Pro-cycling thread

Posted on
Page
of 2,084
First Prev
/ 2,084
Last Next
  • Tour de la Provence starts today, coverage via GCN on YouTube:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67PNiyq1DfE

  • Just looked at the start list and realised Arkea Samsic have both Barguil and Bouhanni on the roster this season. Bold of a team to take them both on.

  • Why? Both are high quality riders, but with very different skill sets so their ambitions are unlikely to clash.

  • Bouhanni proved to be a good choice today!

  • Both talented but have publicly had issues away from the bike.

    Bouhanni is a loose cannon who has hit people including his own DS.

    Barguil got kicked off the Vuelta at Giant and refused to ride a Look bike at Fortuneo.

    I’m not suggesting they will clash but I wouldn’t want to be the DS who has to deal with them both spitting their dummy in the run up to a grand tour.

  • Bouhanni is a loose cannon who has hit people including his own DS.

    Citation needed. Cofidis were itching to sack him once Vasseur took over, that would've been the perfect excuse to do so.

    I think Bouhanni was appallingly treated by Cofidis, despite accounting for at least 50% of their wins for three seasons, Vasseur came in and repeatedly humiliated him. He's a complex character, but has shown that in a supportive environment he'll get you wins, especially in French races. He's perfect for Arkea-Samsic, as he'll win races all year and might, just might, sneak a Tour stage win.

    Barguil was on his way out of Sunweb anyway, and he's not alone in finding the environment within that team to be too controlling at times. We don't know the true story with Look, but it's clear Barguil was riding a non-Look frame which exacerbated the issue, but the team management must've been complicit. Again, he's a perfect rider for Arkea-Samsic as he'll get the odd win and be on tv a lot in the Tour. It'll be interesting to see how he and Quintana dovetail as that doesn't look like a good fit.

  • Good analysis.

    I'd think it's not a huge leap to see Quintana as a stage racer now, not GC. His GC days are behind him, but he can still win a stage. Then he and Barguil can work well together.

  • We don't know the true story with Look, but it's clear Barguil was riding a non-Look frame which exacerbated the issue

    French press was pretty clear about it. Supposedly he wanted his bike shops to be the exclusive distributers for Look in NW France/Brittany. The story is that when they said they wouldn't do it, he threw his toys out of the pram and started to work to get them separated from Arkea-Samsic.

  • Citation needed.

    Indeed:

    It was reported in Spanish publication AS that Bouhanni's penalty had been for punching his directeur sportif and then the team car. Bouhanni denied it on twitter, saying that they were trying to make him out to be 'the bad boy that I am not'. Cofidis later published a statement categorically denying the incident, saying that Bouhanni's penalty was for an illegal feed.

    "The Cofidis Team formally denies the information reported in the press concerning Nacer Bouhanni. There was never a fight between our leader and Jean Luc Jonrond, his sports director during the 5th stage of La Vuelta 2018," the team wrote.

    "Nacer was penalized for an irregular feed at the end of the stage yesterday, ridden under a very strong heat and at a fast pace.The Cofidis team also denies all the information about the conflicts between Nacer Bouhanni and his sports management, they are totally false. Nacer has our confidence and we rely on him."

    https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bouhanni-and-vuelta-race-leader-molard-both-handed-time-penalties/

  • To be fair though, you don't need to go too far to see when he did punch people or threaten to. Missing the French nats after smacking someone making noise in the hotel and breaking his hand for example.

  • The guy he punched was an old man too lol

  • Everyone cites that incident as proof of Bouhanni’s (bad) character. Do you know the details? He’d gone to complain to some other guests about the noise they were making late at night, and they attacked him. I assume they thought a little cyclist was an easy target, but imagine they quickly discovered they’d picked on the wrong guy.

  • Is it the near annual discussion of Bouhanni?

  • There's different versions out there depending who spoke to whom but given there weren't charges against him it's likely to be 50-50. You know, though, people make noise and people complain all the time, it doesn't need to end up in a scrap. My impression of him is that he's pretty aggressive and I imagine if he comes up against someone similar it can escalate. Probably doesn't help that he's quite handy with his fists so isn't likely to be scared and back down or try to make peace like a lot of people would.

    That said, I bumped into him and Steve Chainel just after he won the purple(?) jersey in the Giro and he seemed like a nice enough guy and well liked at the bar we were at.

  • The one where I defend him? Probably.

  • My impression of him is that he's pretty aggressive and I imagine if he comes up against someone similar it can escalate.

    Based on two things presumably? One, that he is a sprinter and, by definition, has to be aggressive in the fighting for position that comes with bunch sprinting and, two, the fact that he boxes.

    When was the last time you read an article on him that didn’t mention boxing? It’s the standard press trope when reporting on him.

  • I thought he used to be a ski jumper?

  • As a sprinter he's almost certainly a box jumper.

  • All the best riders end up having nasty accidents near Cologne. @fussballclub

  • Now I regret that we called the ambulance and didn’t ride to the hospital.

  • Nairo on a rampage in Provence

  • Impressive ride, not just from Quintana but the Arkea-Samsic team set him up really well. He took it on from a long way out, but no-one had the strength to even get close.

  • I thought Kuss might have stuck with him when he first made the move but yeah, was pure class from Quintana. Obviously he rides a small frame based on his height, but he made that Canyon look even more minuscule by how far forward he was on the saddle for the whole climb. I couldn’t really remember him riding so far forward before, but maybe that’s a glitch in my memory, or simply something I’d never noticed before. Either way, it reminded me of the shrunken car sketch from Jam

  • Post a reply
    • Bold
    • Italics
    • Link
    • Image
    • List
    • Quote
    • code
    • Preview
About

Pro-cycling thread

Posted by Avatar for dancing james @dancing james

Actions