Roglic's Revenge: Pro Cycling 2021

[Billy Casper]

I would be thrilled if Cav could somehow a) make the team for the Tour de France and b) somehow win a stage there.

I'm not holding my breath though.

[longeared]

It'd be lovely to see it happen, but right now I'd say there's very little chance of him ever doing the race again. His achievements are too far in the past to justify selection and they've got several better sprinters - Bennett, Hodeg, Ballerini, Senechal, Jakobsen if he recovers. He'd have to do something like winning at World Tour level against other top sprinters to make himself a candidate. They're unlikely to take him in a domestique role given that they can't be sure he'd get over the mountains. They do take some right mix and match line ups which show that the race isn't the team's highest priority of the season but it doesn't feel as if he's anywhere near reasonable contention.

[Sits]

Along with the Cycling Podcast, my learning experience is being improved with a daily check in on the Cycling News website, to see what action there’s been.

Some great photos here from the Trofeo Laigueglia.

[delicatemoth]

Vos and Van Vleuten at the front of Strade Bianche with 10km to go.

[delicatemoth]

They got pulled back in. Excellent teamwork from SD Worx results in Chantal Blaak mugging Longo Borghini on the final climb to take a good win.

[Sits]

They got pulled back in.

Pacino non-musical earworm.

I never knew there were races on dirt/gravel until this week. Looks spectacular in the dry, but must be terrible to ride.

[longeared]

It's even better (worse) when it rains, there was a particularly famous Giro stage across the strade in the wet a few years back. MVdP looked incredibly strong on the climb to the finish there. Good to see Pidcock getting 5th and my delight at seeing Vos manage the same rather tempered by finding her attack was brought back.

Paris Nice starts tomorrow, nightly highlights on ITV4 for those in the UK. Roglic is starting his season here and there's not all that many GC riders so expect he'll win. Race should reach the finish this year and at least it won't be like last when it felt the whole thing could be stopped at any moment. Must have been a bit like that watching county cricket in the final week of August 1939.

Doesn't seem to have been reported much, but Ride London has been renewed for a further ten years starting 2022. There's the first major Covid casualty as the men's race has been scrapped for good. The women's race is continuing but sounds as if they're just doing the criterium round the Mall rather than letting them go climb Box Hill. Sigh.

[ursus arctos]

I have been in cars that didn't do that climb as quickly as Van der Poel

Mercy

[Sits]

Why did so many of the heavy hitters do the Strade rather than the Paris-Nice, do they usually start on consecutive days, and does anyone do both? I noticed that riders did both Belgian races over last weekend but both were one day only.

Like I said, there’ll be some pretty basic questions coming from this direction for a while.

[delicatemoth]

Do you mean the stage race heavy hitters? Bernal was in part reconnoitering the route for a Giro stage (as was Sivakov), but that 3rd place will have done wonders for his confidence. I suspect Pogacar was only racing cos he's in shape from having had to do the UAE Tour (almost certainly a team requirement rather than personal choice) and fancied a stab at a classic that in theory offers a fair chance to climbers. I assume Simon Yates was there to get some exercise before Tirreno-Adriatico, likewise Buchmann and Bardet (though he seems to have been trying to go more classic the last couple of years anyway). Pogacar and Bernal are also going to T-A...

...which should help answer your question regarding riders doing both. As well as the above, MvdP, WVA, Alaphilippe and Fuglsang are all going to T-A, which starts on Wednesday. I doubt many riders would want to go hard in this race then pick up and head straight for Paris-Nice. SB, T-A then Milan-San Remo (March 20) is a very logical racing block, though the GC men won't be going to M-SR.

[Sits]

Thanks dm, yes I suppose I meant the Grand Tour heavy hitters.

[longeared]

Porte gonna Porte.

https://twitter.com/sebpiquet/status/1368586934205964290

[longeared]

And now he's abandoned, which suggests a significant injury if he can't try and drag himself to the finish and see if he recovers overnight.

Apparently Cav finished second in the GP Monsere earlier this afternoon, Tim Merlier taking his second win of the week.

[Ray de Galles]

Only managed to see the last kilometre but what a ridiculous finish from Sam Bennett, there appears to be nobody anywhere near as good as him right now.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/seaningle/status/1370309847573487617

[Nefertiti2]

More here

https://twitter.com/cageyrant/status/1370315701064499200?s=21

[longeared]

I assume there will be an appeal in some form given the way that neither side covered themselves in glory during the tribunal - GMC introducing sketchy new evidence during their summing up, Freeman's general evasiveness throughout.

Paris - Nice has not really been a thriller this week given that Roglic is in a different class to the rest of the field, and one of his main rivals in Brandon McNulty has crashed out this morning. It's finally been confirmed that the weekend stages have been revised to keep them away from Nice at local request, so now we've got a pair of short stages to finish the race which might be an opportunity for someone to try an ambush.

Alaphilippe had his first win of the season in Tirreno yesterday and almost put his arms up too early again, MVdP was closing in fast by the line.

[NHH]

From the outside reading pieces like this, it seems like British cycling is a hotbed of hypocrisy, venality and egregious doping, with a tall tale told of marginal gains as an all encompassing philosophy (one gobbled up by politicos and credulous business-types) covering the much more base reasons for success. The mention of the Mail editor's safe, MPs and other shenanigans suggest this has tentacles in lots of places, not one of which will ever see the light of day now they have a guilty verdict against the Doctor. If you add in this and Gymnastics' problems, it seems that it is impossible to achieve Olympic sporting success without being total cunts.

[longeared]

Oof! Poor Gino Mader.

[Sits]

This just doesn’t really wash does it:

”The Team fully supports the work of the GMC and it is very clear from their report that Richard Freeman fell short of the ethical standards required of him as a doctor and acted dishonestly,” a statement from Ineos Grenadiers said.

“However the Team does not believe that any athlete ever used or sought to use Testogel or any other performance-enhancing substance. No evidence has been provided that this ever happened or that there has been any wrongdoing by any athlete at any point.”

So who was it for then?

[jefe]

The Pro tour race that was supposed to start last year in Baltimore is on for this year, officially.

[Sits]

Been catching up on highlights of the Tirreno Adriatico (stages 1-4). What a beautiful race.

[longeared]

Pissing it down in Italy today. MVdP attacked about 50k from home and led solo by three minutes at one point. Now Pogacar has countered from behind and is closing the gap massively - you can visibly see MVdP tying up and needing to take an energy gel with 5k left. The fact that it's MVdP fading is evident from the fact that the gap from Pogacar to WvA behind has remained consistently around 45 seconds, which Kirby predictably hasn't noticed.

[longeared]

MVdP holds on by nine seconds and was too tired to even raise his arms in victory. Bernal's just coming in about two minutes back.

[ursus arctos]

Would anyone blame Roglic if he avoids France going forward?