2018 PRO thread

[tymon_tm]

Tokio ITT routes revealed - 44km for men and 21 for women... WTF!? who even gave them permission to race bikes in the first place? don't they have home duties or something?

[Multebear]

Does someone speak spanish on this board? And could that someone PLEASE tell Contador, we've seen his thumb on Instagram, we've seen it for several years now, and we got the message: HE'S OK

On 2-3 out of 5 updates, he poses with thumbs up. Please mix it up, mate.

https://www.instagram.com/acontadoroficial/

[AJS914]

And sadly, he probably has professionals handling his social media campaign. At least he's still skinny! Fat, retired pros are horrible to look at.

[MarkTwain]

If I could take back what I wrote, I would. It did not come out right at all. You guys are right for calling me on it....except you Rich.....a little too aggressive.................to think I voted for you to become some brand ambassador.

I would never do that in a group ride. I have had an incident where I lost my cool with a fellow club member AFTER a group ride on the way home when it was just two of us. This is over a 15 mile stretch of road. Both of us presumably tired. I passed him with no previous drafting on my part. waved nodded etc, and continued on my way home down a long headwind laden road. I thought I had plenty of pace to not see him again and that would be that. Didn't feel like socializing, wanted to be done with riding wishing I had taken my car like I normally do. He closed the gap and clung to my wheel for about 4 miles. I did all the normal body language suggesting I wanted him to pull through. He did not. I changed pace drastically, changed position on road etc, and he still sat there. Not feeling like talking and growing irritated I started riding about a centimeter from the drop off of the shoulder trying to put him off the road or at least with nowhere to go.......trying to send a damn message. This continued with absolute silence and a dumb look on his face for the next 4 miles or so. If I could have lulled him into a trance and put him into an obstacle I damn sure would have. No question. I was furious at the time. I finally slowed down abruptly veered to the left a got next to him. Asked him what the hell he was doing and when was he going to pull. He stated he was really tired and didn't feel well and needed the help. I told him to communicate his wants/needs and I would have had no problem getting him back to where he was going. To not say a word and silently draft me for almost 10 miles was not cool, and not normal.

To see Terpstra do that resonated. My opinion is that it was very much intentional as he had been gesturing and yelling for a good while prior to this.

I still don't get it.... I don't know what your club rides are like, but the people I ride with, I like... granted it is weird that he said nothing for 10 miles, but still, I wouldn't run anyone into an obstacle for that, or any other of your perceived infractions. I guess I just don't get it... whether he was there or not, you were still going into the wind on your way home, it really makes no difference that he was there. Maybe he was unwilling to come through and help you because he sees you as the guy on the ride that takes offense to any small infraction or ettiquette violations and yells at people. As for voting for me to become a brand ambassador, thanks, but to clarify, you didn't.. I was chosen to be a Brand Ambassador by Pactimo. The voting process was to determine which of the brand ambassadors had made the best video. Needless to say, I appreciate the vote and I would actually say that this falls right in line with being a brand ambassador. When we sign up, we agree to help our fellow cyclists. I wave at ALL cyclists I come across, no matter whether they're fast, slow, or even if they don't do pulls in the wind. We also agree to stop and ask if someone needs help, if we see them on the side of the road. There's just no reason to be a jerk to someone really.

Back to pro stuff though... I think Terpstra probably did do it on purpose. He was deifnitely mad, but if you watched the podium presentation, he smiled, shook the kid's hand and seemingly apologized.

Except on WW. When, in a moment where someone has apologised for coming off poorly, you choose to not display any empathy and instead double down on him. You're welcome to not agree with his reasoning. But you're coming across as poorly as you believe wheelbuilder behaved. Only he's not a brand ambassador for anyone.

And before you then point out the irony of me stating this (with respect to being a jerk) lets keep in mind all of this is a reflection of what you are putting out there. Take a moment and reflect on that Rich.

[Wookski]

I was chosen to be a Brand Ambassador by Pactimo.

Seriously, WTF is Pactimo?

[Nefarious86]

Seems they are a kit company. No sign of eRich on their socials tho...
Can we get back to the Pro's tidbits rather than the Insalfamousish ramblings?

[CrankAddictsRich]

Except on WW. When, in a moment where someone has apologised for coming off poorly, you choose to not display any empathy and instead double down on him. You're welcome to not agree with his reasoning. But you're coming across as poorly as you believe wheelbuilder behaved. Only he's not a brand ambassador for anyone.

And before you then point out the irony of me stating this (with respect to being a jerk) lets keep in mind all of this is a reflection of what you are putting out there. Take a moment and reflect on that Rich.

Hey fair enough... to clarify though, I was not calling wheelbuilder a jerk in my response. I was trying to say that we should all be kind to our fellow cyclists and not be jerks. I can see how you might have confused the point I was trying to make, though. Wheelbuilder, I apologize for my offense to you. I hope you can accept my apology.

After this post, I won't be responding to this line of topic again... let's get the PRO thread back on topic.

I'll start... what remaining Pro races do we have at this point in the season? Lombardia, right? That's basically it... and then we go into the transfer/ team camp portion of the season and start the build toward TDU?

[Rondje]

If you only look at Lombardia you already missed some very entertaining and nice races in Italy this entire week. It's everything the Ardenne classics are supposed to but don't live up to. One more today, then it's up to Lombardia.

[micky]

Must agree the races during these days are pretty exciting, always been, sometimes much more than Lombardia itself.

[seaneT1]

There is still the tour of Turkey to be concluded, then there is the hammer series in hong kong, and in the very end if I am not mistaken, is the tour of Guanxi. Hammer series was really nice so far, I hope that it continues and gains more traction in the years to come!

[CrankAddictsRich]

If you only look at Lombardia you already missed some very entertaining and nice races in Italy this entire week. It's everything the Ardenne classics are supposed to but don't live up to. One more today, then it's up to Lombardia.

The smaller mid-week races are hard to catch here in the US. At least I can't seem to find them through my usual sources. It seems there is a replay of the one that Skujins won, that I could watch. I'll probably check that out this morning while on the trainer.

There is still the tour of Turkey to be concluded, then there is the hammer series in hong kong, and in the very end if I am not mistaken, is the tour of Guanxi. Hammer series was really nice so far, I hope that it continues and gains more traction in the years to come!

I haven't managed to see any of the Hammer series races this year, but the one I watched last season was good. Defintiely a different style of racing from the different race formats.

[Spinnekop]

Geraint Thomas’s TdF Trophy Stolen.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co ... s-45808609


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Troll level: Expert

[AJS914]

The smaller mid-week races are hard to catch here in the US

Tiz cycling!

[Multebear]

Troll level: Expert

Not really. He's just got a bad sense of humor. First of all, GT won his trophy fair and square. No doping involved. Second LA is just arrogant. Makes it sound like those trophys don't mean anything to him. And you know what, actually they shouldn't. Him getting them was all about cheating.

He should know when to talk and when to shut up.

Don't get me wrong. I really like him, and I enjoy watching/listening to his podcasts. But he shouldn't make fun of guys who did better than him - won a race without doping.

And I know, that we don't know for sure if Thomas was doping, but until proven guilty, he's clean.

[Wookski]

Troll level: Expert

Not really. He's just got a bad sense of humor. First of all, GT won his trophy fair and square. No doping involved. Second LA is just arrogant. Makes it sound like those trophys don't mean anything to him. And you know what, actually they shouldn't. Him getting them was all about cheating.

He should know when to talk and when to shut up.

Don't get me wrong. I really like him, and I enjoy watching/listening to his podcasts. But he shouldn't make fun of guys who did better than him - won a race without doping.

And I know, that we don't know for sure if Thomas was doping, but until proven guilty, he's clean.

Here we go again...

LA is the tour’s GOAT and the comment was funny/ arrogant/ sarcastic in classic “Lance 2.0” style.