Pro-cycling thread

Mads Pedersen won the u23 Ghent Wevelgem on sunday. Said the cobbled classics are his favourite races.

You're worse than Angela Merkel.

I don't understand why she springs to mind ...

And very rude to Tony Martin.

I'm not rude, just realistic, about (not to) Tony Martin. You show me the last time a specialist tester has won P-R. He may have been training differently, but it's just not a race that suits his strengths (and I really like him as a rider, by the way). As I said, I hope I'm completely wrong.

He won the tour stage, as you know. And he may be more than a tester.

OK, I'll play. And the Tour stage had how many secteurs and how many good Classics riders in it? :)

http://cyclingtips.com/2016/03/the-secret-pro-processing-death-race-motos-terrorism-extreme-weather-and-more/

As usual a decent read, more about motos and a very scathing take on Demare's win in NSR

Jeremy Roy got some screengrabs too

same car?

1 Attachment

62 bikes

1 chef?

Yeah - fair enough. My point above was that classics are raced differently.

I think Tony could be a contender, but he probably needs to race the season two or three times.

fair enough, my view on them is that the teams will likely see very little of that "extra revenue" and the riders even less so

I also don't see what real product they are selling, on-board cameras - Ok, so what's stopping the race organisers or the UCI doing it for themselves and selling the rights to the broadcasters? They use a lot of corporate spiel and say they're in lots of talks and have lots of teams signed up, but to what end?

On the subject of classics - Etixx to fuck up again, they have no clear leader or even few leaders and seem to have the sole purpose of missing the final breaks only to chase them down again.

Flanders - Sagan, he looked really strong going up the climbs in E3 and Gent and I think the only ones who can follow him, he can outsprint.

Roubaix - Cancellara, will top 5 in Flanders but this is his last hurrah and he'll throw the kitchen sink at it to win.

Brian Cookson statement

http://www.uci.ch/news/article/take-responsibilities-seriously-will-the-whole-the-uci/?utm_content=buffer4cafa&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

fair enough, my view on them is that the teams will likely see very little of that "extra revenue" and the riders even less so

Velon is a venture set up by a bunch of teams. That is to say, Velon is the teams. They are the ones who would profit.

Ok, so what's stopping the race organisers or the UCI doing it for themselves and selling the rights to the broadcasters?

I'm not sure, but I doubt the UCI can force riders to put cameras on their bikes which they (the UCI) will the will then profit from. The teams that the riders are signed to presumably can (by making it a part of their contract). Thus, Velon has access to a resource the UCI doesn't - the riders themselves.

As to what Velon is actually selling - fuck all as far as I can tell. It's a bit like Dimension Data (the sponsor, not the team). All talk thus far.

Is it just me or it looks like he saw the car coming and just tried to get the usual little drag?

It's just you.

They're doing through and off, he was rotating through his turn (see BMC guy move over too), car was way too close no matter what and in a stupid place, given what the group was doing.

Sounds like Rowe was unlucky to puncture at the bottom of the Kapelmuur.

In the Secret Pro article, he says: "The in-house fighting at Team Sky over who will be leader at Roubaix should be over by now. Stannard is better at these races than Rowe, and there’s no doubt the whole team should support Stannard."

Have I missed this? I didn't know there had ever been any friction between these two.

Martin spends remainder of race applying more sandpaper to saddle as punishment more like. Sick puppy.

For Betancur

so good

I'm not rude, just realistic, about (not to) Tony Martin. You show me the last time a specialist tester has won P-R.

Fabs in 2006

Fabs in 2006

He's never been only a specialist tester but was a good Classics rider right from the off. He came fo(u)rth in Paris-Roubaix as early as 2004.

That's what I need.. MOAR SANDPAPERZ!

Yeah, except he was already a great (probably 'specialist' would apply) tester as a junior, in the 90s.

98 and 99 to be precise...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCI_Road_World_Championships_%E2%80%93_Junior_men's_time_trial

6 hours, 7 minutes, 18 seconds. Enter a different time if you don't want to share your prize with me.