Only worry with Bernal is that he trained all winter to peak for the Giro, then broke his collar bone right before the start. It's probably not a huge deal to have him peaking for the Tour now after resetting his training blocks, but I also wouldn't be surprised if he isn't on his top form there either.
Just learned that is was an open fracture of the femur... your career ending thought might very well be true
Froome's surgeon says his surgery went very well and he could start racing again in 6 months. We'll see. It'd be surprising if ever regains his form imo. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...successful-back-racing-in-six-months-11624628
8 hour surgery sounds fun. Also, what grown man on a bike doesn’t know how to snot-rocket without the assist of hands.
My best friend happens to be the start announcer for the ASO so I get to hear some of the dish. He invited me to Brussels for the TDF but no vacation time left. Le sigh
Sad to hear about Froome casts a pall on what has been a great Dauphiné for Wout Van Aert. Ineos (Sky) better win as a many tours as it can in the next few years because Remco is coming ...
i have a feeling the sport is about to get slammed again. apparently a new doping test is being rolled out that can identify super-micro EPO doses.
Wow. Movistar is gonna look completely different next yr. Carapaz now leaning towards staying. Lands and Quintana gone Enrico Mas and David de la Cruz in. Huge young talents. Fuglsang rumored to join too.
Looks like Thomas is ok. I think we’re gonna see someone from a different team win the TDF. Not sure who exactly but someone new
This list isn't official, but here's the "contenders": Fuglsang - Astana. He's been on fire all year. Nibali Dumoulin - i'm not sure on this one... can he recover from his Giro crash in time? Kwiatkowski, Geraint and Bernal from Ineos. Dan Martin Bardet Pinot Quintana & Valverde Kruijswijk Adam Yates Rigo Uran & Tejay Richie Porte
I only mention him because he's arguably been riding better than any other time in the last 5 yrs. of course it will end in disappointment. if not, he could end up top 10.
Agreed. Its really up in the air this year. With only 27 I'm of TT we could have a shock winner. My guesses are bernal, nibali, fuglsang
I don't know if anyone follows Worst Retirement Ever from Phil Gaimon, but that's kind of an interesting story right now : Basically, he's been keeping himself in good form due to his Worst Retirement Ever series, even though he's pretty old and was just pack fodder in the pro peloton. But the state of track cycling in America isn't that great. So team USA reached out to him and asked him if he wanted to try to qualify for the Olympics in one of the pursuit events because they need riders. It was kind of random, but he has some track background. So he goes out to the track and in his very first practice run puts up a time that would have gotten second at Nationals last year. So it's on. Dude just mostly scraps all of his previous plans with WRE and goes all-in on Olympic training mode. If he qualifies it'd be a pretty cool story, so I was hoping it'd happen. Then last week or so he crashed bad, broke all sorts of shit, and basically just posted a video from a hospital bed looking all sorts of fucked up. It's a bummer, but he still has a shot, and it'd be that much cooler of a story if he still somehow makes it.
Phil is an awesome dude. I've ridden with him twice, prolly 10 yrs ago now when he was just getting started. His books are definitely worth reading.
I've followed it unintentionally because he's always in the cycling topic Twitter has for me. Actually find him pretty annoying, but supporting no kid hungry is good stuff.
Belgian ITT National Championships tomorrow. Stacked field with Campenaerts, Lampaert, DeGendt, Van Aert, Van Hooydonck, and of course Remco. Here’s the link to the broadcast although no clue if it is geo-locked. Oh and yeah it is in Flemish https://sporza.be/nl/matches/wielrennen/nk-bel/2019/nk-bel/
Monster performance by Wout Van Aert at the Belgian ITT Championships. He won in 44 minutes 47.97 seconds Yves Lampaert 2nd in 45 min. 19.07 Remco 3rd in 45min 26.72 seconds Excellent showing for Remco. He ran out of gas just at the end but that will improve over time as he develops physically. Wout is looking like a strong favorite for World Championships
Thinking about getting the NBC Sports cycling pass since it won't have commercials and will be available on-demand. Anyone else done/doing it?
$55. Runs through April of next year and also includes the Vuelta, Worlds, some monuments, and some lesser races.
Have a day for yourself Mike Teunissen. Not a lot of people can say they closed down Sagan, and did so for their first grand tour victory.
I don't blame them for leaving Cab home, but what a media shit show this has turned into. TTT today is gonna be huge. Uran riding a 60t chainring. Makes me hurt just thinking about thst
Transfer rumors swirling. Viviani to QuickStep along with one of his leadout men. Sam Bennett moving from Bora to QuickStep (damnit... love SammyB) Tom Dumoulin moving to Lotto-Visma next year. Even though he has a long term deal with Sunweb next year, apparently a lot of guys are unhappy in the team. Katusha likely to fold. Looks like the entire team will be merging with Mathieu Van Der Poel's team.
for sure. he's going to get a huge effing contract soon. will be really interesting to see where he lands.