Pro-cycling thread

Is the 'Favourite Sport' question some sort of lie-detector calibration??

Could be. Sonny Colbrelli had Football down for his Favourite Sport. Even my kids questioned that...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtxMgZSKGI8

:)

Astana seem astonishingly strong, bossing the peloton in a ding-dong battle with Tinkov-Saxo and yet having the strength to send riders up the road in search of stage wins and to get numbers into the top ten of the GC. Whether they can maintain this show iof strength remains to be seen, I wonder if both they and TS may suffer for their efforts in the third. The Sky train in contrast has been noticeable by it's absence, yet despite that Porte has never looked in trouble, has had good support throughout and able to cover the moves when they (Aru) makes them. By the look of the parcours over the next week we're not going to see much change in the GC either until the third.

Porte doesn't need a posse, he sleeps on the magic bus!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl9bvuAV-Ao

Porte isn't doing himself any favours is he? Not appearing on RAI, sleeping in a motorhome, transferring via helicopter...

As long as he's okay and his team mates aren't getting annoyed with the set up, what does it matter?

I think he's being a bit daft not talking to the media and I hope he does on press day, but nobody ever won a race by giving quotes to the press.

well it doesn't matter a fig to me, but it's not the best PR is it

Tinkov is a total mentalist. Bet Sagan is wishing he'd gone for a lower contract with a more stable owner.

I dunno, he looked fairly happy pulling a 30 meter one handed celebratory wheelie after winning yesterday. I reckon he's a robust character, and 'professional' enough to just accept that Tinkov is unhinged and to take his money while it's on offer.

I hope so

Tinkov's problem is that Peter Sagan's agent is besties with Bjarne Riis so he suspects the 4m Euros might not have been the best value, and he bought the team in Dec 2014 after the contract had been signed so Sagan thought he was signing with Riis not Tinkov as owner.

#grandtourmotorhome on twitter worth a look, some funny ones...

Nailed it.

Ha. Did make me laugh.

Porte has given an interview meanwhile. Reckons Astana are doing the attacking for him and he's not been in the red yet.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/porte-i-deserve-the-leadership-role-at-team-sky?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+cyclingnews%2Fnews+%28Cyclingnews%3A+News+%29

@dubtap you called, sir?

http://cyclingtips.com.au/2015/05/the-secret-pro-aru-vs-henderson-the-giro-and-more/

(it's not Koen de Kort or he's lying about not being at the TdF last year)

what's the deal with Porte? is (was) there a risk he gets kicked out?

Kicked out?

Another exciting stage (for the last 10km).

Gutted for Porte.

Prescient words from Porte yesterday, was worried about some of these easy looking stages and how you could lose time on them quite easily.

Sky did well there to minimise his losses, but it's time he could've done without losing.

not sure what the cut off rules in the Giro are. hence the question.

Probably 7% of the winner's time on a flat stage like today. He (and his team) were riding hard to minimise his losses on GC rather than making the time cut.

ta.

Porte been docked two minutes for taking a wheel off Orica rider

This is bullshit

Where the fuck were his team?