Pro-cycling thread

How have they not caught that dog yet, it's only using 3 of its legs!

Nice to see Dowsett so pleased as well.

He seems like a genuinely nice bloke. I mostly wanted Holmes to win so I could say ‘I’ve raced with his dad’. I should have more chances. Forgot he’d won that TDU stage this year.

Wow just seen the news. So well deserved that.

I didn't know Dowsett was still racing. :S

Now I need to find a replay to watch.

'lo scivolo' according to google

Scivolo is slide so not equivalent to chute really although I guess there was some sliding... schianto is more like it.

Crollo can also mean crash but tends to mean more collapse, e.g. the collapse of the Ponte Morandi in Genoa is known as Il crollo del ponte a Genova.

Lo just means the, it's used when words start with an 's' then a consonant (among other things) ;)

A few on here have raced Dowsett, not least because he did Fixie Skidder Track League at Lee Valley every week a few years ago. I even raced him, despite being in a lower ranked race than him, as in the last race of the season we did a Maryland Crawl for allcomers. I still tell my kids about how I raced him ever time he comes on telly. Delighted for him.

Make sure they think you beat him.

Really pleased for Dowsett. Plenty of pressure on him with no contract next season and a baby on the way. Can’t believe though that he won’t pick up a great job as a technical advisor once he does finish racing since he seems to be bang on it for TT tech.

He came to the Brass Monkey Rollapaluza in Blackfriars Road. With Tao, who wasn't a pro rider then, that makes him one of two pro riders to have attended forum events, too. (I'm sure I've forgotten others, but I'm not counting the pros who did other, non-forum Rollapaluzas.)

I think we can therefore declare him our good mate A and claim all the credit for his win.

Living vicariously? Someone's got to do it.

been following his vlogs for a while - had some bad luck in recent races. glad to see him win, hopefully he'll vlog the aftermath...

That was great to watch, a very likeable person and he deserved it.

I’ve always liked to think me leading out Tao for sprints at Herne Hill on a Saturday morning gave him the confidence that if he could hold my wheel a pro contract was the next step

Always with the cryptic posts.

Fuck Israel and their attempted sportswashing but good on Dowsett.

Once he waved to me when we passed near the Hanningfield Reservoir. That's when he hadn't really bothered a grand tour stage for a while and I thought he was on the wane. Good to see him back to winning ways.

The Gent-Wevelgem women's race will be without its defending champion after Kirsten Wild tests positive for COVID-19.

Jake Stewart starts for FdJ in the men's race at Gent, his first Elite classic.

This.

Nice swansong. He'd be ideal as a Eurosport pundit.

Made up for him, he always seems like such a nice chap. Typically humble and honest post-race interview and it definitely means more when someone you've seen out and about on your home roads in such glamorous situations as having a comfort break in that layby off the A1060 near Margaret Roding wins on the WorldTour stage. I can't help but think that he would have had more wins if he hadn't ridden for the disorganised shitshow that is Movistar for so long.

My Dowsett-related claim to fame is that years ago a bunch of us did the Witham Wanderer audax and overtook him. He'd been motor pacing and the scooter had run out of petrol, so he was riding one handed while helping to push it along. As he was overtaken by rather a lot of audaxers he just turned around and said "Well, this is embarrassing" :)

He then flew past us later going up North Hill in Little Baddow so he got his revenge...

Gent Wevelgem day today. I reckon Quickstep are going to grab the bull by the horns so I’ve backed Bennett at 12-1, Stybar e/w at 66-1 and a wild 200-1 e/w punt on Ethan Hayter purely because I think it could be a good week for British cyclists.

I dont think Bennett will last the distance, with MvdP's attacking I think the race will be blown apart. It might all come back together again but without Bennett I think. I'm just hoping for a classic showdown between our two new gods MvdP and WvA

It’ll certainly be a reduced bunch but I’m confident there’ll be a Quickstep rider in there. Whether it’s someone able to compete in a sprint is a different matter.

Van Aert and MVDP are stupidly short odds unsurprisingly.

Is there any way of seeing how many riders have contested the finish year by year? I rely on Inrng for this sort of thing but he hasn’t previewed it.

Yeah, I feel similarly lost without inrng.

Is there any way of seeing how many riders have contested the finish year by year? I rely on Inrng for this sort of thing but he hasn’t previewed it.

Do the leg work yourself;

https://www.procyclingstats.com/race/gent-wevelgem/2020/history

Right -

In reverse order (2019 to 2010) number of riders in the front group i.e. with no time gap:

25+
19
2
4
1
25+
1
13
4