Pro Cycling Discussion 2016

One More Solo said:
May be of bigger significance to the sports who escaped scrutiny at the time i.e. football and tennis.

Valverde's done alright since getting off the drugs though. ;)
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Yeah, nothing like a bent judicial system to protect their countries sporting interests....Hi Russia.
 
Sagan and Stuyven would have been better ditching the bikes and having a full on scrap today. Sagan was knocking lumps into him coming into the sprint haha.

A few awesome shorts of the approach and sprint today.... Van Poppel's an absolute hero holding it and not going down and check the front wheels of the 3 coming into the sprint straight and those corner angles.... WOW:
https://streamable.com/dtip
https://streamable.com/rgn9
 
xdcx said:
Sagan and Stuyven would have been better ditching the bikes and having a full on scrap today. Sagan was knocking lumps into him coming into the sprint haha.

A few awesome shorts of the approach and sprint today.... Van Poppel's an absolute hero holding it and not going down and check the front wheels of the 3 coming into the sprint straight and those corner angles.... WOW:
https://streamable.com/dtip
https://streamable.com/rgn9
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Haha, Van Poppel's rear wheel was off the ground, how on earth he managed to go round the corner and stay on, fantastic :D
 
xdcx said:
Sagan and Stuyven would have been better ditching the bikes and having a full on scrap today. Sagan was knocking lumps into him coming into the sprint haha.

A few awesome shorts of the approach and sprint today.... Van Poppel's an absolute hero holding it and not going down and check the front wheels of the 3 coming into the sprint straight and those corner angles.... WOW:
https://streamable.com/dtip
https://streamable.com/rgn9
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I get corner angles like that on my TT bike :D Will watch the highlights when I get back, but that was impressive handling from DVP
 
And then he was docked UCI points! I assume because he was put at fault for getting into that position on the road but really, what a stupid finish "straight" they had set up. With all the motorbike incidents this year you would think the UCI / organisers would be all over safety at the moment.
 
Err, that's a bit of a misinterpretation. He was given a four month sanction as a result of (what the UCI now agrees was) an administrative error. As he hasn't raced since the team were made aware of the finding the sanction has been backdated, and he will be back racing in the Tour of Poland.
 
Anyone watching the Aviva Women's Tour? Fascinating racing, very highly talented peloton. Only seen Stage 3 so far, but as I suspected it seems like people are underestimating just how much of a difference British hills can make. Not as long or as high as climbs you might find on the continent, but with the weather and the "sticky" roads they race on they can be very decisive.
 
PermaBanned said:
Anyone watching the Aviva Women's Tour? Fascinating racing, very highly talented peloton. Only seen Stage 3 so far, but as I suspected it seems like people are underestimating just how much of a difference British hills can make. Not as long or as high as climbs you might find on the continent, but with the weather and the "sticky" roads they race on they can be very decisive.
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Been watching highlights every evening with the gf, she oddly got quite interested in it and liked seeing Lizzie in yellow.

The racing is odd. Very odd. The yellow jersey working on the front of the peloton with 3 team mates on her wheel.... Or the break (containing yellow jersey) being caught almost with 1.5km to go and her teammate attacking off the front of the peloton behind her... just a few examples, seems very very "every lady for themsevles" at some points... It is exciting, I like watching but for different reasons to mens racing where that actually tends to make a bit of sense most of the time haha.

Was a great tour though, last stage a bit lackluster in comparison but end result for the GC was obviously fantastic :)
 
xdcx said:
Been watching highlights every evening with the gf, she oddly got quite interested in it and liked seeing Lizzie in yellow.

The racing is odd. Very odd. The yellow jersey working on the front of the peloton with 3 team mates on her wheel.... Or the break (containing yellow jersey) being caught almost with 1.5km to go and her teammate attacking off the front of the peloton behind her... just a few examples, seems very very "every lady for themsevles" at some points... It is exciting, I like watching but for different reasons to mens racing where that actually tends to make a bit of sense most of the time haha.

Was a great tour though, last stage a bit lackluster in comparison but end result for the GC was obviously fantastic :)
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Lizzie went on the attack because she wasn't confident she could beat Vos in the sprints, and there were enough bonus seconds on offer to make a real difference in GC. Partly because she wasn't feeling great, had a bit of a head cold or something which often affects your top end power. Also, she needed to mark Ashleigh Moolman, who is an incredibly strong climber and if she gets in a break that stays away it's unlikely you'll be able to make up time on her later. And also, just because she could. If you find yourself going off the front on a climb just as a result of your own fitness, are you going to wait around for the rest of your rivals? Or are you going to keep going and see what happens?

I only saw one instance of a teammate attacking off the front, which might not have been the best move but presumably she was trying to bridge the gap to give Lizzie a bit of a lead out for the sprint. Could just have ended up in a good position to go, or where she didn't really have any other options without outright getting in the way of the chasing riders.

Good line up for Sky. Will be interesting to see who they'll go for as protected riders in case anything happens to Froome. Gotta assume Thomas and Landa still, despite their less than ideal performances at the TdS and the Giro. Gotta say Movistar have been looking incredibly strong so far this year GC wise, and Sky have seemed a bit less totally dominant than previous years...
 
The Sky line-up is pretty strong.

I think Landa's Giro performance is hard to measure. He was probably more likely to peak during the final week, and he never got that far. I prefer him over Thomas as a protected rider, given the TdS performance.

Overall, a really solid team. Really built to protect Froome, and do well in the mountains.
 
I don't think Sky really do the protected rider thing, it's just lip service after all the stick they got when Froome dropped out. That team is built to deliver Froome to the key moments in the best possible condition and talk of a backup for the GC if Froome drops is just that.
 
a1ex2001 said:
I don't think Sky really do the protected rider thing, it's just lip service after all the stick they got when Froome dropped out. That team is built to deliver Froome to the key moments in the best possible condition and talk of a backup for the GC if Froome drops is just that.
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This is certainly what they've done in the past (and I fully expect them to go for the same all-eggs-in-1-basket method this year) but they have been trying some very different tactics this year in races so it would be nice to see them mixing things up a bit at the tour.
 
Hey!

Where would you guys recommend a complete newbie starts off? So, I've watched Tour de France in the past. This was before we had Armstrong come out with the reveal. After this, I sort of stopped watching. Since the release of Pro Cycling Manager 2016 (PC game, released few days ago), I've been very interested in starting to get back into following the sport.

Where do I start? I don't know who to follow. So being British, I'm thinking about learning more about Team Sky and having them as the team I follow. I'm going to watch the TdF when it starts also.

I will have much to learn about. Rules, riders, teams etc. so does anyone have anywhere they would recommend I start? It would be like getting into a sport you have never followed before, so I'm a little at a loss.

Any material you can throw at me is very much appreciated.
 
That will come in handy when the tour starts, thanks. :)

What should I do about learning the history and current teams participating? Also about the people to watch out for?

Also, do you happen to know which channel in the UK shows most of the cycling? Is it still Eurosport?
 
Spacedeck said:
What should I do about learning the history and current teams participating? Also about the people to watch out for?
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TDF wise - http://www.letour.com/us/

Team Sky vs Movistar (Is what it's going to be about! ;))

Froome
Quintana
G Thomas

Spacedeck said:
Also, do you happen to know which channel in the UK shows most of the cycling? Is it still Eurosport?
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http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/racing/tour-de-france/tour-de-france-2016-live-tv-guide-233516

Eurosport 1 pretty much.
 
Spacedeck said:
What should I do about learning the history and current teams participating? Also about the people to watch out for?

Also, do you happen to know which channel in the UK shows most of the cycling? Is it still Eurosport?
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Eurosport is typically the channel which shows the vast majority but Le Tour will be on ITV4, as is the Dauphine (which just finished) and typically British races such as Tour Series and Tour of Britain. Eurosport coverage is better overall though than ITV coverage.

www.steephill.tv/tour-de-france/ - good site for overview of all stages including profiles and has a full updated list of every teams roster.
http://www.procyclingstats.com/ - Good site for results/rankings etc.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/ - Good all round new site.
http://inrng.com/ - Very well established and regarded fan blog, he posts daily stage previews and reviews. They are superb.

General Classification wise, here is the team leaders and the guys who will be doing battle for the overall this year (in my opinion) -
Bardet - AG2R
Van Garderen - BMC
Aru - Astana
Froome - Sky
Martin - Ettix
Quintana - Movistar
Contador - Tinkoff

The first few days and scattered within the stages are sprint stages, these will be contested by the big beefies such as:
Griepel - Lotto Soudal
Cav - Dimension Data
Kittel - Ettix
Bouhanni - Confidis
Kristoff - Katusha

It is quite difficult a sport to get into to the point a lot of us know it/follow it. It will take you a good bit of time and lots of race watching but once you understand the teams/riders and how the race is unfolding it is a fantastic sport to watch!

If you have any specific questions chuck them in here also. Lots of us can't shutup about anything cycling and happy to chat away about it especially as the tour goes on, can't wait! :cool:
 
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