The Pro Cycling Thread

If Bouhanni escapes this race without doing something similarly ban worthy I’ll be shocked.

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The UCI make the AFL’s MRP look brilliant. That takes some doing.

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I think sagan was stiff.
Should have punished him by taking allhis green jersey points off him, might have made green jersey race more exciting too.

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Remains to be seen how they go tonight but Orica were much more fun to watch hunting stages.

Almost impossible to go for GC and hunt stages.
On top of that, they really don’t have the stage hunting riders anymore.

Oh I know. I’m just saying it’s far less entertaining.

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BMC leading the peleton chasing the Break. They are making it a tough stage. Kudos.

So I’m thinking Chavez’ knee isn’t great.

I don’t think he’d be riding if he had a bad knee. Just not fit enough.

See, I don’t think this was a great idea. Why not let Sky do all the chasing? At least for now.
Aru looked very strong and Martin not far behind. No real weakness from Froome, Porte matching him, but not quite. Good rides from Bardet and Yates, the rest look like they are struggling.

Odds on Froome, and therefore Sky, just holding the yellow for the entirety of the race?

:zzz:

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Better than 50/50
Still, its a long way to go. Perhaps in chasing, BMC forced Froome to take yellow now, and that’s a fair burden for 2+ weeks.

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Was discussing the same thing with some fellow riders this morning. They Gave SKY a free ride today which I don’t understand why.

Its not BMC problem if the break goes to 10 minutes its SKY’s problem weird especially when BMC needs to keep everyone fresh.

MY poor mate quintana popped early ah the joy !

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Because Sky sent a slow to moderate tempo on the flat part of the stage, so their mountain domestics are fresh for the mountains. So make the flat part harder to tire out the sky mountain domestics.Its no surprise the Sky Train was weaker today. BMC and other teams only need to ride hard on the mountain days.

It’s exciting to see Aru in form as he will attack the mountains, along with Martin. Ponder you a question. When was the last time GC contender rode away from the Sky Train in the TDF.

You are falling for the trick of accepting Sky’s domination in the mountain. The reason they are strong is because teams allow them a Sunday afternoon stroll on
The flat part of a mountain stage. Strange that today was ridden at a harder tempo and the Sky Train was weaker. It also plays to the strength of the BMC team who are not as strong in the mountains. BMW keep the team fresh. They won’t be working every day. Next two days are flat days so they rest and recover.
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Sky will have the domination in the mountains…they have the ability to throw one rider up the road and let the others drag Froome into it unlike BMC…

They only thing that may save BMc is the MAybe the GIRo has worn a few of them out???

I watch every cycling race under the sun. My observation is Sķy are not as dominant as in previous years. I have never seen Sky throw a rider up the road in the TDF.

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yes I understand but what im saying is SKY has the firepower to do it if they want to,…may not be as strong as in past years

For a team that has held yellow for the first week they have the easiest of times to hold onto it…

The key maybe the astana double act?

Astana has a decent squad. They ride the mountains differently in that they ride a high tempo two mountains fron home, rather than Sky who ride the last climb hard. The most interesting thing from stage 5 was Aru attacked the Sky train and stayed away. Usually the Sky train reels in riders who attack.

TDU has released the parcours for 2018. Only tough stage is Willunga Hill. This suggests no Orica GC guys will be at the TDU.