2016 'PRO' cycling discussion.

Questions about bike hire abroad and everything light bike related. No off-topic chat please

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maquisard
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by maquisard

Another thing that struck me as really odd thinking about La Course tomorrow, the women's race. Team Sky, BMC and Katusha have the biggest budgets in Pro-Cycling but none of them as a womens team, that is shocking. I hope someone puts Brailsford or Ochowicz on the spot and demands it tomorrow.

Having teams with budgets so out of proportion to one another just breaks the competition in the same way that F1 is broken. It needs to change and there is no reason why budget caps shouldn't be imposed. Teams also need some other longterm means of income other that just sponsorship, TV rights might work but the sums of money involved aren't as big as some think!

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Skylark
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by Skylark

In that case if the sponsors go to the organisers and give their monies there, and let the organiser redistribute said monies neutrally then that might just work. The face of cycling might be about to change.

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xena
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by xena

Nothing stopping a single rider sitting on the Sky train and taking off . Bertie did it, Quintana did it last year.
It was just weak opposition and Sky did their homework better than other teams IMO i.e. Froomes surprise attacks. They were well planned and thought out in order to gain as much time as they could in wake of the oncoming onslaught of Quintana in the last week :lol:

I suppose in hindsight with Bertie crashing out we expected a lot more from Quintana especially after his alps demolition of Froome last year. It just did not happen. [ he messed up the anabolic chicken]
There is no need for a knee jerk reaction. For instance if Quintana was in last years shape this last week would have been a different race completely and the same could be said if Aru had showed some of his Vuleta form or Pinot some of his early season form etc you get the idea we could have had a fantastic race which is all I want whoever wins. Last year was pretty exciting in the last week.
This year It just did not happen, for whatever reasons riders came up short. It certainly was not a hard tour we nearly always had a decent size group getting to the top of the climbs and a number of riders you would expect to be dropped hanging on day after day saying they felt good.

I do agree a little bit about the budget but then again 2014 Sky could not beat Bertie or even last years Vuleta where TD beat Froome when he tried a bonkers attack and Quintana really should have been a bit more aggressive last year and he could have won. Froome was hanging on by a thread.
Sky are there to be beaten and can be beaten its up to the other teams/riders to get the ship together. Congrats to Froome and I hope Aru attacks tomorrow :lol:

Jesus it was awful I stopped watching 2 days ago just see the short highlights on steephill in the evening.
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jeffy
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by jeffy

I got the feeling watching that Wout was a stronger frontman, than any other Sky has had - completely neutralising the possibility of attacks.

wingguy
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Joined: Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:43 pm

by wingguy

maquisard wrote:This years Tour was pretty dire the more I think about it. Not a comment on Froome's win, just the racing.

The GC was, at least the 2nd half. These last two stages especially were almost criminally poor from the rest of the top 10.

But that's not all that the Tour is. The sprints were as good as I can remember, was it 3 or 4 stages decided by photo finish? Sagan was at his absolute mesmerising best for the whole Tour. Froome was audacious in the first half, he pulled of two entirely unexpected and unpredictable moves that no other GC contender would even have thought of, let alone tried. And a brilliant stage on Ventoux was neutered twice, by the wind and then by the crowd trouble.

wingguy
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by wingguy

maquisard wrote:Another thing that struck me as really odd thinking about La Course tomorrow, the women's race. Team Sky, BMC and Katusha have the biggest budgets in Pro-Cycling but none of them as a womens team, that is shocking. I hope someone puts Brailsford or Ochowicz on the spot and demands it tomorrow.

100%

The disappointing thing is that in the wake of the Shane Sutton resignation a few months ago Nicole Cooke and others did get their voices in the national media criticising the institutional sexism of BC and by extension Sky (which is their de facto road organisation really) not properly supporting womens cycling and were getting quite a bit of support.... and now everyone's forgotten about it again already. :noidea:

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tymon_tm
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by tymon_tm

GC was boring as hell, but there were some moments, although not that I recall any right now...

battle for green was really non existent, and it's a pity, I bet Sagan himself would like some competition

Majka's Polka Dot is a great result, he just finished 5th in very competitive Giro, won his second jersey and the most cobative rider, IMHO his consistency deserves a lot more credit

Cav's definitelly a hero of the day, his stage wins were both impressive and unexpected

Valverde should ride for himself next year. podium isn't impossible if he keeps his form

Pantano's a guy to watch and a must have for teams that aim at stages. hope he won't disappear or come back 10kg heavier

Bardet needs a contract with a team, that knows how to win big races, and so does Porte. BMC's two leaders strategy might've looked cool on the paper, but brought nothing in the end.

somehow I feel Aru will ride Giro next year..

Cannondale - great race as always.
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Tinea Pedis
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by Tinea Pedis

Grinley wrote:A lot of the GC guys weren't even wearing shoe covers. Surely shoe covers in a Tour de France time trial are a no brainer.

Not really. Or even at all. There are shoe covers and then there are 'shoe covers'. Plenty have been found to have little effect. Some even detrimental.

Grinley wrote:A lot of the choices on bike likely came down to what they thought they would be more comfortable on but that really just speaks to how much more emphasis someone like Froome or Dumoulin puts on training on the TT bike and getting comfortable with it. TT's clearly play an important role in deciding the GC so shouldn't all these GC contenders be focusing on being comfortable with their TT bike?

Many teams (outside of Sky and Giant) recon'ed the course. Ran computations and still came to the conclusion a road bike with clip on bars was fastest set up. For someone like Yates, who rode a terrific first TT on a TT rig, his bike choice surprised me. And not saying it could not be done better. But it's not simply a case of a few teams taking the time to look at it and the rest still winging it. Sky and Giant are simply doing it better (which has always been the case for Sky).

ave wrote:I'm pretty sure all the weight weeniesm contra aero polemic is fuelled by those who know aero is faster. For sure, I always encourage my competitors to use their light bike for climbing races, not the aero one! ;)

And is why coaches like you create situations where fat guys like me can still win hilly races ;)

nibby
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by nibby

wingguy wrote:
maquisard wrote:This years Tour was pretty dire the more I think about it. Not a comment on Froome's win, just the racing.

The GC was, at least the 2nd half. These last two stages especially were almost criminally poor from the rest of the top 10.

But that's not all that the Tour is. The sprints were as good as I can remember, was it 3 or 4 stages decided by photo finish? Sagan was at his absolute mesmerising best for the whole Tour. Froome was audacious in the first half, he pulled of two entirely unexpected and unpredictable moves that no other GC contender would even have thought of, let alone tried. And a brilliant stage on Ventoux was neutered twice, by the wind and then by the crowd trouble.


Spot on.

Also really enjoyed watching Pantano, hope he can kick on, potential is great.
Bardet's stage win and podium is fantastic. Maybe Sky need to sign him.
Froome doing good things.

All in all for me a good tour.

Sometime's it cant always be like the 86 tour :)

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micky
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by micky

It's funny thinking that Valverde this year, probably for first time, was really committed to help Quintana but he could have been a bit higher on GC by riding for himself.
But perhaps working for someone else take off a lot of mental stress/pressure.

Another vote for "boring TdF" as one of the highlights of the race was the camera motorcycle crash and the ASO gift to Sky.

gravity
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by gravity

I'm in the boring tour camp but only as far as the GC battle is concern. Sagan, Cav, Pantano's victories were pretty exciting IMHO.

Rondje
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by Rondje

maquisard wrote:Having teams with budgets so out of proportion to one another just breaks the competition in the same way that F1 is broken. It needs to change and there is no reason why budget caps shouldn't be imposed. Teams also need some other longterm means of income other that just sponsorship, TV rights might work but the sums of money involved aren't as big as some think!


Having budget caps on a sport where the money that riders earn isn't even close to most of the other big/populair sports would kill it for the riders I think. Only the big riders earn big money, but for the others it's just to a normal job after cycling to get around. I think a budget cap would only make it worse for them. Because big guys will always earn/demand big money. Maybe smaller teams or no communication would make it more interesting. Harder to control a race and more impulsive because riders have to make their own decisions in the race.

DanW
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by DanW

Since everyone seems so bored by the TdF, how about some juicy gossip?

https://twitter.com/jennycopnall

Not really surprising I guess but I wonder who the WC winner on that day in 1997 was? Some big names from that era are still racing and involved in the sport.

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kkibbler
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by kkibbler

doping noob question: so what's with the running up and down the stairs?

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Rondje
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by Rondje

Probably to keep the blood pumping around. There are also stories of Riis in his doping era that they had to turn him around in his bed every few hours at night to make sure his blood kept going.

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