The Pro Road Cycling Thread

Have made the pilgrimage over to Flanders this weekend and can’t wait to get out on to the course.

It’s dry at the moment and predicted same till about 3pm then some rain for the last couple of hours. Wishing already we’d brought the bikes over, as it would have been great to ride some of the lanes yesterday.

It’s a shame no Pogacar this year, and that Van Aert got badly injured last week, so a lot of pressure on MVDP to deliver, but the spectacle should still be amazing. As a viewer on tv I’ve always preferred this over Roubaix, but let’s see how today goes :-)

(And if we’re really lucky, might catch some of the City match in a bar afterwards).
 
chesterbells said:
Have made the pilgrimage over to Flanders this weekend and can’t wait to get out on to the course.

It’s dry at the moment and predicted same till about 3pm then some rain for the last couple of hours. Wishing already we’d brought the bikes over, as it would have been great to ride some of the lanes yesterday.

It’s a shame no Pogacar this year, and that Van Aert got badly injured last week, so a lot of pressure on MVDP to deliver, but the spectacle should still be amazing. As a viewer on tv I’ve always preferred this over Roubaix, but let’s see how today goes :-)

(And if we’re really lucky, might catch some of the City match in a bar afterwards).
Click to expand...
Sorry, I’m a bit out of it, what ride is it today? I know it’s the Paris-Roubaix next weekend, I’m working, damn:( because they were looking back on previous years on telly last night but didn’t bring up any ride about today.
 
Sean Kelly - 3 x 2nd place at Flanders; the only monument that eluded him and thus excludes him from the pantheon of 5 monument winners: Merckx, Van Looy, De Vlamenik.
 
Was a great day early on, then turned into a rain-soaked quagmire late on where we were on the Oude Kwaremont.

Couldn’t believe the crowds though; must’ve been tens of thousands just on that one climb.
The only time I’ve seen similar crowds-wise was Buttertubs and Holmfirth on the Tour in 2014. Glasgow World Champs was decent but not the level of Belgian-techno madness and all-out festival feel that this has. Paris-Roubaix has the cobbles alright, but not the cobbled climbs this has.
And anyone brave enough to cycle up it when the crowds were there got plenty of “encouragement”.
Pure pils drinking and frites eating all day :-)

Just got back in now and realised we have a match. Gonna get it on the phone now and hope we get a win.
 
Just watched ‘Greg Lemond: The Last Rider’ documentary on Sky.
A superb, and emotional watch.
The absence in the contributors is of course Lauren Fignon, a fascinating character, and the second part of the film is about him as much as Greg really.

The end credits are a nice, but not very subtle, touch:
“Greg Lemond went on to win the Tour De France for a 3rd time in 1990. He is still the first and only American to win the race”.
Brilliant stuff.
 
I’d forgotten the first cobbles come quite early - 160km from finish.
Lots of other races really seem to back-end the fun till late on.
 
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