Pro-cycling thread

Yes.

Annemiek van Vleuten supposedly off to Movistar

Home of the surprisingly good late-30s rider.

It’s great to see a bunch of 20/21 yr olds coming through that can miraculously win GTs through sheer awesomeness and fitness, but when seeing some of the recent victories I can’t help but think of the Greg Lemond commentary on Lance Armstrong docu quoting a French spectator’s observation of the lack of effort showing on LA’s face: ‘Il est sur le juice’.

Of course it could just be that all the previous GT winners are past it/out of form, etc.

What is the “correct” trajectory for a good rider?
It seems like people complain when riders go from being average to winning races or when they start winning races as soon as they enter the WT.

Not sure Mas wanted to fetch bottles for anyone.

Looking forward the Dauphine.

It's a mega-chipper.

There is no 'correct' trajectory for a Tour rider. In the early years very young winners were not unusual, in more recent years it has been the received wisdom to allow riders to mature. It is worth noting that the greats such as Anquetil, Hinault, Merckx, Fignon and Lemond all won their first Tours aged 23 to 25, still qualifying for the young riders jersey, had it existed.

Now, let's see who is really where at the Dauphine.

Michael Woods to ISUN.

Michael Woods to ISN seems like a great signing.
If they can get Woods and Martin to super domestique for the tour, while having free reign for week races and stage hunting at the other GTs, could work pretty well.

Just following on the GCN app.

Text updates.

33km Peleton is riding at a moderate pace

31km Tejay Van Garderen dropped from the Peleton.

Brutal.

dauphine ... yawn

Just heard in the Sporza Dauphiné coverage: no World Championships this year in Switzerland

rooting for valverde

https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start/documentation/media-releases/media-releases-federal-council.msg-id-80054.html

Announed today that public gatherings are only permitted from the 1st October, so that's probably why

That seems pretty non-negotiable indeed. There will be a UCI press release in a couple of minutes

Edit: the statement

https://fal.cn/39Hfi

"The UCI will look for a host city that would be able to provide a route as challenging as that in Aigle-Martigny and which would therefore suit the same type of riders who had initially planned to participate in Switzerland."

Meanwhile, this WVA really is on a roll! Legs of gold. Good for him after last year's misery.

Looking forward to some Dutch people saying how boring the Jumbo train is. All they do is ride on the front and win!

Only when they do it for a couple of years in a row ;-)

valverde came 4th!

Lol til now no Dutch wins yet tho, not even a foreigner with a Dutch passport

Are Dutch people more excited about seeing a Slovenian win than British people are about seeing a Colombian win?

Right now they are. Last time a Dutch team were up for the grand prize, a skinny bald Danish bloke got busted. So forza Slovenia, kick some ass seabass!

I would like to see Tom Dumoulin back to his best