Pro Cycling Discussion 2017

Good la bamba today by trek :):):)
Haha yeah loved that! Who was the guy singing (with his mouth full)? Feel like I should recognise him...

Made a whoops before (moaning correction) and thought you guys where talking about Nibali! :o

Contador has been superb this Vuelta just a shame he'd lost so much time early on as he's proving now without it he'd probably be on the podium. The after race interviews shows much of his character, especially if you compare his interviews to Nibali. Anyone watching the ITV footage around stage 10-13 where he was really grumpy after being asked a question about Sky? Then the same reporter grabs him at the end of the next days stage and you can see him die a little inside when he realises... But thankfully reporter redeems himself and doesn't ask about Sky, just about not working with Contador. Any interviews with Nibali again show his character - grumpy/stroppy!

Chavez is slipping away again, so are the Yates', which is a bit of a shame. Same with Roche and TVG losing a bunch of time on a single stage when they'd been quite consistent before in others to retain their GC positions. I guess it was always going to happen to BMC in the high mountains, just didn't expect it from Orica.

Lopez is a real dark horse, I think he's going to cause Froome & Sky some problems, similar to Aru in the Tour and Fuglsang in the Dauphine. Astana team selection proving they can pick some great riders again! (as much as it pains me to call Aru 'great'!) ;)

Later confirmed as someone with learning disabilities who got away from their carer.
Great excuse but just makes you wonder why said fan wasn't behind the barriers in the first place... Also quite interesting he obviously targetted a rider in 'red' once most of the peloton had already passed. Maybe I'm just suspicious!

Sky killing yet another Grand Tour.
They are sucking the life out of my cycling enjoyment. The sooner UCI revamps the sport the better (not that they will), We desperately need smaller teams. Having Sky able to pick a team of potential race winners to support Froome just doesn't make for a good spectacle
. Sure you have to admire CF but even if he wins this I doubt he will be as revered as the tainted Contador or evil Nibali. Fair play to Contador and Nibali for at least trying to attack
You can't blame Sky for it, they're just proving what you can do in cycling with good team/race tactics, good management and the budget for good riders. Others teams need to step up! The UCI reduced the amount of Froome dominance in the tour by reducing the amount TT'ing and he still won it, admittedly from more exciting riding than the Vuelta so far but he and Sky still proved they where the best team.

Quintana, Chavez, Porte, Contador, Martin, Nibali, Uran, Aru, Bardet, Barguil, Fuglsang, Lopez, Valverde, etc etc have all proved they can beat Froome on certain days but he's proven to be the most consistent currently in grand tours. Also recall he's peaked later than the others this year to target the double whereas most of them targetted the Tour. I know a huge part of Froomes position is due to the team around him - but Movistar and Astana are not exactly missing huge riders. Even AG2R proved a couple of times in the Tour that when they ride well they can be up there on mountain stages.

Every time Thomas makes the Sky squad it's like an 8 rider team anyway given he'll crash at some point in 3 weeks.
Noooooooooooo! Don't jinx him pls! He;s had more bad luck than any other rider (except maybe Cav) the last year or two! :(
 
Froome is untouchable in the Vuelta this year.

Havent got around to watching any of the highlights, but have been keeping track of the results, and completely agree. Apart from the day where he fell off a couple of times he just seems to be taking time out his rivals at every opportunity.

His advantage in the time trials is crazy, to know he can pull that amount of time on people. Whats impressive with his Vuelta vs TDF is that he is taking stage wins, I do wonder if he considers it a slight blot that he didn't win a stage in this years TDF.
 
I do wonder if he considers it a slight blot that he didn't win a stage in this years TDF.
I'm sure, by his standards, that he does.
It's unusual for the winner of the tour not to have won a stage and has only happened 7 times in the history of the race:
1922 Firmin Lambot
1956 Roger Walkowiak
1960 Gastone Nencini
1966 Lucien Aimar
1990 Greg Lemond
2006 Óscar Pereiro
2017 Chris Froome
 
Interesting day yesterday looks like the time trial may have taken a bit too much out of Froome, be interesting to see how he recovers my money is still on him winning but it could get very close!

Certainly worth keeping an eye one. Saturday's stage will certainly show that up, one hell of a final climb for the last competitive day of the tour.
 
Managed to catch the last few days of ToB. Well impressed with Harry Tanfield, was away in the break all day and got a good result come the sprint. Good time in TT for having a 58x13 gear and then away in the break all day the next day and buried himself that much he just blew completely in the last few K.

Still has a fat face though.
 
It's not bad luck when you crash constantly and I include Cav in that too!
Thomas mentioned this before the ToB

“I’ve had my fair share, but if you look at them individually some were my fault, some were racing incidents, some there was nothing I could do.”
About the crash at the tour: “Rafal Majka was desperate to move up, literally five seconds after he passed me he fell. I had nowhere to go and did a Superman off the bike. It was the first time I’ve broken a collarbone – I didn’t want to accept it. The buckle on my shoe was undone, I bent down to tighten it and it hurt so much.” It was another five kilometres before he realised his Tour was over.

“The Giro was my first this year but if you look at the ones in the Tour, one was in the wet when all the front of the bunch fell, one was in a bunch sprint when they all fell in front of me. I’ve had a lot of bad luck but that’s the way it goes. I’d say less than half are my fault.”
 
Definitely going to spice things up a bit and bring w/kg a bit more in to play but whether or not it's enough to fully balance the scales over the full course...:cool:

Mr VeloViewer (Ben) posted up how the TT climb is very similar to The Burway (Church Stretton). The early ramps on that hurt lots when I rode it.

https://twitter.com/VeloViewer/status/910224666412900352

The Hard-As-You-Like award for the week goes to Lauren Dolan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/41321515

:eek:
 
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