The Pro Cycling Thread

I dont get excited. I look at sport dispassionately and look at current form. Presently Porte is the best climber and his ITT is working well.

Mezgec wins the Slovenian National RR. A well deserved win for an in form rider.

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In the paper today Porte said there is less mountain finishes than in previous tours.

That is true. Less MTFs and less TT km than normal, which means Froome is disadvantaged.

Its a strange route and uninspiring route. Teams will need creativity to make time. There is every chance that the key stages could be raced hard from kilometre zero if not the ITTs could be vitally important.

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It sounds like you need to be strong in the mountain stages not lose time, but if you go over first you need to take risks decending to keep the lead, something which we might see Froome do.

Ideally Sky get the yellow jersey early so they have to do plenty of work given how strong their team is.
Then Ritchie can try and get it in the third week of the tour. But would you want to give Froome a lead, as it would be hard to get back.

It will be exciting if they race all out from the start on key stages (hope we get full broadcast in that case).

Contrary to public opinion, the race has never been raced full on under the Sky train. Its always been a sunday stroll until reaching the mountains and then teams wonder why Sky is strong in the mountains. Teams make mountain days more of a classics day then you may have a different result.

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Yep, everyone has been happy to let Sky take the initiative when they are ready with few exeptions.
I’ll be surprised if it’s different again this year.

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Two teams in Orica and BMC who have selected more classic type squads could colloborate on the flat parts of mountain days while Astana will go hard in the mountains if there two leaders are strong.

Tuft won the Canadian ITT championship.

They have Aru, Fuglsand & Grivko, which on paper is reasonably strong. I’m not convinced of the caliber of their remaining support riders in the mountains though.

Cataldo and Zeits are strong enough in the mountains. Its not a 2015 Astana squad that broke up the peleton on medium mountain days but its strong enough.

Seems like Tuft will ride on in 2018. Saw the trailer for the Orica movie. I am excited.

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Cardoso suspended by UCI for taking Erythropoietin.
Trek replace him in the TdF squad with Zubeldia. That has to hurt Contador’s already slim chances.

Zubeldia is a reliable rider who is usually in the last 15 to 20 riders on mountain days.

Surprised a 32 year old rider is busted for EPO.

Probably has been doing it for years. Micro dose gone wrong?

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All For One video looked great. But why Sam Lane? Does she even cover cycling?

and movistar will just sit on all of them…lol

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And attack when someone has a mechanical or misfortune. It’s the way they roll.

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Have interest in Dowsett. His abilities are wasted at MS. Could be a good fit at Orica.

First stage ITT at TDF. Martin is far from a certainty. Looking at Kung, Thomas, Matthews, Cummings, Van Emden ànd Durbridge.

He’s not a good fit at Movistar, but I struggle to see a role for him at OS.
He could provide some TT grunt, perhaps looking at Tuft’s age, but that’s about where it ends for me.