2013 Pro-cycling season thread

not easy at the best of times but when you've got an Italian Ray Winstone hanging off the back of your saddle... is that some kind of pelotonal status symbol?

Hope Nibbles can hang on tomorrow.

Unexpected results from what looked like a nothing profile.

Froome didnt have the skills, legs or team today.

Has anyone accused Sagan of doping yet?

dibs

nobody's made drugs hard enough to survive cohabitation with his red blood cells.

If you didn't see the climb, it's hilarious. At about 2:20 a sharp left turn off a main road at 0mph into a wall and people are going backwards after about 10m.

It looks like Froome was dropped by the pace set by the Sky rider on the front, he was in trouble from the off.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpSW2E7lg3s"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpSW2E7lg3s[/ame
]

looks like a bunch of cat 4's climbing the Ditchling!

HA!..

Few Tweets from riders yesterday about the stage being the hardest ever in modern pro cycling.

"Riders saying today´s stage at #Tirreno was one of the hardest of their lifes. Acquarone: "It was too much. We lost the right balance""

And they had to do that climb three times. Mental. Everyone climbed off when they came through the team buses on the first loop after that first ascent.

Someone didn't walk.

That is absolutely savage. They look like I did trying to ride into the wind down the victoria embankment last night.

Also, where are people finding highlights vids from T-A? All the ones on Cycling Fans are Italian commentary and generally rubbish

If you didn't see the climb, it's hilarious. At about 2:20 a sharp left turn off a main road at 0mph into a wall and people are going backwards after about 10m.

It looks like Froome was dropped by the pace set by the Sky rider on the front, he was in trouble from the off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpSW2E7lg3s

Froome saying he was overgeared. Again. Same gearing as on Angliru last year with the 36X28.

got to learn from your mistakes, but whats the point of having radio's to keep in contact with riders if you see your man getting dropped and domestique doesn't slow down for him..
though I suppose on that climb slowing down would have meant getting off..

also if sky's all about the little things, how comes no one went out and scouted route, looked at past ones and discussed/tweaked the gear set up..

fair point! doubt they had not seen this before yesterday

also if sky's all about the little things, how comes no one went out and scouted route, looked at past ones and discussed/tweaked the gear set up..

“When the rain started to fall, the gradients of 30% were hard to get up. I heard Contador say that, when he climbed out of the saddle, his back wheel slipped. I rode in the saddle all the time and, in the end, I got away with Vincenzo [Nibali] and stayed away to the finish line.”

Read more: http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/14120/Sagan-says-nothing-is-certain-in-relation-to-Milan-Sanremo.aspx#ixzz2NJtYRLJQ

Sagan. http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/14120/Sagan-says-nothing-is-certain-in-relation-to-Milan-Sanremo.aspx

Froome was running 36-28. But because of the rain and wet climb he couldn't stand and was over geared. He also says he didn't have the legs in teh end.
Sky will have known exactly what to expect up that climb. Froome just didn't have the legs.

fair enough, but he said the same thing in oman this year and the vuelta last year, froome's gonna have to find the legs if he wants to win the tour, gonna be a couple of stages where its going to be him and the big boys romping up the big climbs back to back, man0 a man0, and he's going to have to survive attacks all on his lonesome to win it all..

They're just not practised enough at coping with that sort of thing. It's not dissimilar to Succomb's Hill (>25% hairpin, mainly 20%, ~350m), which I've done in the pissing rain, standing, in 39x19, 3 times in a row. Obviously I didn't have to ride a hundred odd miles on top of that (more like 50), but then I'm not a pro, and am lucky to get one 'spirited' ride per week done.

Sagan got up it due to upper body strength (even seated it counts for a lot). I'm sure the cyclo-crossers in attendance would've been well versed in standing climbs with the weight shifted well to the rear.

It was a great spectacle, and some of them should shut the fuck up with their moaning.

HA!..

Few Tweets from riders yesterday about the stage being the hardest ever in modern pro cycling.

"Riders saying today´s stage at #Tirreno was one of the hardest of their lifes. Acquarone: "It was too much. We lost the right balance""

The best stages I ever watch are the ones where the riders all have a cry afterwards.

"Vous êtes des assassins! Oui, des assassins!'

Froome saying he was overgeared. Again. Same gearing as on Angliru last year with the 36X28.

Compact.

Pussy.

DTM.

Mayhap it is a case of rule no. 5, but the race organiser admitted he got the route wrong, with a third of the field abandoning. Stages like that work as a one-day race, but not as the last road stage in a week long event, let alone a GT. They definitely make for a great spectacle, like some of the daft stages in the Vuelta last year, for example Cuitu Negri, but they also push riders too hard. We may enjoy them acting like dancing bears for our own excitement, grinding up ridiculous inclines, but when the stages get too hard riders resort to nefarious means to conquer them.

Races are generally getting shorter and more forgiving because of that reason, and it may make for duller racing but I'm more comfortable with that than making these riders try to go beyond their physical abilities to win, so at the end of the day only the phenoms (Sagan) and dopers (Nibali) are left standing.

I'm joking about Nibali. Well, just a little

I should qualify that by saying if that stage had taken place on a sunny day with a light breeze things would have been different. But a third of the peloton abandoning should tell its own story.

It was a great spectacle, and some of them should shut the fuck up with their moaning.

This ^

But the whinging makes it even better I reckon. At least you know some of them are somewhat human.

I recall reading that part of Kerrison's training regime entails 5 minute plus seated climbing intervals at 50-55 RPM, so the over geared excuse doesn't cut it for me. Froome is just a bit callow.

but they also push riders too hard.

Bollocks.

Stage is hard = ride it slower.

You don't go "ooh it's got 27% climbs, I'm gonna get on the juice". It's only Tirreno ffs.

Pros need to htfu. Chased around by support cars, massages and shit. Pissweak bunch of blouses.

Whoops Rant thread. >>>

I should qualify that by saying if that stage had taken place on a sunny day with a light breeze things would have been different. But a third of the peloton abandoning should tell its own story.

Yeah, it's not an important enough race for riders to finish.

It wasn't dangerous it was just hard.

Box of tissues to cry into >>>>>