Pro Cycling Discussion 2021

My Eurosport worked fine ;)

Adam Blythe on commentary means it’s actually quite good.

Todays race was good too. MVDP spears off into photographers at the end when he could have gone round them. Bit odd. A good 80k in the break for him, maybe trying to get back what he lost from not racing UAE tour.

GVA looking a bit more tuned up but AG2R needs a bit more team than GVA and ON.

Good win for Mads, he’s still improving and on the up, played it very cool.

An Alpecin guy went down and looked like a collarbone in one of the later groups to cross the line when everyone started sprinting for 30th place plus, silly UCI points system.
 
Not impressed with GCN at all. Timed being on the trainer to watch it and after well over an hour it still was not working.... I think they got it working with less than 20km to go and it would have missed so much racing. I had cut my losses and ignored the Internet all day so I could watch it yesterday evening instead.
I always set it to record on ES on Sky anyways in case this sort of thing happens but it's not acceptable for a paid service in my opinion.

Could argue it's only one silly race but after last year wrecking the season, I was rather excited to watch both races this weekend and GCN just completely failed. Will likely pay for ES player if the choice between both comes at same price in near future.
 
Was the ES feed working and GCN not? GCN has been flawless all CX season.

Mads Pederson is impressing me more and more, he seems to be able to read races incredibly well and can be quite self sufficient to pick up these wins. Doing it on the main stage again and again!

Didn't think there'd be a brit on each of those races podiums, great sprint by Stewart Saturday, started his season very well, and even more surprised by Pidcock outsprinting others yesterday, the way he rode Saturday bridging gaps with relative ease and riding intelligently yesterday, i'm quite excited to see what else he can do this weekend especially if the weather isn't so favourable. Think it'll be a 3 way fight between vdPoel, Van Aert and Alaphillippe.
 
Yeah GCN been totally fine for CX all winter for me also.
ES player was OK yesterday and GCN was broken for most of it. Very weird. Went straight from smug not having to watch adverts on Saturday.... to not being able to watch, well anything! yesterday.

Pidders is sort of giving the middle finger to what everyone classes as normality right now. Such a small, light rider and he is doing well on cobbles. Clearly has the bike handling capabilities but that is only one small part of being strong over cobbles.

Peds is amazing. Always liked him. He's shown he can read races and kick himself to death but when you have someone as strong as Stuyven looking after him as well then it's inevitable he is going to continue doing amazing things. They're basically what Lotto are trying to do with Deg and Gilbert, just way younger! :p
 
xdcx said:
Yeah GCN been totally fine for CX all winter for me also.
ES player was OK yesterday and GCN was broken for most of it. Very weird. Went straight from smug not having to watch adverts on Saturday.... to not being able to watch, well anything! yesterday.

Pidders is sort of giving the middle finger to what everyone classes as normality right now. Such a small, light rider and he is doing well on cobbles. Clearly has the bike handling capabilities but that is only one small part of being strong over cobbles.

Peds is amazing. Always liked him. He's shown he can read races and kick himself to death but when you have someone as strong as Stuyven looking after him as well then it's inevitable he is going to continue doing amazing things. They're basically what Lotto are trying to do with Deg and Gilbert, just way younger! :p
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Yeah I sat down to watch the first few hours on laptop yesterday whilst watching the football on TV and couldn't get it to work, managed to use sky go in the end.

Indeed, 50kg and yet ridiculous power behind it, the way he kicked over the climbs with relative ease too should put him in good stead. Narvaez really impressed over the weekend too.

Think way younger is an understatement.

Who knows why van der poel was on that funny coloured canyon yesterday.
 
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Was cracking racing over the weekend (when GCN+ worked)

Really enjoyed the commentary as well Dan Lloyd and Adam i think it was crack me up.
 
Adam Blythe is unpolished currently, but he comes across well, just needs to learn names and teams better, but spots everything quickly which makes a nice change from CK.
 
"if they don't want riders cutting corners then they need to put barriers up. Just not barriers like they use in Poland"....

Few seconds of silence after he said that was like 10 mins of awkward.

I do like his commentary. Same way I like Dave Millar on ITV4. The pair of them are a bit arty farty/stylish types but they know their **** about bike racing and constantly correct and tell the main commentator what is really happening. Dave is brilliant for the GT's and Adam is superb for the classics. CK days are surely numbered.
 
Saw the corner that Dan Lloyd crashed on and picked up on that too :o

I have ES channel and record to the box then catch up and FFWD the adverts/dull bits of the racing.
 
Hahahaha I often turn over whenever the prize presentation stuff comes in but seeing the women's winner go in the vw for a photo op and presume as her prize was hilarious. So awkward.

Only caught the last 10k but looked like digs everywhere but nothing stuck and good sprint out for kopecky. Coming round the movistar rider with relative ease. Quite dominant easy win in the end.
 
Good commentary again. So much better than listening to waffle and garbage!

Good race from SVM, flat front with 15k to go yet pulls 4th. He’s building well for the big races.

MVDP broken handlebar & Canyon doing something interesting with the shifter (non standard clamp?!).
 
Yep, strong by Merlier and SVM to recover! Be interesting to see how quick Canyon replace the handlebars for all the affected teams. @Berger agreed re commentary, José knew about the handlebars construction and how they are made to disassemble when they snapped, when you know those sort of technical intricacies you're onto a winner!

I'm so looking forward to Saturday and partially hoping for some rain, Although hoping punctures don't take away some of the excitement, Alaphillipe especially! I'm hoping we'll see it happen this year rather than it blow up in a cloud of dust and only see the outcome at the end of the sector!
 
I can’t look past MVDP this weekend.

He’s been riding like a machine tuning himself up.

Bad weather forecast and gravel, he’s had his bad luck with the handlebar and the break being caught at OHN.

WVA no race days but is defending champion.

Alaphillipe probably my number 2 pick.

Otherwise it’s a bit of a dice roll, Pidcock, Woods, Mollema, Wellens, Fugslang all potential for top 5.

I have GVA down more for cobbles and the lighter riders might suffer more in bad weather and it’s quite often a solo winner here, bigger rider just more power.
 
I checked forecast yesterday and it looks glorious. I did see rain forecast elsewhere earlier in week but I don't think weather will be too much factor based on latest forecasting.

I cannot see beyond MvdP either. I actually do not care who wins, I just want to see a proper smashfest between WVA, MvdP and Ala. No mechanicals, just a pure battle with the best man taking it. We will be spoiled if it happens.
 
I think if it's wet it won't be MVDP, he'll get a puncture or get too cocky. I reckon DQS and Ineos will have the advantage if it is damp in the case of any mechanicals and playing against the other riders who'll be alone. WvA and MvdP will be all alone later in the race which if it's wet will play against them. Think Mollema will be up there looking at his form.

But as per xdcx I just want a proper fight! all guns blazing and some more falling off bikes heading up into Siena through exhaustion :D Was only 3 years ago WvA did that :D
 
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