The Pro Cycling Thread

And a couple of GC teams will try to win the stage - There is nothing surer.

Nibali might have crack today.

Simon Yates and Trentin in the break of 42.

Sagan is a classic.

He’s out in front of the break and he does this!

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Its a strange stage so far - Break of 40 with no GC dangers but yet QA are keeping the break around 4 minutes with 110 km’s to go - Thought there was a chance that Trentin may get in the break as his form is very good but feel the two cat 1’s may be beyond him - I suspect the 20 kms before the first climb will determine if the break survives as I feel QS may fall away.

Simon Yates gets the win. Simon Clarke in the top 10. All the major contenders are in the peloton almost 10 minutes behind.

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A pleasant but surprise victory from S.Yates - Have no idea why he was in the break - But when you luck is running ! Gotta say that Trentin’s had an awesome tour - And Dennis walked out of the TDF.

Deniis “quits”.

Seems not all is well at Bahrain.

“according to French TV, Dennis was seen arguing with his team car before climbing off his bike”

"Stangelj said that Dennis’ decision to climb had nothing to do with his physical condition. He avoided answers about alleged problms with equipment such as bikes and skinsuits.

“For sure it has nothing to do with his physical condition,” Stangelj said"

“Allegedly Dennis gave up after an argument with the team management.”
“out of dissatisfaction with his time trial suit and bike”

Yeh, he should have thought about the crap Merida bikes before he signed with Bahrain!

So, who does he ride for next year?

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Dennis is not an easy fit, though he will find a team. I doubt he will be riding again in 2018. He is a highly strung individual who has issues.

ITT: many claim Van Aert is a certainty but their is a big difference between an ITT on the 4th stage of the Dauphine and the 13th stage of the TDF.

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I highly doubt he will be either haha

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For sure. He’s threatened DSes before “I am going to bash you”, so the story goes.
Hindsight is a lovely thing, but an angry ant + crap equipment + crap team environment was never going to send well.

Do you think he’ll ride the ITT at the Worlds (as a privateer)?
He won’t have any lead-up rides, but I’m sure he could do well on his own (or Australian Team) supplied kit.

That is a good question. It depends on whether Bahrain Merida suspend or immediately terminate his contract. He cant do much if he is suspended. As long as he comes nowhere near MS. And some complain about Moscon.

They can suspend him from their program but that wouldn’t stop him riding the worlds. It’s not an UCI sanction.

Dennis can reunite with Porte at Trek.

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You can’t compare the two. Moscon is a complete ■■■■, a racist one at that.
At least there hasn’t been overt violence Dennis.

No, I wouldn’t want him at MS. The fact that they’re already overloaded with riders of that type, means it’s very unlikely.

He would at least get to ride a nice bike :wink:

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CT’s Secret Pro had this:

Rohan is pretty volatile to say the least. He’s happy to tell a team manager that he’s going to bash him. Some serious anger issues with him. For those who know him, you’ll know it’s something he’s been dealing with for a long time.

This isn’t the first time he’s done this type of thing. Remember back in 2014 when he left Garmin-Sharp in the middle of the season and went to BMC? When have we ever seen that before? Basically what happened there is he already had a contract with BMC for the next year and JV showed him the door.

The word in the peloton about Rohan’s nuclear meltdown was that he didn’t like his Merida TT bike, and something about his skinsuit. Talk about throwing all your toys out of the pram …

Pulling out the day before the ITT, where he’s the main favourite, is very odd and isn’t normal behaviour, and likely shows that Rohan is dealing with some serious demons.

His team handled the whole incident really poorly. Why would they take him to the team bus where journalists would be waiting, and then to the finish where more journalists would be waiting? It’s ridiculous. But maybe they wanted to humiliate him …?

But he will need race days. That is the issue. Better that his contract is terminated.