Pro-cycling thread

Personally I think the chances of Evenepoel being at the Tour are slim at best. He’s got to recover from Covid first, then try and do the right training to peak at the Tour. That’s very challenging.

Then you look at the course, which really doesn’t suit him, and who’d be available from his team to support him and I think you’d conclude that it doesn’t make sense.

It be better to recover fully, prepare for the Worlds and possibly the Vuelta, then focus on the Tour next year as has always been the plan.

A disaster for patrick then . Plus the team sponsors.

A disaster for patrick then

😀

Thats what happens when you put all the pressure on one person 🤫

I’m not a fan of Remco (though I’m not really sure why), but it’s a real shame he’s out of the Giro. Was shaping up nicely. But I guess he may have had a greedy lead at this stage with less bad luck…

I’m sure Andy is right, but it would be great to see Remco at the tour, even just to hunt stages. Presumably Quickstep’s plan for the tour is to back a sprinter (or 2) ?
It would be great to see Alaphilippe, Remco and Asgreen all stage hunting

I'm convinced Remco was feeling the effects of his 2 falls and was hoping for some exciting cat and mouse up mountains with people unsure how strong he is. I'm more upset Ganna is out. In the Giro 2 years ago he was so impressive

I’m genuinely surprised that teams are still testing (it’s no longer a UCI requirement if I recall correctly), given that the WHO have declared the situation over as it being an emergency.

If you are ill and you have an easy to carry out test then it makes complete sense. If they had such an easy test for other illnesses I'm sure they would use them too.

Imagine I wrote something about the optics of elite athletes infecting the people who service them and the race at various start finish points and the risk of infection etc etc. Also imagine I wrote something about spreading what is a lethal disease, even though vaccines work, and physical and financial harm it causes to those who are ill.

From cycling stats leaders who quite while ahead.
Rasmussen busted
Rolf broke his arm
Pantani busted

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They've got arguably the best sprinter in the peloton currently, with Fabio Jakobsen. The Tour team was always going to be built around him, so is completely unsuitable to support Evenepoel.

They could change their plans and take him, but the expectation from the Belgian media would be immense and I'm not sure either he or the team is ready for the spotlight being on them alone in July. The team is still very light on genuine mountain domestiques, especially one who can be there on a key mountain stage until the final couple of kilometres, so Leferve needs to address that for next season. It's noteworthy that he only has nine riders under contract next season, so a radical overhaul of the team is on the cards.

Take him to the tour and give him no support but instead a free-role. Let him roam the peloton as he pleases and drink as many demi’s as he likes over the 3 weeks. Blaze a few stages in week one, and leave for hols when he wants should he fancy.

Puck Pieterse, what a character :D

short ceremony clip on twitter

UCI are introducing tamper proof RFID tags for bikes used in TDF to ensure the bikes that finish are the same as the ones checked at the start. Also giving teams a month notice before the start to register all new kit from sponsors to be used at TDF.

What's been happening that needs this much attention?

SRAM
SRAM has been happening.

Ooooh - is it motors again?

Has there ever been more of an over reaction to an issue than the UCI reaction to hidden motors? One incident of someone doing it at the professional level, yet under Lappartient they've wasted hundreds of thousands of Swiss Francs on detection equipment.

Call me cynical, but this announcement is probably of a similar ilk.

Do they even do that mobile xray machine thing any more? Or the definitely-not-just-a-standard-ipad wave?

Seeing reports that Jan Polanc is retiring. Not the winningest of riders but this was a great one: https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/giro-ditalia/jan-polanc-wins-giro-ditalia-stage-five-as-contador-takes-pink-171166

Looks utterly grim out there in Italy. Rather them than me, etc.

Meanwhile, Jens Voight making a strong case for being the permanent 'man on the moto' should they persist with that feature.

Vlasov steps off sick and what is the permanent moto man ?

Jens Voigt on the commentary motobike 10/10

The 'Bradley on the bike' feature on GCN/Eurosport, which has also featured Phillipe Gilbert and Adam Blythe. Jens Voight should do it all the time; he's way better than all of them.

Wow, that was all very sketchy.

Bettiol happy lol.

Proper deer in the headlights situation then with that crash - if he'd kept walking across rather than freezing in the middle he'd have probably avoided it.