2013 Pro-cycling season thread

It's the World Championship for a start and they're representing Great Britain. Fair enough if you think that means nothing, but then you should have declined to be part of the team thus given the opportunity to someone else; there is plenty of talent out there that would have killed for half a chance of representing Britain today.

Furthermore, personally I'm not left with a feeling that they gave it their all, which is the least I would expect. In fact, based on interviews, commentary and so on, I'm left with the impression that the whole endeavour was deemed pointless as it gradually became evident that Froome didn't have it in him on the day. And that, in my opinion, is disgraceful.

Do you write leader columns for the Daily Mail in your spare time? What a load of nonsense. They are professional cyclists, not patriots.

The British cycling pyramid is top heavy, as there are 3 or 4 top quality riders, a few decent domestiques and then a lot of riders who simply aren't good enough or don't train hard enough. If none of the top 3 (Froome, Cavendish, Wiggins) are in the form to compete then Team GB aren't going to perform. Today's course was too hard for Cavendish, and both Froome and Wiggins are stage race specialists who have zero track record when it comes to one day races.