Road Cycling
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@crucial said in Road Cycling:
Fuck that. 20% hill on cobbles.
I was wondering when the last time anyone had to dismount and walk up the Koppenberg - used to be pretty regular. guess the bigger range of gears these days helps.. just ridiculous how easy they make it look going up there.
Done it once, took 3 goes to make it, had to come back after it had dried off a bit. Worst bit was I didn't know where I was so ended up riding back down it to get back into town. I would say that was the only time I was really concerned for my life on a bike!!
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As anyone with more than a passing interest doubtless knows, George has been given the reins of the Jumbo-Visma team for this year's Giro.
However, they haven't exactly given him a powerful support team - Groenewegen obviously riding for himself as a sprinter with Dekker or Marten probably his lead-out man (?), Affini, Foss and Van Emden are time trialists. So only Bouwman going to be of much help for George in the hills.
https://www.giroditalia.it/en/squadre/team-jumbo-visma/
Anyway, first stage down - a short time trial - and I think George will be reasonably happy with the outcome.
Giro d'Italia: Ganna storms to victory in stage 1 time trial
World champion takes first maglia rosa in Turin
He's finished pretty much in the group of GC contenders - 3 seconds down on Carthy and Yates, but a few seconds ahead of Hindley, Landa , Bardet and, notably, Patty Bevin who probably hoped for better.
Almeida, Evenepoel and Vlasov the potential GC guys who've stolen a handful of seconds.
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@crucial I thought they might have given him Gesink or Vingegard or at least one more support climber, but seems like they're going all in to support Roglic (and Kruiswijk) in the TdF.
Tom Dumoulin will miss Tour de France as Jonas Vingegaard named as replacement
There had been rumours of a comeback in time for the Tour
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Just a long flat sprinters stage yesterday with nothing happening for the GC . George still sitting with a huge bunch of big names (Yates, Bernal, Nibali, Mollema....) about 40 odd seconds back.
A couple of short punch climbs in a mostly tame stage next. Might start shaking out some of the early leaderboard. Stage 4 steps things up another notch.
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other big result from an NZ perspective over the weekend was Anton Coopers 6th place at the MTB world cup XC.. 6th may not sound that special.. but Tom Pidcock was in front and none other than Van der Poel behind him so he's obviously going bloody good. Stacked field.
No idea what's happened to Sam Gaze - thought he was going to turn into an absolute superstar after winning a round of a world cup then signing a road pro team contract - but he's slipped into obscurity was around 100th or something -
@crucial said in Road Cycling:
Just a long flat sprinters stage yesterday with nothing happening for the GC . George still sitting with a huge bunch of big names (Yates, Bernal, Nibali, Mollema....) about 40 odd seconds back.
A couple of short punch climbs in a mostly tame stage next. Might start shaking out some of the early leaderboard. Stage 4 steps things up another notch.
might see Paddy having a crack at the sprint tomorrow if things break up a bit. Although based on his prologue result probs not quite over his sickness he picked up at Romandie
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@williethewaiter said in Road Cycling:
No idea what's happened to Sam Gaze - thought he was going to turn into an absolute superstar after winning a round of a world cup then signing a road pro team contract - but he's slipped into obscurity was around 100th or something
Cycling: Commonwealth Games champion Sam Gaze reveals battle with depression | Newshub
The Kiwi mountain biker began "freaking out" and took 18 months to get himself right.
Hopefully on the way back.
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@williethewaiter said in Road Cycling:
@crucial said in Road Cycling:
Just a long flat sprinters stage yesterday with nothing happening for the GC . George still sitting with a huge bunch of big names (Yates, Bernal, Nibali, Mollema....) about 40 odd seconds back.
A couple of short punch climbs in a mostly tame stage next. Might start shaking out some of the early leaderboard. Stage 4 steps things up another notch.
might see Paddy having a crack at the sprint tomorrow if things break up a bit. Although based on his prologue result probs not quite over his sickness he picked up at Romandie
Good call. Some sauce?
Paddy gets a P5 two places behind Sagan.Peleton fucked up the chase and the breakaway leader gritted his teeth and beat them out. Love it when that happens.
GC contenders coming back up the board slowly and the 40 seconds gaps back to 20s now.
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@crucial said in Road Cycling:
@williethewaiter said in Road Cycling:
@crucial said in Road Cycling:
Just a long flat sprinters stage yesterday with nothing happening for the GC . George still sitting with a huge bunch of big names (Yates, Bernal, Nibali, Mollema....) about 40 odd seconds back.
A couple of short punch climbs in a mostly tame stage next. Might start shaking out some of the early leaderboard. Stage 4 steps things up another notch.
might see Paddy having a crack at the sprint tomorrow if things break up a bit. Although based on his prologue result probs not quite over his sickness he picked up at Romandie
Good call. Some sauce?
Paddy gets a P5 two places behind Sagan.Peleton fucked up the chase and the breakaway leader gritted his teeth and beat them out. Love it when that happens.
GC contenders coming back up the board slowly and the 40 seconds gaps back to 20s now.
Just the type of finish that suits him - he's a good climber and an awesome sprinter (always kinda surprised he never really just tried to develop into an out and out sprinter - I raced against him when he was a kid and fark me he had a kick and a half - easily fastest guy in nz). but he's focused on time trialing. Anyhoo around the start of April he was in one of the one week tours where Roglic and Podacar were giving it to each other on one of the big mountain stages and Paddy stayed with them! So his form bloody good this year. still reckon he's easily NZ's best shot of ever winning a grand tour stage.
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@crucial said in Road Cycling:
Peleton fucked up the chase and the breakaway leader gritted his teeth and beat them out. Love it when that happens.
Yeah - smart ride by Van der Hoorn to give himself the chance - had the luck that Jack Bauer needed a few years back!
I think for Paddy and George it's a matter of continuing to put themselves in the frame and then getting the cards to fall their way. You might be right Willie, that Paddy has more tools to actually win a stage, but George might never get a better chance than somewhere during this Giro.
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@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
@crucial said in Road Cycling:
Peleton fucked up the chase and the breakaway leader gritted his teeth and beat them out. Love it when that happens.
Yeah - smart ride by Van der Hoorn to give himself the chance - had the luck that Jack Bauer needed a few years back!
I think for Paddy and George it's a matter of continuing to put themselves in the frame and then getting the cards to fall their way. You might be right Willie, that Paddy has more tools to actually win a stage, but George might never get a better chance than somewhere during this Giro.
By Willie's reckoning the next stage looks ideal for Paddy. Especially the finish.
I was wrong about the GC guys earlier, misread something. Anyway they are still hanging back 40secs away from the leaders.This time next week looks brutal so I guess most of them are biding their time until then.
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@crucial said in Road Cycling:
@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
@crucial said in Road Cycling:
Peleton fucked up the chase and the breakaway leader gritted his teeth and beat them out. Love it when that happens.
Yeah - smart ride by Van der Hoorn to give himself the chance - had the luck that Jack Bauer needed a few years back!
I think for Paddy and George it's a matter of continuing to put themselves in the frame and then getting the cards to fall their way. You might be right Willie, that Paddy has more tools to actually win a stage, but George might never get a better chance than somewhere during this Giro.
By Willie's reckoning the next stage looks ideal for Paddy. Especially the finish.
This time next week looks brutal so I guess most of them are biding their time until then.
Yeah - I was just looking at that Stage 4 profile and thinking the same thing.
Shouldn't be many sprinters at the finish!!!
After the TT George said something about not reading too much into it, because we still have 3,500 km to go!!
It is a fucking brutal sport!
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@chris-b George’s team mate Foss could potentially ride into pink today. He’s only 16 seconds back from Ganna (and I assume he is a reasonable climber having been a recent winner of the ‘junior tour’ Tour de l’Avenir’). I’m assuming if that pans out it won’t help George much if TJV have to control things for the next few days.
Evenepoel is only 20 seconds back and is probably more likely to ride into the lead though.
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oh well that's George done and dusted after the first stage with a hill in it.
What a shambles. I just don't get it when it comes to pro cyclists. You see them out training in 15 degrees and they're dressed like it's minus 5. See them in a race at zero degrees and they're dressed like it's 25 degrees.
ffs put some clothes on. The risk of losing 5 seconds undoing a vest vs you've finally after years been given the chance to lead one of the biggest teams in the world in a grand tour and you're fcuked after one stage when you got too cold and you admit you struggle when you get cold. Will also cost you dearly in the next contract discussions..
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@williethewaiter Yeah - that's pretty shambolic. As soon as I saw the headline this morning that he'd had a shocker, I wondered about the cold because he's struggled with that before.
This article lists the times of just the real GC contenders, which is quite handy.
Giro d'Italia: Which GC contenders lost time on stage 4
Almeida out of the reckoning as Bernal, Landa, Vlasov, Ciccone and Carthy gain time
I guess if there is one silver lining, George won't be heavily marked if he can make a move late on a mountain stage - they'll probably let him go.
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@chris-b said in Road Cycling:
@williethewaiter Yeah - that's pretty shambolic. As soon as I saw the headline this morning that he'd had a shocker, I wondered about the cold because he's struggled with that before.
This article lists the times of just the real GC contenders, which is quite handy.
Giro d'Italia: Which GC contenders lost time on stage 4
Almeida out of the reckoning as Bernal, Landa, Vlasov, Ciccone and Carthy gain time
I guess if there is one silver lining, George won't be heavily marked if he can make a move late on a mountain stage - they'll probably let him go.
he'd have to lose a bit more time yet for that to happen.. and to be honest I don't think he's really got it in him - always been a bit of a diesel climber with no real kick / acceleration at the end of a climb.
I can't imagine the directors would have been too happy with him.. but to be fair the team of nobodies they surrounded him with showed they weren't really too concerned with the giro it's all about the tour.
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@williethewaiter I'm think late in a climb - 3kms to go sort of thing - hopefully, they might just ignore a bit of an acceleration.
The TJV guy telling the story certainly sounds pretty terse about it!
I guess it's not quite as bad as when Roglic needed the guys in the car and they were having a piss in the bushes!
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Stage 6 looks interesting 100 kms of uphill (various gradients) with 1300m elevation followed by 40km back down again then back up 1000m over 15km.
So long grind with an opportunity for good descenders to spread the field but then they have to hold it together for a fairly brutal up again.
Who would fit the bill here?
