The Pro Cycling Thread

How good a season is Ackermann having!

Actually reckon Ackermann is not at the same level as last year, though he’s travelling OK - he may find it tough to win a stage at the Giro, unless the leading sprinters leave halfway through the race - Smith withdrawn from Romandie with illness after the same happened at Basque Country.

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Pro cycling stats have final teams for the Giro, except for MS who have named S.Yates, Chaves, Hamilton, Bookwalter, Juul Jensen, Nieve and Haig - Expect the seventh rider may come from Romandie.

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Bernal crashes and breaks his collarbone in training. No Giro for him.
Ineos doesn’t have a GC rider to lead the team?

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Landa in doubt for Movistar. With Valverde out, they may need to get Betancur in lead that group!

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Headliners for Giro - Dumolin, Roglicic, Yates

Froome and Geraint Thomas wont ride Giro, both programmes focused on tour de france.

Roglic is in outstanding form.
However, it’s very curious to ride hard in a 1 week stage race, win it, less than a week out from the hardest GT of the year.
Keeping that level of form up for 5 weeks is incredibly difficult. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s leading after the 2nd week, but holding on for that 3rd week will be punishing. I don’t recall anyone ever doing that before.

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Mitchelton-SCOTT at the Giro d’Italia:
Jack Bauer (NZL, 34)
Brent Bookwalter (USA, 35)
Esteban Chaves (COL, 29)
Luke Durbridge (AUS, 28)
Lucas Hamilton (AUS, 23) - Grand Tour debut
Chris Juul-Jensen (DEN, 29)
Mikel Nieve (SPA, 34)
Simon Yates (GBR, 26)

No Haig, Durbo comes in, and Bauer.

Its Bauer for Bewley and Durbridge for Haig. Durbo is a left field selėction who has not ridden since De Panne on 27 Mar. Anyway its a well balanced squad. Haig will ride the TDF.

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Rumor doing the rounds that Moscon has tested positive.
Wouldn’t that be a delicious prospect?
Although it wouldn’t be good for pro cycling in general.

How do you think Chaves will go this time round?
I guess if something happens to Yates he needs to be there abouts in GC just in case.

So hard to say. On exposed form, you’d be hard pressed to say he’ll do well.
But he is riding so MS must have confidence in him.
I guess the big question is can he go hard all the way? There must be some questions about his endurance. So perhaps he’s there for specific stage support?

Chaves is definitely a support rider - It’s always hard to get a read on Chaves who can suddenly hit form - Kittel withdrew from Yorkshire and California - My understanding is he may be involved in the Austrian investigation like Moscon.

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wow.

Dont take it as gospel.

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Kittel quits Katusha / sits out the season.

https://teamkatushaalpecin.com/news/team-katusha-alpecin-and-marcel-kittel-have-agreed-terminate-their-contractual-relationship-its

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Roglic wins the ITT / stage 1 at the Giro
Yates 19 seconds back in 2nd, he’ll take that for sure.
Nibali 3rd.
Dumoulin slightly disappointing in 5th, but no real damage done.
Landa had a shocker.

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Ackerman beats Viviani and Ewan, Gaviria 4th.
Fairly stock standard sprint finish after a very wet day to start with.
Another sprint stage tonight.

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Every rider had their chance in the sprint, though Gaviria and Demare looked off the pace - Ewan needs it more technical or a slight uphill - Rimor is S.Bennett as a mid-season transfer to Katusha.

Gaviria wins stage 3 after Viviani is relegated after crossing the line first.
Ewan got lost and was nowhere near it today.
Stage 4 should be more to Ewan’s liking being an uphill sprint.

The relegation move:

Fairly clear cut.