Bicycle Racing Thread 2013

[Sigmund Fraud]

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Oh, and Jaja is a cunt. Did anyone see his comments to the French Senate anti-doping commission?
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Yes and seconded.

 

[The Boy]

Rui Costa smashed that TT. Nice ride by Kangert, Amador and Mollema too.

 

[The Boy]

Some incredibly unsurprising results in the national TT champs today.

 

[The Boy]

Europcar suspended from the MPCC. Not sure for how long, or what actual effect this will have on the team, but between this and AG2R's auto-suspension it's good to see them taking things seriously.

 

[The Boy]

Arthur Vichot justifying some of the mild fuss around him by winning the French Nats RR in fine style, although I think Chavanel was probably the stronger rider. FdJ filling five places in the top 10 too.

Greipel, Sagan, Herrada and Brammeier some of the other notable winners. Cav was looking good in the UK RR last I looked.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Great to see Cavendish win the British RR. A bit embarrassing for Sky, mind you.

That was Brammeier's fourth Irish RR in a row, which is a pretty spectacular record.

 

[The Boy]

Thor "shit since he signed for BMC" Hushovd somehow managed to spank both Kristoff and Boassen Hagen too.

 

[The Boy]

Nice ride by Gallopin in Classica San Sebastian today.

 

[sleaterkinney]

'kin hell

Despite a current rule being in place which states that the presidential candidates must be nominated by their national federations, the Malaysian federation’s amendment proposes that candidates should instead by able to be proposed by any two federations.

In tandem with that, the Moroccan and Thai federations have said that McQuaid is now a member, and has their backing.

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/1...t-McQuaid-overcome-hurdle-to-re-election.aspx

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

He's starting to make Blatter look like a democrat.

Great pic of McQuaid too, looks every inch the dodgy fucker he is.

 

[The Boy]

How do you spell breakaway?

 

[The Boy]

So what do folks make of the changes being tried out at Tour de Pologne? I'm liking the 6-man teams - seems to be making the last 10-15km very, very active. The attractivity award? Not so good, imo.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

I liked the six man team too. Though it should be said that Poland often provides a good race anyway. For some reason you tend to get a lot of younger talents and random second tier GC types and sprinters fighting it out.

Is it the lowest prestige World Tour race? Other than Beijing obviously. Actually, now that I think about it, it's probably a bigger win that the Tour Down Under too.

 

[The Boy]

Is it the lowest prestige World Tour race? Other than Beijing obviously. Actually, now that I think about it, it's probably a bigger win that the Tour Down Under too.

Does Eneco Tour have WT status?

 

[Nigel Irritable]

Does Eneco Tour have WT status?

Regrettably, yes.

Ok, now that I've actually gone and looked up the details of the World Tour, I was talking shit. The Tour of Poland isn't actually particularly low prestige for a WT race at all. Of the eleven week long stage races I'd put it 8th in importance, ahead of ENECO, TDU and Beijing, probably just behind Romandie. And it's more prestigious than a couple of the bottom rung one day races too, like Vattenfall or the new Canadian ones.

 

[where to]

So whose doing vuelta then. Still not clear

Betancur
Rodriguez
Uran / henao
Valverde?
Contador?
Quintana?
Nibali?

Not Wiggins.

If the guts with question marks ride will their form last three wks or will they dip like Froome did last yr? Or in case of Nibali will he be ready to compete from start.

I'm not sure, with noone really focussing on it whether a surprise might not be on the cards (betancur)

 

[The Boy]

Valverde is definite and focussing on GC. He rode a pretty strong Vuelta last year despite also doing Tour so probably one of the favs. Nibbles is doing it as prep for the Worlds, but imagine if the competition is weak and he is able to make a challenge without putting that in peril then will probably go for it. Uran has signed for OPQS so doubt Sky will let him ride. Contador not riding.

The more I think about it, the more I think the route suits Betancur, but not sure if he's riding.

 

[where to]

He's doing Burgos, I assume as prep.

 

[The Boy]

Good to see. One of my fav riders atm.

 

[The Boy]

Oh, and no more Euskaltel.

 

[The Boy]

Talk of a double Zoncolan for next year's Giro.

 

[Nigel Irritable]

As far as I can gather, the Vuelta sprinter's line up looks set to be dog shit again. I don't think that any of the big three will be there, and few of the second tier guys. There's a genuine opportunity there for no-name sprinters to win stages.

 

[The Boy]

I can't even see any genuine sprinters who've confirmed they've going. Last year at least had some sort of level of interest with some of the young guys/second tier sprinters rocking up, but this year the cupboard looks bare.

 

[Part 2]

I realise this is mostly a thread about road racing but this deserves a watch. Just a shame the overtake move isn't all in shot.

 

[where to]

I can't even see any genuine sprinters who've confirmed they've going. Last year at least had some sort of level of interest with some of the young guys/second tier sprinters rocking up, but this year the cupboard looks bare.

Think Meersman will be there, that's it tho. Even the second rate euskatel boy not going

 

[The Boy]

So it turns out Demare is a classics man rather than a pure sprinter. And Bardet gets his first pro win by taking the overall in Tour de l'Ain.

And Quintana like a boss at Burgos.

 

[where to]

Looking forward to seeing if Wiggins rides for Frrome in world's road race after the TT.

 

[The Boy]

Looking forward to seeing if Wiggins rides for Frrome in world's road race after the TT.

Pecking order well and truly established, so shouldn't be any problems. Wiggins is putting on the pie again, so seems to be focussing purely on Worlds TT and probably Roubaix next year. No clash of interests, no problem?

edit: Though I wouldn't be surprised to see Wiggins finding the constant climbing making it a bit hard to do too much, what with his new found bulk

 

[The Boy]

Oh, and Nigel Irritable, what do you make of the rumours that Deignan is off to Sky at the end of the year?

 

[Ted Striker]

Wiggins doing Roubaix? This is news. Would love to see him have a go at that. Awesome!