Pro-cycling thread

^ thanks

http://www.itv.com/hub/cycling-tour-of-yorkshire-highlights/2a3857a0006

^ Also thanks

Having ridden parts of that last stage during last week, in particular Grosmont and the climb coming out of Robin Hoods Bay it was nice to see the pros go up them and not make it look piss easy.

What's the key difference between that stage of Yorkshire and say flèche of liege? Why was it so much more exciting?

proper hard man racing. Just war of attrition all day.

Never over ten degrees snow on the ground tight corners lumpy as hell . Full on side head tail winds . Rain rough english tarmac 😂 No shelter in the bunch . How much more do you want.

It did sort of out-Ardenne the Ardennes

Sky made it a shit fight by hitting the front and going hard. I think three-stage races help to shake out lots of action in a short space of time. Because they're short.

The lack of world tour powerhouse teams also helped, the final group of 5 would have probably been a final group of 50 if it was a world tour classic as there's simply more teams to chase back on if someone gets away

Was a good parcours though, enjoyed the racing, nice to see Tommy V get a win, using all his experience to nab it. Van Poppel coming back and winning sprints was also cool after all the classics work he did for the team off the back of an early season injury

Exactly this. If Sky tried to rip it up at Liege like that, they'd pull hard for 50 kms, turn round and see a field of 50-80 riders still left. The depth of the field in a WT race is much deeper. Most of the UK teams are delighted that they still had someone within 5 minutes of the winners.

I should add, that's not to demean the UK teams, they are an important part of the development process for younger riders, bridging the gap between junior racing and the WT for younger riders and giving chances to those who've developed later.

What race did Betancur win yesterday? Never heard of it.

Vuelta Asturias. Like all Spanish races, it used to attract a decent field, but as the economic crisis in Spain has bit, sponsors have gone. It used to be a 5 day race, now down to 3.

Adam Yates.

It just sunk in what a ride he did yesterday. Immense.
Yesterdays stage was seriously hard. And to get 3rd, behind 2 top level vetrans.

Really hope the Yates brothers go on to have impressive careers and clean up hilly classics and brutal tour stages.

Now I no longer support G, since he gave up racing classics. I think Adam will become my new guy to support. Him and Luke R. Luke R will win PR I think. He's a fucking hardman.

It seems the best answer then is to reduce the number of riders a team can bring to a race like liege, if all the numbers do is essentially neutralise the racing

Tom Stewart making the break and being there was damn impressive.
11th on GC!!

http://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/Thomas_Stewart

Yes very true, but it was great to the field smashed to bits, mainly down to the magnificent pull by Kennaugh. He may be a bit of a Charlie but he is also one hell of a bike rider. Loved all the little groups racing hard, and Voeckler's brudge with Turgis was a fantastic bit of riding, especially when he looked back and saw Nordhaug on the charge and put in a extra kick to keep him away.

And echelons on the top of climbs! Great countryside and conditions for a hard race too.

As a resident of Yorkshire I'm so happy that both tours de have been judged successes, and I hope that it continues to establish itself. It's been brilliant being able to go and watch them race up climbs that I'm familiar with. I can also strava-stalk the pros and compare their segment times with my own fairly paltry uphill struggles.

Considering it also marks the final of the snooker world championship this is now officially my favourite bank holiday.

As for the conditions, I imagine it will have been very rough on the moor tops yesterday as evidenced by the echelons. I was on Greenhow hill on Friday (in 2 layers of HH merino and a Rapha transfer jacket!) and I was still freezing.

https://twitter.com/chrisfroome/status/727070154564243457

God, Froome is boring and bitter.

But, hopefully it's all part of a grand change in Sky tactics.

That's actually quite sad.

I doubt that. Their tactics for stage races are well established, and very, very successful.

He was on the attack last week because he needed some decent racing miles and was out of the GC picture. Thus he got a level of freedom he'd never get if he was in contention for the overall.

Then I will continue to call him boring and he will just have to accept it (along with the millions of pounds/euros he's paid).

There has been talk of this already, the problem is that all the big teams lobby against it, because if they think they have got the strongest rider, then there's a larger chance they won't win due to less numbers to chase. This means less wins and less exposure meaning angry sponsors, it would be good to see the UCI grow a pair and do it, but history dictates this won't happen. Even though it would spread the wealth much more as smaller teams would get more sponsor money.

Also Gianni Moscon appreciation moment - how strong was/is he?! Pulling like am absoloute workhorse from 40kmish out and still had something left to help try and get Nordhaug over

Lol at Froomey, I genuinely reckon he's alright if you know him, all the other Sky boys that we generally like (G, Rowe etc.) seem to really like him, he just has a way of saying things that doesn't come out quite right. His wife doesn't help either