How come the lead cyclist only gets 86% drag? Air being forced forward from the riders behind?
Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Roglic's Revenge: Pro Cycling 2021
Collapse
X
-
-
Chris Boardman did a piece on this in ITV's Tour de France coverage a few years back and said that putting the telly camera bike behind a breakaway reduces drag for the riders in the move. Equally from a physics perspective a team shouldn't put a rider in a break below a certain number of riders just to cover the move, as they would be of more use back in the peloton chasing. Obviously there might be tactical considerations on the road that outweigh this.
Speaking of the independent channel, there was some fine ITV-esque coverage from Quest tonight, for some reason they showed Saturday's stage again rather than today's highlights. Anyway I see Almeida's challenge has gone south immediately and Yates is repeating his performance from last year (hopefully without getting Covid again) by winning the main warm up race and then losing time at the earliest opportunity.
Comment
-
Landa crashes badly on the way into Cattolica and is out of the race. Sivakov also goes down and is effectively eliminated from GC contention (though that could be good news for teammate Bernal if the Franco-Russian rider isn't significantly debilitated).
Ewan wins the sprint.
Comment
-
Sivakov seems to crash quite a lot and that was his fault, he wasn't concentrating as the peloton concertinad and ploughed into his team mate in front. He's not going to start tomorrow. Landa at least managed a variation on his usual ploy of losing time in the first week and spending the rest of the race trying to regain it.
Silly finish that. Sort of thing that the CPA should be jumping up and down about.
Comment
-
A Deceuninck–Quick-Step rider has just been absolutely ploughed through by the Bike Exchange car as the driver was chatting to someone in an official's car.
It could have caused multiple fractures, luckily the rider appears to be back up and riding.
Comment
-
The teams with real GC contenders are clearly quite happy saving energy by not having to defend the jersey for the first week, it will be interesting to see if Bernal or Evenepoel go dor it tomorrow so as to hold it on the rest day, but I wouldn't be shocked if they don't. Just another example of how Ineos' approach differs from Sky's, notwithstanding the continuity of personnel.
Lotto Soudal are completely aligned with Ewan. They don't have a GC guy and Ewan being out means that he doesn't have to be cosseted over the climbs. They can take a shot at stage wins while the three GT stage win quest will keep them relevant in local media during a portion of the season where they are usually an afterthought.
Cofidis facts
https://twitter.com/inrng/status/1393585533150969863
Comment
-
Yeah, this race is not a priority for Lotto so they'll be delighted with what he's achieved, and now as a team they can go stage hunting with no particular pressure as they've got some wins in the bank. Though I do wonder how much Ewan's "knee pain" came from looking at the roadbook and noting there's a possible sprint on Monday and the next after that isn't until Friday.
Comment
-
This may have already been mentioned but I love EF Education's Giro change kit this season
I am really warming to Hereford-born, French-raised GB-licensed Simon Carr too :
"The one good reason I’ve got for having a GB licence is that I would consider myself to be British or Welsh," he says. "My whole family is from Wales and my grandparents have always supported Wales whenever the rugby is on. One of the reasons to stick with it is for the Commonwealth Games and be able to race for Wales. I think that would be the closest thing that I would feel to race for a national team where [I feel that] it is the pinnacle.”
Comment
-
Bernal smashing the gravel slope finish here, back on form and has done enough to the take the pink jersey.Last edited by Ray de Galles; 16-05-2021, 14:36.
Comment
-
Hadn't realised that was Bernal's first Grand Tour stage win. That'll have been a challenge for his fragile back, so we'll see if there are any effects from that. His interview was interesting, saying he'd needed encouragement from his team mates to attack which leads me back to wondering whether he has the strength of personality to lead a big team over the long term. Mohoric had a scary crash on a descent, a motorbike style high side fall, he's out of the race though appears to not be seriously injured.
Elsewhere Connor Swift won the hipsters classic Tro Bo Leon. He did an Alaphilippe in that he put his arms up too early and nearly got caught on the line by Allegaert and Planckaert.
Comment
Comment