Pro-cycling thread

OK it looked like Bernal/Martinez bridged to Henao/Quintana and Quintana immediately attacked followed by Henao and they blitzed past the leader, then Henao sat up and waited for Bernal and pulled him to the line. Only clear from the montages after the finish.

Yeap, I agree. I watched the same thing live yesterday and it was completely unclear - one moment Contreras is in the lead all alone, next thing you know there's the Movistar guy jumping in front of Bernal/Sky and winning.
You're right, Bernal reached chasers and Dayer Quintana shot ahead to take the stage / bonus seconds ahead of him.

They should've had three 'motos', not two

Good to see forum favourite Nathan Haas get his first win in Katusha colours today in Oman. Especially as he beat Van Avermaet and his already celebrating team mate.

Have you got a link please? Can’t find footage. Annoyed it wasn’t on as it sounds like good racing.

Yeah. Want him to get a big one this year. Deserves it.

Great to see Tao riding in Colombia.

http://www.uec.ch/en/actu/66/new-format-of-the-road-european-championships-from-2019

The European Championships are going to have shorter races and now with an e-bike category, thoughts?

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What's that for, the Belgian women?

Sexist/Belgist.

No, for the companies that make and sell e-bikes. It's already a huge sector of the market in Europe (also causing a huge number of crashes, as people can't handle the things). It's expected to get bigger.

Sexist/Belgist.

No. Accurate.

Femke Van den Driessche winner of racing's biggest loser award in recent years.

I read yesterday I think that 7 out of 10 of all the MTBs sold in Europe are E-bikes.

Revolve 24hr has an E-MTB 6hr race category.

Ah, I'd forgotten that all Belgian women are called Femke van den Driessche.

Actually, I think it's more for the Swiss men, who are all called Fabian Cancellara.

Occasionally referred to has Roger Federer also.

Surely the E-road bike and E MTB could just as easily be won by the non electronic pros?
I can see that longer duration races might have car racing type tactics (refueling/battery swaps, but for shorter races, I can't see this making sense.

Swissististiisstiisssssiiiiisttttt

You are Gollum and I claim my £5.

I'm way fatter than him and you know it.

#hippyisfat
#hippyisprecious

Interesting finish at the Ruta today with Poels taking it ahead of Landa and LLS, well deserved, wonder if Froome's gifting him something ahead of domestique tasks in the rest of the season.

Froome's clearly finished, now he can't even beat his own teammate! It must be because he's been caught doping!

He said in an interview before hand he isn't feeling great. Either its to try and get some of the media off him or he burnt himself out training in January while trying to sort out this salbutomal issue? Or he is playing everyone and will destroy them later.

Poels looks even skinnier than Froome, wow. he must be down to just above 60kgs :-/

Mentally having the AAF hanging over your head must be extremely draining.

Yeah fair point actually.

I doubt he'll want to the added attention of winning and being slagged for potentially having it revoked later anyway, even if he does want to get the race miles in

It won't be revoked though will it?

Apparently if a ban is imposed, only the results of the race in which the AAF was recorded would be wiped.

So if this is indeed the case then Froome would keep the world tt medal, and all results including any wins in The Giro and Tour.

If the AAF was for another GC contender, and had been confidential as it should have been, I can’t see them voluntarily suspending themselves either.