The Cycling Thread

[Cnut237]

Cycling was for a long time my favorite sport to watch and to bet on. I always adored the cyclists for their dedication, idealism, and willingness to suffer. And cyclists are tough as nails - I always laugh at footballers lying on the pitch, screaming and doing Hollywood with minor injuries When there is some crash, the first thing these people do is to look for their bike, because they want to keep going and not lose any time.

That's true, that is how a good cyclist will act after having a crash, even though they are already injured with the out blood they will continue the race until they finish the line

They are astonishingly tough. But it's not just this ability to jump back on the bike after having a crash, it's also the ridiculous levels of bravery they exhibit. They've all had big crashes before, but it doesn't slow them down one bit. You see them pedalling as hard as they can whilst riding steeply downhill on a wet mountain road. It takes a lot to be a top cyclist... the combination of physical ability and mental attitude that are demanded are perhaps unmatched in any other sport.

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[morvillz7z]

Imagine if we had this at Tour de France before the final stage...


source: https://www.giroditalia.it

I don't want jinx Tao Hart like i did Geraint Thomas, but he has to crash two or three times, and he will probably still beat Hindley.

I'm still wondering what could have happened if Sunweb had Hindley wait for and help Kelderman @Stelvio, maybe those 2+ min loss of time could have been avoided somehow.

Anyway, Ineos and Filippo Ganna should let Rohan Dennis win tomorrow's TT, he deserves it 100% after what he did Thursday and today.

[aesma]

Cycling was for a long time my favorite sport to watch and to bet on. I always adored the cyclists for their dedication, idealism, and willingness to suffer. And cyclists are tough as nails - I always laugh at footballers lying on the pitch, screaming and doing Hollywood with minor injuries When there is some crash, the first thing these people do is to look for their bike, because they want to keep going and not lose any time.

That's true, that is how a good cyclist will act after having a crash, even though they are already injured with the out blood they will continue the race until they finish the line, that is why I always want to watch a bike race because it is very entertaining and I admired every cyclist and that is also one of my favorite sports to bet, I want to enjoy while having a bet, it would be a great feeling winning the bet and watching the race, maybe this what would you feel if you are also a cyclist.

About tough cyclists, here is a tweet from Chloé Dygert, don't look if you're queasy : https://twitter.com/chloedygert30/status/1309342151034261504

She crashed and got a deep and large laceration on her leg, yet her first thought was to climb back on her bike and still try to win, until she saw the injury.

[aesma]

Congrats Tao Geoghegan Hart for winning the Giro ! Now how do we say your name again ?

Congrats also to Arnaud Démare (funny name in French) for winning the points classification !

[bitbunnny]

Congrats Tao Geoghegan Hart for winning the Giro ! Now how do we say your name again ?

Congrats also to Arnaud Démare (funny name in French) for winning the points classification !

It was kind of surprise to me but congratulations, of course. And it was good Giro despite all circumstances with pandemic and everything. Although I bet on cycling quite often this time I didn't have much luck. But this is also the beauty of gambling and although things don't always turn how we play it's fun.

[morvillz7z]

You guys watching the Vuelta?
Just a quick reminder that we have one of the best and hardest climbs tomorrow, the stage will finish @ Alto de L’Angliru, a must watch!
Contador's win at L'Angliru in 2017 is in my top 5 favorite cycling moments ever, epic solo ride to conclude an amazing career for the Spaniard.

"Angliru starts off relatively easy - the average gradient on the first 5 km is 7.6 %, enough to hurt but well within the realms of rideable for a professional. The sixth kilometre is easy, flattening for a while and even descending for a short way. From then on, it gets tough. Very tough. The average gradient for the last 6 km is 13.1 %, beginning to stretch the boundaries of what can be done - but, as if that wasn't harsh enough, there's the Cueña les Cabres 3 km from the top with a gradient of 23.8 %."

source: http://killingmontezoncolan.blogspot.com/2012/03/alto-de-langliru-vuelta-alto-de.html

[tyKiwanuka]

I only got to watch very few unfortunately and had basically no bets, because there are so many other different things going on and watching/following Cycling is really time-consuming. The Vuelta has strangely always been my favourite GT, because it used to take place when there was also the Tennis US Open running and NFL started as well around that time always. Were always super busy, but very exciting weeks, where I would watch the Vuelta 3-4 hours, then switch over to Tennis and later that day night add some NFL, amazing

Looking at the GC, it's the skijumper's to lose with the TT coming up on Tuesday and the rest of the week not being super demanding at least profile-wise. Only obstacle will be the Alto de la Covatilla (11.7k @6.9%), where you won't lose a lot of time normally. But there is the Angliru today as you mentioned, which is one hell of a climb.

[bitbunnny]

I can't say I watch Vuelta very carefully but I drop an eye from time to time.
Roglic is my favourite although he might not have the biggest chance to win the race but this year Tour the France showed us that everything is possible. But the most important is the good and exciting race.

[aesma]

You guys watching the Vuelta?
Just a quick reminder that we have one of the best and hardest climbs tomorrow, the stage will finish @ Alto de L’Angliru, a must watch!
Contador's win at L'Angliru in 2017 is in my top 5 favorite cycling moments ever, epic solo ride to conclude an amazing career for the Spaniard.

"Angliru starts off relatively easy - the average gradient on the first 5 km is 7.6 %, enough to hurt but well within the realms of rideable for a professional. The sixth kilometre is easy, flattening for a while and even descending for a short way. From then on, it gets tough. Very tough. The average gradient for the last 6 km is 13.1 %, beginning to stretch the boundaries of what can be done - but, as if that wasn't harsh enough, there's the Cueña les Cabres 3 km from the top with a gradient of 23.8 %."

source: http://killingmontezoncolan.blogspot.com/2012/03/alto-de-langliru-vuelta-alto-de.html

I've never watched the Vuelta, as the Tour de France already takes a lot of my time in the year. I found a quick video of stages 11&12 of this year's Vuelta : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_w3Uc2oeS0

Indeed that Angliru looks very nice, I will find a fuller video to watch the climb in full.

[morvillz7z]

1  PRIMOŽ ROGLIC       64h 20' 31''
2  RICHARD CARAPAZ   + 00h 00' 45''
3  HUGH JOHN CARTHY  + 00h 00' 53''

source: https://www.lavuelta.es/en/rankings

One stage left to go today, if we don't count the one on Sunday which is like in Tour de France, a parade, celebrating the winners if you will.
The riders will have fairly easy job with just one decent climb 11.4km at 7.1% (Alto de La Covatilla), there's another one but it's too early placed in the stage.
Roglic has a comfy lead imo, the first place and La Roja should be out of the question. What remains to be seen is, can EF Pro Cycling and Hugh Carthy take second place, Carapaz has just 8 seconds lead.

I don't know what's the weather forecast for the final climb @La Covatilla but i would like to see some snow.    
Riders got through a pretty bad rainstorm the other day, so a little bit of snowing should be the perfect ending to a very chaotic season.

[bitbunnny]

The Vuelta is coming to the end, tomorrow everything will be finished. My favourite Roglic was doing well and he is coming closer to the final win so I hope this will be the final outcome and I'll win the bet. I also hope that the weather forecast for tomorrow is good. Anyway,  it was another good race, looking forward for the next one.

[morvillz7z]

Roglic has a comfy lead imo, the first place and La Roja should be out of the question.

Boy, was he close to lose yet another grand tour in the final stage, props to Carapaz for making it interesting in the final kms of the La Covatilla climb.

That's back-to-back Vueltas for Roglic, but he needs to add the Tour de France title to his resume. Not sure how easy is that going to be with Ineos putting a crazy good team next year, Froome will be motivated to shush his critics being that with a new team (Israel Start-Up Nation). Speaking of TdF, the route for the 2021 edition was released earlier this week, double climb of Mont Ventoux (11th stage), 2 x TT and Tourmalet (18th stage)...looks good.

https://www.letour.fr/en/stage-11

[famososMuertos]

La vuelta stage 18  ACKERMANN.   Madrid "Zarzuela" with latin flavor.

Primoz Roglic !! 
2nd place Carapaz and 3rd place Carthy completed the final podium in La Vuelta.

__

Interesting to see the top 10 on Monday after the three great competitions finished...

[babygun]

Didn't have much time to watch the Vuelta but Roglic deserved the victory. He was the strongest and won 4 stages!
Tim Wellens was also a revelation with 2 wins.

Up to the next season!

[aesma]

Primoz Roglic saved his season, good for him.

Also Froome was given the trophy of the 2011 Vuelta he retroactively won, changing all the statistics. He's now the first Briton to win a grand tour instead of Wiggins !

https://www.eurosport.com/cycling/la-vuelta-2020-chris-froome-lifts-the-vuelta-trophy.-nine-years-on-from-his-win_sto7985141/story.shtml

[famososMuertos]

Interesting to see the top 10 on Monday after the three great competitions finished...

Didn't have much time to watch the Vuelta but Roglic deserved the victory. He was the strongest and won 4 stages!
Tim Wellens was also a revelation with 2 wins.

Up to the next season!

Let's go! It is not about time, it is about desire, there is always time when things are wanted, this thread helped me to be updated.
________-
By the way I liked these data that this user commented on twitter:

Last generals finished by Roglic!!

1º Vuelta a España
2º Tour de Francia
1º Tour de l’Ain
1º Vuelta a España
3º Giro de Italia
1º Romandía   
1º Tirreno
1º UAE Tour
4º Tour de Francia
1º Tour de Eslovenia
1º Romandía
1º Itzulia

¡Genio!
Source:https://twitter.com/AlbertoArauzM/status/1325213136371200001

[morvillz7z]

Bump! The 2021 season has started with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and UAE Tour.  

I didn't have much time to watch the UAE Tour in full but caught Jonas Vingegaard's nice win in stage 5, also Caleb Ewan's surprise win today over Sam Bennett who was close to record a hat-trick but was outsmarted by the Australian in the final meters of the stage.

Pogacar won it for UAE team, Adam Yates finished second, dude had a miserable final stage, got involved in a scary crash hitting the asphalt with his face and getting multiple cuts as a result.

I don't have any big takeaways from the UAE tour, it's the start of the season, but it was weird seeing Chris Froome in another uniform/team (Israel Start Up Nation), this will need getting used to i guess.

Anyway, let's finish with some decent shots from the UAE tour (click for high-res):



image source: https://www.theuaetour.com

@tyKiwanuka you can perhaps update the calendar on page 1, we have some nice classics coming up next month.  

[tyKiwanuka]

Updated the calendar, thanks for reminding me.

I watched a good part of UAE Tour (I even watched Etoile de Besseges earlier this month ) and it was a good start to the real season I think. These mountains there are a bit meh, if you are used to the beautiful sceneries in Europe with small/narrow roads, some trees and all the tradition, but it was a good competition between Pogacar/Yates in stage 3. Dekker was nice to watch in the sprinting stages as well; he could be really good in the years to come and he isn't "just" a sprinter from all I know.

Regarding Froome, it will be interesting to see, what he can do throughout the season. I don't expect anything tbh

Tomorrow there will be K-B-K where basically all the guys from Omloop will be starting as well. There is one guy though, who wasn't at Omloop, but will start K-B-K and that is MvdP He had to leave UAE tour early, because of a Covid case in his team, but he looked in fine form winning stage 1 and should normally win tomorrow as well.

[tyKiwanuka]

On Saturday there will be the Strade Bianche, which is a super nice race with some gravel roads. I like this race, because tactics or team strength don't play a big role, the strongest riders will be there in the end and fight it out; you don't win this race getting lucky or whatever. There are no groups arriving at the finish line together and the majority of riders DNF's.

When there is rain, these are epic battles, but the weather forecast says no rain or very slight, though there is some rain right now in the Siena area. In dry-ish conditions this race suits a lot of riders, but one-day-race-specialists are normally favoured and if you have cross experience thats even better. No wonder the big favs are MvdP, van Aert and Alaphillipe.

The profile (white=gravel roads):


Source: https://www.strade-bianche.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/interni_garibaldi-SB_2021_ME-bassa.pdf

The last 3km:


Source: https://www.strade-bianche.it/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/interni_garibaldi-SB_2021_ME-bassa.pdf

I placed a bet on Alaphillipe at around 5, because he is just a beast on these walls near the finish line. Last year he got a bit unlucky with mechanicals all the time and only finished 24th and 15 minutes down to van Aert. Maybe he has some more luck with his equipment this time. He has been in good form so far this season and won this race in 2019 already.
I don't see MvdP being able to challenge Ala on this wall, but you never know with this guy, he probably arrives there alone after some 150km solo Van Aert just comes from training camp and it will be his first road race of the season, so I don't expect him to be super sharp already.

[babygun]

I placed a bet on Alaphillipe at around 5, because he is just a beast on these walls near the finish line. Last year he got a bit unlucky with mechanicals all the time and only finished 24th and 15 minutes down to van Aert. Maybe he has some more luck with his equipment this time. He has been in good form so far this season and won this race in 2019 already.
I don't see MvdP being able to challenge Ala on this wall, but you never know with this guy, he probably arrives there alone after some 150km solo Van Aert just comes from training camp and it will be his first road race of the season, so I don't expect him to be super sharp already.

Always a fun race to watch, especially the last kilometers!
I can follow your logique by placing the bet on Alaphillipe, he is one of the best in finishes like this (Waalse Pijl also) but I will just place a bet on top 3. I don't want to rule out MvdP and Van Aert. Even though it is Van Aerts his first race, he won it last year and will be fully motivated to win it again this year.