Pro-cycling thread

I think I mainly liked riders who the commentators over pronounced their names likes of “Sammy Sanchez of Euskatel Euskadi“ and Juan Antonio Fletcha being up there.
Await my sanctioning verdict

Assume all these people rate cycling as their second/third favourite sport behind ‘Wimbledon’ and F1.

You mean 'olympic champion Sammy Sanchez'

But also consider Lewis Hamilton “Too flashy” so support Ferrari?

Ha

Ned Boulting’s thoughts on all this are worth a read;

https://www.theroadbook.co.uk/2020/08/19/latin-grammar-the-future-and-the-past-ned-boulting/

In other news, Simon Yates has surprisingly extended his contract with Mitchelton-Scott for another two years.

And who was asking about why Fausto Masnada was working for Decuenick-QS recently? He’s transferred to them from CCC with immediate effect.

I thought the good ship MTS was finished, hence the seemingly solid rumour about Jack Haig going to Bahrain-McClaren.

From what I’ve heard and read, the riders took a pretty savage pay cut once racing was suspended and then their was that whole Manuela Foundacion cock up. After that, Gerry Ryan, who has bankrolled the team since its inception, stepped up again so maybe the financial situation has improved.

With the surprise and non-surprise of selection at Ineos I think the real loss to Ineos is Nicolas Portal. He seemed to be the wonder-kid DS, I wonder if his absence has more than a little to do with Ineos's problems this year.

Some other people I follow on Strava would beg to differ.

https://soigneur.nl/stories/vino-uran-occam/

The French are a bit that way but mostly want to see a good race. Spoke to my parents neighbours over lunch and they would prefer an exciting tour over poor competition even if a French rider was to benefit from no competition

Kruisjwijk out of the Tour as he has a shoulder fracture following his crash at the Dauphiné. Is aiming for the Giro now instead.

Super sad about that, I was really curious as to how well their strategy with the 3 possible podium-worthy riders/super domestiques would work out. Grøndahl-Jansen will take Kruijswijk's place.

In other wonderings, how's Wout Poels doing? And Landa? Bahrain-McLaren still to cut the team down to 8 riders.

1 Attachment

I think they are still trying to decide if they are all in for Landa or hedging their bets by bringing a sprinter to get a stage win. That sprinter is likely to be Colbrelli, who I don't think has ever done well at the Tour (not sure if he's even ridden it to be honest).

Kruisjwijk will be a big loss for Jumbo-Visma, he's a potential podium finisher and a very valuable ally for Roglic and Dumoulin.

heinrich haussler, there's a name from pro cycling's hall of fame of couldabeens. file next to edvald boasson hagen

Colbrelli did ride the Tour, was 4th in the green jersey comp last TdF, 9th the year before, 5th in 2017 so he's always there in the mix, just never as the first to cross the line.

Best result is second to Sagan. I guess that’s his problem summarised right there, good enough to be in the mix on finishes that suit Sagan, but not good enough to actually beat Sagan.

LOLd

Sure I’ve heard him say that Garmin fucked up his recovery from a bad crash and he was never the same afterwards.

Still has podiums at massive races and a TDF stage win.

Cavendish is angling for a DS job at Bahrain I guess?

If Roglic can get the riding in until the start of the tour with all that road rash and bruising he won’t be to concerned.

Van Emden has come up with 10 safety proposals

https://www.cyclingnews.com/amp/news/van-emden-makes-10-rider-safety-proposals-we-are-not-circus-animals/?__twitter_impression=true

It’s both positive but also worrying how simple the suggestions are.

Edvald Boasson Hagen and Mark Cavendish both ruined by Sky.