Pro-cycling thread

There is a massive gap in the market for grown-up Tintin, the drunken CX spectator. Can someone with art skills produce this?

A balloon? as in fat?

I cant help but like Cav. I like his abrasive nature.

Still I think it is great a new generation is coming through - less happy there is no British rider in that mix.

You mean a new generation of pure sprinters yeah? Because there's lots of good British juniors coming through.

A new generation of what? Because surely Adam and Simon Yates are at the forefront of a new generation?

Unless you mean sprinters? Because Lawless is meant to be decent, and Ethan Hayter will be joining Sky at some point.

Rapha are saying that they'll have EF riders compete in things like the 3 peaks CX, Leadville and Dirty Kanza and they'd love for one of the riders compete in the Transcontinental.

Pro Cycling nonsense fucking up cool events >>>

Jo Dombroski was handy on a cross bike...

Sorry - I am trying to get the hang of this layout/forum. Different to others i've used. I thought I was replying directly to the chap who called Cav a balloon! I am also very old and relative latecomer to the wonders of the world Tour.

yes - sprinters. Ewan, Groening (sp) and Gaviria (although I think he has flaws) et al.

I watched Hayter in the TOB - looks good.

Sky not so keen on Sprinters though and especially with riders number reduced in world tour races?

Apparently, they’re sending a full team to the Grindleford Goat next year.

I'm curious how a pro rider would fare in ultra-cycling. You'd say they should be able to smash the entire field, but I'm not sure how good they'd be at the whole unsupported lark.

Can't wait to see Taylor Phinney at a club 10

they'd love for one of the riders compete in the Transcontinental.

Isn't this a bit of a shame? Isn't there a huge discrepancy in budget and support available for the usual riders and a pro rider?

Well yeah, but they wouldn't be supported 'during' the race. I'd love to see them get smoked but they'd probably have the fitness to make up for the issues they'd face. Some of them probably already have some back-country skills but I can't imagine they'd be super pumped about riding TCR in the middle of a PAID racing season unless the team somehow thought it worth paying for. Personally I'd like to keep Pros and all their associated baggage (press, drugs, controversy, etc) the fuck out of these races.

It’s unsupported... so shouldn’t make any difference.

Rapha probably saw how much coverage the NoGoTour got, as well as the Rapha Audax blogs, and decided that A * B = lots of money. There's plenty of history of pro-am events - the early years of PBP for example.

I think the NoGoTour was 150-200km a day through the mountains, and DeGendt and Wellens did 1,000km in 6 days as a relaxing end-of-season bike-packing trip. So they do know how to ride without a team car, and you think they'd be capable of bashing out twice those distances if they cared about winning.

I'm sure an ex pro rode a few years ago in TCR. I think it was mentioned on the relevant TCR thread so I'll have a hunt.

Edit: Geoffroy Dussault who did TCr 4 and 5 it seems. Links here and here from No.5 talk.

..... as Alex Dowsett's minute man?

Pro contracts state you can not compete in amatuer events so i dont know how they would get around that.

Chris Welham manages to!

I think Dombrowski finished on the Leadville podium so it's clear some riders DO ride these events but I guess the UCI chooses to not enforce that rule. I would assume it's to stop the teams creating or competing in a breakaway series whilst continuing with the world tour.

Lots of pros compete in amateur events.

Not UCI, if it was specified it'd be in individual rider's contracts with teams. Presumably because they don't want their pedaling meat stick to injure themselves in some race full of gumbys. Almost certainly if it is a common contract obligation it's ignored by teams... right up until something goes wrong and they can use it to terminate said contract.

Not sure whether this is strictly enforced and the status of some of the races we're talking about (obviously TCR isn't sanctioned) but from UCI rules:

No licence holder may participate in an event that has not been included on a national,
continental or world calendar or that has not been recognised by a national federation, a
continental confederation or the UCI.

Ah, well that's the UCI protecting their asses from splinter groups I guess. The rule goes on about exceptions for "events whose format is not covered by the UCI regulations." so stuff like TCR, SSWC, Crocodile Trophy, Leadville, and the epic Grindleford Goat etc.

I'm sure current pros (certainly doping banned ones) have raced in sportifs, which are equivalent in format, ie. road races.

Are CTT events recognised by BC?