Pro-cycling thread

huh?

http://pages.rapha.cc/spring-monuments-competition

Cheers

handbags

https://twitter.com/AlexandreMignot/status/715165690534240256?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Second time I've seen a punch thrown in a race this year.

Any idea what this one was about? Nicked his last gel or touched his teammates bum or something?

Marianne Vos is back, won the inaugural Pajot Hills Classic in Belgium today, beating a class field by the looks of it.

That was impressive from Viviani, he's back in form! Kittel clearly went out too early.

Kittel got mugged hard.
Viviani, so cool.

Those facial expressions.

Secret Poo not holding back about Demare:

Arnaud Démare, I’m sorry to say it, but you cheated in plain sight of many of your fellow competitors. Hanging on, up arguably the hardest of the climbs in the race, to make it back to the front, and then contesting the sprint is wrong — let alone then winning the sprint. This was not at a small 2.1 or 2.HC stage race, like Bouhanni did earlier in the season. This was a Monument. A life-changer in the world of cycling.

Shane Stokes you mean?

Lol.

You think the secret pro is a fraud?

Several secret pros whispering in his ear I'd think

I think the first few were probably the same person, but it's gone downhill rapidly and now is a platform for Stokes. He probably speaks to a few riders, but a lot of the opinions expressed seem to mirror his own with alarming regularity.

Yes the way they are has changed. That's for sure.
I wonder, few years and the truth will come out.

I'll keep an eye for the similarities.

3ddp dafuq were Tinkoff doing?

Just watched that, Kittel had to launch early as his lead out peeled off too soon and did a 250 metre sprint into a headwind. Viviani played it to perfection, but how strong must Kittel have been to still come second? And by some margin too, Kristoff was a few bike lengths back in third.

Kittel comes across as one of the most down to earth guys on twitter.

Sprinting for almost 300m feels like an eternity and in the end I made @eliaviviani happy & not me. ;) Congrats to him! New chance tomorrow!

— Marcel Kittel (@marcelkittel) March 30, 2016

Quickstep haven't really got any better at lead out trains since Cav have they ? I seem to remember them dropping Cav off too early too / Cav finding other wheels to come off of.

QS had a six rider train vs Sky three in the last 5k and still got jumped.

You can't really compare them though, the Sky trains job was to keep Viviani out of trouble and put him on Kittel's will, not lead out the sprint

Nonetheless, the Etixx train faultered, I think it was third man who did quite a small turn and last man had to do loads and didn't have the extra 50m necessary

Kristoff had just the one rider and he got him to the front at the perfect moment. Kristoff didn't have the legs to go with Kittell and Viviani though

Have long sprint trains had their day?

With the people available at the moment.

I think the difference is the quality of the opposition. When HTC had their sprint train there were few other teams trying to put together a train. Now there are some races where there are 3 or 4 competing sprint trains and it becomes so much harder to control it.

Though none of those things happened in that race!