Roglic's Revenge: Pro Cycling 2021

[longeared]

Naesen and van Avermaet very much embodying how teams can often just be a bunch of blokes wearing the same jersey.

[Sits]

Nice Ghent action with van Aert delivering. I'm still a novice watching anything that's not the Tour and I love the farm tracks etc. Give 'em something to think about. That and crosswinds.

[ursus arctos]

[Sits]

What an amazing shot. Who’s stacking?

[ursus arctos]

It is Alaphilippe's encounter with a motorbike from the Tour of Flanders last October

[delicatemoth]

Coverage of the women's Dwars door Vlaanderen is already on, nearly 80km out from the finish.

[Sits]

Now I know I’m old. Look at the photo at the top of this article. They look about fifteen:

[longeared]

That picture dates from circa 2015, mind.

Only found out recently that Wout is the son of Jos, who I recall from his PDM days. Which means I remember both of their fathers racing.

[ursus arctos]

AVV's first win for Movistar

Movistar's first win of the season, too (men or women)

[delicatemoth]

She opened her sprint at 300m and all Niewiadoma could do was stay in her slipstream. AVV rules supreme.

Men's race just about to start I think. I'm afraid OTF's least favourite commentator is on duty.

[longeared]

Enjoyed seeing Barguil in the main group behind van Baarle and Cofidis getting second, but a bit of a duffer otherwise.

[delicatemoth]

Not sure if I've ever seen a gap to the front hovering between 20 and 30 seconds for the last 50 km of a race before. Chapeau to van Baarle but that really was a pretty half-arsed chase.

[longeared]

Paris - Roubaix has unsurprisingly been postponed and rescheduled for October - women's race on Saturday 2nd, men a day later. That'll be a cracking week should it happen as it follows straight on from the Worlds in Flanders and we may well get to see the new wearers of the stripey jerseys.

Now I'd like it if France could annex the province of Liege and get Fleche Wallonne called off too. I'd be much more on board with Macron if he could manage that.

[ursus arctos]

The French don't want it, in part because it didn't go great the last time they had it

[Sits]

Excellent - full coverage of the men’s Tour of Flanders (not the women’s unfortunately) on SBS (Sunday evening into the small hours for us). I’ll have to record the latter parts as I can’t do late nights.

Out of the big three I’m going van Aert. He rested for Wednesday’s race while van der Poel and Alaphilippe raced, unsuccessfully. Plus Alaphilippe hasn’t been on song, and I’ve heard and read that VDP still hasn’t got over his assault on Strade Bianche. Now watch as JA and MvdP race to the finish and Wout is DNF.
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These Spring classics have been an absolute revelation for one of the mass whose exposure has started and ended with the Tour. I’ve started reading Harry Pearson’s The Beast, the Emperor and the Milkman, It’s like discovering a new world

[longeared]

Ronde Sunday. There's 150k to go in the men's race, the peloton is just tackling the first cobbled climb of the Katteberg. A break went earlier and is twelve minutes up, not entirely sure I'd be happy having Stefan Bissegger in there given that he won the time trial in Paris Nice and was present in the closing stages of one of the recent semi classics. Anyway the chase has just begun to take shape, there's Tim Declercq and Edoardo Affini on the front making small inroads into the deficit. The other early highlight was Fedorov and Vergaerde getting disqualified for a fracas. Fedorov is notionally Astana's leader today, although their line up suggests they can't really be arsed with this race. They got Hugo Houle in the break so that'll be a satisfactory day for them.

[ursus arctos]

It was embarrassing.

https://twitter.com/laflammerouge16/status/1378632883653517313

[longeared]

"It saps the legs out of your energy" - Adam Blythe.

[ursus arctos]

Just brutal

https://twitter.com/ciclismointer/status/1378710680581382144

[ursus arctos]

Too brutal, as it turns out

Asgreen wins

[delicatemoth]

Did MvdP blow up literally 20 metres from the line?

A wonderful spring for Asgreen.

Hopefully the women's race will be along shortly, 65km or so to go.

[ursus arctos]

Maybe 30-40, but he knew that he just didn't have anything left and shut it down

[longeared]

Enjoyed all that (the men's race anyway, haven't seen the women's yet). Bit of a race of attrition at times as every berg seemed to steadily identify the strongest riders. Asgreen made the decisive move at about 24k to go just as Alaphilippe hit the wall so it was good to see him win. MVdP really does blow up when he blows up doesn't he, although he was pushing a huge gear in the sprint and that move on the Kwaremont was something else. Hopefully next year we'll have crowds back for the full experience, and it'd be really nice if they could stick the Muur back on the course.

[Sits]

Good to see my beginner’s prediction of Wout came off then. Great fun.

Edit: Just watching highlights on SBS On Demand, and Asgreen is putting a lot of pressure on the Vans 30-40km out. When van der Poel breaks 17km out and Asgreen goes with him, it’s the latter who looks more comfortable.

[Sits]

Rog bags the TT in the Basque. That'll be a morale booster.