Pro-cycling thread

Stybar has this

maybe...

they have to attack now no?

I hope Asgreen wins this one 🤞 Would he hugely deserved.

Still - be awkward if DQS don't win this.

big ride that

Masterclass on how to beat MVDP and WVA.

Great start to the weekend

Brilliant bit of racing and a very worthy winner

That was excellent

Masterclass how to completely fuck up any chance of winning yourself by AG2R, too.

Asgreen was ludicrously strong. Couldn’t believe he went again at the end.

Turgis looked great again today. Didn’t know much about him before this season.

MVDP doesn’t seem quite the rider he was a few weeks ago. I think his form is tailing off. He looked like he went deep today and still couldn’t bring Asgreen back.

MVDP doesn’t seem quite the rider he was a few weeks ago. I think his form is tailing off.

Yeah definitely looks that way, I'd say he's been at or near top form since early Jan CX races, tough to maintain that, even for him.

Well is it that bad? Of course one gets used to him winning, but he didn't quite hide himself and got 3rd against a blue army. He admitted he felt the consequences of his efforts in Tirreno-Adriatico though. I think he'll be OK on Easter Sunday.

Please, tell me what MVDP could have done today to win.

Ride over the line first.

Turned the pedals faster and/or with more force.

Beat all the others.

MVDP doesn’t seem quite the rider he was a few weeks ago. I think his form is tailing off. He looked like he went deep today and still couldn’t bring Asgreen back.

He has bigger fish to fry. He's establishing a pattern where he goes deep a week before a major race to get his form where he wants it. If he really wanted to win today he'd have got Vermeersch to close the gap to Asgreen ahead of the final climb, instead he did a load of work in the chasing group whilst Vermeersch sat in the wheels.

I thought he looked v good. I guess he didn't ride everyone off his wheel on the final climb but he was still the strongest rider in the race.

DQS played a blinder today though, they use their strength in depth consistently well. Once Asgreen was brought back everyone seemed to forget about him, but you knew he'd go again, as Blythe called it on the commentary. MVDP could've closed that attack down if he wanted, but he knew if he did another DQS rider would attack over the top, so swang over and as AG2R didn't come through it was game over.

I hope you’re right and he’s saving some legs to put on a show next week but he was pulling faces at one point which suggested he quite fancied the win.

When MVDP's elbows go in and his shoulders go up. He's fucked.

Watched it with British commentary today. Who's the guy who insists on pronouncing names and places as if he was a native speaker?

Rob Hatch - he sounded authentic till Jose Been came along.
Geraint Thomas is more likely to win a Grand Tour than anyone else at Ineos this year.

Weirdly with Hatch, he hides his own Lancashire accent in commentary.

He sounds like a good guy when I’ve heard him on the Cycling Podcast but I don’t much like his comms.