2018 PRO thread

[Rondje]

Ivan Cortina from Bahrein Merida did a Red Hook Crit last year.


On other news, I just saw a post that AG2R will be riding on Merckx bikes next year.

Where did you saw that?

On wielerflits.nl a Dutch cycling website.

[Willier]

[alistaird]

Just wait till Wiggle start selling it at 50% rrp

For those of us in the UK - Bicester village at often more that 50% off. My last long sleeve was more than 75% off...

A



Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[tymon_tm]

that's a good looking Bianchi

[themidge]

So merely racing your bike in crits, ultra-endurance or mixed-terrain makes you wankily hipsterish? Is there something about these events that makes you feel this way? Basically classic road racing or nothing? Or is it the Rapha bit that's doing it for you?

It isn't that the riders are competing in the races, its more that EF have become the laughing stock of world tour racing, and this wont help that one bit. They hardly ever win anything, which is fine, but they don't even look like they're trying. The world tour is for road racing, and the thing is, this move will make them worse at it, so why bother staying as a top pro team? I also think it isn't really in the spirit of gravel/ultra-endurance/even-red-hook-to-a-lesser-extent events to have a concerted professional team effort to do them and do well.
As for Rapha, I'm sure they make good stuff, but they're branding reeks to me of needless pretentiousness. Just look at some of they're adverts, guys with unpleasant tattoos riding through dank misty forests with no helmets on, all because they think it looks cool*. I applaud their success, they have managed to appeal to mamils and hipsters alike after all, but they look so stupid to people like me who don't fit on either of those categories. Maybe I'm just an anti-snob (I don't like it when I see people on uber-bikes they obviously appreciate and I don't like branding in general) but, whatever, I don't really care what EF do, I just wish they wouldn't go about it they way they do.
*obviously it does look cool to a lot of people, but it really isn't my thing!

On another note, that AG2R Merckx is hideous!

[CrankAddictsRich]

Could EF Drapac get anymore wankily hipsterish?
Rapha returns to the WorldTour with EF-Drapac
WorldTour team to add fixed-gear criteriums, ultra-endurance and mixed-terrain events to calendar

So merely racing your bike in crits, ultra-endurance or mixed-terrain makes you wankily hipsterish? Is there something about these events that makes you feel this way? Basically classic road racing or nothing? Or is it the Rapha bit that's doing it for you?

A professional cycling team should be able to compete in bicycle races without prejudice. And say what you want about Rapha (perhaps it's too expensive or the styling doesn't fit your fancy or it's too mainstream or whatever) they still make pretty decent stuff and they have a goal to make cycling more accessible to more people.

Don't have any attachment to fixed-gear crits, ultra endurance, mixed terrain, EF Drapac, nor Rapha, but as far as I'm concerned we need more of this. More exposure to pro atheletes is a great for getting younger kids excited about riding bikes. Especially in the US.

I totally agree... I'm not particularly a fan of any of those things, but I think its cool that they're getting outside the box and doing different things and I'm hoping that it has positive effects of their road results.

[themidge]

I totally agree... I'm not particularly a fan of any of those things, but I think its cool that they're getting outside the box and doing different things and I'm hoping that it has positive effects of their road results.

I hope so too, but I can't help but remain pessimistic about their chances of this working out results-wise. I expect it'll do wonders for marketing and sponsorship deals though

[TiCass]

I don't think Merckx makes TT bike... so I guess they will unveil a new bike at some point.
Anyway, that shows once again how AG2R are serious about TT.

[simurs4]

I wish they would return to the Focus days, those Izalcos with that colour scheme was always and still is a favourite of mine.
I wonder if Factor pulled the pin or AGR2 just decided to part ways.

[KB]

...wow. just wow.

actually I've changed my mind, open up those Puerto files and bring all those names from tennis into light. Federer's a living legend? so is Valverde, I heard they even shared a sofa in the waiting room. or if someone doesn't wanna wait for that - just compare tennis from 80's, 90's even to what Djokovic plays

I never commented about a previous post (yours I think) about scrapping the Puerto stuff, but I disagree with that stance. Whatever the sport we should know. In tennis, Spain has one one of the winningest Slam winners!!! At the end of the day cycling was singled out by the Spanish for treatment but Fuentes always claimed that other sports were involved. The Spanish wouldn't allow football to be dragged into it because of the huge fallout. Same goes for tennis which is also rich and therefore powerful. WADA has criticised tennis in the past for the lack of drug testing so it's a bit rich for tennis players to be slagging off cycling, especially when you see the length of some matches in the Slams.

[Monkeyfudger]

I wonder if Factor pulled the pin or AGR2 just decided to part ways.

Lolz, cycling is all about getting the dentists wanty these days.

This comes after Anglo-Australian brand Factor was rumoured to have ended the two-year agreement with AG2R as it was not conducive to its 'high-end profile'.

[C36]

On another note, that AG2R Merckx is hideous!

That’s a quick simulation made on the web not something official from what I know.



Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

[bilwit]

merckx bikes seem like a huge downgrade..

[AJS914]

I also think it isn't really in the spirit of gravel/ultra-endurance/even-red-hook-to-a-lesser-extent events to have a concerted professional team effort to do them and do well.

There will probably be blowback if a WT pro team goes to Leadville and essentially motorpaces a winner to the finish. Of course, it's already happened on a smaller scale when Armstrong went to Leadville with a couple of domestiques.

[KWalker]

Let me clear up some things for everyone:

1. If you have tattoos and a beard you're not automatically a hipster. Drinking coffee at stops doesn't make you one either. Neither does artsy social media posts or Taylor Phinney trying to be fashionable.
2. Hipsters don't typically pay to race sanctioned events. Most people that would qualify as such play bike polo, do alleycats, radonneur, or just simply ride their bikes.
3. Actual bike hipsters are ultra pretentious about "being authentic" and "craftsmanship". Think NAHBS and dudes that still cling to retro style components and mountain bikes.
4. Further reading: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/book ... eif-t.html
5. At first I thought EF was stupid for doing this, but then I remembered how *f##k* boring pro cycling is. Just look at this thread we are at almost 420 pages and I would guess that 1/2 are about Froome, doping, and disc breaks. Meanwhile American continental racing is tanking and pro teams are vanishing at (slightly) faster rates. World Tour racin hasn't really globalized except for letting rich Princes buy races in boring places, adding riders from developing countries as domestiques, and bumping any race that isn't a vacation down to 2.status. The thing is, a lot of these continental races still are interesting as at their stories. Meanwhile World Tour cycling lacks more than 4 or 5 real personalities and most races tend to go by a predicted script. Less doping has made races often less dynamic and more boring.

Meanwhile, gravel events and fixed gear crits draw a ton of spectators. You can often engage and track riders through apps or livestreams and since amateurs often race the same event there is a lot more fan engagement then just waiting outside a bus. In a lot of races a fan can easily drive or ride to multiple places on the course. Meanwhile if you want to see action in the Tour you have to arrive hours early and stand on the side of the road to watch the riders go by once for a few seconds. Watching races requires pirating streams in other languages and if we didn't have Sagan the top tier of riders would be pretty flat.

I don't love the EF team or like many of it's riders, but at least they're willing to give back and engage. Even if they flat out win a race, their presence will draw more national and local elite riders and will benefit the event.

Cycling has to grow. World Tour road racing and Pro MTB do not have successful models. CX might have the most fan engagement, but is pretty novel and obscure.