So good to see Stybar back. He has the talent to rival Sagan during the classics. Especially now that Quick-Step has moved on from Boonen and Terpstra.
I've hated quickstep as long as I've followed cycling. Today I was stoked to see Bob going long for the win - and it was textbook tactics by quickstep that made it happen. Chapeau quickstep
Alaphilipe with another victory. Insane form right now. Have to Sagan looked like he botched that to me. So focused watching his right, then the sprint went on his left and his late reaction left him too far back.
Quickstep is just disgusting right now. Crazy to think they barely found a sponsor last off-season and almost dissolved. Let's home the next few weeks see some other teams get involved.
Sagan: “I got a little stuck on the front for the sprint. It was a sprint from a low speed. When we opened the sprint, I was looking for Valverde and they passed me on the left and I was on the right. Alaphilippe had two bike lengths and it as hard to get him back.”
That was an awful race; I don't care what anyone says. It's one thing to not want to drag your rivals with you in closing down a minute gap. It's another - and far dumber - thing to not want to do it for a 10 second one. I can't imagine spending 260km in the saddle only to spend the last 10km pointing fingers instead of trying to win the race. Great effort from Bettiol, but a win by default to me and a complete waste of everyone's time to me.
it was a meh race, but for me it was buoyed by the fact that EF won. Now on to PR. Hopefully Sep is back from his crash and ready for Bettiol to lead him through the cobbles.
Bold move kid. Cycling Weekly: Wout van Aert criticises Peter Sagan after Tour of Flanders. https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/wout-van-aert-criticises-peter-sagan-tour-flanders-413295
Was kind of amazing, especially with how good he looked on the last 5* cobbles. Just completely blew up. I really thought the peloton would catch him. Great race though. Much better than last week.
He also just stopped caring once he was in a three man group with a teammate of Gilbert and SVM, who had a broken bike. He knew that nobody was going to help him chase, and his race was over. He looked like a mess at the end though for sure.
Unreal. One of the most insane displays of beast mode you'll ever see today at AGR . He's easily the best racer of bicycles in the world already. Already the most dominant cyclocross racer, probably ever. Elite mountain bike racer, and one of the favorites for the Gold in Tokyo. And just crushing huge one day road races against the top World Tour pros. It'll be interesting to see if he keeps his plans to compete for the MTB Gold in Tokyo, or takes a massive payday an focuses full time on road. Also Sagan is a mess right now. He's probably bored with road cycling and wasn't fully dedicated this off season. Hopefully he just focuses on getting into form for the world championships.
This shit is just bonkers. Especially with all the context around it, and the way he won. He's Dutch, so this race means the most to him (you can hear the crowd go berzerk, and even see the race organizer celebrating out of the roof of the directors car). And his dad won it in almost the exact same fashion back in the early 90's.
MVDP is so much fucking fun to watch on a bike. Regarding Sagan, either something is waaaay off, or he's focusing on something else this year. I'm kinda leaning tiwarto the latter.
I can't believe he clawed that back over such a short distance. And what a long sprint too. Fuglsang and Ala were so caught out, like they weren't getting time checks or something.
Fuglsang stopped taking turns (which was somewhat smart since he had no chance 1-on-1 if he kept going hard and towed Alaphalippe to the line, and his best bet was to recover as much as he could before the finish). Then Alaphalippe just stopped riding tempo, and I'm not entirely sure why. MvdP straight beasted though. Every time they'd show back to the group, he was on the front and dudes at the back of the train we're struggling just to stay on. That's not at all how bike races are won though. Nobody tows the entire group back up to the break away in the last 5km and then wins the bunch sprint too. That was just absolutely insane.
Have to have respect for a guy that has the ability to say I don’t have what it takes right now, it is best to move on without me. Hopefully he gets it back some day as sprints are funner to watch when he is in top form. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mar...GE0u5wjoJ8HMkLTUmAd6wxoidpbc7o6-5Ogvp4hlRRZdM
Was always a fan of Kittel. Hopefully he can patch things back up. I never understood the move to Katusha. Taking all that $$ probably wasn't the best decision for him.
Giro is gonna be nuts this year. Sky (Ineos now) isn't bringing a very good squad, and Dumoulin says he might not quite be on form, so this thing is gonna be wide open. Also Stage 16 is one for the ages. They are hitting the Passo Gavia and the Mortirolo back to back. Holy shit. Gonna be 16000 ft of climbing in that stage or something crazy like that. Wish it was a day earlier though. Having that stage be on Memorial Day when I could watch live at home would have been ideal.
Ineos/Sky losing Bernal was huge. I thought for sure he was gonna win it. Dumoulin said the same thing last year and almost won. Giro is his favorite race. I'm always rooting for him. Miguel Angel Lopez is my pick. Astana has been flying high (skeptical hippo).
this is cool as fuck.... Denmark, Norway and Sweden are hosting a Women's Grand Tour starting in 2021. I love it.
Sad to see Dumoulin have to leave. Had a nasty chain ring slash on his left knee though. Roglic has to be pretty damn happy with how things are playing out so far.
Yesterday had to be one of the worst days of UCI races in forever. Stage 3 of ATOC was an absolute embarrassment. The peloton didn't even try to catch a single rider breakaway with over 60km to go. And Cavagna probably should have had no business winning given that he completely embarrassed himself by putting on one of the most atrocious descending displays I've ever seen from a professional cyclist. And then, of course, a bunch of GC favorites get caught up in a senseless crash 5km from the line on a meaningless stage at the Giro. Dumoulin loses 4 minutes and has to DNF.
The TOC bores the shit out of me now. They cycle through the same roads and towns pretty much every year. They need to do something to spice up the courses, like having a finish line on top of those steep hills in San Fran, or do some gravel/dirt sections...
Agreed. Gravel would be ideal. SF would be cool too, but probably a logistical nightmare for the city, if not outright impossible. I also don't get why they don't ride up Mt. Diablo more often. Baldy is cool and all, but it's dumb that it's the only meaningful climb of the tour. If they are gonna hit Mt. Hamilton anyway, they should finish the race up Diablo in stage 3. That'd have been a fun stage instead of the absolute snooze fest they gave us.
Gaviria abandons the Giro. He hasn't looked the same since leaving QuickStep. Amazing how many guys leave that squad and take a step back.
Post Giro transfer rumors: Nibali to Trek Quintana to Arkea-Samsic Landa to Bahrain-Merida Carapaz to Ineos (Sky)
I rode with the team doctor for EF today. We didn't talk a lot of cycling because I was absolutely gassed and I was trying not to be annoying as he's the friend of my coworker I was with. The main interesting thing I learned though is just how normal their lives are. For example, he only did the first half of the Giro this year so that he'd be back for his kids getting out of school. I always thought the whole team stayed together for the entire season - training and races.
sucks for him personally but this is great news for the Tour itself. Much more exciting now as to get that juggernaut out of the way
Will help to hopefully blow the race a little more wide open. Hard to compete against a team that essentially has 4 captain level riders and using 3 of them as domestiques.
Then again, it could have the opposite effect and cause them to focus in on supporting 1 rider from the start and make them more dominant.
Fractured his femur. goddamn. I was more worried about Bernal anyway. If Ineos is smart they ride for him instead of gunning for Thomas again.
Might be this actually. They now are all-in on supporting Gerraint Thomas, so there won't be any fuckery with G and Froome trying to take time from each other (although it seemed to work out fine last year).