Pro-cycling thread

He’s on the start list for the Dauphine.

I wonder on which stage he will either be robbed or crash out?

very good news. plus he's doing the Arctic Tour of Norway, like in 2018. nice to see him develop more of a liking for the road racing game and not choosing to focus on mtb solely.

Haha

winks at Shimano

I'd like to see Porte do well this year - his last year in sky (I think it was) he really looked the equal of froome. That was all followed by a couple of years of bad luck - be nice to see it all come together for him

(there, thats him done for...)

Well that was unexpected

The ridiculously early finish, the surprise winner, or both?

This is a timely discussion as I had a dream last night Porte and Connor Dunne joined my south london cycling club.

Porte finished 4th on Mt Baldy in the ToC. Could possibly have won the stage if he wasnt SRAMed (dropped chain i think). So he has something resembling form. I would like to see him do well, if only to make the Tour more competitive.

Wasn’t there a video of another Trek rider (I think Mollema) dropping his chain and cursing about Sram that emerged from the Giro?

I don’t think you can blame Sram. I use Di2 and it overshifts when it’s not set up right.

I’ve always been puzzled by the criticism SRAM gets, as a user of both major brands.

SRAM shifting issues seem to equal major design flaws of a bad system, Shimano shifting issues seem to be put down to no system being perfect.

Any time someone I ride with drops a chain on Shimano little or nothing gets said, but if you’re on SRAM it’s all “fucking shite mate, never works”, and they both happen with equal (rare) frequency in my experience.

Think it's mostly down to some of the teething issues SRAM had when launched, compounded my major recalls on flagship products like their hydro system. People like to run with a bone... I used to like Campag when it wasn't made of cheese because of their lever shape more than anything but hated the snobbery that was associated with it and people pretending they're more discerning because it's an Italian brand. Pure marketing bullshit.

I dunno.. pretty much everyone I know who had mechanical SRAM agreed the front shifting was a joke. And they seem to have lots of issues in the pro peleton, which admittedly isn't anywhere near the kind of riding the people I know do.
Any kind of groupset football team support is super lame though. Be it Campag snobs or Shimano true believers. SRAM seem to be doing really well on the MTB side of things though, and my NX eagle group is great so far.

You call it snobbery, we call it good taste.

'Campy 4 lyfe'

Niki Brammeier has announced her retirement from pro cycling.

Just saw the crash from Tour of Luxembourg where Justin Jules hit the feet of barriers in the sprint and his tubeless tire just blew off the rim in a cloud of sealant. Do not want.

Tester Lisa Klein talks nearly as fast as Marty Scorsese, let’s us know she is best mate with Kristina Vogel, and advises 50% of the peloton make €250 and the top Dutch riders make 0.5m €.

https://www.besenwagen.com/26-aero-koerperbau

Warning, sponsored by Rapha but as German only briefly mentioned.

Tubeless, clincher or tub wouldn't have mattered in that incident, all would have seen the tyre destroyed. Have you seen the video footage? The bang when he hits the barrier foot is astonishingly loud.

Don't know if anyone saw but NTT is phasing out the Dimension Data brand starting next month:

https://www.crn.com.au/news/dimension-data-name-and-brand-to-start-disappearing-next-month-526242

Given their crappy performance this year I wonder if they'll actually continue with the team when their sponsorship is up. I've no idea when the deal is due to expire but you'd have to hope that they get some good coverage during the tour.

Today’s stage of the women’s Tour of Britain was a crit round Cyclopark. What a joke.

Why?

I think it shows a total lack of imagination given how many great roads you could take in around Kent.

More people would get to see the race if it was on the road, albeit they wouldn’t see the riders quite so much.

They needed to have a short stage, given that the average stage length of a week long stage race allowed under UCI rules is 140 km. Yesterday was 157 kms, Thursday's stage is 158 kms, so a short stage was mandatory.

TV production costs eat most of the race's budget, so having a stage like today where they didn't need any helicopters and a plane, significantly reduces the overall costs of the week. The circuit is tough, especially if it's windy as it's very exposed, but not so tough that it'll blow the GC race apart, so after two stages it's still wide open, which is what you'd want as an organiser.

So whilst it might not be the best thing for the armchair fan, it's a good option for the organisers.

Jeebus a 90 minute highlight show really doesn't have many highlights. To Youtube!