Pro-cycling thread

Love it when the break gets a win.

What's the beef with Philipsen, other than boredom of the same sprint winning? cough Cav cough

You can merely direct them, you can't force what they do.

Maybe because you don't let them out of the house, they take up eSports (that can fuck off, but that's another issue), become some nutcase gamer. You gonna be happy finding a baggie of speed under their bed that they 'need' to put the hours in to build their rank up to compete?

What's the beef with Philipsen

He's a bully. https://www.eurosport.com/cycling/tour-de-france/2023/tour-de-france-2023-he-s-blocking-him-jasper-philipsen-cuts-up-rival-with-bullying-tactic-on-stage-1_sto9710101/story.shtml

He's an ex footballer who only took up cycling because of injury. Perhaps he thinks that pushing someone into the barriers is a professional foul.

Kasper’s interview was nice. I don’t remember a stage winner ever crediting their breakaway rivals mates like that.

Wasn't this after the Lotto rider Pascal Eenkhoorn almost took him and his teammate out by riding up the grass and then cutting back onto the road before hitting a parked car?

Fuck Eenkhoorn. Good on Phillipsen for having words. It was a dick move.

"you can't go and block the road"

Um... you can.

"You can't bully other riders"

Um, yes you can. These commentators seem to have forgotten their own racing days.

Kudos Arsegrain. Jules won that with all his shithousery.

This is the move philipsen took issue with.

Maybe he remembers Maciejuk trying a similar trick during the ronde and how that ended up, who can say.

Or, you know, he used to play football so that somehow makes him a fundamentally bad person

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Yeah, Eenkhoorn rides like a total cunt and yet all the press are having a sook about green jersey. Were they watching different coverage or something?

Imagine if he was a former boxer...

Watching the video back, I think it’s at stretch to say he did it because he felt it was a dangerous move. Sprinters teams were trying to block the road like the break had just gone.

It was a dangerous move, but I think the commentators were spot on asking if they would do the same with Pog or JV.

I think both the attack and the blocking were dick moves but one doesn’t justify/negate the other.

For the record, some of my best friends are footballers.

I think it’s at stretch to say he did it because he felt it was a dangerous move.

Honestly I feel like we'd have to ask him why he did it, I was just offering some context!

I don't have a great feel for whether peloton justice justifies his reaction - it certainly doesn't look great - but whataboutery like would be have done it with pog adds nothing to the discussion I don't think

No I was countering hippy's point about GC contenders never revealing anything. Pog is just a much more open book than Vingogo.

I don't even know what point I'm arguing now. Two bike races have different personalities, oh noes.

Nah I've lost track too, haha. I don't disagree.

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Oh no, the French housewives' favourite has been thrown off the Tour. He was on the motorbike which stalled and held up the riders the other day. https://road.cc/content/news/voeckler-excluded-tour-stage-after-motorbike-chaos-302657

i was a nutcase gamer!!!!

7.5 watts/kg for 13 minutes estimated in the TT climb for JV vs 6.5 for TP. Thems some numbers. 15% pops out again.

‘but whataboutery like would be have done it with pog adds nothing to the discussion I don't think’

You are probably right, I just think physically blocking/squeezing a rider on a wide road is not on. The equivalent would be Pog attacking on a climb and Kuss using his last bit of energy to chase him and physically hinder his progress which I don’t think anyone wants to see.

Apparently Philipsen told Dutch TV he just didn't want another attacker. He's done me there.

The Watts Occurring podcast today with Mark Cavendish is really excellent and touches on the blocking-the-road issue. Talking about Movistar being up near the front in the approach to a sprint because they are 6th on GC - "Fuck off! it's not a restaurant where you can book a place".

World ranking or gtfo

Blocking is part of racing. It happens in breaks, it happens in the bunch and it's a lot more obvious when someone rides like a dick and then has their move shut down.

I'd love to know how the orgs will stop it. "If you pass a rider you MUST continue pedaling for 15 seconds afterwards at the same wattage or you will be deemed to have blocked"

Get a grip.

Movistar being up near the front in the approach to a sprint because they are 6th on GC

I get it but also, if that's what they've got - why not defend it? It's the same reason people sprint for 20th place - everyone has different goals in a race. If Cav doesn't like other riders being up there in a sprint - race time trials. Given his number of wins - how often was he really hampered? Make the GC fucking 10k then if you're worried about GC teams upsetting sprinters.