Pro-cycling thread

Riders who've scored their first pro win at a Monument in the last 50 years:
1969 - Jean-Pierre Monséré (Il Lombardia)
1984 - Johan Lammerts (Ronde van Vlaanderen)
1988 - Dirk Demol (Paris-Roubaix)
2011 - Oliver Zaugg (Il Lombardia)
2019 - Alberto Bettiol (Ronde van Vlaanderen)

As far as I can tell Zaugg's win was his one and only as a pro. None of the others were major winners, Monseré being the most successful - he won the World's on one of the most glamorous occasions, Leicester in 1970

You made an interesting (well for me) point about 4 wins in 8 years for vaughters. That's 4 in 40 attempts over 8 years ?
Do you have any comparison for the other teams, I tried briefly and not very competently but have you got the team records for this period? Wouldn't Sagan/Gilbert/Boonen/gva have as many on their own?

I have the same level of expertise as everyone else on here, that is, pro cycling stats, twitter and wikipedia.
Astana have 2 monuments in that time (plus an Amstel). Movistar have 2; Valverde at Liege, twice.
Etc etc.

Ah ok. I'll try and do some tmrw.
I thought you'd got a link to somewhere that aggregated the results.
Thanks anyway.

There were 4 riders in the top ten at Flanders making their debut (admittedly one was Valverde who is hardly a neophyte) which seems interesting when it's the race above all others where experience is meant to count.

«An Italian»?? Not one, two!! 😍

Article in the NYTimes about Kelly Catlin

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/08/sports/kelly-catlin-death.html

Hard reading.

Yeah pretty tough.
What a terrible combination of events/personality and circumstance. That's not meant in an offhand way. So many things people can/will point at as a clue. Not one of them alone will be the "reason".

There was a similar Guardian article, very painful reading.

I think the problem is that what seems like a red-flag in hindsight can easily see part of a pattern of established behaviour. People I know who have dealt with the aftermath of a suicide bounce between "How could I have known" and "Of course I should have known" but it's rarely as simple as either of those extremities.

Mental health is a hugely misunderstood (or completely not understood at all) aspect of modern life and I suspect will impact more and more people.

The tragedy reading that is that they all saw it coming, but despite that there was nothing they could do

MVDP has a good jump. Wins today in Circuit de Sarthe.

Although it may be the sensible thing to do, I think he might regret not riding Paris-Roubaix in this form

Three things:

1. Sagan's hair. WTF? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_3aM4aU820
   
   
2. Chapeaux, Snr Bacon
   
   

And should Hinault start to enjoy the electrical assistance of the new bike a little too much, perhaps he'll need to consider changing his name – to Bernard E-nault

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bernard-hinault-endorses-new-look-e-765-optimum-e-road-bike/

1. On Phinney & Bettiol. Aren't they both a bit old for teenage rebellion?
   
   

They often room together. They both, apparently, like a cigarette on a rest day.

https://cyclingtips.com/2019/04/when-mamma-di-pasta-wins-the-tour-of-flanders-a-whole-team-celebrates/

Jazz cigarette more like.

That burst of speed to win is astonishing.

Stupendous snap. I find it difficult to comprehend such acceleration without wheel slip.

Exaggerated by the Wanty rider looked like he was dying, did he sprint from 300m or something?

Fair point, he did also beat Bryan Coquard who also has a pretty good snap.

I want to see more footage from this final 1km.
I guess there isn't any?

a different angle from 1:25 on. no overhead shot I could find

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66NVSUFuMb8

and another head-on from 1:15 or so

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfCxpQXT2d8

Did his team not get an invite for Paris Roubaix?

Assume he’ll be at a world tour team next year.

Thanks. Looks nuts doesn't it

I believe they decided not to do everything in his first year. Give WvA a chance to shine this year and then he’ll do a clean sweep of all spring monuments next year as preparation for his double Olympic gold.

He’s focused on Olympic Gold in the XC race next year, so it’s not clear how his road season will shape up, or if he’ll even have one.

He’s also under contract with Correnden-Circus until 2022.