!!!
Cycling is back.
Doesn’t feel real until it’s in Europe again.
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Taking lessons from Kittel, Tom?
Again the result of KBK was not a true reflection of the strength of the riders - A group of 17 riders including Durbridge, Trentin, GVA, Demare got away after the De Klaremont with 70 kms to go and fairly much held a lead of around a minute until the last 20kms after Astana drove peleton 2 - Of course Groenewegen who got dropped on Klaremont and was brought back by his team, was able to outsprint Demare and Colbrelli who were in the group of 17 - Valverde was peerless in Abu Dhabi and in a blink of an eye brought back Lopez who seemed to be cruising - It’s a worry when Ewan beats S.Yates up the mountain - It’s pleasing to see the seasonal reappearance of Haig in Strade Bianchi, though I hold little hope for MS achieving a result in this race - Confident that Chaves can finish top 3 or 4 in PN.
…why did he get back on it?
Also what’s with throwing Giant bikes 
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I always wonder why riders do a recon of MSR - The route barely changes from year to year.
For the same reasons they recon MSR and PR.
They want to get the feeling for the roads, the tempo and the conditions.
Gravel sectors always change in how they ride as the surface is not fixed.
Reco is essential for stage races as new roads/mountains etc are thrown into the mix - But if it’s a fixed venue like MSR, and you’ve ridden the race three or four times you don’t gain much - There are a few one day races that fall into this category like the Canadian race, Fleche Wallone etc which barely change from year to year.
Anyway tonight is Le Samyn which is usually a hard man’s race in appalling weather conditions - Think this year the temp will be around 0c and strong winds.
Matthews broke a bone in his shoulder in the Omloop, and is out of Strade Bianche.
Touch and go if he’s ready for the MSR.
It’s bad luck for Matthews.
MS team for Strade Bianche is Impey,Durbridge, Juul-Jensen,Tuft, Hepburn, Verona and Haig - Despite the public utterances of MS it’s expected Impey will make the final selection.
The women’s team is Kennedy, Spratt, Elvin, Roy, Crooks and Williams - Despite MS talking up Williams, its Spratt who is the leader - First year pro Kennedy is very talented.
PN team is Chaves, S.Yates, Kreuziger, Trentin, Juul-Jensen, Hayman, Edmondson and Juul-Jensen - It’s all for Chaves in the GC despite what’s posted on the MS website
MS team for he one-day race in GP Artigianato is A.Yates, Haig, Bewley, Hamilton,Power and two others - Yates has twice won this race and it’s one of the few times in 2018 he will have a team built around him - Apparently the TA team will be built around Ewan, so Yates will have little or no support. - In saying that, Yates training numbers are very good.
Impey at MS is clearly big beneficiary of Gerrans and Matthews leaving
Durbo would still be MS first option given how well he’s performed here before. Of course he’s just come back from injury.
Forecast is 8C, plenty of rain; there will be a lot of luck at play imo.
Kwiatkowski, Stybar are the big favorites for mine. Sagan hasn’t raced much but is always a danger as is GVA. Valverde is riding but I’m not sure the conditions will suit. Dumoulin might be the other guy that could benefit with these conditions.
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Stybar is my favorite for Strade - Haas is a good outsider. In other news Power has got a ride in Sunday’s race in Italy - If he could regain his form of 2014 when he was the only rider ( at 19 ) who could go in the mountains with Lopez in L’Avenir.
Strade Bianche gonna be molto bianco - this is sector 5
Should be fun. Unfortunately I will have to be stream hopping as no Eurosport.
Good news is my ISP seems to have stuffed up my subscription at back-end for last few months and they are giving me unlimited MBs, despite telling me it is limited and then stops every month.
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SBS isn’t showing Strade Bianche?
No - it was bundled in the same deal with the Giro (last year and this year) that gave exclusivity to Eurosport.
SBS says they weren’t even given opportunity to bid.
You will find SBS has limited access to RCS races.
Yup, Eurosport bought out the rights to all RCS races so you won’t see Italian races such as this one, MSR or the Giro on SBS.
Looks like SBS is doing PN instead.
My cable provider dropped Eurosport nearly 2 years ago - Ended up buying an U Box which has 700 channels - It usually does the job.
And Eurosport is only showing the last hour?!