2013 Pro-cycling season thread

Anyway. WTF happen to Henao? Never in GC. Uran neither.

Uran is off to QuickStep so doesn't care. Henao... I dunno

Yes.
The attitude has changed, if people are willing to change too then that's good. Things were different back 'then'.
So I'm all for people with skeletons still racing and doing well. In the belief they've got their act together and are with the new school.

If you're like Di Luca, then you can go get royally fucked.

Horner never got busted, so what makes him think "you know what, I might get popped so I'll come off the juice and ride clean instead"? It's not like he has a few years left to earn enough money to allow him to retire is it?

His reputation is poor, and for him to be in the best form of his entire career at the age of 41 just doesn't add up.

Blighty's squad for the world champs is out. I was under the impression Cav wasn't going this year, but he has been named in the squad. Marketing ploy for sky/BC?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/24032227

Horner never got busted, so what makes him think "you know what, I might get popped so I'll come off the juice and ride clean instead"? It's not like he has a few years left to earn enough money to allow him to retire is it?

His reputation is poor, and for him to be in the best form of his entire career at the age of 41 just doesn't add up.

Yup, get that. Anyway. Aimed at me; Doping >>>>>

And that squad is 11, it'll be 9. So some names will go.

8 isnt it?

It is. Qualification is done on WT points so whilst GB qualified in the top ten and can, in theory, field a team of 9, only 8 GB riders have scored WT points this year so that restricts the number of riders that can start.

Chreeeess Horrrrnerrrrrrr in WCS will be something eh.

Anyway. WTF happen to Henao? Never in GC. Uran neither.

To early for Henao to mount a serious GC challenge. Sky would have thrown their weight behind Uran if he wasn't fucking off and Wiggins if he wasn't off fucking....something. With Henao dropping time on the first stage Sky have reverted to a Garmin-esque stage grabbing team, with two close seconds so far to show for it.

It is. Qualification is done on WT points so whilst GB qualified in the top ten and can, in theory, field a team of 9, only 8 GB riders have scored WT points this year so that restricts the number of riders that can start.

Fairly damning isn't it, only 8? What's happened to Steve Cummings this year?

Ha, it's indicative of how far British cycling has come when 'only' having 8 people ride at the Worlds is some kind of failure.

^ yeah I was going to say exactly that. Jimmy the sensationalist..

What I meant was that the pool of talent is still fairly limited, the success coming from a small group of riders. I've complained before that Sky's GT squads only have one Brit in them, both the Giro and the Vuelta this year. Compare that to Orica Greenedge for example. The fact we have had enough success to field 9 riders but can only field 8 because only 8 have scored WT points, that's the damning bit.

And I hardly described it as a 'failure', less of the strawman please.

Cummings is the 11 man squad, my bad. Just haven't seen much of him on the road this year. I would be surprised if JTL got a berth, after getting the lead last year. Shocking season for him really.

Good to see Tao in the juniors

How many countries have more than 8 qualified riders at the worlds? Major euro nations with a long history of churning out one day racers, the aussies and the americans I presume. Anyone else?

The qualification process is explained, along with the quotas, in this lengthy UCI document;

http://www.uci.ch/Modules/BUILTIN/getObject.asp?MenuId=MTYzMDc&ObjTypeCode=FILE&type=FILE&id=ODg4MTI&LangId=1

Essentially, the top ten ranked WT nations get 9 starters each, but as I said above, they must have 9 riders who've scored WT ranking points this season.

The top ten is;

Spain
Colombia
Great Britain
Italy
Netherlands
Australia
France
Poland
Switzerland
Slovakia

Everyone starts with 9 bar GB and Slovakia (who have just 6 riders qualified).

amazingly, Belgium did not make it into the year's top 10. It's the all time winner so far, and by far

^^ thanks for the link.
Belguim with 7 riders and Germany with 6 look to be punching a bit below their weight. Esp. BG as peter v points out.

Missing. If found please hand in to nearest Pro Continental team.

Belgium have two genuine world stars, in Gilbert and Boonen, both of whom have had rotten seasons. Factor in both Van Ben Broeck and Vanendert have injury disrupted seasons, and they are good for a decent amount of points from the Tour, and you can see why they are struggling.

Germany are a victim of the weighting towards stage race success. They have two of the best three sprinters in the World and Ciolek won MSR, but these points aren't enough on their own as you need someone finishing high on GC in the major stage races.

@Brave - he's racing in Canada tomorrow and Sunday.

Missing. If found please hand in to nearest Pro Continental team.

Lol and even the odd guffaw

just listening to the humans invent podcast discuss JTL, interesting....

Sky coaches have given up trying to make him GT material this year at least as he kept getting sick, saddle sores etc. too so he's back on week or less races.