Pro-cycling thread

There's so many factors that impact on the time that it takes to do a climb that it's pointless comparing times from different editions. You've got to factor in all manor of weather conditions - temperature, air pressure, wind speed, humidity etc - then think about where the stage came in the race, i.e. first week, second week etc, plus the race situation, i.e. from a break, GC riders racing from the bottom and so on that you just can't compare.

That's before we even think about bike technology, improvements in nutrition and so on.

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Quite.

Plus the speed on the climb is high enough for recent aero improvements to make a difference. It's not long ago that a deep carbon rim was a rarity on a mountain stage. Plus there's all the motorbikes giving riders a tow. I don't think anyone's measured that, but it could be a much bigger factor than we think. And there are shitloads of motorbikes near the dramas.

Heard an interview with Yates where he said Yorgenson was doing 480w at the bottom of the climb. They were flying

Cavendish laterne rouge watch:
Only his teammate Ballerini behind him, so the dream is still alive!

Anyone in Nime for the stage tomorrow?

Every time I've broken my collarbone I'd hit my shoulder into the ground with zero time for anything. Mostly my hands don't come off the bars until I'm stopped and standing up. If I crashed slow enough to think about circus tricks I wouldn't have broken any bones at all. As for "odd bruise" apparently I don't have any broken ribs but it still fucking hurts to breathe a few weeks later.

Yes. Bicycle falls are complicated by the death grip on the bars. You'd probably need a lot of training to overcome that. But it might be a marginal gain worth acquiring for the pros if the alternative is a month out of competition in the middle of the season.

Fucking death grip :D You have no idea what you're talking about. It was a totally chill bit of road with a hidden pothole. One hand off the bars, hit hole, instant sideways bars, shoulder meets road. Bullshit you or anyone else could've "rolled out of it". Oh wait, unless you're a Jedi, in which case, humble apols.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p1-gCNldUc

Much like this one. Oh, why wasn't I more like Jens and just do a double backflip and land on my feet like he did here?

What about a bunch pile-up when you get a brief warning of the inevitable?

That's different. In those I have mass on my side and normally land on something soft if I've not managed to avoid the crashing riders in the first place. I've had a lot of practice crashing in tonnes of situtions and I've never "thought" about doing any aerobics during them.

If I can "think" about what I'm doing during a crash, I've probably managed to avoid the crash and/or just stepped off the bike on my feet. If I've broken a bone, it's because there wasn't time to do shit.

OK, it's a terrible idea. But surely I can sell it to a pro team? It can't be less useless than Cav tapeing his shoes. Or a Batman nose shield.

lol

ITV live is shit. Fucking pause it and it resumes at the live point not live pause? WTF is this 1997?

Slag them off all you like, but they have cadel evans...

Plus yesterdays never strays pod was quite funny.

The channel is fine, it's the web devs team that need a slap.

Will we get anything besides sprinters and climbers winning a stage?

Bardet, Vauqeluin and Turgis stage wins showed the natural variety of the race. Another good chance for the break away tomorrow.

The next couple of stages look ideal for breaks to stay away.

Were you guys seeing the Uno-X car nearly crashing into another car?

Yes. The one in front missed the turn on the roundabout, then nearly crashed into the other one that was going around the roundabout on the wrong side.

Both cars were UNO-X team cars.

A head-0n collision between team cars would probably be a first. They should try again.