Pro Cycling Discussion 2021

What chance does he realistically have of winning the whole thing? He was at 150 to 1, so I threw a tenner on mainly because he just seems such a physical freak almost, but I'm fully aware he's probably too big to keep up with the others as the mountains come?
 
AndyCr15 said:
What chance does he realistically have of winning the whole thing? He was at 150 to 1, so I threw a tenner on mainly because he just seems such a physical freak almost, but I'm fully aware he's probably too big to keep up with the others as the mountains come?
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0 he's too big mainly and those efforts take huge amounts out of you, so come 7 or 14 days time he'll be exhausted if he tried to keep up on every stage. What will happen now is he'll settle in, keep the Jersey for as long as possible ( until Wednesday probably) then just pick stages to attack on.
 
Caleb went to swipe back at Sagan after his wee lean, but Sagan had moved away so Caleb swiped across at thin air and lost his wheel. Doh!

Crazy stage. Tadej as fav!
 
Oh today will be calmer.... That last 10k, horrific watching! I won't lie though it has made GC more interesting. Looked like 1st group only had Carapaz as the main player on same time as winner. 2nd group had Pogacar who was caught up in the left hander crash (you saw him from the helicopter shot skipping round) and Thomas and then Roglic almost a minute down.

Horrible crash first off early in the day, obviously taking out Gesink unfortunately. Then those final 3 crashes. first was all Roglic who people seem to forget comes down with alarming regularity just like a certain welshman. 2nd crash looked like too hot and fighting for space, but early enough in the group to take out a chunk of that group. Final crash looks to have done Ewans collarbone or something in his arms which is hardly surprising with the way he went down, very strange incident, lost it all on his own. I initially thought it was Sagans shoving, but obviously not.

Think there will be a few riders affected will be contemplating carrying on tomorrow. Roglic has had 2 big painful crashes now, but he's a fighter, some of those crashes will make wednesdays TT even more uncomfortable. Jumbo going to have nobody left at this race, Gesink gone, Kruisjwijk gone for scans. Roglic and Martin both down again today.
 
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Bear said:
How on earth did Thomas come off, dislocated his shoulder, had it popped back in and managed to only be 1.09 down on GC! Amazing he lost so little time
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Could have been further up if he was up with Carapaz and Kwiato rather than halfway down the group! It'll give him some encouragement to carry on at least. Will it be another year like 2014 when everyone gets wiped out and we get a winner by miles. If all the domestiques keep getting taken out it might be mano a mano that last week.
 
That course yesterday was pretty brutal, narrow, twisty, turny. Not much road furniture, and obviously number of riders complaining that they want times taken from 10k or 8k yesterday, I am all for rider safety but then if you do that it's not racing, it always has and always will be about rider skill and their appetite for risk. If they don't want to risk it then they can ease back, but obviously they don't want to lose time, so then they've got to be up there. wondering what others think?

I can't remember who said it on commentary but these sorts of roads aren't unusual for professional racing, you look at some of the classics or the cobbles or white roads, there is that element of risk and skill which makes cycling so interesting to watch.
 
It was Boardman last night and he's not wrong. Look at Roubaix, Flanders, Poggio descent in MSR to the finale just to name a few of the mental stuff we see in one days every year for decades.... these are all accepted in cycling, but as soon as there is this sort of thing in a grand tour we have complaining and protests and all hell kicking off aimed at organisers and UCI.

There was absolutely nothing in that stage yesterday that was any different or insane compared to stuff they navigate safely day in, day out. Year in, year out. Yet here we are with riders all kicking off..... I hope to hell it isn't raining heavy next week or they might all band together and blame the organisers for that and not ride unless the stage is cut short.
 
Ah yes that was it.
Rider protest was a complete waste of time, showing that the peloton weren't united.

G talking about his shoulder being popped back in and describing it as the best thing ever! I think he cut himself short of saying better than Sex :D
 
Absolute GOAT. brought a tear to my eye! That was some incredible finish. Thought he got blocked in by phillepson, but he's back. Hopefully another on Thursday!

Those intermediate sprints maybe the attempt for green again.
 
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xdcx said:
It was Boardman last night and he's not wrong. Look at Roubaix, Flanders, Poggio descent in MSR to the finale just to name a few of the mental stuff we see in one days every year for decades.... these are all accepted in cycling, but as soon as there is this sort of thing in a grand tour we have complaining and protests and all hell kicking off aimed at organisers and UCI.

There was absolutely nothing in that stage yesterday that was any different or insane compared to stuff they navigate safely day in, day out. Year in, year out. Yet here we are with riders all kicking off..... I hope to hell it isn't raining heavy next week or they might all band together and blame the organisers for that and not ride unless the stage is cut short.
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The only thing I’d say is at the Classics the parcours and risks are well known. If you go bombing into the Arenberg at 60kph you know what you’re getting into. To an extent in these Tour finishes you’re just trusting the wheel in front of you and that guy has no idea what’s coming either. Once a guy that can handle a bike like van der Poel starts drilling it on the front then everyone else is in trouble.

You can’t really sit up and say “nah, not risking it”. We all saw the grief Dan Martin got at the Giro.
 
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