Pro Cycling Discussion 2017

Cosmo How The Race Was Won answers some of these - Dumoulin had already attacked once and he spots Matthews getting boxed in just as Sagan goes. Sagan messed the sprint though - could have waited another 50m before launching but it's easy to say with hindsight.
 
GSVBagpuss said:
Cosmo How The Race Was Won answers some of these - Dumoulin had already attacked once and he spots Matthews getting boxed in just as Sagan goes. Sagan messed the sprint though - could have waited another 50m before launching but it's easy to say with hindsight.
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He would have got done in a sprint by Kwiat if he went when he did or 50m later as it all came down to that last hard turn he done on the front and Kwiat didn't come through for another. That's where Kwiat won the race. I seriously think Kwiat beating him though was the best thing for us fans after he won Strade as it is creating an amazing rivalry between these two and I hope we see them trading blows for years and years to come.

There are 2 Sagan's racing today in the holy land :) It's the first time that Dwars door Vlaanderen has had WT status so it has beefier teams this year. I will be surprised if we see Sagan going on a raid at the front today, I think he will use this as a refinement race and he won't be up to his usual antics at the front in a break. Although, this is Sagan, so wouldn't be surprised if totally wrong and he is burying himself on the front with 40km to go.
 
xdcx said:
He would have got done in a sprint by Kwiat if he went when he did or 50m later as it all came down to that last hard turn he done on the front and Kwiat didn't come through for another.
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Also he has no team to speak of and the others could play the team orders / waiting for Gaviria / Viviani card. Great race though :)
 
Bear said:
Haha, I dint know that, you wouldnt know it now if you saw them stand side by side.
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No but bodies develop etc. Also they were big fish in small ponds at Junior level but the pros are all great climbers and sprinters relative to us normal people. In other random facts from the past, Kittel was a time trialler and Greipel won the German hill climb championship.
 
Volta a Catalunya is turning out to be a decent race. Today's stage was very pretty and a nice descent/run in to the finish with a two man break going from the 25 or so guys in the bunch inside the last 15 km and it being touch and go if they would make it or not.
 
You would think Sky had learnt after the Vuelta but yet again, got caught napping and the guys notice it and rips it off at the front to leave them struggling to catch up, unbelievable.
 
Berger said:
Gent is turning out to be a good race too, everyone knocking each other about!
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Interesting finale.

Sagan no stronger than Terpstra but showed he wasn't a fool and wouldn't let them make him do all the work but in doing so threw away a possible win... maybe teaching the others a lesson or a mistake it could have been either.

GVA in awesome form with Jens
KEUKELEIRE making the move.

The peloton closed so much in the last 3km, gap came down super fast, when I thought the placings were decided it came down to the wire like it did in Catalunya a few days ago.

Quickstep should have just thrown a huge $ at Sagan and got the dream team otherwise they could have a fruitless classics season again!
 
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Flanders tomorrow!

GVA is RED HOT at the minute and surely must be the favorite for it.

Not sure if anyone else is fed up of 'sexism' in cycling stories or if its just me. Up there with doping stories about things that happened in the past.

As for equal prize money, I don't think the women's racing deserves it if I am honest. There isn't the same depth of field that you get in the mens racing, the viewing figures or sponsors. Its a vicious circle but I think it has to be accepted that if the total pool of viewers for cycling is say 10m, then you wont get 10m watching both the mens and womens, and neither will you get 5m and 5m, its just not going to happen for so many reasons.

The same goes for a lot of other professional sports, but then women can make equal money or greater (less sets at Wimbledon for the same prize money).
 
I agree to an extent but also think the UCI has totally failed to promote women's racing. Absolutely no reason why more races couldn't precede the men's on already closed roads e.g. in the Grand Tours I'd rather watch an hour of the women's race finish live than an hour of riders eating and drinking in the early kms of a transitional stage.

The main issue is men's racing doesn't make enough to make teams self sustaining so clearly going to be worse for women where there is currently zero ROI for sponsors.
 
I agree a lot berger but as oms says the uci are not helping the situation. Only slight point berger is your comment on women's tennis, yes they don't play as much but women's tennis in many countries, especially the USA pulls in a lot more for women's than men's (due to Mr S Williams mostly :-D)
 
Gilbert! Sagan showing he is human when it comes to bike handling. And Tersptra still can't win a sprint after sitting on for 10k. Wonderful race, will have to watch it over again
 
Just caught up. Had few minor bits on WhatsApp about a break but couldn't believe it when he went, just kept thinking no way with so far to go. Well deserved. Roll on roubaix.

I think it could be better than last year with so many big names wanting to redeem after today.
 
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