2014 Pro-cycling season thread

Potatoshop plz

Well, that will do nicely for a start.

------------------------------------------ girl top-right needs to be Wiggo IMHO. ^

far left needs to be the Cound

second from the right maybe Contador or Porte.

meanwhile, there's a race going on somewhere in France. everyone's favourite alien is wearing yellow after the prologue/ITT, steak & pistol man is right behind him, followed by young whipper snappers Bob J from Luxembourg, Andrew T from 'merica and Wilco K from the land of cheese and weed.

any news on Wiggo from Sky mgmt?

Impressive Time grab by Froome in such a short TT, but it was ash in my mouth...

Nothing other than Brailsford saying the TdF team is undecided, and that and he not Froome decides on the team. Carefully stage-managed by Wiggins, stir up the fans, get the sponsors asking questions, makes the management at Sky look poor.

In an ironic twist, Stephen Roche has come out to say it's better that Wiggins doesn't go for the sake of team unity.

Froome is flying. Huge chunk of time in such a short TT. Tomorrow's stage will be sweet!

Love or hate him. He is one of the best in the world. Fuck the haters really.

And Greg Lemond has said he should so I suppose everyone takes from history whatever they choose to.

Jimmy, don't spend the next two months being a begrudging, grumpy gus about Froome. There are others on here been ploughing that arid furrow for long enough. It's obvious that Wiggins' interviews were a calculated PR move to get the hashtags flying and put pressure on Brailsford, just as Froome's book and his, less explicit, interviews were planned to make it clear how he feels.

It's a bit like wrestling. Choose your villain. I've decided on Porte. It's always the quiet one.

Will, with all due respect don't ask me to post in a way you want me to. I'll post as I see fit, as however I react at the time. Just as I expect everyone here to post here., whether I agree with their opinions or not.

You'll as I say young man. Now go to your room and take down those Orica posters.

^^You are Jeez AICMFP.

You'll as I say young man. Now go to your room and take down those Orica posters.

Even the Yates' brother ones? They're so perky

So Chris's book is juicier than anyone expected and Bradders has been kicking up dust in every way he can. Sky look a bit out of control but everyone is riding great.

This added soap opera – It's actually a fantastic narrative for a hangry Chris Froome with something to prove. Perhaps it might make him interesting. It's a fine alternative to Sky dominating in their particularly controlling style, riding on watts, against the spirit of cycling (or whatever people were moaning about in 2012).

#branding

Froome would whoop Wiggins in any race he wanted bar something like Roubaix or a TT. Froome is a better, more exiting rider who does stuff on his own instead of limiting his losses via a catenaccio like control of the peleton from his team.

Wiggins should be allowed to ride though but its clear he doesnt get on with Froome or porte and the other riderswill work for their leader cause he will give them £££. Wiggo is done. Bet he wins Romandie though just to stir it a little longer...

If Wiggins adds time travel to his list of abilities and uses it to travel back to last month to take Froome's victory in Romandie off him then anything is possible. The tour of Switzerland on the other hand....

If Wiggins adds time travel to his list of abilities and uses it to travel back to last month to take Froome's victory in Romandie off him then anything is possible. The tour of Switzerland on the other hand....

Err, he didn't specify which Tour of Romandie Wiggins would win. He might have been referring to the 2016 race - Think about that did you? Of course you didn't. You tosser.

Don't forget dauphine finishes early. Around 14:30.

Huge chunk of time in such a short TT.

I'm not sure I agree with this. 8 seconds over 10.4 km gives 40 seconds over a 50km tt (admittedly it may be non-linear). If Contador can limit his losses in the tt to less than a minute I expect he would be delighted.

Contador is a better bike handler than Froome - that short TT had a fair few switchbacks and was quite technical. The gaps will be larger in the longer TT.

According to someone's analysis, Froome grabbed a lot of his time on the descent, , so it was down to his bike-handling. Who have thunk it?

That said Contador faded badly in the last few metres, and complained of a fierce headwind. First blood to Froome, but plenty of smashing each other up left.