First year watching La Vuelta and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Seems like its much more open and stages have more action. Cant remember one uneventful stage and it seems almost all have had decent climbs. Is it always like this?
la vuelta is always a heated race. Its the last grand tour of the year so everybody who missed out in the Giro and in the Tour is gunning for a stage win, or for the overall win. On top of that, its towards the tail-end of the year so a lot of these guys are racing for a contract next year.
So the elite men's road race world championship is tomorrow. Here's the course: https://bergen2017.no/courses/road-race/elite-men/
That was some serious drama with the video feed cutting off. When the video cut off, Alaphalippe and Moscon (I think) we're off the front, with a couple chasers and the Peloton didn't look organized. Meanwhile, Sagan was nowhere to be seen and it looked like he might have been dropped on the last climb. So now there is just a static camera at the finish and we are just waiting for the leaders to come around the last turns. But the leaders never show up. All of a sudden a huge bunch comes around the corner and Sagan is sprinting against Kristoff (on his home soil, no less) for an unprecedented 3rd World Championship in a row. I was just like WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!? Never seen anything quite like that.
Yep, when they attacked going up Salmon and seemingly everyone but Sagan got into gear to chase them down I thought his day was done.
Word on the street is Moscon took the ole sticky bottle up to the top. Alaphalippe called him on it and he dropped off.
Moscon crashed and then took a sticky bottle while chasing back on with like 35 km to go. He ended up getting disqualified for it.
21-year-old lands professional contract with Dimension Data after impressing with rides on Zwift Link This is pretty cool.
10 neo-pros to watch in 2018 White is the new black as Team Sky unveils 2018 kit Chris Froome to race the Giro d’Italia in 2018, say sources
love all the riders coming out of Axeon Hagens Berman, Axel Merckx is doing good things. hate the white tops from sky. no surprise that froome is going to give the giro a go. I think that will count him out of the Tour
Powless is legit. He's been straight up smashing American climbing records for the past few years. He was set to sign for Cannondale before they had financial issues, and flipped to Lotto immediately. Fuck Froome. I hope its one of those Giros where its snowing a freezing rain on top of the climbs. No way in hell he can handle that shit. He doesn't know what he's getting himself into.
I don't hate Froome as much as you, so I don't care whether he does well in the Giro or not. I'm just happy about the prospect of the Tour being much more competitive and fun to watch with a below peak-strength Froome.
Btw, this Mathieu Van der Poel profile is just a great piece of cycling journalism: https://cyclingtips.com/2017/11/mathieu-van-der-poel-is-most-talented-bike-racer-on-planet/
That's probably the most in-depth article I've ever read. My word. Seems crazy to think about him not going to the road full time till 2020, but also sounds like he still needs to build some mental toughness.
CyclingTips does some great shit. Toughness will come with age. He's an absolute animal. He's so young and has been dominating CX for years.
New kits.... white is the new black Ag2R Spoiler Movistar Spoiler DimensionData Spoiler EF-Drapac (formerly Cannondale) Spoiler Sky Spoiler
So apparently Froome came up with double the allowed limit of salbutamol during the Vuelta. Who new one of the world's most freakish cyclists has to fight through asthma to get where he is. It's an inspirational story really. http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/nibali-chris-froome-salbutamol-case-is-terrible-for-the-sport/
2,000 is a double the limit, so good luck explaining that. Its crazy to think ~40% of the WT uses salbutamal. They say asthma shows more in elite endurance athletes because they operate in the red so often.
I have mixed feeling on this. The knee-jerk sucks because I really doubt he was doping. I race with 2 TUE's and the stigma of racing with one doesn't really exist at cat 5/4/3/2, I assume it only exists at the pro level because of the competition for spots on a team
its one of those things man... plenty of people race with TUEs that are totally legit. Dan Martin is one guy who always comes to mind. His spring allergies are so bad that they shut him down. He refused TUEs for his first years as a pro, and as a result, he sucked in the spring. He finally caved and got a TUE, and went on to win Liege-Bastogne-Liege and get many podiums in spring classics. on the other hand, the Italian teams and Sky have a rough past with abuse of TUEs. Including Wiggins and Froome.
Came out to play again today. But what a ride from Benoot. Incredible to watch him chase down and then just leave Bardet and Van Aert. Also looked to me like Sagan just didn't feel like dragging those guys along today. He went to the front at one point when the gap was 23 and took it right down to 15, but then backed off. Gosh love this finish too. Steep and narrow, looks great.
I don't like this (UCI Pres mentioned shortening Vuelta and Giro): http://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/r...our-de-france-matters-i-dont-like-that-373094