Pro-cycling thread

I see quite a few teams are only fielding six riders for Fleche Wallone today. Quite inevitable given how the racing has stacked up.

Ineos have sent Cam Wurf so that’s how seriously they’re taking it.

I’d put Kwiatkowski down as one of the favourites so if Wurf can keep him out of trouble for the first 120 kms, he’s done the job asked of him.

All teams are struggling this week; they are having to field teams in both the Binck Bank Tour and Flèche Wallone whilst having a Giro team rest up ahead of Saturday. If the calendar continues as is, it’s going to really stress them come the end of October when they’ll have the Giro, the Vuelta and the cobbled classics running in parallel.

if Wurf can keep him out of trouble for the first 120 kms, he’s done the job asked of him

Other than as a training partner that's all he's there for; eating miles at a decent pace protecting the rest of the team.

Yep. It’s a job that needs doing but is rarely recognised as being valuable by fans.

Anyway, the women’s Flèche Wallone is live now on Eurosport and GCN race pass.

He's on the Giro startlist. Good opportunity if nothing else.

They should call up the Binck Bank riders seeing as they have nothing better to do today

Tao GH is riding the Giro; thought he was done after the run of DNF in August but I missed he was going well at Tirreno

Didn't he crash quite badly at Tour de L'Ain?

Looked like a tough race - weather , fast ....... final group up the Mur about twelve strong .... Van de Breggan easy-ish win ... and first in the Worlds jersey - well done
... but - dogs dinner of a bike ..... and helmet

Watching the final climb up the Mur it is odd how different it all looks without the crowds. It looks like a dowdy back street. Not sure what I was expecting tbh, just a surprise.

Quite a few well known climbs around there are in pretty ugly areas. Check out Le Côte de Saint Nicolas

We watch LBL on that last climb. The whole area was grim but at the base of a tower block close to the top of the climb was one of the massive TV's provided by Belgian TV and the locals had organised a big party with bbq, beer and waffles. We had a fantastic day even when it started raining. The only thing that spoiled it was it was the year Valverde won.
I really enjoy our trips to the spring classics we've not had a dud yet. Didn't know how much I loved the trip until we couldn't do it this year.

was it someone on here who said that the only thing missing from Ans was the 'u'?

funky pedalling stylz

some top head bobbing at the front of la fletcher wallogina

crikey

will get a wee adrenaline spike off that, at least

probably lucky he was able to remount at all, was going quite quickly

some season for the swiss

perfectly timed

They’re not all quite the same are they though, punctures for example are a genuine racing incident the same way if I slip in rugby and take a guy out in the air I might get away with it.
If I’ve got sweat in my eyes, we’re losing, someone got me with a cheap shot and I get carried away and hit someone high or late I’d expect to get suspended and maybe sent off if it’s spotted. I’d say that’s on a par with not looking forwards or changing line without looking- could be called a racing incident but it rider error.
My only point is if they really want to try and make cycling safer maybe this would help, the same way it maybe helps make rugby slightly safer and actually in rugby player behaviour changed quite quickly- referees came to training, there was clear guidance, we trained to the new rules and refs banged people in the first games.
Maybe cyclists don’t mind but if I was the guy who looked like he broke his wrist I’d be asking was that really not avoidable

no #AGR this year

Great win by Hirschi @ Fleche, loved young Mauri Vansevenant's performance. And his optimism, he said if he hadn't missed that corner and kept his advantage at 30 sec up to the bottom of the Mur he could have had a chance ;-)

Hirschi is the first debutant to win for some time. The accepted wisdom is that you need to race up the Mur de Huy a few times before you get the timing right. He made a mockery of that today.

Amidst all the, justified, plaudits for Hirschi and Vansevenant, that was an impressive ride by Benoit Cosnefroy too.