Pro-cycling thread

That footage of Skuijns crash in California is horrible. We should never forget how tough these guys are, he's concussed and has a broken collarbone but still carries on, until his team, rightly, get him to stop.

right after a period in which Dumoulin's main focus was to lose 3 kg, I think he has specifically trained for TT's since then

I expect him to take pink today, and probably win the stage. But it'll be interesting to see if his improved climbing has taken anything away from this time-trialling.

Christ I was shouting at the screen when he walked back across the road to his bike and riders are desparately trying to avoid him

only just saw the footage... incredible. and scary. who will protect the riders against themselves and their instinct to always always get back on the bike asap?

Do not want to see.

Do want to see the TT today, despite TTs essentially being a cycling version of an excel spreadsheet being populated. Damo must love them.

Strong riding from Tao on stage 2.

I was trying to work out why Nibbles looked strange on the bike; the sitting and spinning thing was it

That's not tough, it's concussion.

Been there done that.

Perhaps explains the brain surgery I had to have 10 years later... :S

Oh poor hippy. Amazing really, this whole imagined persona of an Aussie Internet beast, when he is actually a 14 year-old girl from Arkansas who fell backwards off a swing aged 4.

She'll be led back to her bed soon. Then some time later we will get the usual flurry of posts.

I was 5!

Wait... what...

Really hope Pinot and Dumoulin put some significant time into Quintana today, generally hope the TT provides a good shake up for the GC.

Landa is clear of injury and rode without much pain yesterday apparently. Expecting a demonic performance from him in the third week.

To be fair, the race was on at that point and there was no team car supporting, once they got to him they got him off his bike.

Today's TT does go through one of my favourite Italian villages, Bastardo. Sadly I can't find the photo of me stood by the sign. Excellent wine from the finishing town too, a very drinkable dessert wine.

Really would love to see more from Millar in the press than the occasional blog entry during the Grand Tours, he offers amazing analysis and opinion pieces. At least we have INRNG:

http://inrng.com/2017/05/giro-rest-day-2017/#more-31186

Between the two of them there's no reason to read anything else.

Bastardo

Ta. Added to my list of places to visit.

I had not heard of the Passito wine from there, and I should have. Will have to seek it out.

Guesses on how much time Dumolin will put into Quintana in the TT today?

Me I'll be bold. 2m11s

58 seconds.

Dumoulin put 3 minutes into Quintana at the stage 13 time trial at the 2016 TDF, over a similar distance. Form and profile might differ, but anything less than 2 minutes would be good for Quintana and anything over 3 minutes massive for Dumoulin I think.

Will be interesting to see how Dumoulin's TT-ing goes today. Interesting that both Wiggins and Froome improved their long TT-ing as they lost weight and improved as climbers.

I think I still have a bottle here. I'll save you a glass.

Riding long climbs and TTing both reqire a massive engine. They'd only sacrifice a very few watts on TT power with the weight they lost to be able to have w/kg.

From Inrng's stage preview:

Finally Tejay van Garderen needs a result more than ever otherwise he’s going to be presented on a wet February morning as Wanty-Groupe Gobert’s new signing.]

Oof!

Stone cold!