To regular folk, elite athletes are superhuman.
Cycling thread
- Thread starter Bruce Wayne
- Start date
To regular folk, elite athletes are superhuman.
Cracking stage that (unless you're Roglic). His lack of a team is going to really hurt him in the final week I think. It'd be no bad thing if he dropped down the GC, if only so we didn't have to hear Sean Kelly have to butcher his name so often 
Gavia off the menu for Tuesday's Queen stage due to risk of avalanches. Pfft
Black Belt Jones
Player Valuation: £25m
MvDP won his first mountain bike world cup today, after winning the short course on Fri night. Rode away from the field with Schurter for most of the race then last lap just blew him up, attacked and took 19 secs out of him. Last lap is around 1.34 here:
(https://www.redbull.com/int-en/tv/v...9ca-9304-58a3-8bc4-2152f1ca4215:live_programs)
So for 2019 that's cyclocross - everything, plus world champs, road - Dwars Door Vlaanderen, Brabantse Pijl, and Amstel on a pro-continental team with only real support from a veteran Devolder, and now MTB world cup. No man has ever dominated like this (Vos and Ferrand-Prevot have in women's racing) - best bike racer in the world, not close, and he's 24 years old.
(https://www.redbull.com/int-en/tv/v...9ca-9304-58a3-8bc4-2152f1ca4215:live_programs)
So for 2019 that's cyclocross - everything, plus world champs, road - Dwars Door Vlaanderen, Brabantse Pijl, and Amstel on a pro-continental team with only real support from a veteran Devolder, and now MTB world cup. No man has ever dominated like this (Vos and Ferrand-Prevot have in women's racing) - best bike racer in the world, not close, and he's 24 years old.
It'll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow. Chances are good that Roglic won't have any team left by the time they get to the Mortirolo, especially as the descent from Aprica to the foot isn't as far as from the Gavia so less chance for domestiques to get back. There aren't 'that' many more stages to do something, with stage 20 in the Dolomites a cracker, but that's followed by a time trial, so you'd imagine riders will have to be bold, especially the likes of Yates who remain a long way back.
Some cracking photos of the stage yesterday
This is perhaps my personal favourite. I've done the Mortirolo in blazing sunshine and whilst a part of me thinks the rain might have been quite nice, if it made the road slippy and therefore out of the saddle hard as a result of the lower traction that's tough on a climb like that. Made for great watching though.
Jumbo and MS are pretty similar, although Jumbo were helpful in that if there were any jerseys like that in the lead group you could be assured it wasn't any of Roglic's team mates.
Overall it's been a poor Giro unfortunately. It's my favourite grand tour of the year, and they seemed to pick a very poor route that was made even worse by the removal of the Gavia. Chuck in the departure of Dumoulin during the race and Bernal beforehand and it was not a great GC battle. Roglic was super conservative outside of his time trial, which betrayed his early season form when he was crushing all before him, and you get a sense that Carapaz snuck into the lead because the others didn't think he could sustain a challenge. Not a race that will be remembered I fear.
Froome out of tdf after what is being described as a serious crash
Toast
Player Valuation: £80m
He's in hospital, but didn't see he was out of the tour ?
Fractured pelvis is what I've heard, so suspect he'll be able to ride the Tour. Stand corrected, just seen Brailsford's statement. Maybe he'll do a Contador and return from his break in super quick time.
Think they are saying he won't make the start
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