The Pro Road Cycling Thread

[Longballutd]

Great ride out of Yeats. Brilliant first week of racing at the Vuelta

 

[johnnytapia]

Spanish climbs can see riders ship huge swathes of time in a relatively short distance. A 4 minute lead can easily crumble on a 15%+ finish. Roglic still clear fave IMHO.

 

[chesterbells]

Spanish climbs can see riders ship huge swathes of time in a relatively short distance. A 4 minute lead can easily crumble on a 15%+ finish. Roglic still clear fave IMHO.

Yep, agreed. Thing with Roglic this tour is that he has shown he has flaws, so I think there’s a chance of an O’Connor sized upset. Roglic seems to win stages by shortish bursts on steep climbs to the mountain top finishes, but the gap he has to make up, he’s gonna have to get half a dozen of those 30 second gaps to be close enough to pull it back on the TT of the last stage.
I think Ben O’Connor has it in his own hands here. But yes, these Spanish climbs seem to really cause a lot of upsets and unpredictability.

 

[johnnytapia]

Yep, agreed. Thing with Roglic this tour is that he has shown he has flaws, so I think there’s a chance of an O’Connor sized upset. Roglic seems to win stages by shortish bursts on steep climbs to the mountain top finishes, but the gap he has to make up, he’s gonna have to get half a dozen of those 30 second gaps to be close enough to pull it back on the TT of the last stage.
I think Ben O’Connor has it in his own hands here. But yes, these Spanish climbs seem to really cause a lot of upsets and unpredictability.

Perfectly explained! I’ve not seen the parcours for remaining stages but I assume there’ll be some typically brutish finishes.

 

[chesterbells]

What a wonderful result for Eddie Dunbar there today :-)
Fantastic for him-he doesn’t get many wins! He just left the rest of his group for dead and took a flyer.
So brave.

 

[chesterbells]

Humdinger of a stage at La Vuelta this afternoon. Already!

 

[chesterbells]

Btw, I know it’s not Road, but just a heads up, Pidcock currently in action at World XC Championship MTB race in Andorra.
It’s on BBC Red Button channel, lap 2 of 6 at the mo.

 

[ericpodeofcroydon]

Humdinger of a stage at La Vuelta this afternoon. Already!

Absolutely mental. I don't know if you know Winnats Pass in the Peak District but I'm sure that it maxes out at 20% at the steepest. Today's stage was up to 24% which is unbelievable.

 

[chesterbells]

Absolutely mental. I don't know if you know Winnats Pass in the Peak District but I'm sure that it maxes out at 20% at the steepest. Today's stage was up to 24% which is unbelievable.

I know it well, unfortunately; I’ve come off going up it!

Yes, that final, and with the cloud too, one of the most memorable finishes to a bike race I have ever seen!!

 

[ericpodeofcroydon]

I know it well, unfortunately; I’ve come off going up it!

Yes, that final, and with the cloud too, one of the most memorable finishes to a bike race I have ever seen!!

Yep, a classic stage. I did a 14% section of road this afternoon and that was bad enough!

The worst part of Winnats is the last 50 metres. The road narrows and you need to be quite close to the curb to avoid the cars. If your front wheel hits the kerb you stop or you fall off.