2016 'PRO' cycling discussion.

[nathanong87]

haha

[nd2rc]

HA! That's awesome! If I got a traffic ticket for speeding on my bike I think I'd frame it. Obviously, this was a closed course so he didn't.

[ultyguy]

We've got little unhappy/angry faces that come on round here when we blow through villages, pretty amusing.


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[wop]

He's a consistently top 10 rider that is leading a race of other consistently top 10 riders. Only 1 of the pre-race favorites is riding well and the others either are off-par or dropped out. He hasn't put out 1 single dominant performance like a Contador style stage raid where he gained 5 minutes on every other rider.

Average speed wise this race also has a lot of shorter stages than in the past.

I agree, as a Dutch cyclist fan I am very proud of Kruijswijk, but the reason he is in pink is not because he is so much better than the other riders. He just didn't make any mistakes so far and didn't have an off day. All the other riders had a bad day or made some mistakes, or both (Nibali).

But not making mistakes is part of racing a good GT as well and is a sign that he is in great shape.

Funny thing tho, a lot of Dutch people where talking about Dumoulin maybe going voor de GC. He quit te race but maybe we end up with a Dutch rider in the pink after all.

[KB]

It's good to see Kruijswijk doing so well and good for Dutch cycling and its fans. Poels winning at Liege was also a good result. It's been a long time since the glory days of Zoetemelk, Raas et al.

Same goes for France with Demare winning San Remo and Ala finally winning in California after all the second places.

If you think they are all on drugs you should go watch another sport, but then you'll be lucky to find a clean sport; probably one that does no testing! Seems like the state sponsored doping's still alive and well given the positive tests of the re-checked Russian athletes from 2008.

[petal666]

HA! That's awesome! If I got a traffic ticket for speeding on my bike I think I'd frame it. Obviously, this was a closed course so he didn't.

I've got several you can have.

[kgt]

Kruijswijk's body must have the highest drag coefficient in the peloton!

[Tinea Pedis]

HA! That's awesome! If I got a traffic ticket for speeding on my bike I think I'd frame it. Obviously, this was a closed course so he didn't.

I'm sure Burghardt got a speeding fine in Belgium after he was busted motopacing along the bike paths. And from memory did exactly that, framed it.

[tymon_tm]

I disagree favourites aren't riding well. look how much is going on, attacks followed by another attacks, hard to pull more than a few tens of seconds on your rivals. Krujswijk, Chavez, Valverde, Nibbles, Zakarin, Majka - six damn strong riders, who ride like they mean it. there are also Jungels, Amador (he was very impressive, even during that Alta Badia stage), Pozzo, Siutsou - plenty of strong riders up there when the road goes up. it's not a race of negative selection, like most GTs in recent history were, where riders just got dropped. even if we say Nibali or Majka blew, they're not losing minutes, it's 10 sec here, 30 there, but still pretty close. the gaps amongst top contenders, if we exclude Kruswijk's 3 minutes, are so small, the final GC can still go many ways.

[MattSoutherden]

IMO, It's a bit insulting to Krujswijk. The guy has gradually upped his game year-on-year, and has now ridden himself into the lead of a grand tour. at 28, he should be in his prime. The only reason any half-wit in the media can trot out is that Nibali must be ill. Maybe Krujswijk is just better.

[BdaGhisallo]

IMO, It's a bit insulting to Krujswijk. The guy has gradually upped his game year-on-year, and has now ridden himself into the lead of a grand tour. at 28, he should be in his prime. The only reason any half-wit in the media can trot out is that Nibali must be ill. Maybe Krujswijk is just better.

100% agreed. SK has had the kind of career and steady progression that the skeptics always point to as how it should be if things are honest. I find the criticisms odd. Grand tours aren't ridden in an ideal world. They are ridden in a world when the best prepared and most talented battle each other in an arena that also favors luck, attention and tactical smarts. You need all of them in any given race in order to prevail. If these were simply contests of the strongest legs or metabolic outputs, why go through the bother of organizing racing outside of a physiology lab?

[tymon_tm]

Kruswijk's very, very impressive. looks like a natural, contrary to some other big timers. and I agree 100% it's his great form that put him ahead, not others' weaknesses

[wop]

IMO, It's a bit insulting to Krujswijk. The guy has gradually upped his game year-on-year, and has now ridden himself into the lead of a grand tour. at 28, he should be in his prime. The only reason any half-wit in the media can trot out is that Nibali must be ill. Maybe Krujswijk is just better.

I don't think anyone disagrees with you and nobody means to insult Kruijswijk. In my opinion, the reason why most of the riders had an off day is because the racing is so hard and Kruijswijk didn't have an off day because he's in such a good form.

Lets not forget, last two mountain stages the wins where taken by GC contenders, where it is usually attackers who go for a breakaway early in the race. Reason why the attackers didn't win is propably because the GC contenders are racing so amazingly fast. Think about teusday, when all the GC favourites where attacking and Kruijswijk was counterattacking all by himself. Usually the leader in the GC has at least one teammate to do the work so early in the race..

[jeffy]

Rumor is that Rapha are releasing a "Giro" Pro Team jersey with shoulder pads for the *real* pro look.

[Norregard]

Wow, what a fantastic win by Trentin in the Giro today.