2018 PRO thread

[peted76]

Has anybody seen any spectator recordings of these draftings on social media?

Yes.. seemed pretty blatent.. reported here - https://twitter.com/Pflax1/status/999026661520637953

[BdaGhisallo]

> Incidental drafting where the rider doesn't actively seek it out, should not, imo.
Why not? Even if the rider is not at fault, he gains time while drafting. So docking him 20-30 seconds is more fair, than leaving him with the actual recorded time.

So if a rider comes up on a convoy vehicle, following his minute man, through a village and the road is not wide enough for him to not be behind it and still be on the road surface, is the rider supposed to slam on the brakes and diminish his speed until the vehicle gets far enough ahead of him that he cannot be considered to be drafting? Why should he be penalized for vehicles impeding his progress?

If there is a sidewalk alongside this narrow stretch of road, would the rider then be okay to hop on the sidewalk to get around the vehicle that is in his way slowing his progress? Or would the offense of riding on the sidewalk outweigh the offense of drafting?

[bilwit]

funny how this is only a thing for TTs when camera motorbikes willingly and routinely give leadouts to breakaways and the peleton all the time

[wingguy]

Not really sure what Sky's plan was today, but I don't think Poels is going to have too many allies in the bunch for the rest of the race

Most everyone else except Bora would have preferred an easier day out for once I think!

[Tinea Pedis]

That being said, he looked horrible on the TT. I know he's on the short side, so it may be hard to find a bike that allows him to get low enough in the front, but even his saddle position looked weird. His knees were pushing way out to the side almst like when you see a beginner that has their saddle too low.

His positon has nothing to do with the bike, rather he needs to turtle a little more. That said I've seen worse and he's not a TT specialist by any stretch.

As for his knees, in particular his right. You could really notice in the TT however its always been like that. As seen below

https://youtu.be/qWsJ9Bo6ccE?t=53

and (humble brag) especially when riding behind him. As I did when I took both he and Montaguti for a ride last Feb when they were in Australia for Cadel's Race.

So "horrible"? Nah.

[UpFromOne]

I understand the importance of the TV motos and their job, as well as all the cars.
But ALL vehicles need to stay the hell away from riders.
If a vehicle driver can't foresee the road conditions and causes the drafting incident, then fine the vehicle alot of euros, not the rider.

[Rondje]

If you look at Jered Gruber’s Instagram photos and story the Finestre of tommorow looks terrible (to ride, that is). https://instagram.com/p/BjIhNSCg_Cp/

[CrankAddictsRich]

This is what it looked like in 2015... still some of the most memorable images from a bike race for me. Based on Gruber's instgram image, it looks to be a LOT more snowy now than it was a few years ago.

[guyc]

This is what it looked like in 2015... still some of the most memorable images from a bike race for me. Based on Gruber's instgram image, it looks to be a LOT more snowy now than it was a few years ago.

[NS]

The A roads round Bury have worse surfaces than that.

[themidge]

^^ That actually looks pretty nice as far as gravel goes, very few big rocks and even fewer potholes.
I'll just say that around Edinburgh, I've got rather good at choosing lines...

[happyon2wheels]

What an elegant rider Contador was (still is, I presume, just not racing anymore)

[spdntrxi]

tiz stream down for anyone else ?

[BdaGhisallo]

tiz stream down for anyone else ?

Yup. I wonder if RCS somehow got to it.

[AJS914]

Tiz is down for me too. I'm watching the French link with my VPN set to France from the Steephill page.

Pretty boring with 11km to go. The break has a 15 minute lead and the peloton is riding the whole width of the road and taking a recovery day though I guess they will light it up on the last climb.