Pro-cycling thread

Wout Van Aert in Jumbo-Visma’s line-up for Paris-Roubaix.

I think the Basque Tour is the equal of those races, but that is the a list of one week stage races.

I’ve heard pros say Tour of the Basque Country being the hardest race of the year.

Anyway - bit of fun from over on twitter.

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For me:

Favourite Grand Tour: Tour de France
Worst GT: Vuelta

Fav 1-week: Tour of the Basque Country
Worst 1-week: Tour Down Under

Fav 1-day: Roubaix
Worst 1-day: Flèche Wallone

6th Monument: Strade (but it needs 60km adding on).

Quick-Step DS got a 2000CHF fine for ..let me check my notes.. crashing Julian Alaphilippe

DSM LOL

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Jualian Alaphilippe is the new Geraint Thomas.

There is bad luck and then there are patterns...

They got their first win of the season today.

That table hasn't been updated with Tour of Turkey result today then

You watch Dege go and win on Sunday now.

I like Chris Froome, how come he can't continue to ride like Valverde? He's only 36.

I want some Horner style fireworks from this guy to sign off with. Still, 5 gazillion odd ouros per year.

trollgiff

Also Eveneopeopel, what a wee cunt. I hope he has all the success he had in the Giro like last time.

He was pretty good at cycling until he almost died.

I want some Horner style fireworks from this guy to sign off with. Still, 5 gazillion odd ouros per year.

I don't think Froome is likely to dope so egregiously though is he? Horner's Vuelta is still just mindblowly dodgy and given how long it took for Cobo to be stripped, I can't imagine Horner's win is safe yet (particularly given his cortisol issue a year later).

What makes Horner’s win less believable than others’?

He published his biopassport data for 5 years including the Vuelta to counter accusations. Unfortunately it showed exactly what a blood dopers profile would look like.

Ultimately, a sort-of-super-domestique suddenly turning into a GT contender at 41 just stretches the elastic of credibility a bit too far. He's not helped by the fact that Cobo also won in a surprising way and nobody was that surprised later that he was found out to be cheating.

I'm going to hazard a guess that @Mickie_Cricket wasn't being entirely serious

The Tour of Turkey looks really chaotic…

https://twitter.com/benjinaesen/status/1514990347801223169?s=21&t=Z0KBJvWxwZY7UcyjGqFjpg

It would be laughable if riders weren’t at risk.

A few weeks ago I saw Fred Wright out riding near my house and my wife said ‘he looks fast’. Clearly she was right, he did alright recently.
Today we saw I assume Jake Stewart on his tt bike in full fdj kit and again she said ‘he looks decent’ so I assume he’s about to at least podium at a major race. He did look insanely lean and smooth.

If you like betting tips brought to you by my inexpert wife let me know.

Are you up in the north west? I see loads around. Ethan Vernon about twice a week. Matt Holmes always waves.

Could you ask your wife what lottery numbers I should pick please (obviously I'll give you a cut). Ta

That is bonkers.

Jasper Philipsen has finished 2nd four times in the Tour of Turkey.

He finished 2nd four times in last year's Tour of Turkey, too - for some reason that really endears him to me

Good to hear Jake Stewart is out riding. He's not raced so far this season due to intestinal problems, so hopefully he's on the road to recovery.

UCI approved sprint lanes.