2018 PRO thread

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

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coriordan
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Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2017 3:30 pm

by coriordan

Who's the Astana rider who won AGR?

REGICYCLE
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Location: The 'Rif

by REGICYCLE

Michael Valgren

by Weenie


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LeDuke
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Location: Front Range, CO

by LeDuke

REGICYCLE wrote:
Thu Sep 20, 2018 10:25 pm
I get the feeling that if there is a Colombian favourite it should be Rigo...
Personally i think it will be between A or S Yates, Valverde and Alaphillippe, with Omar Fraile as my dark horse :D
That's my opinion as well.

Truth be told, I think he's less talented than many of the other Colombian riders, but is a better bike RACER than most of them.

Alaphillippe is who I'd want to win. Yates would be fine. Moscon wins and I'll break my TV.

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DOUG
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by DOUG

Rigo also has a pretty decent sprint as well. He's not going to come over the top of Valverede or Alaphillipe but if its him and a bunch of climbers at the bottom of the descent I know who I'd put my money on. Of course he would need to be in the front group in the first place which I think may be a bridge too far but who knows, he may surprise.

Rondje
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by Rondje

I can't really say why maybe it's being chauvinistic. But I expect something of Poels, he's my darkhorse. He won LBL so the distance should be no problem for him + he is strong on steep climbs while he had to work for Froome. Now he can ride his own race without having to worry about Sky and prove himself. The Dutch team is also strong enough with Dumoulin, Mollema, Kruijswijk, Kelderman, Oomen, etc. If Gesink didn't crash it might have been the strongest climbing team around. The only problem is that even some can finish fast, they lack a real punch like Valverde and Alaphillippe have.

dominikk
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by dominikk

Hope it'll be Slovenia-n WC race ...
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mrgray
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by mrgray

@bilwit - i thank you for all of this excellent information. it seems that Wiggin's announcement on his podcast (during tdf i think) re: revelations to come has fizzled out no? i presume he was just drumming up business?
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tymon_tm
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by tymon_tm

^^Roglic would be my personal favourite. it seems unlikely for recent champs - that's Kwiato and Sags - to even fight for it. there's Alphaville of course, but I don't know, something tells me the French, despite arguably the strongest team, will underperform. perhaps Nibali taking Vuelta easy will shine, I'd really like to see him win some more one day races, he's so great to watch.

and I do think Valv's getting on that podium again. he's had a crazy solid year, he's got both the legs and the instincts to add another 3rd to his list
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Kjetil
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by Kjetil

What are the chances that the women's RR won't be an orange feast?
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tymon_tm
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by tymon_tm

meanwhile Big Tom loses yet another solid domestique with Ten Dam signing with Oranje :lol:

while CCC might not have any bright stars (GVA's hallmark moments are arguably in the past) but I kinda like how they mix young talents with experienced riders
kkibbler wrote: WW remembers.

Rondje
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by Rondje

It weird that this announcement took so long because in The Netherlands it's been known for a longer time, that's also why Roche was brought in. A similar rider with experience as Ten Dam.


@ Kjetil or the Women's ITT with V Dijk V Vleuten en VD Breggen. Road race can go wrong, just look at the European championships where they gave it away.

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LeDuke
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by LeDuke

It was on CN a month ago...

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ten-dam ... cc-set-up/


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bilwit
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by bilwit

mrgray wrote:
Fri Sep 21, 2018 10:31 am
@bilwit - i thank you for all of this excellent information. it seems that Wiggin's announcement on his podcast (during tdf i think) re: revelations to come has fizzled out no? i presume he was just drumming up business?
he's alluded to it in a different interview outside of the podcast (or maybe it was in the earlier episodes), my understanding is that a private investigation is taking place and that so far what they've found out seems to suggest the jiffy bag thing was started by someone with an obvious agenda but they're still gathering all the facts before they say anything

As for possible theories, it would be real juicy if it was someone from the Froome camp trying to get him another Tour title but from all the apologetic tones he's trying to get across to Froome, this is probably not the case. It's more likely that the truth is more boring and exactly what we already know.. someone from the Daily Mail digging up reciepts to find the next huge story (and did so succesfully in terms of public outroar and trashing his reputation, despite nothing revealed actually directly proved anything against him).

Jugi
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by Jugi

tymon_tm wrote:
Fri Sep 21, 2018 10:57 am
^^Roglic would be my personal favourite. it seems unlikely for recent champs - that's Kwiato and Sags - to even fight for it. there's Alphaville of course, but I don't know, something tells me the French, despite arguably the strongest team, will underperform. perhaps Nibali taking Vuelta easy will shine, I'd really like to see him win some more one day races, he's so great to watch.
I wouldn’t discount any of those guys. Roglic and Alaphilippe seem to be on an upward trajectory. Kwiato and Nibali seem like they have been saving themselves and preparing for the worlds during the latter part of the season (if not for the whole season in Nibali’s case). My understanding is that Sagan has been losing weight to have a chance in the mountains. It will be a really long shot for him, but it is a very long and hard race. Anything can (and will) happen.

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themidge
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by themidge

So who's going to win the TT? Who's on form, who's riding?
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The big climb might make the race actually exciting to watch :D.

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