Pro-cycling thread

Don’t think he crashed on a descent?
Also the madness of youth...

Bravo Thibaut!

Great ride, he broke Nibali, and then did a phenomenal descent.

Excellent race; Milan-Torino was great as well.

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/mitchelton-scott-win-hammer-hong-kong-claim-2018-series-win-397259

I know it's had me on the edge of my seat.

I’m of the opinion the season is now over, regardless of what the organisers of the Tour of Guangxi might say.

Stole this from Cafe Roubaix on Twitter.

Sanremo - Vincenzo Nibali
Flanders - Niki Terpstra
Roubaix - Peter Sagan
Liege - Bob Jungels
Giro - Chris Froome
Le Tour - Geraint Thomas
Vuelta - Simon Yates
ITT Worlds - Rohan Dennis
RR Worlds - Alejandro Valverde
Lombardia - Thibaut Pinot

Been some good racing - the Giro and Vuelta were memorable. The one days races not so much. Sagan’s win at Roubaix was a masterclass but there wasn’t much suspense. One day highlight was probably Strade Bianche(i?).

What have you lot enjoyed? Heroes/villains etc?

Not been into racing that much this year. The only races I made a serious effort to watch were P-R and the tour.

Moment if the year would be Frome in the Giro, surely.

Highlights for me were Nibali at Sanremo, whole Giro, Viviani at the Nationals (I hope you guys have seen the race) Van Vleuten at La Course and Jungels at LBL.

Froome stage 19 giro, nibbles Milan san remo and Wout in Strada Bianca

Strada bianchi was a fave as well as the giro and that stage where froome went early.

Strade Bianche(i?)

Strade Bianche is correct ;)

Viviani at the Nationals (I hope you guys have seen the race)

I haven't seen it. What was special about it?

Jungels at LBL just because it's a local (to me) rider in his closest to home world tour race and a monument to boot so loads of local support
La Course was awesome, the effort until the last second of Van Vleuten gave her a well deserved win
Froome in the Giro for his long range attack
Yates' Vuelta after his massive implosion in the Giro was a great turnaround and showed lessons learned
Vuelta also good for the youth coming through and scrapping until the (2nd to) last day for the podium

Lot of the rest of the season felt like business as usual in a lot of respects. The tour was a bit dull overall; some good stages but a bit bland. Bernal was the standout new talent though, even with such an injury filled season.

Last lap was him against Pozzovivo and Visconti (working together), they tried dropping him in the last two steep climbs but he managed to hang on all the times to then beat them both to the home straight.
Still surprised he didn’t pass out/puked his soul out after those efforts. Looked painful.

San Remo was awesome, was watching with a non cycling mate and we were both shouting at the TV wishing Nibali to the line.

Froome’s winning attack was glorious, especially taken out from under the Sabutamol cloud at the time. The whole stage was riveting from start to finish, from the full gas start and catching the breakaway early, to Yates’ implosion, to the Sky mountain attack, to the gradual realisation that Froome would end up in pink, not just the win.

Any thoughts on Rachel McKinnon's Masters Word Champion track win? Or are none of us qualified to answer?

Masters = not pro-cycling?

Fair point actually. News thread?

Wow, thanks for the lowdown
I was trying to look this up on youtube, but couldn't find anything. link maybe? thanks!

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/157103/ ?

Froome at the Giro - from no hope to winner in the blink of an asthmatic eye - stage 19 and Kenny Ellisonde's utter shredding of the select group to sling shot Froome out was incredible.

I enjoyed the Vuelta as it chucks the rule book in the bin and provides interest and amazing parcours. Yates victory was a brilliant although he is getting cocky in my opinion. Tired of media intrusion. It's part of the job...."so.....er.....yeah!" as Simon may say.

All of the above + Katarzyna Niewiadoma at Trofeo Binda.

Indeed, that was a great win. Not sure what happened with her during the rest of the season?.. she was giving mixed message on social media, I couldn’t get it

Valverde getting annoyed about his past being brought up. I hope this continues all year for him.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/valverde-cycling-is-in-great-health/

It's almost like people think he's a lying cheat... having heard some of the crap he did to avoid CONI getting the ban to stick, he's taken a step even further down for me.