” You’ll see riders jostling for position as teams work their way through a tightly knit pack, and you’ll see riders getting pushed just a little too far to the edge of the road. “I call it organized chaos theory,” says King.įrom the vantage point of a drone, it might appear smooth, but look closer. Tour de France race veteran Ted King of the Garmin-Cannondale team explains that a sprint finish isn’t as smooth as it looks. What you sometimes can’t see on TV is the craziness happening within the peloton as the stage winds to its inevitable, blaze-of-glory end. You don't want to miss the final dash to the line. Don’t change the channel and don’t get up to prep for your post-stage ride. You know a sprint finish is coming when the race nears the end and the peloton is still largely together. Yes, the final 200 meters do matter, but success in a sprint finish comes to the riders and teams that pull off the perfect setup during the final 20km of the stage. And contrary to what it might look like on your computer screen-you know, while you’re not watching the Tour at work-a sprint finish actually starts earlier than you would think. It’s also about who has the strongest team. How it Works When a stage of the Tour de France comes down to a sprint finish, it’s not just about who has the fastest legs on the day. Perhaps the best known is Stage 21, the final Tour de France stage that typically concludes with a mass sprint on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Stages to Watch The flatter stages, whenever a breakaway hasn’t separated the field, are the most likely to end in a sprint. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |