world tour bike racing 2018

been meaning to start this ever since strade bianche

not sure there's enough interest in the giro for it to have its own thread, but maybe we'll have one for the tour (ie the second best grand tour)

anyway, pretend i started this with a bunch of pictures of froome, dumoulin, quintana, pinot, etc with captions saying "he's ready"

a few things that have been good: the wolf pack, sagan's victory at P-R, mike woods getting 2nd at LBL, strade bianche in general (now p much my favorite nu-classic), the finish today on mt etna

some that have been bad: froome/sky's sketchy TUE business, froome deciding to start the giro anyway, froome staring at power meters

one weird thing: nibbles winning MSR??

Nibbles sticking that was surprising but not quite shocking, knowing how he drop a DH. It’s like a weird superpower that exists _alongside_ his gc superpowers.

Im ready to watch these giro stages, but most of the old pirate crap is just to janky/risky now. Not dropping $ to Flobike while i’ve got another deal going with nbcgold or whatever.

given where the world exists, im ready to plant froome in the “things you just dont care about” dept.

i've already got a fubo.tv subscription for the soccer, so adding cycling wasn't that big of a deal

cyclingtorrents is pretty reliable, imho, for DL'ing after the fact

thx. in the realm of "ilx intersectionality is weird," i just realized that my anticipation and appreciation for sagan racing and interviewing is not dissimilar to the feelings i get when i think of bill and ted's clips.

lol

post-race interviews with sagan are pretty reliably entertaining

I haven't seen today's stage, but the Etna finish yesterday was great. Chavez is one of my favourite riders (based on not much...I really enjoyed the battle between him and Dunmoulin in that Vuelta a few years ago, plus he's got a nice smile) and I always want the Yates guys to do well, even though I can't remember which one is which. Re: the Froome business - I wish they could have just banned him from racing until a decision was made one way or the other. It's like when Contador tore the Giro to pieces in 2011 (?) only for the whole thing to be airbrushed out of history when he was finally banned and his results annulled. As long as Froome doesn't win, I suppose I don't mind.

agree

and I don't think froome is really end up being much of a contender in the end

*going to

so this mitchelton-scott team is p good huh

Ya. Satisfying to see Froome crack.

yeah he is v much not on dis ting

I'd love to see Yates win this (or Chaves, for that matter). Do you reckon Dunmoulin will time trial his way past them?

based on the initial TT results I'd expect dumoulin to put at least a minute and a half into yates and maybe more into chaves

yates/chaves are gonna need some big days in the mountains

jack haig looks useful

NBS, I think Dumoulin can tt the current gap, but seeing how Yates is riding around at the mo', I'm expecting him to gain even more over Dumoulin. He looks good, but not great. Still a long way to go though etc.

Chaves is my bet to win.

It was an interesting choice for Dumoulin to pick this Giro, maybe he should've went to the Tour de France, with full focus on the GC. This Giro has a lot of steep finishes, I think he will be glad if he finishes third in the GC.

TdF this year only has 66 time trial km's though, of which 35km are team tt. I can see why that, and only one tt of 31km, wasn't very appealing to him.

He should be lucky finishing third, I agree. He seems to miss the explosiveness he had last year and earlier in the Vuelta.

well it would be cool if Valverde won that Tour de France anyway.

apparently Chaves is losing minutes! o_O

so much for my prediction.

Yates will be (secretly) very happy with this. No more 'in team' battle.

2m30 behind already, and it's not really getting any easier today!

Omg skujins celebration at laguna seca was funny and totally appropriate, that guy completely roosted the corkscrew.

Yeah that was pretty great. I'll have to ask my dad if he was there for that; he lives over in Carmel and there's no way he would have passed up the chance to see Sagan at least.

skujins win was great

that giro stage was weird

like i juuuuust finished it and still don't really understand what happened to chaves

As someone who's raced on and around the Laguna Seca track, I seriously can't believe how many sprinters were there at the end. Amazing effort by Skujins to hold them off.

ha, someone got it

Sometimes I day dream about a cool victory salute I could trademark. It was never this, mostly because impossible to do those moves again https://t.co/jJOv3WuIU4

— Toms Skujiņš (@Tomashuuns) May 16, 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12OUjb6N7Ro

his crash last year at amgen was so heartbreaking it was on my fb for why sport is cruel and pros are PRO.

xpost -- I love the first reply and his response.

ugh i remember that crash, watching him try to ride afterwards was gut-wrenching, str8 up yelling at the tv for vaughters to pull him

and now i will have to bow out of this thread for the day, lest there be spoilers

welp was definitely not expecting that finish

Fantastic from Yates

Smart smart strong strong riding at imola.

I usually skip the sprint stages -- worth watching?

also apparently fab and phil gaimon are actually gonna have a showdown this summer, which I think should be pretty funny

I usually skip the sprint stages -- worth watching?

I caught the last 7km or so live, which was alright. If you're really pressed for time, just watch the last minute or two.

Yeah the last minute or two is about enough.

Contador on the Zoncolan they'll finish on later this afternoon

"It might just be the hardest climb in the world". Don’t miss the exclusive interview about Zoncolan climb with @albertocontador | "Potrebbe essere la salita più dura del mondo". Non perdere l’intervista esclusiva di @albertocontador sul Monte Zoncolan #Giro101 #Giro pic.twitter.com/re7vqHbCq3

— Giro d'Italia (@giroditalia) May 19, 2018

#Giro101 - Descent now, then .... THE KAISER! pic.twitter.com/8i2FwQoEIN

— La Flamme Rouge (@laflammerouge16) May 19, 2018

brutal

Yikes

When i said i wanted an incredible finish, that’s not _exactly_ what i meant.

‘We thought, let’s hide and see what happens’: Adam Hansen explains how he and Tim Wellens hid from the Giro peloton

Wow. It will be gutting if Yates doesn’t win this.

yeah same, he's been fantastic to watch

and while i guess kudos to froome for taking the zoncolan, he is just the most boring rider ever, style is so whack i hate it

welp I guess that's that

Yeah, that's that (bar a victory destroying crash like Kruiswijk in 2016, riding into an ice wall). Dumoulin is good but Yates is way better. He's flying.

i missed this earlier lol (that is not an accusation just lol tony that face).

The images of @TonyMartin85 watching Aru rise again after the last rest day and cross the line in third place are priceless. Price.Less. #Giro101 pic.twitter.com/latRztdqGa

— Mikkel Condé v2.0 (@mrconde) May 22, 2018

Yates in trouble. Typical Giro final week madness.

banger of a stage

poels !

Love the third week. Poels was too good.

only caught the tail end of the stage, so maybe there's an obvious answer to this but: what was poels doing going out ahead like that? i just didn't get it, tactically

stoked for tomorrow's stage, the colle delle finestre is gonna be sick. can't help but think that if any attacks are going to be made, that's where it'll happen (vs the final climb).

Not heard it confirmed but I assume Poels went ahead to be able to help out Froome with a later attack. Which happened, as it was Froome's attack that shook off Yates (and Froome wants third place from Pozzo)

it was funny when he turned down the wrong road

some ride from plaza

^this too.

Yates in trouble already?!

He’s fucked. Could drop out of the top ten at this rate.

This is nuts. Yates is done. Froome now with a fierce break away, Dumoulin can't follow.

Yates at 4.30 from Froome. Holy shit.

17 mins down. Wouldn’t be surprised if he abandons.

the expected bad day. (Simon will win his Grand Tour one day)

less expected... Froome the new Brit in pole position to win!

wow

hands down the most extraordinary thing I’ve seen in racing if froome wins today. 80k flyer like it’s nbd

Can't see anything of this, so following online. Reminds me of Boogerd's 2002 victory in La Plagne during the Tour de France. On dope, as it later turned out.
3 minutes ahead of Dumoulin now, so virtually in the pink jersey..

20km to go, Dumoulin @ 3.10. 7 final km's are a climb, but I can't see Tom getting any closer.

I've erased La Plagne from my memory, precisely because it was Boogerd on dope.

everyone was on dope back then though. now they all have asthma.

Froome's having an exceptional asthma attack today

Landis over joux-plane in 06

lol yeah that was a fun one. didn't he lose oodles of time on the day prior?

Yup. He told peeps “im going early ride or die”. He came up on the break and just -railed- them.

O’grady was like, “he dropped me like i was a junior. It was insane.”

yeah this got me thinking about Landis too. excellent stage! (albeit a bit suspicious)

number 6 today already 6 minutes behind. that's insanely old school.

didn’t see it sadly, tho was chatting with some dutch in the bar i’m in and they pointed out that although it may be suspicious the descent of the finstre was something else. daring to the point of reckless.

my god what a stage

stoked for tomorrow's stage, the colle delle finestre is gonna be sick. can't help but think that if any attacks are going to be made, that's where it'll happen (vs the final climb).

― gbx, Thursday, May 24, 2018 11:35 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

how did you get your pass for cyclingtorrents? seems invite-y, is it just timing?

i think i got it from a friend? like, many years ago. i can check if it's invite-y, and send some invites if need be

lol it's blocked here at work, i'll check later today

still can't get over how bonkers this was. assuming froome's actually clean, that's gotta be one of the greatest rides of the modern era

i'll keep looking around, if i confirm a user-invite is needed i'll ping back, no worries.

Today I did 300 watts average for 6 hours to finish 45 minutes behind the winner.

Hahahahaha.

— Ryan Mullen (@ryanmullen9) May 25, 2018

also i know it's duh obvious but having data like this available is a truly awe inspiring illustration of the gulf between the pros and us normies

https://www.strava.com/activities/1595203088/overview

welp

great Giro :-)

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1077639339051494&id=145388992276538

This is still funny to me a day later

yes, yes it is