2014 Cycling Thread

[Northwood_DK]

Originally Posted by HarryLime

Hushovd retiring is sad, but he has lost his power and motivation so I am glad he is bowing out now, as opposed to dropping to a pro contintental team and sucking for the next few years.. He was my favorite rider for a long time there!

I saw his press conference today. He blamed the last year’s results mostly on mononucleosis but I have a feeling it was more a combination of motivation and age.

I am not his biggest fan but his influence on Norwegian cycling cannot be denied. Several new pros is waiting to take his place and his results had sparked a cycling boom in Norway the last few year.

He will be riding this last Norwegian Championship just outside my front door today.

[Critch]

First stage had everything. A MF-ing Jens Voigt breakaway to remind everybody he's still there, great scenery, Cancellara making a break for it near the end to cause chaos with the sprint trains, a Cavendish crash and a Kittel win.

Seems like Cavendish isnt as seriously injured as it looked, no broken bones. Hopefully they can nurse him through tomorrow's hilly stage and give him a day to recover before the sprint finish in London on Monday.

[bhlloy]

Dislocated shoulder for Cav. Seems unlikely he will be back on the bike for a somewhat tough stage tomorrow or contesting the sprint on Monday

Looked to me like OPQS were pushing too hard too early on a tricky uphill last 5k, although Cancellara's attack definitely shook things up as well

[AlexB]

Dislocated shoulder being reported, with a ligament tear too. Doubtful for tomorrow. I thought at the time it was his fault, and while he was more to balme than anyone else, it was also a bit of bad luck that the Europcar rider took away Gerrans' space on the other side, utlimately leading to the loss of balance

Amazing crowds for a day 1 stage - the hills were like the Alps with the numbers of people on the side of the road!

[DaddyTorgo]

Too bad - wanted to see plenty of Cav vs. Kittel battles to give some more fire to that rivalry.

Love watching the OPQS leadout train - so much power.

For all the babbling about the Lotto and the Giant leadout trains, I haven't been as impressed by them in the past I guess.

Or maybe it's just that I enjoy the badassery of Tony Martin leading the train for Cav and just ripping off the approach.

[HarryLime]

i thought alot of teams started the sprint early, and Giant got it right, just hung back a bit and launched at the right moment, by which time alot of other trains were out of legs.. Well, maybe not started the sprint early, but someone had to chase down Cancellara's attack and it was up to the sprint teams to do that! Great job from Kittel to finish the teams work!

surprising however, to see Rogers and Froome so high up in a sprint.. maybe the asthma pumps have helped froome improve his sprinting?

Not sure if Cav is starting stage 2 or not, but if he rocks up to the start line the organisers need to tell him to just sit this one out. that was a ridiculous move, only positive for him is he admitted fault, just desperate to win on home soil and get the yellow from her royal Kateness...

[Subby]

I thought for sure it was a broken collarbone the way he was holding his shoulder when crossed the finish line.

Can't really add much more other than to say...what critch said. Such an incredible start to this tour.

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Too bad - wanted to see plenty of Cav vs. Kittel battles to give some more fire to that rivalry.

Love watching the OPQS leadout train - so much power.

For all the babbling about the Lotto and the Giant leadout trains, I haven't been as impressed by them in the past I guess.

Or maybe it's just that I enjoy the badassery of Tony Martin leading the train for Cav and just ripping off the approach.

Unfortunately they used all that power a couple of k too early and left Cav on his own for the last 500, leading to the dumb move and the crash. Feel sorry for Gerrans who would have had a genuine shot at yellow today with the time bonus he might have gotten had he not been taken out

[DaddyTorgo]

Not really a spoiler, but just FYI - Cav didn't start today, so his tour is over.

Bummer. I guess it's Kittel vs. Griepel now.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Not really a spoiler, but just FYI - Cav didn't start today, so his tour is over.

Bummer. I guess it's Kittel vs. Griepel now.

Interesting to see how Greipel will fare as he's been out a lot this season. I bet Sagan wins the green in the end though

[DaddyTorgo]

Great day today - love the "full coverage" days. Jenkins Road was a good sorter, bringing out the attacks from Contador & Nibali on Froome, and Nibali picked the perfect time to attack at the top and take the win.

[Alan T]

Well.. that was a rough two days for Froome there.

[Critch]

Sky should have brought Bradley Wiggins. He's probably sitting in front of his tv with a big smile right now.

[bhlloy]

Honestly, Porte has much more chance to win than Wiggins especially on a tour with only one time trial.

I'm not sure about introducing a classics stage on the first week of the tour to be honest. Even without Froome going down, the entire thing could well have been decided today. Great spectacle but not what the grand tours are about IMO.

[MIJB#19]

Richie Porte isn't in the right shape to compete for the GC, nor is Bradley Wiggins. Porte hasn't shown anything this season that even suggests he can fight for a top10 spot, while Wiggins was never going to do well given the lack of confidence within his team. If Sky had a plan B in mind, it should have been Mikel Nieve.

[Critch]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Honestly, Porte has much more chance to win than Wiggins especially on a tour with only one time trial.

Porte would have pretty much the same chance to win it as Wiggins, pretty much zero. He's had a poor season. Since he's been ill, maybe Sky have a bunch of Therapeutic Use Exemption forms ready for him, though.

[AlexB]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

Richie Porte isn't in the right shape to compete for the GC, nor is Bradley Wiggins. Porte hasn't shown anything this season that even suggests he can fight for a top10 spot, while Wiggins was never going to do well given the lack of confidence within his team. If Sky had a plan B in mind, it should have been Mikel Nieve.

My guess is they hope Porte has recovered and that in fact the lay off / poor form actually has the benefit of him being fresh. If that doesn't pan out then they'll go for stages.

Nieve is a very solid domestique, not far off a super-domestique, but not good enough to seriously challenge IMO

[bhlloy]

Didn't say that Porte had a chance to win it, but in a grand tour he's almost certainly a better option than Wiggo right now (especially one that is not TT heavy)

Also even Cancellara has now come out and said a cobbled stage doesn't belong in a GT. Not sure what the organizers were thinking on this one.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Alan T

Well.. that was a rough two days for Froome there.

Seems from his interviews like his wrist was worse than they let on anyways, so I don't think he would have lasted the whole thing.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

Honestly, Porte has much more chance to win than Wiggins especially on a tour with only one time trial.

I'm not sure about introducing a classics stage on the first week of the tour to be honest. Even without Froome going down, the entire thing could well have been decided today. Great spectacle but not what the grand tours are about IMO.

I liked the concept of it, but yeah...the reality was not so good (or at least so it seems so far).

Still - the rain caused all the chaos early and knocked out Froome. Really the pave just gave Nibbles a thick early lead. And I don't think it's insurmountable - he doesn't accelerate as well as some of the other GC guys (Contador for example can accelerate away from him and pickup time in the mountains), although it does make it more difficult for them. But maybe that will prompt plenty of attacks and make things exciting...we can hope.

[bhlloy]

Yeah, I think the wrist was probably bad enough that the end was coming regardless. I do wonder how much of it was the stage four fall and how much of it was the fall in the Dauphine (seeingly how badly he rode the stage after that fall)

Cancellara's point was that given the vast majority of the field not being classics riders and not riding the race like a classic, it was madness to expect there not to be carnage like this if the weather was bad. Hard to argue with him there (and he's the guy who was most outspoken that this was great before the stage) - I think we're probably quite lucky that it's only a 2-3 minute lead for Nibali and nobody was really eliminated today other than Froome who was probably on his way out anyway.

Having said that, wonder who would have predicted Astana being the team that got the cobbled stage strategy pretty much perfect and looked far better than the Northern European teams?

[DaddyTorgo]

Fuglsang and Wuestra did a HELL of a ride to help Nibbles into that big lead too. Let's not let their contribution go unnoticed.

[Subby]

Here is Boom's Strava from yesterday's stage win: Bike Ride Profile | Epic day on the bike. My first stage win in the Tour de France. So happy!!! near Ypres | Times and Records | Strava

Amazing.

[bhlloy]

Shaping up to be a very interesting finish today with the wind

[DaddyTorgo]

Degenkolb has a "ruptured gleuteus maximus" ?!?!!? DA FUQ IS THAT!!! A ruptured ass?

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Degenkolb has a "ruptured gleuteus maximus" ?!?!!? DA FUQ IS THAT!!! A ruptured ass?

Yeah kind of. It sounds like a tear of one of the muscles there in his butt. Those muscles are very involved when running, I've dealt with a strain in one of them before in my running and it was uncomfortable. As far as I know, you don't use those muscles as much in cycling, but I have to imagine it would be a bit painful to have to sit on it while on the bike for so long though.

[bbgunn]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Degenkolb has a "ruptured gleuteus maximus" ?!?!!? DA FUQ IS THAT!!! A ruptured ass?

Is that like what Mascherano of Argentina had?

[Critch]

Are we avoiding spoilers in here? If so, I'm not giving anything away, please ignore this post and move on.

If not my still fairly spoiler-free post is "wow, that's upset the apple cart, put the cat amongst the pigeons and turned the Tour de France literally upside down".

[DaddyTorgo]

Well now I'm really looking forward to getting home tonight!!!

[DaddyTorgo]

Of all places, the CNN homepage clued me in.

Spoiler

That makes things...somewhat...less interesting IMO. Who's left to really challenge Nibali now? TJVG? Talansky is too far down still (unless something changed today). Mollema? How far down is J. Rod anyways? OPQS don't have the mountain-help to let Kwia have a run at it I don't think.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Of all places, the CNN homepage clued me in.

Spoiler

That makes things...somewhat...less interesting IMO. Who's left to really challenge Nibali now? TJVG? Talansky is too far down still (unless something changed today). Mollema? How far down is J. Rod anyways? OPQS don't have the mountain-help to let Kwia have a run at it I don't think.

Still spoilers required?

Spoiler

Realistically, there's no competition left for Nibali. But you never know what happens... Go ask Froome and Contador.

I'm still seeing Porte (whom I have no faith in), Valverde (whom I expect to drop in upcoming mountain stages), Bardet (white jersey battle), Gallopin (ok, not gonna happen), Pinot (white jersey favorite), Van Garderen (why not?), Peraud (it's possible), Rui Costa (expecting him to drop back eventually), Mollema (one can dream, no?) and Van Den Broeck (if he doesn't fall again before the Alps). Talansky is gone at 15 minutes behind. Rodriguez was out of it already, nearly an hour behind before today's stage.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

Still spoilers required?

Spoiler

Realistically, there's no competition left for Nibali. But you never know what happens... Go ask Froome and Contador.

I'm still seeing Porte (whom I have no faith in), Valverde (whom I expect to drop in upcoming mountain stages), Bardet (white jersey battle), Gallopin (ok, not gonna happen), Pinot (white jersey favorite), Van Garderen (why not?), Peraud (it's possible), Rui Costa (expecting him to drop back eventually), Mollema (one can dream, no?) and Van Den Broeck (if he doesn't fall again before the Alps). Talansky is gone at 15 minutes behind. Rodriguez was out of it already, nearly an hour behind before today's stage.

Yeah - I figured unless the last two made up significant time today they were realistically out of it. The first one at least had an outside shot - I hadn't looked at the standings in a couple days and didn't realize the second guy was quite THAT far back (although I knew he was just riding it as a tune-up for the Vuelta).

Spoiler

I figure TJVG, Mollema, and Van Den Broeck (outside shot) are really the only strong GC contenders left. Peraud is POSSIBLE, but unlikely. I guess it can go one of two ways now - either it'll be real active as all these teams hunt for stage wins and breakaways, or it'll be a bore of a Tour. I guess we'll see.

[bhlloy]

It's all over outside another crash. Boring

[Critch]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

It's all over outside another crash. Boring

If only Sky had taken Bradley Wiggins

[Subby]

20% grade is beyond cruel.

That was quite a stage, too. Doing that kind of climbing and then going into wet descents must have been terrifying...and it broke Contador's leg.

[Critch]

Ted King's blog after quitting the Tour during stage 10 is worth the read:

http://www.iamtedking.com/2014/07/6337/

[Alan T]

After today's TT

Spoiler

Quintana's crash just was nasty.. He is totally shaken.. Froome looked bad, just does not look like he has the form.

So is Contador pretty much in the driver's seat now in this one?

I don't think I have confidence in Valverde in keeping up with him on mountain stages..

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Alan T

After today's TT

Spoiler

Quintana's crash just was nasty.. He is totally shaken.. Froome looked bad, just does not look like he has the form.

So is Contador pretty much in the driver's seat now in this one?

I don't think I have confidence in Valverde in keeping up with him on mountain stages..

That'd be pretty amazing if that was the case. I'd love to see either of them frankly.

[bhlloy]

That was an incredible stage...

Spoiler

Froome isn't dead yet, although there's no way he's pulling back all the time on Contador I think he's definitely looking good to overtake Valverde for second in the next couple of days, who is a cut below the elite climbers. To make up that distance in the final 2k was amazing

Seriously, one of the greatest stage finales I think I've seen (and the steepest ever gradient in the Vuelta, to boot)

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by bhlloy

That was an incredible stage...

Spoiler

Froome isn't dead yet, although there's no way he's pulling back all the time on Contador I think he's definitely looking good to overtake Valverde for second in the next couple of days, who is a cut below the elite climbers. To make up that distance in the final 2k was amazing

Seriously, one of the greatest stage finales I think I've seen (and the steepest ever gradient in the Vuelta, to boot)

Look forward to checking it out later...

[DaddyTorgo]

Where the fuck did Froome come from at the finish there??? He's been toast all race.

Valverde definitely launched his attack WAYYYYY too early.

Kudos to Ryder - good to see him get a stage after all his bad luck this year.

[DaddyTorgo]

Nice stage today. Love me a good HC summit finish.

Hell of a Spanish pack on that climb with Contador, Valverde, & Purito. Serious climbing cred. Aru looked good too.

Looking forward to the Queen stage.

[DaddyTorgo]

Silly Spaniards should have worked together yesterday to bury Froome.

Great Queen Stage today.

Hell of a ride by Contador the last couple days. He's such a fun rider to watch I have to admit. I used to really dislike him, but now I'm more of a fan.

[DaddyTorgo]

JENSIE!!!!

Busted the Hour Record with 1:30 to spare, and it looked like (although I wasn't watching the whole thing) he may have actually had a negative-split as far as his time went.

51.115 km.

[HarryLime]

good result for Voigt.. but i have no doubt that time will be smashed once Tony Martin or Mr Cancellara have a shot at the title...

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by HarryLime

good result for Voigt.. but i have no doubt that time will be smashed once Tony Martin or Mr Cancellara have a shot at the title...

Oh of course.

Panzerwagon on a velodrome could probably get up around 55-56 km/h the speculation is. In fact I think I saw somebody else actually hit 56 (I don't remember who) so I wouldn't be surprised by that at all.

This was always just more of a "get your name in the books" thing for Jens, and also a test-run for the equipement that Fabian will use no doubt.

[AlexB]

Fast forward to 2016, and the new innovation with this years bikes has been suspended after four months.

Who would have thought that the irregularly shaped disc brakes spinning at high rpms could essentially become mini blades and slice through things, including riders legs? Apparently quite a few riders as it goes, but not the UCI or the manufacturers...

Until Sunday, when a Spanish Movistar rider slowed down for a crash, pulled up and avoided the mayhem, got going again, but then realised that some of his skin and muscle was missing and he could see his leg bone...

Cycling is a sport unto itself as far as shooting itself in the foot: now they're addressing doping pretty well IMO, they've decided to up the rider risk by putting spinning blades on bikes, using kamikaze moto riders to crash into them randomly (a pro rider from Wanty was killed a fortnight ago) and generally be incompetent.

The rider who had his leg sliced wrote an open letter, and the UCI have relented: link to the letter below, and at the very bottom of the page there are a couple of pretty gruesome photos of the injury and resulting surgical repair.

Ventoso blasts the use of disc brakes in the peloton | Cyclingnews.com