2019 PRO thread

[micky]

Sagan really worked hard with shoulders on yesterday sprint by trying to follow Viviani.
Rumour is that he's trying to keep Bennet out of TdF team.

[djcharlou]

Will Porte continue the "Stage9gate" streak this year to make it three in a row ?

I hope not, maybe with low expectations this year and the absence of Froome he could have a decent crack.

Yes even if he didn't show anything extraordinary on this Dauphine, it's maybe a good sign like Nibali in 2014.

[Grobar]

Geraint fall during today's Tour de Suisse stage. He seems ok but he is in the hospital for a more complete check up

[spud]

Sagan really worked hard with shoulders on yesterday sprint by trying to follow Viviani.
Rumour is that he's trying to keep Bennet out of TdF team.

doubt Sagan has to work too hard on that - given the lack of GT rides, Bennet is almost certain to leave the team, and they aren't going to help him raise his profile at the Tour. And Sagan doesn't need more competition for sprints at the tour.

[Dan Gerous]

Geraint fall during today's Tour de Suisse stage. He seems ok but he is in the hospital for a more complete check up

Looks like scrapes only but, he seemed a bit knocked out, hopefully no concussion. But it's kind of back to normal for him, he and Richie Porte are known to crash all the time, 2018 was kind of a freak year for Geraint to not crash both in the Tour and in the races leading up to it...

At this rate, 5 more top favorites crashing out and Porte 'might' have a chance to podium at the Tour, if he can have a freak year of his own and not crash or have bad days.

[bilwit]

the Tour would be 1000x more exciting to watch without Froome or Thomas, can't even recall the last time the Tour was so wide open.. 2011 maybe?

[flying]

Tom Dumoulin abandons altitude training in further setback to Tour de France ambitions
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/raci ... ons-427592

After medical examinations this week, where the irritation to his knee was confirmed,
Dumoulin underwent surgery to remove what his medical team initially thought was a
metal splinter but turned out to be a tiny shard of gravel.

Scary how something can be missed in a surgery

[Karvalo]

The mention of a metal fragment was made in a CN article, I think just before the Dauphine?

I know nothing about medicine, but seems odd that for some reason it would be ok to leave a metal splinter in but not a gravel shard

[Dan Gerous]

I know nothing about medicine, but seems odd that for some reason it would be ok to leave a metal splinter in but not a gravel shard

They didn't intend to leave the metal splinter in and decided to operate because it was gravel, they decided to operate to take the metal out and only then figured it was actually gravel.

[Dan Gerous]

According to UAE's Giuseppe Saronni, Fernando Gaviria is doubtful for the Tour de France, still has knee problems that took him out of the Giro.

[tymon_tm]

so looks like Dumo and Thomas might not be in optimal shape for the Tour (if they are even going to start the damn race), perhaps it's one in a million chance for a non-itt specialist to win this year?

[Dan Gerous]

Nothing serious for Geraint, just small superficial injuries.
https://www.teamineos.com/article/thoma ... isse-crash

[bilwit]

did anyone catch the Mont Ventoux race today? OR POSSIBLY HAVE A REPLAY LINK????

Did watch the last 5km live.. No link sorry.

Bardet repeatedly attacked Herrada without success.. Herrada just burned him in the last 400m.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

Pretty impressive considering he just finished Dauphine the day before.. still hoping he and Porte are in shape to contest the GC at the Tour but it's probably more likely that they ride into an anonymous top 15 spot instead. Interestingly Porte has commented a number of times this year about how he hasn't changed much in his preparation but the peleton has been "absolutely flying" all year. Reminds me of Lemond making comments about noticing heavy puncheurs dropping the climbers in the high mountains once upon a time

[Dan Gerous]

Pretty impressive considering he just finished Dauphine the day before.. still hoping he and Porte are in shape to contest the GC at the Tour but it's probably more likely that they ride into an anonymous top 15 spot instead. Interestingly Porte has commented a number of times this year about how he hasn't changed much in his preparation but the peleton has been "absolutely flying" all year. Reminds me of Lemond making comments about noticing heavy puncheurs dropping the climbers in the high mountains once upon a time

I thought Porte had been sick throughout winter and spring, the others are not flying more than any other year, he's just slower. I have more hope for Bardet than Porte... I also hope Pinot can stay healthy through the whole Tour.

[micky]

Bardet quotations are getting lower and lower every year.
The french duo, Bardet and Pinot, could aim at stage wins and Polka dot but actually there's always that Alaphilippe who looks on coke.