Pro-cycling thread

Trentin quote from the finish

"It's been three or four days since he won a race so he was probably angry. Or not used to it."

I've really enjoyed this edition of The La Vuelta. Lots of leadership changes, excellent defence of the jersey (so far) now that it's found a settled wearer, lots of good breakaway wins, Movistar Movistarring again.

Marc Soler looks really strong and like he could deserve a shot at leading the team for next year's race.

Interesting that Hagen is still (just) in the Top 10 as well. He was one of those they were colouring in red last week and saying we could discount once the 'favourites' had got rid of the breakaway minutes, but obviously he decided he likes it up there.

Pogacar looks great as well.

Rohan Dennis will ride an unmarked bike supplied by the Australian national team in defence of his World TT title

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rohan-dennis-tour-de-france-pull-out-has-been-blown-our-of-proportion/

His interview comes off as odd. Says the whole Tour de France thing was blown out of proportion but doesn't explain what really happened.

Yeah but he does say the ultimate reason was that he wasn't happy or in the right head space and he's obviously avoiding starting a mud slinging match with his team (and possibly breaking a contract clause?) So I dunno. Seems to be a fart in a hurricane that comes down to frustrations over promised equipment not materialising leaving someone with quite a particular psychology feeling unable to perform.

People obviously don't like him or feel it was unprofessional but equally, if he had the equipment he had been told he would get or felt he needed to race the next stage, would you have bet against him in that or any TT this season? In the history of the sport riders getting custom or rebadged gear is pretty common so it's not like he's a primadonna in that regard.

He was promised kit that then didn't get delivered, but while that was trying to be sorted out he got accidentally copied in on an email trail about it where he was slagged off. Not sure by whom but it sufficiently pissed him off to quit.

In other news - Why does Quintana wear the points jersey and not Valverde who is ahead of him on the classification (though I see they are actually on the same points).

WC jersey has priority over 3rd place in green, supposedly there's a ranking for it somewhere in the UCI regulations.

Ah - thanks. Makes sense.

BC select Dan Bigham, John Archibald and Harry Tanfield (along with Lauren Dolan, Anna Henderson and Joss Lowden) for the mixed TTT at the Worlds. It’ll be interesting to see how they approach it, given their team pursuit background.

shit is going down.

Who is in the front group? Do we know yet. Quintana obviously but which other GC contenders?

Quintana, Kelderman, Pernsteiner and Knox, all with team mates.

Interesting.

Seven riders from Deceunink including Knox in the front group. Exciting !

Howhowhowhowhow do you know this?

Lol. Obviously can't say. But it's from people directly involved.

Vuelta stage has gone bananas, still no live coverage.

Crosswinds happening, QS put their whole team on the front and now the break is as big as the peloton with a 5 mins gap

It's live now.

Can someone explain how QS get on the crosswinds so quickly?
Why are they more adept at it? Are they all just fucking animals who love the idea of 20 minute 150%ftp efforts?

As we know, QS are the Classics boys, great in those Dutch/Belgian races and so hence great/experienced in crosswinds. They knew it was coming. Whole team set up with bigger big-rings this morning.

I can't believe it's worked though.

What is more unbelievable is that Jumbo-Visma missed it. They should have their Dutch citizenship stripped away for such negligence.

It’s about positioning and timing basically. In a crosswind, you can only fit so many riders into a single echelon- if you force the selection then only those well positioned, and with good legs, make it into the front one.

Hahaha, true! Snoozers. Looks messy too, the 2nd echelon

ToB. Wipe out in West Kirby and Havoc in Hoylake. Steve Cummings on the deck.

Why is the peloton so slow compared to the break? Surely with Jumbo, Astana, Bora etc all wanting to minimise losses to Movistar they could go as fast - at least less than 5mins slower?