Pro-cycling thread

That was a great finish to msr. Happy to see Sagan recovering/recovered.

Yeah everyone else who finished just behind Stuyven was grimacing over the line but he was grinning!

How much do we think Caleb paid Juju to drag the group the last 900m?

Comparing the climbs of a Giro stage to MSR is like comparing apples with oranges. The final two climbs of MSR test riders in a unique way, when they have over 250 kms in their legs. Look at yesterday; Van der Poel wasn't able to launch a similarly devastating attack as the one(s) he did at Strade Bianche because his explosivity is blunted by the distance. Ganna doesn't have that explosivity on the best of days, so I think he knows that he's not going to be able to go with the moves in the last 2 kms of the Poggio and rides for the team instead. Which he did in exemplary fashion, but he was only able to because the second group caught the front group a couple of kms short of the foot of the Poggio, i.e. he'd been too far back on the Cipressa and in the back half of the bunch when it split over the top.

Apples with pears, perhaps. I think Ganna deserves a bit more credit for that win, which was the fifth stage of a GT.

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It was a superb win and showed what he is capable of outside of time trials. But a 22.7 km climb requires a very different effort from a 4 km climb, especially in a GT.

Ganna has told Armchair DS where to go. I like him even more.

Looks like Roubaix might be a goner...

https://road.cc/content/news/paris-roubaix-looking-increasingly-certain-be-called-281905

Kwiatkowski has been riding with a fractured rib since his crash at Lagueglia last month;

https://twitter.com/kwiato/status/1373987715033743361?s=21

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO96iObvWgs

Froome is not improving

neither are movistar's tactics

Absolute masterclass!

They have my full support this summer.

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Victory for Star Trek bad guy.

His first WorldTour win.

Was he dropped today?

He was out the back on the big climb when I looked, yeah.

Froome and Caleb Ewan have swapped climbing legs

Ouch, I hope he at least gets back to win a stage at a GT or big one week stage race.

From CN- “It’s good that to have a good team of guys here, and we’ll look to be up there fighting for the victory with Dan Martin and Mike Woods. It’s a good week ahead,” Froome told reporters, including Cyclingnews, before the start of stage 1 in Calella.

“I’m just coming off an altitude training camp, so it’ll be good to see what my progression is. I know I’m not going to be personally fighting for the victory here, I won’t be at that level yet, but I’m hoping to see some progression.”

Asked if his condition was where he wanted it to be, Froome said: “I’m really just taking it one week at a time, building up and doing the best I can, see where we get to for the Tour.”

8.5 minutes down and finishing in a group with Tejay

Ooh thanks for posting! To think that I almost went to look up chris horner's analysis...

With who?

I haven't heard his name in years. Poor guy, never went right for him.

Article on greenwashing through sports sponsorship, Ineos gets namechecked:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/22/major-climate-polluters-accused-of-greenwashing-with-sports-sponsorship

Looks like Roubaix might be a goner...

https://road.cc/content/news/paris-rouba­ix-looking-increasingly-certain-be-calle­d-281905

Absolutely needs to be cancelled if the Covid situation demands it. On the other hand, bollocks. Is my 50th birthday on that day, and was going to spend it drinking appropriate ales watching P-R while not being able to do anything else.

Drink enough so you can watch a recent P-R replay and still feel it's a surprise. Sorted.

I guess they will postpone PR to the autumn?

If the covid situation requires it then it's understandable. But it will be especially disappointing if it ends up raining on April 11 yet there is no racing.