2018 PRO thread

[Attermann]

Were the Chech and Slovak champoinships run as the same race?

Vegard Stake Laengen Norwegian Champion in a late attack after a collaboration between continental Team Coop in which Alex Kristoff has interests and UAE.

Yes, it was once one country, it’s seperated now, but the bike race runs together, so the first from each to cross is the national winner

[quadzilla]

Amazing win by Jonathan Brown. Surprised that the heavy hitters like mannion and carpenter couldn't/didn't make the catch. were they too tired or did they make a gross miscalculation?

[themidge]

^^That's very interesting, I knew that the British nationals had the U23 race within the elite one, so sometimes the winner is both elite and U23 champion. Different countries though, that must be quite involved from a logistics perspective. I suppose if you had a two man break, with one guy from each country, you wouldn't get a sprint at the end .

[tymon_tm]

Poland is few times Czech and Slovakia combined, and yet after like half of the yesterday's race it was 4 man up front and circa 30 chasing... that's how huge national cycling scene is. I imagine in Cz&S it's very similar so it makes far more sense to join forces (although both those countries have far bigger "sporting" tradition, for instance as a kid all my summer tennis camps were held in Cz&S, as they had far better infrastracture, even in small cities close to Ukrainian border - same with skiing, football, hockey...)

[spud]

Amazing win by Jonathan Brown. Surprised that the heavy hitters like mannion and carpenter couldn't/didn't make the catch. were they too tired or did they make a gross miscalculation?

read the velonews article - sounds like his lack of results over the past few years allowed him to play possum with his group, and save some juice for the end.

[wpccrunner]

Amazing win by Jonathan Brown.

Wonder how much marketing we will see about aluminum bikes being superior to other materials because they win nationals....

[rainerhq]

They will sell ca million these bikes for americans, because of that. Nice.

[CrankAddictsRich]

As it is, most Specialized dealers can't keep the Allez Sprint in stock, in either the complete bike form or the limited edition frame sets.... I think there's already plenty of people of people that realize how good they are in terms of bang for the buck. Maybe some new customers will be intriqued because of this win, but I honestly don't think many US cyclists are even remotely aware that the national road race was this past weekend or will be aware of who won it, on which bike... if someone wins the TDF on an Allez, that will make a difference, but in general, my perception is that most cyclist in the US don't actually pay attention to professional cycling, let alone the national championship road race. I'm sure that sounds crazy to people from other countries, but cycling doesn't register very high to American sports fans and in my opinion USA cycling does a horrible job promoting their events and natinal championships... I'm interested and it wasn't easy to search out and find live coverage of the race. The guys that I generally ride with on local shop rides, guys that I would consider prety serious cyclists, I'd say only about 50% of that actually pay attention to pro cycling and less would be aware of the national championship races.

[Mr.Gib]

Moscon's case could be considered as proof of how Team Sky gets wrongfully accused of wrongdoing, even when nothing wrong has been done.

Proof of no wrongdoing by Moscon? How did you get to that conclusion. Isn't it clear that there is simply not adequate evidence to justify a penalty? No difference in outcome for Moscon, but perhaps a big difference in what people might think of him.

[tymon_tm]

As it is, most Specialized dealers can't keep the Allez Sprint in stock, in either the complete bike form or the limited edition frame sets.... I think there's already plenty of people of people that realize how good they are in terms of bang for the buck. Maybe some new customers will be intriqued because of this win, but I honestly don't think many US cyclists are even remotely aware that the national road race was this past weekend or will be aware of who won it, on which bike... if someone wins the TDF on an Allez, that will make a difference, but in general, my perception is that most cyclist in the US don't actually pay attention to professional cycling, let alone the national championship road race. I'm sure that sounds crazy to people from other countries, but cycling doesn't register very high to American sports fans and in my opinion USA cycling does a horrible job promoting their events and natinal championships... I'm interested and it wasn't easy to search out and find live coverage of the race. The guys that I generally ride with on local shop rides, guys that I would consider prety serious cyclists, I'd say only about 50% of that actually pay attention to pro cycling and less would be aware of the national championship races.

let's be honest, a frameset doesn't win bike races (ok, save for some TTs maybe). carbon fibre doesn't give extra watts over aluminum. no one will ever win a major race on that kind of frame simply because it's in sponsor's interest to promote only top of the line stuff. Spec won't allow e.g. Sagz to ride on Allez, because for many the message would be - "you don't need those Vengviases, Allez will suffice, so save your money"

as for paying attention to pro cycling, I find many of those "serious" cyclists are more into local/national scene than WT, at least in my neck of the woods. as to why - perhaps racing themselves they feel it's a bit closer, more real, while WT with all this funky business often seems like a fairy tale.

[pastronef]

https://twitter.com/Fortuneo_Samsic/sta ... 4691791872

Fortuneo and Look STOP THE PARTNERSHIP

the team will race the Tour with another brand

[maquisard]

Fortuneo and Look STOP THE PARTNERSHIP

the team will race the Tour with another brand

<Sound of toys being thrown from the pram>

[pastronef]

Fortuneo and Look STOP THE PARTNERSHIP

the team will race the Tour with another brand

<Sound of toys being thrown from the pram>

Barguil already asked and used Shimano pedals since he rode with them (and if your main man does not want LOOK pedal in a team sponsored by the brand who invented them, well...)
Look won the race for the team sponsorship by a whisker this winter against Giant
Barguil owns a Giant mega store in his town
Giant wil leave Sunweb at the end of 2018
let´s see if Giant will race the Tour with 2 teams

[wingguy]

Beginning to wonder if this is going to be a winless year for Cav. Hoping he proves us wrong at the tour

Definitely not winless - he sorted that out at the first race of the year back in Feb Pretty much constantly been injured since then, so hard to tell what kind of race form he's going to have from now on. The depth of talent in the TdF sprints is looking pretty epic this season, so anyone who's not feeling red hot is going to have a tough time!

[UpFromOne]

Is Ms. Rivera's saddle position legal? US Nats are not UCI rules, but???