"PRO" Cycling Discussion

[gravity]

This may be dumb but my take on Nibali's yellow jersey so early in the race:

1. Get the jersey early, get some spotlight in both England and France (good for sponsors heyyy)
2. Astana will have to work hard early on to defend the jersey but might be able to relax and recover in the second week when the jersey is lost to another teams.
3. Come to week 3 fresher, with less stress to get some stage wins as it is already done in Week 1.
4. Attacks!!
5. Win!!

[DartanianX]

Interesting to see Garmin PR people aren't doing much to cover the non usage of their vectors up. Instead going for SRM. Maybe it's a way to meet minimum weight.

[Antoine]

if Nibali does well on the cobbles wednesday he could keep the yellow jersey at least one week.

[Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez]

if Nibali does well on the cobbles wednesday he could keep the yellow jersey at least one week.

I think it's gonna be an epic ride, it's way way more harder than the cobble stage we had years ago and there were quite some gaps

Kwiatkowski, Gallopin in the first group are a lot better at it.

Geraint Thomas is only 16 seconds back down but might have to look after Froome.

Cancellara leaded home his group at 35 seconds while Norvegian warrior Kristoff fought hard yesterday and finished in the same group, it was not for a 40th place but to be close to the Maillot Jaune before the cobbles!

I think all the GC favorite will lose at least 1 min to those guys

I even believe some of them can lose 3 or 4 favorites without crashes

[wingguy]

What's with the mismatched wheelset on that bike? Looks like a CCU front and Cosmic 40 rear? Seems like totally the wrong way round.

Maybe they just put whatever was closest on for the photo.

[wingguy]

Conspiracy theory: maybe stage 5 is why Wiggins wasn't picked. After his showing at Paris-Roubaix this year they were afraid he'd attack Froome on the cobbles and either A) cause chaos and crashes or B) take enough time to try and force a leadership coup.

[DartanianX]

It seems to me that's the wheelset choice he has been running, at least from the photos I've seen of him rolling to sign on.

[HillRPete]

I think he needed to make the space to sprint. Sprinting is dangerous and these guys take risks in the sprints. The sprint was open to several different kinds of riders, not only sprinters. Simon Gerrans doesn’t usually contest flat sprints and pure sprinters are different animals to other riders. They can do amazing things on bikes but they do take risks. But it's one of those things. It only takes a moment and a crash can happen.

Right, so when "pure sprinters" crash it's business as usual because they "can do amazing things". But when other riders mix in the finale, they are being slagged off publically. What race was it last year when a rider causing a crash in the sprint was picked upon by Cavendish, because he wasn't a pure sprinter and "didn't have the bike handling"?

[IchDien]

Interesting to see Garmin PR people aren't doing much to cover the non usage of their vectors up. Instead going for SRM. Maybe it's a way to meet minimum weight.

Again, bizarre usage of CC40 back wheel and CCU front wheel.

[cmdr199212]

Doesn't that somewhat make sense though..@IchDien? A slightly heavier, sturdier wheel for the rear and a lightweight wheel for the front?

[shoopdawoop]

http://jalopnik.com/meet-the-first-man- ... 1601059980

Kind of cool

[IchDien]

Doesn't that somewhat make sense though..@IchDien? A slightly heavier, sturdier wheel for the rear and a lightweight wheel for the front?

Just odd that Garmin are the only team I've seen using the C40 so much. I though the CCU was one of the strongest wheels out there?



They even had some bikes equipped with the Cosmic SLR on top of the team car the other day. I suppose when you have a truck full of wheels you can do what you like...

[wingguy]

Doesn't that somewhat make sense though..@IchDien? A slightly heavier, sturdier wheel for the rear and a lightweight wheel for the front?

That's the thing though, I'd have thought it should be the other way around - the CCU for the ultimate in stiffness and responsiveness at the back and the C40 with more up to date aerodynamics and handling at the front.

[53x12]

Andy Schleck fell pretty hard. Guy just has super bad luck or what?

[wingguy]

Spectators with cameras again...