The Pro Road Cycling Thread

What a day had the last stage of TOB Fem on great racing hard luck Cat :-(.I always felt she was freelancing rather than being in a team train on the sprint laps ?
Hope the girl who had the crash on the Kelso stage ( if you heard it you know the one ) is okay along with the lass on the Saltburn stage 8 broken ribs, punctured lung. Tough buggers these lasses :-)
Then the Criterium who saw that coming on stage 1, love it.
Then caught up with the Moto GP :-)
 
Well, I love the sport to bits, and always will, no matter what. But it’s got a side that can’t be ignored and is always there in the back of your mind - you just keep it buried most of the time so you can enjoy the racing.

I guess no surprise to see this kind of output when the Tour is almost upon us. Still useful reading though I think.

www.sportschau.de

"Doping Top Secret: In the Slipstream" - Aicar and "extraterrestrials": ARD documentary reignites doping discussion

Cycling insiders have spent years insisting that professional cycling has learned the lessons of its dark past. New research from the ARD doping editorial team concludes differently.
www.sportschau.de www.sportschau.de
 
Only saw the highlights yesterday but looking forward to a bit more excitement today. Looks like they have put together quite a bumpy profile for the far north of France.
 
Two great performances from Evenepoel and Pogi but on the flip side seeing Vingegaard struggling like that is a bit ominous for the next two and half weeks
 
TomD23 said:
Two great performances from Evenepoel and Pogi but on the flip side seeing Vingegaard struggling like that is a bit ominous for the next two and half weeks
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Yeah, though it you were a JV fan (which I have to be honest I’m not really), I would take heart from the way he stuck with a Pog giving it a proper out of the saddle 100% yesterday. That bodes well for the climbs I think, so I’m not sure today will be as decisive as it might seem. Who knows- still shaping up to be a fabulous edition.
 
Gray said:
Found the Tour to be very boring so far this year, I will be hoping it improves when we get to the mountains.
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MVDP went to the front from the very start, and stayed there for 174km, and was within about 600m of completing what would have been one the greatest breakaway victories in the history of the sport.

That’s just one example, taken from yesterday’s stage, as to why I 100% don’t agree with your assessment.
 
chesterbells said:
MVDP went to the front from the very start, and stayed there for 174km, and was within about 600m of completing what would have been one the greatest breakaway victories in the history of the sport.

That’s just one example, taken from yesterday’s stage, as to why I 100% don’t agree with your assessment.
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And that is why people on this forum are so interesting as we can all express opinions, in the main without personal abuse.
 
Great first 10 days of racing, Thursday-Saturday looks hellish in the Pyrenees.


On a separate note the TV direction is really poor this year, two breakaway stages where parts of the GC battle have been missed behind. Visma LAB riding hard to keep Pog in yellow on Thursday and then today where Remco attacked and got a gap and the next images from the GC group everyone’s back together again
 
TomD23 said:
Great first 10 days of racing, Thursday-Saturday looks hellish in the Pyrenees.


On a separate note the TV direction is really poor this year, two breakaway stages where parts of the GC battle have been missed behind. Visma LAB riding hard to keep Pog in yellow on Thursday and then today where Remco attacked and got a gap and the next images from the GC group everyone’s back together again
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Agree with all that. Relying on linear broadcasting to watch now has become a real pain, be that itv or tnt.
The only way round it is tnt multi screen option, but I don’t really wanna watch it on laptop.

I’m sure Vuelta and Giro often just do a split screen in the main tv coverage, but TdF never seem to.
Makes much more sense, esp with average screen sizes so big now. I fully agree not seeing the GC moves and action is so frustrating.
 
On another note, I see the Tour of Britain taking liberties with the fans once again, trailing the event on socials (“50 days to go!” etc) with still zero info on route announcements. I mean, do they want any of us at the roadside or not? Making travel and/or accommodation plans if needed, and the small matter of people booking time off work etc.
 
Hope Ben Healy enjoys his time in Yellow; he’s such an exciting cyclist who is prepared to risk it and seems to ride with abandon. He has real staying power too. He doesn’t just make breaks, he keeps them.

On a related note I wonder where Van Der Poel finished today, and if him and his team mate even made the cut after yesterday. That flat-free course must have been a killer for those two.
 
chesterbells said:
On another note, I see the Tour of Britain taking liberties with the fans once again, trailing the event on socials (“50 days to go!” etc) with still zero info on route announcements. I mean, do they want any of us at the roadside or not? Making travel and/or accommodation plans if needed, and the small matter of people booking time off work etc.
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I do wonder about the long term health of the sport in this country. Loss of free to air TDF, a governing body seemingly incapable of growing the sport with its highest profile stage race and multiple pro teams going out of business in the last couple of years. No doubt the 2027 TDF will reignite wider interest but from where we were in the early 2010s to now it’s quite sad really
 
TomD23 said:
I do wonder about the long term health of the sport in this country. Loss of free to air TDF, a governing body seemingly incapable of growing the sport with its highest profile stage race and multiple pro teams going out of business in the last couple of years. No doubt the 2027 TDF will reignite wider interest but from where we were in the early 2010s to now it’s quite sad really
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Yeah, I mean back then we had the synergy with multiple Olympic track successes, Team Sky on the road, the Cavendish phenomenon, and the Tour de Yorkshire off the back of the 2014 Tour here, which to me always felt bigger than the ToB, even though it was a short-lived event.

Now? A diminished Ineos (Ratcliffe’s reverse Midas touch coming to the fore), and less prominent track riders. We do have Pidcock doing a brilliant job off road though, and some young talent coming through on the womens side with the Backstedt sisters and Cat Ferguson.

But it’s hard to disagree with you. I guess I could say smaller profile doesnt always mean worse, certainly not for me. There are people in the sport obsessed with “growing it”, and as in other sports it just seems to mean in reality more popularity meaning more money. But having more money in cycling, for the riders or the teams, doesn’t do anything for me. I can see it as a downside of higher costs to view on tv, or big climbs on big races becoming ticketed events. I’ll admit that’s a worse case scenario, but I do recall it being trialled on the Tour a while back.
 
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