Topic: The Cycling Thread - page 3. (Read 1556 times)

Yeah i skipped some of the flat stages we had this week, missed the TT yesterday as well but i'm prepping for an exciting third week, with 3 very tough mountain stages + the final TT.

Very surprising top5 so far, except for Kelderman maybe, the other 4 i don't think anyone expected them to be there at this point.
Ineos might get a top3 finish with Tao Hart who did really well today, finishing with Kelderman and Jai Hindley in the final climb and beating them in the sprint.

Interesting to see if the old dogs (Majka, Nibali, Pozzovivo, Fuglsang) can do something next week, but they are all 3+ mins behind the leaders, so who knows.

Props to Almeida though, for limiting the loss of time today, another day in pink.

It has gotten quiet here, but there is lots of sports going on all the time, so understandable


For the record, this one won easily. Ulissi won the stage and Almeida finished 6th on that day, Masnada 23rd.

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Today there will be a 34km ITT on a flat-ish course with only few climbing.

Castroviejo tb De Gendt @2.15

De Gendt says he can finish Top3, if he has the legs. I agree with that, but doubt he will be any good today. He was complaining a lot with all the Corona issues this Giro has. He feels unsafe, is worried with his family and thought more than once about leaving. So looks like he is not really focussed nor super keen on getting a good result here - and he was always a streaky rider. He can be very good or very bad. I hope we will see the bad TdG today on a course that suits Castroviejo better. The Spaniard himself isn't super reliable in ITT's, but can do very good on these kind of courses. Ineos is leading the team classification and need Castroviejo to do good (or at least push till the end). I think the bookmakers have the wrong favourite in this one.

Why did i have to jinx it like that, anyone see the crash? Who throws their bidons in the neutral zone for fuck's sake?

https://twitter.com/salxber/status/1313114965620994051

That was some scary fall and absolute disaster year for Ineos so far, too bad for Geraint Thomas who had a great TT on Saturday and was primed to win the Giro imo.

Anyway, Majka and Kelderman did very well today, i guess we have to put them in the list of maglia rosa contenders. On the contrary, Yates had a pretty bad day, lost a lot of time.

Turbulent start of the Giro...

This was only close at first split


Looks like that, yes. Although the GC guys who are not superb TTers tend to lose fewer time in later TT's. Only hope for an exciting race in terms of GC winner is that the Giro always produces some crazy stages with huge gaps, which is rarely the case in other races nowadays. But the field is weak this year for reasons we all know (and can't hear no more), so it's probably enough to keep Yates in check and ride defensively.

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A sucker parlay for today:

Almeida tb Masnada (1.27)
Ulissi tb Battaglin (1.41)
parlay @1.79

QuickStep will give full support to Almeida today, because he has good chances to take the maglia rosa in the coming days.
The finish today suits Ulissi very well and if Matthews/Sagan weren't in the race, he would be overwhelming favourite to win. It's something Battaglin likes as well, but he is not as strong as Ulissi in these kind of uphill sprints.

I had very limited time to watch stage1 today, just glanced Ganna and Thomas on the road.
So in this very short time trial (15km), Thomas made 26 seconds on Yates, over one minute on Nibali and around a minute and a half on Kruijswijk and Fuglsang. Uhh, there are two more individual time trials, 14th stage (34.1km) and 21st (15.7km), if Geraint Thomas doesn't crash and/or have an extremely bad day/s, no way he doesn't win. Anything he can possibly lose in the mountains, he can win it back in TTs, tailor-made Giro for the Brit.

Giro starts today ladies and gentlemen

On the menu is a 15.1k individual time trial, which is not super demanding, but features a little climb (1.2k @4.8%) in the beginning.

Michael Matthews tb Geraint Thomas @2.23

Matthews is a good TTer on these shortish courses. These sprinters should have some advantage on the descent, where they could gain some valuable seconds on the non-sprinters. Matthews has an eye on the pink jersey for the next days (well, for tomorrow then basically) and also for wearing the points/sprinters jersey on October 25th in Milan, so he should be super motivated today. Thomas is among the favourites for today as well and rightfully so, but he doesn't have to go all out today and taking 100% risks. His goals are a bit different and more longterm, i.e. winning the Giro.

Congrats Alaphilippe, very happy for him ! He won one stage in the TDF so he was already "good" but he continued to attack all along with no luck (after having lost the yellow for something really stupid), this will be a good way to forget about that.

I didn't see it, but what you're describing is common, if the chasing group has good sprinters in it. The others figure "if we organize we'll get him, but I personally have no chance, so why bother ?"

Well looking at that group they're all very good so it might be the alternate reason "every man for himself".

image source: https://www.eurosportplayer.com/

...and after a million years the French finally got to the rainbow jersey in today's WC Road Race (the last one was back in 1997).
I got to watch the final 40km, Pogacar had a nice attack on the second to last lap/climb but could not hold on to those 26' seconds he had.
Alaphilippe attacked in the final climb and surprisingly, at least for me, was able to sustain that 10-15 seconds lead. The chasing group, with Van Aert, Kwiatkowski and a few others just couldn't organize themselves, the lead Alaphilippe had was well within their reach with 10km to go.

the Giro starts next Sunday, can't way...

edit; apparently 3rd is Saturday, lol i was about to miss the prologue 

The mountain is already closed for snow.

This is the situation right now.



source: https://www.lastampa.it/cuneo/2020/09/26/news/prima-nevicata-chiuso-il-colle-dell-agnello-riaprira-lunedi-a-mezzogiorno-1.39351784


And we are 1 month off 

Shhh, you are going to jinx it, besides where's the global warming when you need it. 

I think we will be fine and the Giro will go as planned, a little snow is alright, riders can deal with it. As long as it's not a hailstorm, like we had last year @Col de l'Iseran, where the organisers had to neutralise/stop the stage and gift Bernal the victory, we should be okay.

TDF2019 vibes 


image source: https://www.cyclist.co.uk/news/6814/tour-de-france-2019-stage-19-cancelled-due-to-hail-snow-and-mudslides

As told weeks ago I still don't know who they will do the "Giro D'Italia" this year.

Besides the increasing numbers of the case of COVID in the entire EUROPE, here in Italy's mountains, at least in some of them, the snow is already coming.

Idk how they can even go here in mid-late October, 2700m peak.



Source pic: https://www.giroditalia.it/tappe/tappa-20-alba-sestriere/

Inside one week of the Tour is still fine in general and you can preserve your peak form for this timeframe. Everything after that you will fade and have to start building up your form again. This is also why the Giro/Tour double is way harder than the Tour/Vuelta double. Between Giro/Tour there is normally 5-6 weeks, between Tour/Vuelta 4 weeks, which means that you are plateuing higher to start the build up for Vuelta again. Getting enough rest after a GT is not necessarily the issue; most riders are fresh again after 1-2 weeks. Riding on peak form is another thing though and most athletes are only able to do it for a limited time and have to start all over afterwards. There are some exceptions though, like Valverde, Sagan etc.

Nevertheless WvA is a freak, yes


It is actually kind of a boring sport, even for a fan like me and regularly betting on it. There are some races which are interesting for good parts (Paris-Roubaix, RVV, GT stages where teams create havoc from the start), but more often than not, it's really boring until the final km's. It's always the same basically: The race starts, an attackers group seperates from the field and then you can watch the peloton chase them for hours.
It's not a sport where you sit in front of the TV nail-biting all the time and in sheer excitement. But when there is some action then, this is a great sport to watch. Not only the sport itself is enjoyable, but also the often beautiful landscape, all the fans, all the drama. The rest of the time you can just let the TV run without paying too much attention and do some other things in the meantime

It was very interesting and very unpredictable. I like to bet on cycling and this Tour showed how exciting this can be although for some this is boring sport and I don't know many people who bet in cycling.
Pogacar made a kind of miracle and I don't think that anyone actually expected something like this to happen. Well done!

I couldn't watch anything today, just 10min, around Bodnar's start, i guess it was pretty fun watching them race/finish on Imola?!


Congrats if you took Van Aert for top3, this dude is something else, with basically no time to rest after the Tour.

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Ineos latest additions for 2021 season: Richie Porte, Dani Martinez, Laurens de Plus, and Tom Pidcock. Pretty stacked up team, i think they signed Adam Yates back in August too, so yeah...good luck everyone else. 
https://www.eurosport.com/cycling/team-ineos-sign-tom-pidcock-richie-porte-dani-martinez-and-laurens-de-plus_sto7904003/story.shtml

Today it is the WK time trial in Italy. The preparation for the riders who also participated at the TDF (Van Aert, Dumoulin) will be less good than the others (Ganna, Campenaerts, Dennis).
Anybody is placing some bets on this championship?
I am thinking about placing some bets for the top 3: Van Aert @2.25 and Campenaerts @3

Yes, it is complicated. the biggest shame is the 'guilty until proven innocent' mentality that is common in cycling - although this is of course understandable given the history within the sport.

I'm actually a big fan of the individual time trial within the TdF. It is a level playing field that removes the advantage of having a strong team around you. The one thing I'm not keen on is having the time trial right at the end. I think you need a few real testing GC mountain stages after the TT to make it more interesting. Wouldn't it have been better this year to have a big mountain stage straight after the TT and watch Roglic and team desperately trying to overhaul the deficit?

I am very sorry for that slovenian who has ridden on cop the entire tour, and then throws everything away in one stage. but it was entertaining. I think it's a shame that the very last stage doesn't play any significant role in the tour. Actually, the winner of the tour is already known on the penultimate day. Relieves a lot of tension.

I think that you to like competitive cycling off road, although some sports you don't necessarily have to practice to follow them.

It's kind of confusing to read you and I don't know where you're trying to go with your point in relation to the tour de france. Anyway, I can tell you that the Tour de France is the more important test of cycling,  that allows fans and even those who are not; they should enjoy watching a race every time you can on the tour.

If you do not understand me the excitement caused by the Tour de France even in those who do not follow it throughout the season as shown in the OP, it is something similar to the effect that each soccer World Cup causes in those who find out that soccer exists every 4 years    Although for some the "Champion League" will always be more important. So the wow would be for those who call themselves a sports lover and you ask him about the Tour de France and they say 'how? when'? a bit exaggerated, but it is the emotion.

In any case, on topic, a shame the information in development about Quintana ... although I do not say it because he is guilty / innocent but that the subject itself is complicated.

What is funny/sad is that French media (generalist media, not cycling media) was complaining about the performance of French riders, surely the others must be doping and the French are dumb for being clean (basically the subtext of the articles), after the TT this doubled down...then a French team is being investigated for doping !

You can call me naive, but I still think that the peloton nowadays is a lot cleaner then a couple of years ago. You don't really see crazy things anymore (remember Ricardo Ricco  ).
But probably in the next couple of years they will find that some riders didn't ride clean (Quintana, Froome, ... )?