Generic Pro Road Cycling Thread

jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Unfortunately for him, being second in the green jersey and finishing 4/5th In TDF sprints = not in great shape

another day, another race where Wout beats Sagan (among others) in a sprint for the win.


This TDF is so much better with out Froome /sky leading after every race and zero suspense. More than a week in and it’s wide open.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
another day, another race where Wout beats Sagan (among others) in a sprint for the win.


This TDF is so much better with out Froome /sky leading after every race and zero suspense. More than a week in and it’s wide open.
Sagan mechanical in the last sprint, however bora was the one that shredded everyone to make the day what it was.

pretty standard first week action, will see if it settles in.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
So is it better havIng Jumbo-Visma control the GC rather than Sky/Ineos? The answer is probably, but it is same old shit, different tour.

Over 10 years ago, @ChrisG told me he is more interested in some of the other races within the race and specifically the lumpy and climbing stage hunters. At the time i didn’t know any better and didn’t understand, but after 7+ years of sky doing what they do, I get it.

Forgot the GC and it is a much better race.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
0D64575D-4BE3-4F07-A535-44331EE3976D.jpeg

Yerp
 

1speed

Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
FWIW, I think this is the most boring tour in recent history. Typical, the sprints are good, the break away wins were good, but the GC battle was basically over since the 6th stage.

The GC battle was over after stage 6? You really think that? That's an objectively ridiculous thing to say. With less than two minutes separating the top four going into the two hardest stages of the tour, this was far and away the least settled tour going into the last week in recent memory. The fact that the top 10 has shuffled as much as it has in the last four days is evidence enough that very little was settled even after stage 15 or 16. Roglic has a death grip on first now, but he and his team had to earn that every day. And even now, after having a team that has stepped up every single time he needed them, he could still blow up in the uphill time trial and make way for not only Pogacar but also Lopez. Not only was the GC battle not settled by stage 6, it's possible it's not even settled now. I mean, it's probably going to be Roglic at this point, but on a solo ride against the clock uphill, he could lose to both Pogacar and Lopez.
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
The GC battle was over after stage 6? You really think that? That's an objectively ridiculous thing to say. With less than two minutes separating the top four going into the two hardest stages of the tour, this was far and away the least settled tour going into the last week in recent memory. The fact that the top 10 has shuffled as much as it has in the last four days is evidence enough that very little was settled even after stage 15 or 16. Roglic has a death grip on first now, but he and his team had to earn that every day. And even now, after having a team that has stepped up every single time he needed them, he could still blow up in the uphill time trial and make way for not only Pogacar but also Lopez. Not only was the GC battle not settled by stage 6, it's possible it's not even settled now. I mean, it's probably going to be Roglic at this point, but on a solo ride against the clock uphill, he could lose to both Pogacar and Lopez.
The podium had shifted in other tour’s too, in the last 8 years that was really the only battle to watch (2nd-5th), but who really cares?
Roglic’s death grip on first (Similar to sky/Ineos) is what makes it boring. Sure, uphill TT could explode it all, but Pogacar having bad luck early in the tour and losing time basically gave Jumbo a free pass at making others works to try and make up time. The same EXACT thing sky used to do. Not sure Roglic is bulletproof but he has not really shown any weakness against the other GC guys.
 

1speed

Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
The podium had shifted in other tour’s too, in the last 8 years that was really the only battle to watch (2nd-5th), but who really cares?
Roglic’s death grip on first (Similar to sky/Ineos) is what makes it boring. Sure, uphill TT could explode it all, but Pogacar having bad luck early in the tour and losing time basically gave Jumbo a free pass at making others works to try and make up time. The same EXACT thing sky used to do. Not sure Roglic is bulletproof but he has not really shown any weakness against the other GC guys.

Well, anyone in the lead is going to make others work to try to take it. That's kind of how racing works. Roglic hasn't had a death grip on first until today (possibly yesterday.) His team has been fantastic, but this isn't the same thing as Ineos - none of these guys, with the possible exception of Doumolin, were ever going to be GC threats (Kuss WILL be soon, but he's not ready now.) Ineos has always had multiple threats. Jumbo really has one hand to play here and they've played it beautifully and pretty much nothing has gone wrong for them. But that was by no means guaranteed at any point right up to and including today - or even this Saturday. If Roglic had one bad climb it wouldn't matter how many guys they have to pull him back, they'd be in real trouble. This isn't an Ineos situation where everyone else was locked out because guys who could be GC contenders on almost any other team were working in service of whoever the boss was paying them to work for. In this situation, Jumbo is ride or die with Roglic this year - maybe Doumolin if he didn't have bad luck earlier could have been a second puncher, but that was never a plan. This was a one shot team from the jump and they've executed perfectly, but the fact that even doing that has left them STILL somewhat vulnerable now, with just one more day of real racing left, speaks to the openness of this particular tour. Plus you've got young guys like Pogacar who will never stop trying to attack keeping them all on their toes. That's just not boring.
 

pygmypony

Well-Known Member
this is the first TDF i've ever watched (thanks working from home during a pandemic)...in any event, i thought it has been pretty cool, especially today, when they hit that gravel section at the top of the last climb...one flat tire/squirrelly turn, and Roglic/Jumbo could have potentially lost the lead. again, i don't have much (any) history to go by, but it's been pretty exciting to watch for this NOOB
 

stb222

Love Drunk
Jerk Squad
Well, anyone in the lead is going to make others work to try to take it. That's kind of how racing works. Roglic hasn't had a death grip on first until today (possibly yesterday.) His team has been fantastic, but this isn't the same thing as Ineos - none of these guys, with the possible exception of Doumolin, were ever going to be GC threats (Kuss WILL be soon, but he's not ready now.) Ineos has always had multiple threats. Jumbo really has one hand to play here and they've played it beautifully and pretty much nothing has gone wrong for them. But that was by no means guaranteed at any point right up to and including today - or even this Saturday. If Roglic had one bad climb it wouldn't matter how many guys they have to pull him back, they'd be in real trouble. This isn't an Ineos situation where everyone else was locked out because guys who could be GC contenders on almost any other team were working in service of whoever the boss was paying them to work for. In this situation, Jumbo is ride or die with Roglic this year - maybe Doumolin if he didn't have bad luck earlier could have been a second puncher, but that was never a plan. This was a one shot team from the jump and they've executed perfectly, but the fact that even doing that has left them STILL somewhat vulnerable now, with just one more day of real racing left, speaks to the openness of this particular tour. Plus you've got young guys like Pogacar who will never stop trying to attack keeping them all on their toes. That's just not boring.
giphy.gif
 

trener1

Well-Known Member
Wait, you think this Tour was boring? Not sure, maybe you were watching a different channel then I was watching.
Pretty much every day was dynamic, even the days that were supposed to be boring sprint stages ended up being raced balls out from the gun because of the first legit green jersey battle in the last decade.
Porte has long had the talent he was just never able to hold it together for 3 weeks.
 

Juggernaut

Master of the Metaphor
Yeah, sorry... I’m with Kev on this one. It had its moments, but overall, it was like watching a JV game. Put an asterisk next to it and let’s move on to Worlds.
 

1speed

Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
@1speed going bananas today.

I’ll still stand by it was still boring as a whole. What’s it say about the quality of the riders in this tour when Richie Porte makes the podium 😛

Good take.

I had a professor in college who used to bet at dog tracks in Boston when he was at MIT. He was telling me once that he started betting after he analyzed results sheets and found that dogs regularly moved up and down the placings. He thought this seemed odd and eventually learned from a guy who had worked at a track that they regularly doped the dogs because there was a such a huge difference between the really good dogs and all the others that it would destroy the betting lines if they didn't handicap them. So they'd dope them for a while to reduce their odds and then let them run clean after the odds tanked to give the illusion of parity. Once my professor learned that, he said winning was easy. He said that with a little bit of research, literally anyone could predict the outcome of dog racing even if they knew absolutely nothing about it.

Anyway, you should check out dog racing ...
 

Juggernaut

Master of the Metaphor
God, the Chloé Dygert crash was heartbreaking. She was crushing it. I hope she’s ok, front wheel blowout at speed entering a corner. She flew over the barrier. Still no information on her other that she is conscious.
 

Ian F

Well-Known Member
The Worlds men's race seemed good, although I only watched the NBC highlights, but the ending seemed good - would he make it? Would they run him down? A well deserved win.

I've also been looking for further info about Dygert's condition, but haven't seen anything yet. It did look scary AF.
 

Juggernaut

Master of the Metaphor
Enjoying having the Giro playing on the iPad during extended WFH.
 

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