Pro Cycling Discussion 2017

SoliD said:
Few bits of news no one is talking about.

Contador retiring after vuelta. No surprise he isn't good enough anymore and I won't be sad to see him go, altho he occasionally brings entertain his previous crimes mean he is certainly not one I enjoy watching.

Third. Only week and bit to vuelta!! Can't wait. :D:D:D:D:D
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Same, cant say Im bothered at all so see Contador go. Yes he can animate a race every now and then but he isn't up there any more to compete for GC, he needs to retire or at least give up riding Grand Tours, he's still good for 1 week tours, Paris Nice was a pretty good race.

Unfortunately I will miss most of the Vuelta but I will be touring Japan so Im not so hard done by.
 
Shame to see Contador go even given his penchant for steaks. Always livened up Tours in the past, but its the right time as he hasn't got it anymore.
 
Shame to see him go, although can understand it with his recent GT performances. With his couple of good placing in Paris:Nice I really thought we might see him venture into the Classics more, but I guess not now! :(
 
Lethal` said:
I'm actually on TV (albeit blurred) in the background walking behind Cav, Boardman and Rochelle Gilmore :D

Cav seemed to be dancing about all over the place as if he couldn't stand still. I guess eager to get back racing. He was actually commentating for a while during the race too.
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Claim to fame!? Grab a still of it and put it on your wall? 'When I was on TV with Cavandish' :D

I can't recall the actual conversation, think it might have been about breakaways, but he has a brilliant "But, Meh!" moment ending a response to a question. Made me laugh!

SoliD said:
Secondly. Luke Rowe has managed to break his leg white water rafting on his brothers stag do. So he'll be out rest of season.. :D
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WTF lol! Guess his season was mostly over anyways.

What's everyone been watching post-tour pre-vuelta? I was going to watch san sebastian but couldn't find it on TV/Eurosport. Thought I'd then watch Tour of Poland but the 'catch up' on Eurosport doesn't have more than a couple of days so I'd be missing the first 3-4 stages. Watched the 'European road race' last night. Pretty boring race, shame EBH missed out on it as he put in incredible long range attack at the finish (classic EBH!). Kristoff edged out Viviani after pushing him towards the barriers. I think he'll do well at UAE next year as he seems in some fine form after the Tour.

In other news: Pony Gallopin featured in Tour of Poland Stage results :D
 
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And the worst kept secret in Pro Cycling has been confirmed. Landa to Movistar next year.

Vuelta kicks off on Saturday. TTT, so probably be a BMC rider in Red. Expecting it to be a tight race as usual with a lot of entertainment and surprise winners from the offset!

Orica got 3 potential GC riders in their roster that could be interesting as the race goes on, but no leader at Movistar to speak of... Looking at the other GC I'm struggling to see past Froome for the win.
 
SoliD said:
And the worst kept secret in Pro Cycling has been confirmed. Landa to Movistar next year.
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Ok now it's official, I still think it's a shame he's leaving Sky - he's a young talent and ideally needs to be with a team who will develop him into a real GT winner. I personally don't think he's quite there yet, yes he's done well before but the competition is getting tougher/harder/closer these last few years with 3 week GT's top spots being decided by seconds.

I don't think he'll get the chances at Movistar, yes he'll do well, yes he may even win more, but I think he'll find more pressure on his results and have to work harder in service of Quintana/Valverde in GT's, than he did for Froome, so he'll win less in them. It's a tough one, there's very little team loyalty in professional cycling so a real 'team spirit' must be hard to build/culture year on year. Teams like Orica and BMC (& more recently Sunweb) obviously do quite well at it but they generally fly quite below the radar compared to teams like Movistar and Sky. The animosity Sky experience as a team from various other host nations I think actually helps their team 'spirit'. Couple that with obvious higher wages from some other places much of their support staff stick with them and we're seeing that from some riders too. Riders like Knees & Lopez, even though they have very little 'nationality loyalty' to an English speaking mostly British team, have stuck there. What I guess I'm trying to say is - I see Sky as a better 'development' & progress orientated team than others, I guess mostly due to their budget and cutting edge techniques/ideas/staff.

SDK^ said:
Froome will win for the double :)
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Yeah I'm kinda hoping he does, will shut lots of the doubters up! ;)
#Chri5# said:
https://www.teamsky.com/article/team-sky-race-hub-makes-its-debut-at-the-vuelta

Impressive but must be a PITA to move on a daily basis!
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Looks easier than all the hassle of multiple different vehicles transporting all the kit around to totally different venues every day which they'd otherwise be using...
 
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https://roadcyclinguk.com/racing/ma...ys-elia-viviani-heading-quickstep-floors.html

Kittel to Katusha, bit of a shame but with Tony Martin there, they're shaping up for some results.

Viviani to QuickStep I'm quite surprised about, would've thought Gronewegan (or however you spell it) would've been a better fit. Think maybe he was the only other pure sprinter available? Will be good to see him riding with Gaviria.

Stannard and Deignan's contracts also up at Sky, but I don't see either of them moving? Stannard out of form yet back in the Vuelta squad kinda confirms he's staying.
 
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Viviani is a big step down for QS; but the Cycling Podcast made the good point that maybe Lefevre is having to move from buying superstars to building with youth given his sponsorship problems. Allaphillipe, Gaviria and Jungels are a stellar set of riders across Classics, sprints and GC and will only get better
 
Dowsett also moving to Katusha. With Ian Boswell also moving from Sky. They're looking strong for 2018!

How are we enjoying The Vuelta?! Fairly predictable TTT really. Crazy Lotto-Soudal crash! Ouch! Not quite sure what was up with that corner as didn't Movistar lose a couple there? Sky looked strong but lost a couple of riders late into the ride so didn't quite get as good a result as I expected. Froome looking very strong, actually leading them in to the finish. Poor Yogi on the back! He was in bits, was quite surprised to see him strong on stage 2. Hope he's back in good form! He's gonna need it!

I enjoyed seeing Blythe around the front on stage 2, fantastic 3rd, shame he couldn't quite roll Trentin. Amazing ride by QuickStep, would love to see the power/speed figures for Lampaert & Trentin at the end! I'd say Trentin was too marked and it let Lampaert get away, but with the front group ripped to shreds and riders like Blythe and Oss (I think?) struggling to close up to them I don't think there was much chance of any real marking! :o
 
Great stage yesterday.

I had recorded it and fast forwarded through to about 45k out and watched QS/Sky ripping it up, then managed to watch through to about 8.2k to go before heading out for dinner, where my Mum proceeded to ruin the result for me!! Whcih she hadn't even watched!!!! Sometimes it is great having a Mum that knows all about Sports, but sometimes it's an absolute pain!!

Was a great finish to the stage and is hinting at a good battle at the top with Nibali, Chaves and Froome all looking strong.
 
Yeah no excuses for Sanchez. He's been around long enough to know he couldn't get away with it, especially with a top tier team like BMC!

Incredible stage #3! Incredible riding by Nibbles & Roche to get back to that front quartet. Same with Bardet and Aru, I was half hoping Aru would hold up Bardet on the descent! Seeing Froome very much towing while the other 3 sat in allowing the others to catch them was slightly annoying.

Great work by QS & Sky to break things down. Incredible ride by Moscon! What a machine! :D

Glad David de la Cruz got a good result too for QS. Imagine how it would've been with Dan Martin also in tow... :o
 
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