The Bicycle Racing Thread 2014
- Thread starter The Boy
- Start date
Cid
Proper break this time
Nope.
Didn't think I'd see a French GC rider going on the front to put the knife into sky anytime soon. Or another French rider dropping most of the rest.
Short of nibbles having a bad day I can't see anyone putting up a genuine challenge now. And if Nibali is anything, it's consistent.
Short of nibbles having a bad day I can't see anyone putting up a genuine challenge now. And if Nibali is anything, it's consistent.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Presumably the French media will be going absolutely apeshit. But at least there are two young French riders doing exceptionally well, and there are others like Barguil waiting in the wings. So maybe the burden of expectations will be a bit less crippling when it's shared around.
Fair play to Pinot, by the way for coming back from last year's horrific dose of the yips when descending. I doubt if he will be trying to gain time on Nibali on a descent any time soon (!), but that was the sort of thing that, combined with the insane attention any Frenchman who can climb gets, could have caused a lot of riders to buckle.
If the front page of l'equipe the other day was anything to go by, big time.
As you say though, there's a crop of GC riders who've come along at the same time so nobody getting hyped up as a rider they're not on the back of a stage win one time. And as you say the hype gets shared about. Young group of sprinters getting some of the attention too. Peraud hanging about too.
Will be interesting to see if pinot can keep chill. His team have been taking the line that the target is stage wins here then GC in vuelta. Always felt a bit like that was their way of protecting him from the hype.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Well, there is a bunch of them and they are all a lot better than most recent Tour winners were at their age, so you'd have to guess that at least one of them will win a GT.
I always liked Pinot, but his disasters last year made me really root for him. As a not very good cyclist, I have never empathised more with a pro than when he was going down descents with his hands clamped on the brakes and panic all over his face. I will never be like Nibali, casually gliding around corners at insane speeds, but I've been the guy who is shitting himself.
twistedAM
Left Of The Dial
Yeah without Sagan, Cannondale would be 100 points in the rankings behind Europcar, the lowest-ranked team. But are the rest of the team really that crap or do Cannondale just put all their eggs in one basket and let Sagan try to win everything (whilst giving him the strongest support cast they can in those races and let the younger rides do the less prestigious races)?
Sigmund Fraud
893 all the way.
I reckon they'd look a lot less easy if any one of three certain riders were in this race.
Impossible to say for sure obviously, and I ain't sticking my neck out for one of vino's boys.
Ted Striker
Foot's on the other hand
Dunno tbh - I've got no radar for it, though of all the Nibali moments the most superhuman he's looked IMO was the acceleration on the second day - that was something else. Hard to say if any of his current moves are other-wordly owing to the quality of the remaining field (simplifications aside) and IIRC the stages this year miss (and haven't seen) ones used in recent prior years for comparison.
Why aren't I feeling anything for him though? Is it because he was resided in the shadows owing to the pre-match hype of the Froome/Contidor show down? Or that he was the enemy for a few Wiggins (TdF 12/GI 13) GT battles?
Either way, its over as a sporting contest, though hope the Frenchies bring some great drama fighting it out for podium spots and the Peloton Vs Valverde (everyones favourite panto baddy!) battle sees the former victorious. I'm going to watch the final in Paris next week (a bit crestfallen knowing the race has been lost) though I've picked Bardet as my new favourite and if he's in the running for something important I'll be amassing the biggest soundsystem I can and get On A Ragga Tip blasting through the speakers in Paris (as it does through my head every time he's mentioned).
If nothing else the Tour has given me a new potential bromance target in Greg LeMond. I frikkin love him; his complete universal innocence and the way he starts every sentence not having a clue how the rest of it's going to pan out
. It's like all he's ever saying is "know what I mean?" though without being allowed to mention those words With the GC, quite possibly, but Purito's being very strategic in his attempt to get the KoM, and, as he's looking a bit off the pace at the moment, it'll be interesting to see how Kittel comes through the Pyranees.
Sigmund Fraud
893 all the way.
Its because he rides for Astana. How often do you see people out riding in Astana kit? Ok its garish but that never stopped people buying T-Mobile or lampre kit by the bucketload. Astana trigger that little part of the subconscious where you know they're baddies and don't want to root for them. This part of the brain is then overwhelmed by the hypothalamus that wants to enjoy the tour because its the tour FFS can't you just enjoy it? The net result of these two chemical interactions is an outward indifference...and a deeply buried nagging voice having a word with yourself about the possibility that it might all be a sham.
Sigmund Fraud
893 all the way.
Yesterdays sprint validates what some of the pro pundits are saying about 2014 Kittel - that he's actually not that good this year and the results flatter him. The absence of any real challenge when he contests is a loss to the race. Greipel has serially failed to square up to him or win when Kittel didn't make the cut. Cav must have kicked his telly to death by now.
DownwardDog
Riding a Brompton with a power meter.
Good point. I think I can recall only a single instance of Astana kit in the wild. Skybots and OGE predominate here with a sprinkling of Garmin-Sharp. As much as I like Nibali it will be a very long time before I see that blue kit without thinking of Lance or fucking Vino.
Has anyone ever voluntarily worn an Ag2r jersey and shorts?
Best kit in the pro peloton imo.
Sigmund Fraud
893 all the way.
Yep its up there. Apparently the team moaned like hell at the brown shorts when they were unveiled but grew to love them. Its a perfect antidote to the bland, corporate pro jerseys like Trek, Giant-Shimano and Netapp.
In the same vein as Ag2r was the beautiful but short lived xacobeo galicia kit.
Sigmund Fraud
893 all the way.
I have a pair of Ag2r winter bibtights that refuse to due after 11 winters. One person in particular in my club keeps moaning when I wear them so I make a point of sitting in front of him so he has to look at my arse with 'AG2R' emblazoned across it.
Last edited:
Ted Striker
Foot's on the other hand
ALL the kits are a competition in hideousness aside from, well, I won't mention their name as I've fallen out of love with them (and Rapha) at the moment
Bring back Brooklyn cycling or the king of cycling jerseys: La Vie Claire. For what the 90's lacked in nice bikes (steel frames with threadless stems and cables under the bartape
) they nailed it in the team jerseys. Mapie = 
Last edited:
twistedAM
Left Of The Dial
ALL the kits are a competition in hideousness aside from, well, I won't mention their name as I've fallen out of love with them (and Rapha) at the moment
Bring back Brooklyn cycling or the king of cycling jerseys: La Vie Claire. For what the 90's lacked in nice bikes (steel frames with unthreaded stems and cables under the bartape
I've still got a couple of Carrera jerseys. A bit ripped and tattered as I used to wear them all the time as our club jerseys were basically a reverse of the Astana colour scheme: lemon and baby blue and whoever ordered them got them all in Griepel size..
