Pro-cycling thread

Oh shit, I forgot I still had a subscription :-)

Didn't Cav and Rowe only actually start pulling them back once Rowe started putting in turns? Now the four are back together with Cav a bit knackered and Rowe relatively fresh...

Rowe wasn't really working- just rolling through

If sky fuck this up they're useless

He was in a break of 4, without a team mate, and reduced it down to 1 other at the finish.

As @dan says, he has race craft coming out of his ears.

Pretty avidly thanks. Enough to know you can't really compare track to road.

Admittedly the Sky team wasn't built around him but they still pulled for him when it was flat and he had men who tried to get him in position when it was flat.

I'm pretty amazed he's pulled that gap back today and I'd like nothing more than to see him win.

They aren't riding to team orders. Every man for himself.

And Cav had the benefit of jumping on the lead out trains of other sprinter's teams when he was with Sky. Definitely showed he had the ability to win sprints without a train of his own, but didn't see him doing much of the Sagan-esque jump from a smaller group to win.

What a ride

Sagan isn't a pure sprinter like Cavendish though... You can't compare them.

Ever seen Greipel or Kittel ride like that?

Ah, I hoped Cav was bluffing with that exhausted head-drop before the final climb...

Dreamy Pete has something of a young @FixedCheese about him. Might be the hair...

True, I can't quite remember what either of our points were? Cav being able to win without a train? But this wasn't a flat sprint finish. Maybe he thought he had a better chance with just him and Kennaugh at the finish or maybe he'd have been better off sitting in and saving his legs once they caught Stannard.

Great ride though for sure!

I think he was just trying to do something to stop himself getting worked over by three guys. Funny that what he said after about thinking about what Stannard did against Quick Step.....

Didn't realise Pete was even shorter than Cav.

That new Venge is really ugly though... those bars...

Looked like Cav was riding a Brompton.

Sounds like cav is in decent shape for the tour though?

And Bouhanni looks like he is out too. Quite a few lesser known riders taking the National Championships this year.

https://twitter.com/L_ArmiTstead/status/615212848168501252
lol

Fuck me what a race, that climb is immense, great circuit which produced some of the best racing I've seen. Kennaugh may pull on the stripes but that was all about Cav, he buried himself, what a legend.

EBH beats Kristoff in Norwegian national championships.

1. Edvald Boasson Hagen (MTN-Qhubeka)
   
2. Odd Christian Eiking (Team Joker) s.t
   
3. Vegard Stake Laengen (Team Joker) s.t
   
4. Lars Petter Nordhaug (Team Sky) +6
   
5. Anders Skaarseth (Team Joker) +9
   
6. Truls Engen Korsæth (Team Joker) +16
   
7. Sven Erik Bystrøm (Katjusja) +35
   
8. Vegard Breen (Lotto Souldal) +54
   
9. Carl Frederik Hagen (Sparebanken Sør) +7.21
   
10. Alexander Kristoff (Katjusja) +7.31
    

That seemed like Cav v2.0 on display for the first time; despatching Rowe and Stannard on the flat and hanging with Kennaugh on the ups is no joke.

Bring on the 2016 classics season