The Bicycle Racing Thread 2015
- Thread starter The Boy
- Start date
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
And did it a second time today. Degenkolb took the stage in between. Bouhanni second three times in a row. Not sure what's up with Bouhanni, he's consistently up there this season but he only seems to actually win when nobody else who can sprint is in the race. Cofidis showing their reverse midas touch?
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Giro is very fun so far. I was cheering for Uran, so of course he got ill and shipped time in the first few stages.
New team, new train. He's showing he still has a decent gallop, so won't be too worried about him being the new Tyler farrar *yet*.
Also this. Though as mentioned I had a cover bet on porte at serious odds so that should sweeten the pill if he goes on to win.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Yeah, it's not like he's suddenly coming in 12th like Farrar did. Degenkolb and Bennett are fast. But, I suppose I'd hoped to see Bouhanni moving up to compete with the big three, rather than getting beaten by riders in the next tier down. Fighting it out with those guys is an impressive step up for Bennett, but not for Bouhanni.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Tour of California: What the fucking fuck was that?
What happened?
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Alaphilippe beat everyone on a proper mountain. Sagan won the TT, won a sprint and came fifth on the MTF on his way to the GC. This is a race with an actual mountain top finish with actual climbers taking part.
Was less than 130km long though, and largely second string climbers. Alaphillipe looks to me to have something of the valverde about him (I don't mean that in a bad way. Yet) and finished second in liege. Ready made replacement for when kwiat leaves for sky.
rubbershoes
not the only raver in the village
I'm pleased for Sagan though. How many second place finishes can someone have?
He deserved a win, though maybe not this one
He deserved a win, though maybe not this one
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
The Alaphilippe win was surprising - he's never shown anything much on longish climbs before - but not shocking, as he's young. The Sagan performance did take me aback though. This is a race that has always been won by a very good climber. And the rest of the top five this time included Henao, Dombrowski and Gesink. Henao even had some of Sky's likely Tour domestiques to help him. Those guys aren't "first string climbers" in the Contador, Quintana or Froome sense, but they aren't the kind of climbers a sprinter/all-rounder would be expected to be mixing it up with on a real mountain.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Things got a bit heated at the Ras today. The race leader, Francesco Reda, got booted out for holding on to his team car. Reda is a former WT pro and is coming back from a suspension. Reda and his team were not best pleased with the DQ.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
Well that commissaire's decision has taken a lot of fun out of the GC battle.
Would have been content to see Porte not win, but it's a joke of a decision.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
I just can't believe that I've ended up sympathising with Porte of all people because of all the online sneering from people who just really, really hate Sky and are happy to see them lose in whatever manner.
DownwardDog
Riding a Brompton with a power meter.
After Sky's 'innovation' of the Porte-a-cabin mobile home - which is obviously just so they can smash BBs in seclusion learning from Lance's mistakes - I'm delighted to see them lose by whatever means necessary.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
The mobile home is the most conspicuous location in Italy at the moment, short of shooting up on the Spanish Steps. Whatever the reasoning is behind the mobile home, it's not something they've hired for super secret skullduggery.
ChrisFilter
Like a boss.
Indeed. Still with the Sky team doping regime silly bollocks, DD?
ChrisFilter
Like a boss.
I'm not a Sky fan, but I don't really get the hate for them.
They're probably my least favourite team. The decision was still a farce.
sleaterkinney
Well-Known Member
It's tough to get worked up about Sky when you have Astana performing like they are.
DownwardDog
Riding a Brompton with a power meter.
I don't think you can be a GC contender without doping, therefore they are all at it. What's particularly and uniquely obnoxious about Sky is the way they choose to cover their tracks with a combination of pseudo-scientific bullshit (marginal gains, washing hands, pillows, cool downs, etc.) and outright lies (Bilharzia, retrospective TUEs) that go completely unchallenged by supine and sycophantic media. At least the other WT teams that are blatantly doping don't insult our collective intelligence in that way; they just load up and shut up.
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ChrisFilter
Like a boss.
I just don't think that's the case. I think they're up to all sorts of stuff that might one day be restricted (ketones, for example) but they're not involved in team doping.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
I agree, but that said it's not clear that anybody at the top end is engaged in "team doping", at least in the old centrally organised style. There was certainly a big shift away from it years ago, towards outsourced or nod and a wink "you know what's expected but we know nothing" set ups. It's not inconceivable that there's been a shift back towards it, but there's no evidence for it thus far. I take no position on whether or not a team is "clean", but I do think it's pretty certain that Sky aren't sitting in a circle in Porte's motorhome all hooked up to blood bags. They'd have to be not just dirty but stupid.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
The Ras this year is well worth watching the highlights of (four minutes per day, all on youtube). The organisers made it a bit less hilly this year. As I understand it, the idea was to make it a bit easier, so the top domestic amateurs wouldn't get so badly stomped on by the large number of Conti teams that race it these days. But that really hasn't worked. It's been wet and windy and the racing has been almost absurdly attacking.
It's a pretty big deal for the British Continental teams as there's really nothing of its sort in Britain - there aren't many stage races in Britain and those that do exist either involve much stronger WT teams (ToB, Yorkshire) or are smaller affairs (Tour of the Reservoir etc). The Ras is exactly the right size for a strong Continental team to have a crack at. Madison Genesis, NFTO and 3M have all been doing pretty well, but this year the strongest teams are An Post, Team IDEA (the Italian team whose leader got disqualified while in yellow) and the Tirol Cycling Team.
It's a pretty big deal for the British Continental teams as there's really nothing of its sort in Britain - there aren't many stage races in Britain and those that do exist either involve much stronger WT teams (ToB, Yorkshire) or are smaller affairs (Tour of the Reservoir etc). The Ras is exactly the right size for a strong Continental team to have a crack at. Madison Genesis, NFTO and 3M have all been doing pretty well, but this year the strongest teams are An Post, Team IDEA (the Italian team whose leader got disqualified while in yellow) and the Tirol Cycling Team.
Nigel Irritable
Five, Ten, Fifteen Years
I wonder if Aru is sick? At the moment it looks like Contador isn't going to have much competition in the last week. Hopefully it was just a bad day.
DownwardDog
Riding a Brompton with a power meter.
I believe becoming more professional is the current euphemism.
If the 1990s are current, then yes.
I reckon was just a bad day struggling with the conditions, though interestingly the random, little dig that Contador put in the day prior was apparently because wanted to test Aru as he thought he looked to be struggling.
Keep in mind that Aru was - allegedly - suffering from chronic shitting disease in the run up to the Giro so perhaps may not be up to lasting three weeks.
