Lappartient's is a virtue? Pro Cycling 2018

[ursus arctos]

To be fair, he mentioned a salary cap and a number of other ideas in the same interview.

[Kevin S]

Heh, and watch the TdF won by a rider in the breakaway on stage 5 that can't be caught by a weakened peloton.

[ursus arctos]

Thomas De Gendt - the most dangerous man in cycling

[Kevin S]

The first of August is always wild, isn't it?

https://twitter.com/robhatchtv/statu...53305673392128

https://twitter.com/robhatchtv/status/1024653305673392128

[Levin]

Would a salary cap be a good idea though? How would you organise it so it didn't squeeze rider pay? What would stop Sky (or future Skys) cutting from the edges and keeping a TdF team of equal strength?

I instinctively like the idea of cutting team sizes. Would the number of teams invited rise to keep the same numbers in the peloton? But would it not encourage even more specialization in teams? No point taking that one guy who could do a breakaway if you need everyone for your sprint train.

Is part of the Sky problem that it does nothing but focus on getting one guy the yellow jersey? No sprinters, no one free to go out for a stage win, everything subsumed to the big prize. While other teams are slightly more varied still.

[longeared]

Well Lappartient hasn't bothered with anything like detail in his latest daft ideas, he's not said how it might work. Instinctively it'd have to lead to a larger number of teams being invited, so you'd be cutting the big teams to six riders and inviting Sport Vlaanderen who would be fielding Jordi Warlop to make up the numbers. Smaller team sizes, riders lose jobs at World Tour level. Yeah, way to go.

We know that Sky focus entirely on the yellow jersey, indeed they structure their entire season around this race (in exactly the same way that the British track teams solely focus on the Olympics and everything else is a stepping stone). Ellingworth has said that their biggest mistake in 2012 was nothing to do with the Wiggins / Froome farrago, rather it was taking Cavendish as getting him to win stages and over the mountains was a distraction from the ultimate goal of winning the race. Brailsford gave an ITV interview on Saturday where he remarked about how some of the other major teams make mistakes in selection - the unspoken subtext being that they take sprinters or puncheurs as insurance.

The fundamental point though is that it is absolutely not Lappartient's business to have any view on the entertainment value of the Tour de France. That is ASO's job and if they have any concerns that require UCI assistance then it is up to them to lobby the governing body in the correct manner. Lappartient should not be taking either the side of the organisers or the teams, he should be above that. It's like Gareth Southgate complaining over the contents of Super Sunday.

In other news Direct Energie have indicated they are looking for World Tour promotion (hmm, a new home for Bouhanni?) and Verandas Willems have denied a merger has been agreed with Aqua Blue. FWIW I don't for a minute believe that van Aert will be in Aqua Blue colours next season.

[ursus arctos]

De Gendt will be the new supremo of the Hammer Series

https://twitter.com/DeGendtThomas/status/1024369601570906112

Lappartient seemed to be free associating and feeding off the anti-Sky dominance storyline that dominates the French media. None of it was thought through, and to his credit, he essentially admitted that.

As we have episodically discussed in Football, getting a multi-national salary cap to work is inherently challenging from a legal perspective, and will be even more challenging given that any World Tour cap would necessarily have to work outside the EU.

[delicatemoth]

Van Aert is with Lotto NL Jumbo for 2020, isn't he? Some sort of deal to bring that forward a year would seem likely. I understand he's been doing well in the Tour of Denmark, but I've not been able to watch it (Tiz seems to have been on break since the TDF finished, but resumes service with San Sebastian today).

It remains very annoyingly difficult to find highlights (especially unspoiled highlights) from the Women's Tour. I did watch the Giro Rosa ones mentioned by Ursus, and they were indeed eye-opening - 10-15 minutes of pre-race presentations. On all 8 stages. Some of them shot from Top Of The Pops camera angles. Gotta love Italian TV.

[ursus arctos]

There's nothing other than the UCI clips, which are well produced, but rarely show more than five minutes of racing, which is very frustrating.

The whole AquaBlue/Willen's story seems to have gone quite quiet after Willen's denial of a deal.

[ursus arctos]

Bad crash 20 km out in San Sebastian
Landa and Bernal both still down and being prepared for stretchers

[ursus arctos]

Alaphilippe wins as Quick Step’s domination continues

No word yet on Bernal or Landa.

[ursus arctos]

"Serious facial trauma" for Bernal (reportedly including a broken cheek bone and nose)

Non-displaced fracture of the L1 vertebrae for Landa, who reportedly still intends to race the Vuelta.

[ursus arctos]

Jan Ullrich has been arrested by the Mallorca police for attacking a neighbour's property in what seems to have been a drunken rage. This being Mallorca, the neighbour in question is a well-known German actor.

[Ray de Galles]

Egan Bernal is out of hospital after suffering a "small bleed on the brain”.

[ursus arctos]

Fingers crossed that he makes a full recovery. There’s no way I would let him ride the Vuelta.

[longeared]

Given this and the programme he's ridden this year they really shouldn't race him again this season.

[delicatemoth]

The road race courses for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics have been announced. People are unhappy about the women's course.

[ursus arctos]

Sad to report that the Jan Ullrich story has gotten worse.

He was arrested in Frankfurt early this morning for harming an escort in a hotel room while under the influence of as yet undetermined drugs.

[anton pulisov]

Dutch teletext said German authorities considering charging him for attempted murder.

[ursus arctos]

I think attempted manslaughter is a better translation, but it seems that he has been charged and released on bail.

[ursus arctos]

Ivan Sosa, Androni Giocattoli's 20 year old Colombian phenom, just won the Vuelta a Burgos with a blistering attack in the last 500 metres of the final summit finish that left prior GC leader Miguel Angel Lopez without any answer.

Sosa will be a very large favourite for the Tour de l'Avenir, which starts on Friday.

[longeared]

Piss wet day in the Netherlands for the opening stage of the Binck Bank Tour, so of course Quick Step won. Bit of an unusual looking sprint with Caleb Ewan up against the left barriers, Fabio Jakobsen on the right and then Kittel made a late surge through the middle that was a few metres too late to overhaul the Dane. Nasty crash in the last k and there was a rider still on the ground receiving treatment a good couple of minutes after the finish.

[longeared]

The morning break is going to stick in Binck Bank - Mohoric and three Pro Conti riders.

[longeared]

Taco van der Hoorn (no me neither) of Roompot escapes in the final k and took the stage. Mohoric was heavily marked and it looked as if the Pro Conti riders had agreed a pact not to chase each other.

[ursus arctos]

I've been searching for an explanation since his name came up on a graphic yesterday.

The Dutch seem to treat it as a normal name.