Road Cycling
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@scribe said in Road Cycling:
@crucial I actually thought George looked relatively strong today. He dragged Foss up a couple of times to the GC group on the last climb and then paced him to the finish line when Yates and Almeida took off and dropped everyone.
Those early mistakes have really come to haunt him. Would be easily in the top 10.
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@crucial said in Road Cycling:
Well that was an exciting last 15 minutes up that climb. Some shuffling of places and a blip from Bernal.
George hung in there and has picked up a couple of spots.Quite a few guys showing significant weakness on that stage. With two more mountain stages to come, if George hangs tough there should be at least a couple who blow up and let him into the top 10. Winning a stage would help that as well, George!
I think I read at the start that Yates was targeting being strong in the third week. If I were Bernal, I think he would worry me more than Caruso. George also said something about the third week at the start, which maybe bodes well for finishing strongly.
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@scribe said in Road Cycling:
@crucial I actually thought George looked relatively strong today. He dragged Foss up a couple of times to the GC group on the last climb and then paced him to the finish line when Yates and Almeida took off and dropped everyone.
if no Jumbo riders in the break today looks like they're going all in for Foss keeping his top 10, which is a bit of a disaster for any aspirations that GB has for a stage win. Hard to know without seeing the break getting 'made' but I would have expected GB to be in it. Bit of a downside of him moving up the other day is that he's not likely to get as much leeway to go in breaks either.
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@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
@crucial said in Road Cycling:
Well that was an exciting last 15 minutes up that climb. Some shuffling of places and a blip from Bernal.
George hung in there and has picked up a couple of spots.Quite a few guys showing significant weakness on that stage. With two more mountain stages to come, if George hangs tough there should be at least a couple who blow up and let him into the top 10. Winning a stage would help that as well, George!
I think I read at the start that Yates was targeting being strong in the third week. If I were Bernal, I think he would worry me more than Caruso. George also said something about the third week at the start, which maybe bodes well for finishing strongly.
Yates was saying there was something 'medically wrong' with him in the first week - without going into details.. so wasn't planned to be as quiet as he was. Might work out well cause he normally crushes it first 2 weeks then blows a gasket in the third!
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@williethewaiter said in Road Cycling:
@scribe said in Road Cycling:
@crucial I actually thought George looked relatively strong today. He dragged Foss up a couple of times to the GC group on the last climb and then paced him to the finish line when Yates and Almeida took off and dropped everyone.
if no Jumbo riders in the break today looks like they're going all in for Foss keeping his top 10, which is a bit of a disaster for any aspirations that GB has for a stage win. Hard to know without seeing the break getting 'made' but I would have expected GB to be in it. Bit of a downside of him moving up the other day is that he's not likely to get as much leeway to go in breaks either.
Yeah - I was just thinking about this.
Foss is only three minutes off 4th place and possibly the strongest TT rider in the top 10 - at least based on the short opening one.
No real surprise if TJV shift to backing him, because a Top 5 placing isn't beyond reach.
Might at least help George make the top 10.
Edit: The little bit I saw of them riding at the beginning in the neutralised zone, George was riding in the front rank and the commentators were speculating that he would be making a crack at the break. But, once racing started (and I only saw bits of it) I didn't see any indication that TJV were trying to get in the break.
Paddy was at the front briefly.
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@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
@williethewaiter said in Road Cycling:
@scribe said in Road Cycling:
@crucial I actually thought George looked relatively strong today. He dragged Foss up a couple of times to the GC group on the last climb and then paced him to the finish line when Yates and Almeida took off and dropped everyone.
if no Jumbo riders in the break today looks like they're going all in for Foss keeping his top 10, which is a bit of a disaster for any aspirations that GB has for a stage win. Hard to know without seeing the break getting 'made' but I would have expected GB to be in it. Bit of a downside of him moving up the other day is that he's not likely to get as much leeway to go in breaks either.
Yeah - I was just thinking about this.
Foss is only three minutes off 4th place and possibly the strongest TT rider in the top 10 - at least based on the short opening one.
No real surprise if TJV shift to backing him, because a Top 5 placing isn't beyond reach.
Might at least help George make the top 10.
Edit: The little bit I saw of them riding at the beginning in the neutralised zone, George was riding in the front rank and the commentators were speculating that he would be making a crack at the break. But, once racing started (and I only saw bits of it) I didn't see any indication that TJV were trying to get in the break.
Paddy was at the front briefly.
might be a day for Paddy to have a crack tomorrow looking at the finishing profile.. needs Sagans team to make it as hard as possible to try and eject any pure sprinters.
If Foss hadn't lost a bunch of time looking after GB early on he'd be looking good.. although was defo battling today while GB was looking very comfortable.
Just watched the reply, damn that was a good stage! Kudos to Martin for that win. And good to see some crowds back on the side of the road
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@scribe I'm starting to think it's not that easy to win a stage.
According to the TJV website they tried to get George in yesterday's break and are continuing to try for stage wins - so he should get another crack tonigh t or tomorrow - and Paddy might have a shot in the final time trial, if Ganna happens to suffer from overwork.
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The fact everything has gone quite on here probably shows how disappointing the Giro was in the end for Kiwi fans.
Bummed for George, he seems like a good dude on the podcast he does and wanted to see him do well but sadly that is likely his chance gone to be a big dog in any form.
Hopefully he can make the Olympics pay off and all will be forgiven!
Bernal was a beast throughout though and with Martinez pull his arse out of the fire a couple if times it was an impressive team result. (Ganna dominating the front was impressive at times too)
I ride 100km plus most weeks so not a total mug on a bike but when I see what any the alleged "worst" of these guys can do I am just amazed by them. To repeat those efforts over and over again daily for 3 weeks is nuts!
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@davesofthunder It was actually a pretty exciting tour with plenty of twists and turns - but, the results weren't what I was hoping for from George - or Paddy.
Very disappointing that his GC hopes were pretty much gone on the first couple of wet days - though interestingly, Almeida was even worse affected on the first wet day, but bounced back better. Simon Yates also reckoned he was affected by the cold.
On the plus side, George was pretty prominent in breaks - but, perhaps too prominent and might have been better picking just one stage for an all out crack.
Ineos by far the best team - including Bernal almost certainly the strongest rider in the race. Only one stage where he was in trouble (and a couple of others where the pressure was on) but Martinez was there to haul his ass out of the fire.
Caruso probably had the race George was dreaming of - showed way more than ever before. Like Forrest Gump, that's all I've got to say about that.
Ganna is an amazing rider. He had a puncture in the final time trial, stopped to change his bike and still won - though he wouldn't have if Cavagna hadn't crashed.
I watched a very small bit of the finale of the Dauphine last night.
Richie Porte won the GC, but the most impressive thing was seeing Thomas crash coming down the second to last hill - but, pick himself up and chase down a 30 second gap back to the lead bunch to help Porte secure the win.
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Paris–Roubaix On Sunday night NZT! We get it live on Sky too although I have been disappointed with the cycling package they have bought this year. The commentary isn’t at the quality of some of the other ones.
Anyway there is rain forecast so slippery cobbles! Awesome. -
UCI Worlds just completed.
Finn Fisher-Black came 13th in the U23 time trial which is pretty promising. Tom Scully did decently in the Elite TT - though didn't threaten Ganna.
A guy called Corbin Strong finished in the winning group min the U23 road race - 18th overall.
Don't think any of our Elite men finished the road race. I think it was a pretty flat course and George and Paddy opted out. Jack Bauer was probably our leader.
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@crucial my favourite race of the year by far! I’ve missed it. I’ve done the Sportive version and it’s fucking brutal and painful; there’s nothing like it.
Mostly a bit of a lottery on who will win as luck plays such a massive part, but I’m going to say one of the Deceuninck Quick Step guys.
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@scribe said in Road Cycling:
@crucial my favourite race of the year by far! I’ve missed it. I’ve done the Sportive version and it’s fucking brutal and painful; there’s nothing like it.
Mostly a bit of a lottery on who will win as luck plays such a massive part, but I’m going to say one of the Deceuninck Quick Step guys.
There's some luck involved, as with most sport, but the winners are almost always great riders. It's too hard a race to fluke.
Looking back over the last 20 years only Matthew Hayman strikes me as winning any sort of lottery.
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@chester-draws the last wet edition was 2002; it’s likely to be wet this weekend and from photos I’ve seen, there is lots of mud on the route (though they are endeavouring to clear it). More scope for fuck ups and if something does go wrong, it’s difficult to recover in this race.
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@scribe it's what I think of as a "negative" race. You can be as powerful as you like, but the badly timed puncture or be blocked at the time of the decisive break and you don't win.
But the winner is normally one of the best riders.
I fancy Alaphilippe's chances. He tends to always ride near the front, so is less likely to be impeded.
