I wouldn't be at all surprised. We're seeing things that haven't been seen before.
Cycling thread
- Thread starter Bruce Wayne
- Start date
Was lucky enough to be in Barca for the final stage of the catalan tour, as good as he is cycling is better when Podacar is out
It's become a foregone conclusion when he races. It's just a matter of when.
davek
Player Valuation: £150m
Training data passports would shine a light on what these cyclists are doing, but they'll fight the compulsory role out of that like they fought compulsory testing on other stuff like EPO before.
In short: anyone who believes men on bikes can cover distances and terrains like they cover that quickly have made a decision to kid themselves and crack on with enjoying the spectacle.
bluelife
Player Valuation: £40m
Just the most fantastic race to watch year in year out.... made up for Wout... but this could well be the one that gets away from Pog... so much needs to go right for you on the day - he probably paid too much for his efforts closing the gap with 100k to go (where on Earth where his teammates for the first 10 mins of his chase!!!)
sbbefc
Player Valuation: £30m
Great race. Seems like Mvdp had the worst luck. Lost 2m30 and still came 4th?. Reckon he'd have won otherwise. Pleased for Wout though.
One of those races where luck plays such a large part (alongside enormous strength). Pogacar must have thought it was his year when vdP had his issues, but WvA turned the clock back. Really pleased for him. He hasn't had anywhere near the success of vdP, so it's nice he's got this in the latter stages of his career. It's also nice that Pogacar hasn't won everything. It's not normal ffs. As it is, he's got to be odds on to get 4 monuments this year, which I'm 99% sure has never been done before.
Black Belt Jones
Player Valuation: £25m
Such a great race and great winner, he's been looking super strong this spring but I was losing faith things would go his way, such a class interview afterwards as well. MvdP was the strongest as per, but some bad luck - he could hardly speak at the end he'd gone so deep.
Women's race had a great finish as well - Franzi Koch put away the two GoaTs of women's cycling, on the same team, in a 2v1 sprint.
I rode the sportive yesterday - easy one of the best events I have ever done. It's 100 miles and a flattish 2500 ft which is very manageable, but can confirm the cobbles are rough AF, right up my street though. Was cool seeing all the secteurs being hammered by the pros today at double the speed. Arenberg was way harder than anything else, and was chaos even in the sportive - very hard to get back up to speed if you slow down. Survived the whole thing with no punctures, an absolute blessing - 32c tubeless tyres with inserts.
Women's race had a great finish as well - Franzi Koch put away the two GoaTs of women's cycling, on the same team, in a 2v1 sprint.
I rode the sportive yesterday - easy one of the best events I have ever done. It's 100 miles and a flattish 2500 ft which is very manageable, but can confirm the cobbles are rough AF, right up my street though. Was cool seeing all the secteurs being hammered by the pros today at double the speed. Arenberg was way harder than anything else, and was chaos even in the sportive - very hard to get back up to speed if you slow down. Survived the whole thing with no punctures, an absolute blessing - 32c tubeless tyres with inserts.
From another forum
It shows the incredible increase in speed in the last few years. Basically, all of the winners from 2021 back would have been outside the timecut in the latest version of the race.
It shows the incredible increase in speed in the last few years. Basically, all of the winners from 2021 back would have been outside the timecut in the latest version of the race.
So, they've all had their weetabix this time round?
sbbefc
Player Valuation: £30m
Could also do with knowing wind direction /speed.
We've seen a similar jump in speeds across every kind of race though in that timeframe. It's not just wind.
I've also heard the "they're gunning it from km 0 now rather than soft pedalling" argument, but I don't know how that stacks up against the huge increase in speed up climbs that we've seen during the post-Covid era. The Poggio record was smashed this year, for instance, despite there being a head wind and Pogacar chasing hard to get back to the front of the race for a number of km.