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The Bicycle Racing Thread 2015

I've just at the odds and the bookies have Froome, Quintana, Contador and Nibali in that order as the clear favourites for GC. I hope it's a tight one this year, although Contador might be pushing it having already won the Giro.
 
stavros said:
I've just at the odds and the bookies have Froome, Quintana, Contador and Nibali in that order as the clear favourites for GC. I hope it's a tight one this year, although Contador might be pushing it having already won the Giro.
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Potentially the first real multiple contender battle royale in ages. Of the "big four", I'll be cheering for Quintana because I'd like to see a Colombian finally win the Tour and he's also the only one of them not to have won it before. They do represent four of my least favourite half dozen or so teams, mind you.
 
I'm going Contador, Quintana, Froome and Nibali further than 4th.

Looking forward way too much to the duelling tho, so odds are at least 2 of them will crash/otherwise stuff up before it gets juicy.
 
Quintana > Nibali > Froome > Pinot.

Contador to bring all his excuses to the yard. I reserve the right to revisit this post.
 
I've also just seen that there are boni seconds for all stages in the Tour bar the ITT and TTT. Far better that than the only stages 2-8 there wasbefore.
 
None of the GC contenders are likeable, but there's something pretty impressive (albeit ugly) about Froome's mountain berserker attacks so if I had to choose it would be Froome.

Also because of what 'Brit' involvement is doing for the growth of cycling in the UK. I was on a stag do at the weekend and on Sunday the Dauphine was being discussed along with football by a group of 17 blokes. That's mental.
 
Lizzie armistead...doh. wins, celebrates, crashes, hospital :facepalm:


Apparently nothing broken, just battered!
 
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Even more notable, I see Thomas is up there in second, with great chance for overall and getting back in form in time for Le Tour. Some difficult selections for Sky coming up?
 
Big Surprise in the French Nationals were Stephen Tronet takes the riding win for conti team Auber 93. Bouhanni looked the sure fire favourite up against a group of climbers and PC/Conti level sprinters but was taken out by Anthony Roux who, I think, was later disqualified.

The Irish title, though, goes to an actual amateur. Damien Shaw wins ahead of 18 year old Eddie Dunbar.
 
The Boy said:
The Irish title, though, goes to an actual amateur. Damien Shaw wins ahead of 18 year old Eddie Dunbar.
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Yes, though it should be said that the only reason Shaw isn't a pro is that he has a real job and doesn't fancy it. He's by far and away the strongest Irish amateur and wins shed loads of domestic races. He is better than many of the Irish lads on Conti teams.

Dunbar taking second, and therefore the U23 title, is pretty good going for someone who is barely 18. He came second in the elite TT this year as well, which is an even more remarkable result as he's supposed to be a specialist climber. And these are his first races back from a broken collarbone.

I hope Bouhanni is ok. Much as I enjoyed Cavendish's "classics hard man" ride today, I don't want him to be nearly unchallenged in the sprints.
 
Nigel Irritable said:
Yes, though it should be said that the only reason Shaw isn't a pro is that he has a real job and doesn't fancy it. He's by far and away the strongest Irish amateur and wins shed loads of domestic races. He is better than many of the Irish lads on Conti teams.

Dunbar taking second, and therefore the U23 title, is pretty good going for someone who is barely 18. He came second in the elite TT this year as well, which is an even more remarkable result as he's supposed to be a specialist climber. And these are his first races back from a broken collarbone.

I hope Bouhanni is ok. Much as I enjoyed Cavendish's "classics hard man" ride today, I don't want him to be nearly unchallenged in the sprints.
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I did see that he has some good results at the Ras this year and wondered if there was something else about him. Good story none the less.

I posted over on the tour thread, but looks like nacer is out of the tour, though obviously early days.
 
Cavendish's climbing and towing of Rowe as they chased the leaders was impressive. I hope he's got plenty left in the tank for the next month.
 
The Boy said:
I did see that he has some good results at the Ras this year and wondered if there was something else about him. Good story none the less.

I posted over on the tour thread, but looks like nacer is out of the tour, though obviously early days.
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Hopefully he'll recover in time.

On Shaw: I gather from stickybottle that he only took up cycling at 25, in order to lost a bit of weight. Within about a year, he was one of the top amateurs in the country. Went on a training camp or two with An Post, but never actually signed up to a Conti team. Instead he stayed at home and won just about everything on the domestic circuit. He was saying recently that he's thinking of retiring from serious racing because there just aren't enough races of a high enough level available to him. There's the Ras and the national road race where he gets to race against strong fields, but that's about it.
 
Reda tested positive for EPO during Italian nationals. Seems there is another positive yet to be named.
 
Santambrogio apparently. How utterly predictable

Edit: don't believe everything you read on the internet, kids. Santa was, of course, not at the Italian nats. Deffo reda, though.
 
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Fabio Taborre suspended by UCI for FG-4592. Androni Giacattoli also suspended for between 14 and 45 days (whatever that means) for their second positive in 2015.
 
The interesting thing about that though, is that the drug in question appears to still be in the clinical trials stage. And WADA already have a test for it.
 
San Sebastian tips? Was going to punt on Alaphillipe when he was 22s but is now at 12. Can't really see much beyond Valverde though really.
 
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