Pro-cycling thread

Am I reading that right - a 1300m climb is only ranked as cat 1?

strange indeed, at 10.5% avg and that road surface... the Mortirolo is no joke. maybe they don't classify the climbs like they do in the TdF and cat 1 is the highest.

Looks brutal, but has anyone apart from Landa have the legs to attack Contador? I'm not sure Aru does, despite the crazy strength-in-depth of the Astana team

Bertie can ride it however he wants really. I guess he's just stick to the Astana train, it's all he needs to do and as has probably been mentioned he's going for the GT double (maybe triple) this year, so won't want to go any deeper than he needs to. He's looking really impressive, but, you know, history, so fuckim. Even though I quite like him.

1's the highest, surely (judging by the other cat 3's?)

One thing you can say about Contador is he is an incredibly talented bike racer, rather than simply the product of a lab like say Lance or Indurain.

Yes, nothing like Lance. Tell me more about his suspicion-free career...

I think if you eliminated dope, Contador would probably still be up there as one of the best, maybe the best of this generation. It's of course really hard to tell seeing as we don't actually know who's doped and who hasn't, especially when you consider the long term benefits of past doping.
In conclusion, fuck only knows; just enjoy the bike racing.

I do enjoy bike racing - my bike racing.

The Giro was dead to me when they handed out that bullshit penalty to Porte.

I do think Contador is nails but there's still a blight on his name so fuck him, along with Merckx and Lance and all the other fuckers that still earn off tainted careers.

Aww c'mon, Merckx? Everyone was on the speed back then. Or are you referring to him and Axel showing Lance the way towards blood doping?

Virenque advertising Festina watches is magnificent. It's like Armstrong being signed up to promote the US postal service.

fuckers like Mick 'clenbuterol' Rogers?

(trololol)

Remind me again, which years of his palmares were removed for doping infractions?

none, just trolling.

But I think it's odd that Bertie's were, on account of the same substance in his blood. #steakgate

Bertie wasn't in China when he got busted, that is the only difference

They seemed happy with Rogers' explanation and not Contador's. Simple as that.

First week of the Giro was great. We might still get a great stage or two but it's essentially a dead rubber unless Contador crashes.

Contador bossing it on the Mortirolo, great to see him passing everyone after wheel change after which Astana opened the throttle. I think he's angry enough to pass Aru as well when he gets there

Pretty epic stuff from Bertie tbf

spits

That is properly impressive.

he got there pretty fast o.O

hope Kruijswijk will stay ahead, very impressed with his performance so far and wondering more and more how he f*cked up his GC chances in the first couple of stages

Has Aru buggered up his ratio today? Saw a tweet saying he had 39/32, which ought to be enough even for the steep bits, but he just seems to be grinding away out of the saddle a lot, losing loads of energy swinging his bike about. He looks awful on the bike really.

Ryder's really impressive again today.

Agreed on Ryder. And I'm loving the support Aru's getting from the spectators.

Kelly keeps calling it the Motorola climb. I wonder how he was in the peloton back in the day talking in French...!

Kelly's the person who says "Tour of France", so that gives you an idea.