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All roads lead to Harrogate: Pro cycling 2019

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  • ursus arctos
    replied
    Those are wonderful.

    He will be missed.

    RIP PouPou

    Leave a comment:


  • longeared
    replied
    L'Equipe have put together a lovely series of images from his life, including an appearance on Superstars in 1976 and reminding me that he was also MVdP's grandfather.

    In a somewhat unfortunate piece of timing, this news was released while Ag2r were holding a press conference to announce Bardet is doing the Giro next summer and will be missing the Tour entirely. Oh, Romain.

    Leave a comment:


  • longeared
    replied
    Raymond Poulidor has died aged 83. He won the 1964 Vuelta and finished on the Tour de France podium eight times without ever winning the thing. He came close on occasion, his battle with Anquetil in 1964 is one of the greatest Tours ever and on the Puy de Dome produced probably the most famous photo in the history of the sport.



    He should have won in 1966, but Anquetil marked him out of the race and the unheralded Lucien Aimar took the win. Famously he never even wore the yellow jersey at all, he came so close in the 1967 prologue but was beaten by a fraction of a second. After he retired he was a regular on the race even up to this year, wearing a yellow polo shirt - anyone who's ever been to the race will have seen him being driven around in a car with his name on. He was one of France's great sporting heroes. Merci Poupou.

    Leave a comment:


  • Antepli Ejderha
    replied
    Mark Cavendish’s sunset years deserve to be champagne supernovas

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...y_to_clipboard

    An interesting piece about Cavendish, more hope than expectation.

    Leave a comment:


  • longeared
    replied
    Being reported that Cavendish's contract is only for one year, which suggests he'll retire at the end of next season if he doesn't find some sort of form. He might manage a big win somewhere, but realistically he looks done.

    Not looked at that Giro route in any detail, but the standouts are that huge transfer from Hungary to Sicily which will be a logistical pain for many given that there isn't a rest day in between - it's about 1650km by road. Also using the Agnello and Izoard on the final mountain stage is ... brave.

    Exciting news of the week was Cofidis (provisionally) getting back on the World Tour and Dimension Data managing to hang on to their place.

    Leave a comment:


  • Antepli Ejderha
    replied
    Is that a good move for Cavendish or is he finished as a Grand Tour sprinter and stage winner?

    Leave a comment:


  • ursus arctos
    replied
    Mark Cavendish has signed for Bahrain Merida, re-uniting with Rod Ellingworth.

    The Sam Bennett saga continues, with Lefevere claiming that Bora wanted a "trade" of Alvaro Hodeg in return.

    Peter Sagan is going to ride the Giro, which is avoiding the western half of the country next year.

    Leave a comment:


  • longeared
    replied
    It's like a geographically more extreme version of the 2009 or 2016 routes.

    In other news I see Rohan Dennis has been linked to INEOS, with a view to initally preparing for the Olympics and later advancing to contend for GC in Grand Tours. Why on earth does he think that might be the best team to do that? He turns 30 next summer and has never shown any abilities that suggest he's going to be a serious contender over three weeks. They've already got a fuckton of GC riders, most of whom are younger than him, and at best he'd end up as the new Poels.

    Taylor Phinney has retired. Never the same after that crash, but he's effectively admitted that part of the problem was not a lack of talent but rather not working hard enough.

    Leave a comment:


  • delicatemoth
    replied
    Ah, it's discussed in this piece on inrng - http://inrng.com/2019/10/tour-de-france-route-thoughts/

    Leave a comment:


  • ursus arctos
    replied
    Very much so.

    It is rather a Tour du Pays d'Oc or a Petit Boucle.

    Leave a comment:


  • delicatemoth
    replied
    Most comments I've seen are about the technical aspects of the route (on which I agree with longeared) but what jumped out at me is that the entire Tour bar two stages (one of which is the final stage, the other the time trial) is in the southern half of France. There can't have been many Tours missing such a large chunk of the country.

    Leave a comment:


  • Gangster Octopus
    replied
    Hmmm, they're arriving in Paris just after our 25th. We'd best book our hotel early.

    Leave a comment:


  • longeared
    replied
    Apart from that, I broadly like the route. Lot of climbing in the first week including Orcieres Merlette for the first time in years, which feels pleasingly old school and Mont Aigoual, famous for its appearance in The Rider but neither of the Pyrenean stages are summit finishes and I don't think they don't go over 2000 metres until the Madeline on stage 17 to Meribel. Only one time trial, Planche des Belles Filles on the final Saturday, and they're only going to the traditional finish rather than the gravel track they used this year. That noise you hear is Dumoulin and Roglic ringing the Jumbo Visma management to ask who gets leadership at the Giro.

    The Etape is the second stage around Nice, though that had been announced a couple of weeks back. No major changes to any of the race classifications by the sound of it.

    Leave a comment:


  • longeared
    replied
    La Course is going to be on the Champs again. Fuck's sake.

    Leave a comment:


  • longeared
    replied
    And now they've shown the review of this year's race including the unmatchable glory of Movistar being awarded the team prize, here's the route.

    Leave a comment:


  • longeared
    replied
    The 2020 Tour de France route is about to be announced, even if much of it has already been leaked. They've just begun proceedings by having various riders on the stage. Froome is there and was walking with a noticeable limp. Bardet is wearing a jacket / brown roll neck combo. Oh, Romain.

    Leave a comment:


  • ursus arctos
    replied
    43 with 10km to go, as the chasing group dawdles and it starts to look like Evenepoel in Donostia

    Roglić now trying to chase him down on his own

    Leave a comment:


  • ursus arctos
    replied
    Mollema with half a minute with 13 km to go in Lombardia

    Nibali has cracked rather brutally.

    Leave a comment:


  • longeared
    replied
    Mads Pedersen had his second DNF since becoming world champion. Curse of the rainbow jersey! (In fairness he's been suffering from a heavy cold, which may or may not be related to six and an half hours racing round Yorkshire in the pissing rain)

    Leave a comment:


  • ursus arctos
    replied
    And now he wins Tre Valli going away.

    There is a reason why he is the favourite for Lombardia.

    Leave a comment:


  • ursus arctos
    replied
    Primož Roglič is quote fond of the climb from Bologna to San Luca, and adds the Giro d'Emilia to his list of 2019 victories

    Leave a comment:


  • longeared
    replied
    Data doping in the inaugural British Cycling eRacing championships

    British Cycling has upheld a charge of Unsporting Conduct in the British Cycling eRacing Championships, under clause 5 of our disciplinary code.

    The charge related to manipulation of pre-race data to gain an unfair advantage via in-game equipment by the winner of the event, Cameron Jeffers. Jeffers has accepted a specified sanction of a £250 fine and a six-month suspension from all racing. He has been disqualified from the event and the title has now been awarded to James Phillips.

    Leave a comment:


  • longeared
    replied
    It can't have been much fun for those who live on the circuit as apart from the racing all week there were times when the roads were closed for training and group rides, so I have some sympathy with them. From what I saw of the town centre on my pair of visits there were plenty of people there and everything seemed reasonably normal. There were a few shops where they'd evidently shut their doors for the duration and decided not to bother. Some of these businesses seem to have had unreasonable expectations or had decided in advance it was going to be a disaster, I can't imagine if you're selling, say, luxury wallpaper, you're expecting thousands of Belgians to come and purchase some rolls as a souvenir.

    The area of the Stray where the fan zone was based was a right muddy mess on Saturday and I don't imagine it'll be any better this week what with more rain and they'll have had a load of vehicles on site to do take down. Given the time of year it'll probably look scruffy for much of the winter but it's grass and it'll grow back, some sensible horticultural management and it'll look broadly fine again by next summer.

    Harrogate is very much a NIMBY sort of town - as someone said on another site, it's a place where if they don't try and have events then the same folk will bemoan the decline of the area and it'll all turn into charity shops. There does seem to be a lot of call for the council not to host cycling in future. If that turns out to be the case then that would be a blow to the Tour de Yorkshire given that many of the big cities steer clear of the race anyway.

    Leave a comment:


  • Capybara
    replied
    That's pretty standard for Harrogate. There's always a minority who will moan about anything. Details of road closures and the route were notified to households and businesses weeks/months in advance. It may be that some businesses lost out but most of the town centre was operating pretty normally throughout. The Stray will be fine, and only one corner was used for the fan zone anyway. My only complaint was that I couldn't get into any of my favourite town centre pubs because they were packed and I had to walk for ten minutes to get a pint. Apart from (some of) the weather, the whole thing was brilliant.

    Leave a comment:


  • delicatemoth
    replied
    "Give us all the money that we would have made, honest, if that bloody cycling hadn't been here!"

    https://www.harrogateadvertiser.co.u...ips-1-10030344

    Leave a comment:

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