MVDP is the only rider in history to have won Milan San Remo, Paris Roubaix and the road world champs in the same year. He’s also cyclocross world champ now too.
Obviously a massive Mads Pedersen homer but MVDP was insane today. rode smarter tham the other 3 all day. conserved som energy.
Been watching, but the Bob/Christian burnout is real. Haven't seen the last couple since I'm so sick of listening to their horrible announcing. Organizationally, this Vuelta has been such a shit show that I have a new appreciation for how well run The Tour is comparatively.
Kuss is gonna win the Vuelta. Over the moon for him. One team getting all 3 podium spots in a GC is pretty suspect though.
I just received notice that GCN+ (Global Cycling Network Plus) is shutting down on December 19. This has been my access to watch races. Now I need to find other access. What do you folks use to watch races?
There probably isn’t another good option. Peacock has the ASO races, which is basically all we get unless WB strikes some deal in the American market. If you can get a VPN in Europe and a European Discovery+ account, you’ll get everything that GCN+ had.
I might have to do it that way. Dang. The Strade Bianche is in March I think. I need a solution in place by then.
Update on televised racing events. Now we know why Global Cycling Network was shut down. It was purchased by Warner Bros. Discovery. The races will now be available via MAX’s new B/R Sports add-on. The add-on also carries lots of other sports in addition to bicycle racing. The add-on is free for now and will be at least through the Giro d’Italia. https://www.bicycling.com/racing/a46540735/how-to-watch-bike-racing-on-max-in-2024/
I’m skipping the RèAL Salt Lake game tomorrow due to weather, so I now can watch the Strade Bianche. I checked MAX to see how to get the B/R Sports add-on. It was already added, and free for awhile. Sweet! Also, it’s supposed to be rainy in Tuscany tomorrow, which will make for a fantastic watch.
It was one of the strongest rides I’ve seen. Before the race he told the interviewer where he would attack. He did it where he said he would. That was at 81 km from the finish. He jumped out quickly to a 3:30 lead. He maintained it to Siena city center and then leisurely cycled to the end waving to the spectators. He crossed the finish line and stopped. Raised his bike over his head and did a 360. This, after racing 230 km.
Flanders today. No Van Aert due to a nasty crash this week. No Pog either. Should be pretty exciting with a ton of people believing they have a chance. 150km to go.
my 7 year old after watching bits and pieces of Flanders last weekend and a lot of P-R today. "papa, this guy wins a lot"... yes son, yes he does.
Bump for the start tomorrow. Watched the whole thing for the first time last year during middle of the night feeds with a newborn. Anyone have a chance of beating Pogacar? Will Cavendish get a stage win? (Didn't know he was coming back this year)
I can’t wait! I’m having to watch on delay tomorrow for travel. Hoping this gets me off my fat ass and on to my road bike. Getting it tuned up.
Well, Vingegaard obviously has a chance to beat Pogacar. It’s not looking likely with his injury and his domestiques not at full strength, but if he can make it through the first week and a half or so without losing too much time, he might actually be in form by the time the third week rolls around. Having said that, his best chance to hold things together in those first couple of weeks would have been Wout Van Aert being able to shutdown UAE’s efforts to blow things apart in the first two stages (and stage 9), and then Kuss and Jorgensen holding things together in stage 4 and 11, and then Vingegaard being close to full strength by the Pyrenees. But Van Aert is also coming back from injury and probably not at his best either, and Kuss had to drop out, so that’s a tall task. The first week is ridiculously hard compared to the typical tour, so there is a real chance Pogacar has a massive lead over Vingegaard by stage 5. The first two stages are hilly and really tough, so Jonas doesn’t really have the luxury of settling in to this tour. And then they climb the Galibier in stage 4, and it is kind of unheard of to hit such a massive climb that early in the tour. Stage 9 has a bunch of gravel and is basically a classics parcours, so that favors Pogacar significantly. WVA being on form will be a necessity for Vingegaard there. But if Vingegaard is on form, nobody can touch him in the mountains, and that is almost always enough to win the TdF. The race for the podium could be interesting though: Roglic is too old and just not good enough to beat Pogacar or Vingegaard, but on paper he’s the other favorite to podium. Remco is returning from the same crash that Vingegaard is and looked like shit in the mountains at the Dauphine, so he’s not got great chances, but he should be able to gain time on everyone in the time trials. Carlos Rodriguez might actually be the best bet to podium of all these guys, but who knows what kind of team drama will happen with Pidcock being the nominal team leader. Adam Yates would probably finish 3rd-6th if he was the team leader for another team, but he’s there to ride for Pogacar, so his placing is all dependent on how much he has to sacrifice for Pogacar. UAE could definitely ride away with this thing though and Yates could still podium even with Pogacar winning. As for Cavendish, I think he gets his one stage. Astana is there to win one sprint stage for Cav and literally nothing else. Cav also doesn’t need to be the guy putting out the most watts to win sprints (and never has been that guy). It’s almost unheard of for a sprinter to be basically washed yet still be able to win sprints against the best WT sprinters, but Cav has been doing just that seemingly forever now.
Gotta love Pogi sprinting for 3rd lol. Almost had it too. Yeah there’s a time bonus, but those 4 seconds are mostly irrelevant, and basically every other GC favorite wouldn’t view it as worth the risk. Guy makes everything infinitely more entertaining. The break away making it to the end like that is always great drama. Peloton screwed up the chase, but that can happen when the entire stage is so brutal like that. Also, a Frenchman is in yellow! Too bad they are in Italy lol.
CAVENDISH BREAKS WIN RECORD IN SAINT-VULBAS Cavendish clinched his 35th Tour stage victory in style, making him the most prolific stage winner in the history of the race outright, now alone in front of the man he had previously shared the honour with, the great Eddy Merckx.
Fuck yeah Cav. Pretty special last two days. Cav is the best sprinter ever and Pogi is the best overall cyclist since Mercx. Certainly the best of most of our lifetimes. Vintage performances from both. And even with all that going on, there are some other good storylines shaping up: Jonas shouldn’t be too upset only being down 50 seconds at this point. This thing is far from over. If he rides himself into shape by the time they hit the Pyrenees, he’ll have his chances. He looked really strong yesterday as is (stronger than I was expecting based on the lead up talk) and will only get stronger. I think he mentioned they had expected to be 2+ minutes down by now. His biggest problem right now is not his own form, but that of his team. Visma looks bad, and UAE looks incredibly strong. There was some weird shit going on with UAE at one point yesterday though. Ayuso looked like he was riding for his podium chances instead of for Pogacar and Almeida was mad as hell at him for not pulling through. Don’t know what Ayuso was thinking. He’s gonna have his own chances in the future if I had to guess. He only 21 and looks really strong. Great climb, and promising performance overall, from Remco yesterday. There was a chance for him to lose a ton of time on the Galibier if he wasn’t up to the task, but he was. His descending sucked, but it didn’t end up mattering because he just time trialed his way back on the flats as he is won’t to do. Remco is another incredible talent. With MVDP, Remco, WVA, Pogi, and Vingegaard we have some of the most talented cyclists we’ve ever seen (each for different reasons) all in their primes right now. Every single race is way more fun now than, say, 5 years ago. Carlos Rodriguez is looking to be a future GC superstar. He’s only 23. Incredible descending yesterday. Vingegaard was kind of taking it easy, but Rodriguez easily just hauled everyone back to him on that descent. Hopefully the rest of Ineos commits to riding for his GC for the rest of the tour. Also, Roglic answered some questions yesterday. He can’t compete with Pogacar and Vingegaard but he still right there for best of the rest, which was kind of in question.
The addition of a gravel day is such a huge win for the TdF. Love how it changes the race dynamics, at least for a day.
Was hoping Stuyven would hang on since it seemed like a stage a Belgian should win, but it was great stage after a pretty boring run (for me) of sprint stages and the time trial.
Interview with the retiring great Voice of Bicycle Racing Phil Liggett on Australian tv. I equate him and bike racing commentary to Keith Jackson and cfb commentary. In their respective sports.
God's Speed Phil Liggett ! And he will be dancing on the pedals in a most immodest way... Another quote: "They said this Tour was too short, they said this Tour was too easy <<dramatic pause "THEY....were wrong!!"
I liked the part about how infusing a travelogue of France became part of the broadcast concept with this commentary years ago: Shot of crumbling ancient chateau. Phil: That could use a bit of work. Partner: It used to be very important, Louis XIV lived there. ( During the interview Phil said ‘If you don’t know who lived in a particular castle or chateau always say “Louis XIV lived there” ).
The Strade Bianche is Saturday. MAX will carry it. So will something called FloBikes, but a quick google shows it might be a sketchy outfit. Buyer beware!
Pogacar wins again. He overcame a nasty fall on a white road. Pidcock kept going but eventually slowed down to wait for him. He came in second.