The Pro Cycling Thread

Jakobson wins Scheldeprijs for, (guess who), QS. Crash problem solved at that race by having 30 or so riders DQed for riding though an active rail crossing. Kittel’s day ruined by mechanicals.

McCarthy breaks the streak by winning in Basque country.

Good ride by McCarthy who has been knocking on the door of a victory. Reckon he can win a stage if he rides the Giro. Good ride by Albasini who is slowly returning to form after illness. It was great to see Juul Jensen ride De Gendt off his wheel in the break. Stage 5 and 7 watch for Landa.

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And Roglic the second last rider wins the ITT in stage 4 - Poor Patrick Bevan was in the hot seat for nearly three hours I was impressed by the ITT from L.Hamilton who was the best rider for MS around a minute behind.

And Fraile from the break wins stage 5 from Roglic and J.Izagirre with Verona 4th - Verona and Fraile were part of the break and Verona dropped the rest of his breakaway companions on the final climb by 25 seconds. Unfortunately there were still around 20kms to go and he got caught on the descent by the remnants of the breakaway group and a select group from the yellow jersey group - There was no love lost between Verona and Freire who exchanged words on at least occasions - Have to say Verona was the strongest rider but when you finish every stage on a descent.

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Good result for Australia at the U23 RVV

Stannard is a gun - And he’s still 19 - Mas takes the last stage of Pais Vasco from Landa while Roglic wins the overall - Great ride from Verona who got in the break and ended up winning the KOM - He seems to have turned the corner - Disappointing ride by Haig in the following stage, while Power has no consistency - Good for Howson to get miles into his legs along with Albasinin - Hamilton showed potentially,especially in the last stage while Juul-Jensen was tired.

No idea who wll win PR today - Will be a fast race with a tail wind so its important MS put a rider in the break.

Getting in the break won’t be easy. Every man and his dog will be trying.

And Sagan attacks with 53 kms to go, then quickly bridges to the 4 riders in the breakaway - Drops them one by one and only Dillier could hold on and of course Sagan wins the sprint finish with Terpstra third - Disastrous classics campaign for MS - Crash in the first pave put out Kluge, Edmondson and Mezgec - Then a crash with 100kms to go put out Trentin who is in hospital - Hayman hung on to the front group for a long time and eventually finished 22nd.

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Michael Goolaerts dies after suffering heart failure. :frowning:
Not known if the crash caused or was a result of the failure. Only 23x

And Trentin suffers a fracture of the thoracic spine - Brought down in a crash - He’ll be off the bike for a while.

MS Team for Amstel Gold is Impey, Kreuziger, Hepburn , Durbridge, Verona, Juul-Jensen and Albasini - It’s an experienced team and its likely a rider could get into the final selection - I’m actually more interested in the team for Fleche Wallone and LBL - Gotta say Amstel Gold is a loaded race.

https://twitter.com/ProCyclingStats/status/985063305596342272

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Chloe Hosking won the women’s RR.

Hosking was a certainty to win the women’s race - She’s got a reward after good early season form in Europe.

Interesting no S.Yates for Fleche or LBL - MS are deadly serious about the Giro - It seems that Nieve will make his season debut in LBL - And Ewan resumes in TOC next month - He’s riding a defined program leading up to the TDF.

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And Kreuziger comes second in a sprint finish behind Valgren with Gasparotto third - It was an awesome ride by Kreuziger who attacked with Gasparotto with 25kms to go and then bridged up to the breakaway - At one stage they got thirty seconds before the big hitters from the peleton caught them with 13kms to go - Valgren attacked with 2.5km to go and then Kreuziger bridged up to Valgren and they worked well together until the finish - Then Gasparotto attacked the peleton with 1.5km to go and got into third - All the heavy hitters in Sagan,Valverde, Alaphalippe were in the next group - Have no doubt that Gasparotto and Kreuziger were the strongest riders today and the first three have pedigree in the race - Kreuziger has been in good form all season, except for his one bad day in PN which cost S.Yates the GC - Good ride by Impey for 11th who just failed to bridge to the leading group - Finally an excellent ride by Spratt to finish third behind Blaak and Brand in the women’s race.

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MS team for Fleche Wallone is Kreuziger, Power, Albasini, L.Hamilton, Haig, Howson and Juul-Jensen - I have no idea who will do the final for this race - Albasini is out of form, Kreuziger who is in form is not suited by the finish - Could be a chance to allow Power and Haig to go for the final - Apparently Ewan is having a light preparation for the TDF - California and Slovenia appear to be his lead up races.

Probably pointless as Valverde will need to crash out not to win it again this year. Actually I love this race, the finale up the Mur de Huy is right up there in race ends.

Valverde undoubtedly the one to beat, though Alaphalippe is always a chance. Pity A.Yates is injured as he has improved on these type of climbs. He could have got a top 5.

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Just realised Roglic is not on the start list - He would have been a good shout - While Bernal has made a quick return from injury this may be a bridge too far.

Alaphilippe wins FW from Valverde, Vanendert, Kreuziger and Matthews - It was an aggressive race, especially in the last 50kms which put Movistar on the backfoot - Power was aggressive on the first ascent of the Mur De Hooy, while Haig was aggressive on the second ascent of the Mur De Hooy and managed to get into a strong breakaway which got nearly a minute with 15kms to go - Movistar was under pressure and only had Landa to bring back the break on behalf of Valverde - Haig and Schachman held on until 700 metres to go with Vaneendert driving the last climb on behalf of Wellens - Valverde looked uncomfortable on the last climb and was slightly out of position - Wellens couldn’t keep Vaneendert’s wheel and then Alaphilpipe blasted clear with 200 metres to go and comfortably held off Valverde - Excellent ride again by Kreuziger who surprised me with hos ability to handle the Mur De Hooy - Good rides by Howson, Power and Haig - Reckon Matthews was suited by the stronger tempo from the bottom of the climb which allowed him to get into a rhythm - And in excellent news Ben O’Connor wins stage 3 of the Tour of Alps - Expect him to win one week WT stage races in the next two or three years.

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Outstanding work from the boy from Subiaco. Beat some handy types like Pinot, Froome, Aru too!

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