Pro Cycling Discussion 2020

SoliD · 13 Sep 2020 at 20:57

SPG said:
Dull in terms of action, in terms of how to destroy the field it was a masterclass.

Absolutely. Proper show of supremacy.

These sorts of longer stages were the ones going back 15 plus years ago pre power meters that were always much more interesting as people blew up /recovered at different points. (epo probably helped this a bit) now since sky and now jumbos train the pace is just too even and fast that any attack doesnt go far, that combined with everyone knowing what they can lose rather than gain if they get it wrong means they're usually only a 1 to 2km sprint at the end.

SPG · 14 Sep 2020 at 06:33

Thats a intereasting point should they ban computers/ power meters for pro racing or do the athletes know their bodies so well it doesnt matter.

Berger · 15 Sep 2020 at 20:55

It’s interesting.

Using a PM cannot be 100% relied upon (Obviously it can be to provide a number), as you cannot tell/say if your body is on a 95% day or a 105% day so there will be some variation in there.

One day you could push harder and one day you’ll be struggling...

Obviously for pacing it can be, but a pro rider can do this without the number.

Having so many guys so close is interesting with that TT at the end.

Bear · 16 Sep 2020 at 07:59

SPG said:
Thats a intereasting point should they ban computers/ power meters for pro racing or do the athletes know their bodies so well it doesnt matter.

As said, I dont think pros need a power meter to judge how much effort they are putting in. I wouldnt want to see a ban on them, its good to see all the Velon stats they put out and if there were any unreal numbers then its there for all to see

Diddums · 16 Sep 2020 at 14:00

Rigoberto doing ok, I really, really hope he manages the win. We'll be having an epic party at work if he does

Berger · 16 Sep 2020 at 20:52

Some of the on screen stuff is total garbage though.

I like the overhead with the riders circled but the speeds displayed are just complete fabrication.

SoliD · 16 Sep 2020 at 21:02

Best one I saw this week was velon on the tt in tirreno adriatico and it showed % in the red zone and as far as I could work out it was whenever they went above 400w it counted so basically any light riders were at 1 or 2 per cent in the red and any bigger riders were up above 75 per cent.

That finish today was brutal, nice of Bahrain to try something but landa obviously not strong enough. Lopez looked good, but roglic has it pretty much nailed on now. Pogacjar had to go deep and I suspect he won't have anything left come Saturday. But you never know what may happen between now and then. Would expect to see porte get on the podium above Lopez due to the tt.

GSVBagpuss · 16 Sep 2020 at 22:10

I predict Porte will take 2 minutes from MAL in the TT and Pog will have done too much and will lose 30s to Rog.

Weird stage today that played into JV hands but kudos to Landa for atleast trying something

SoliD · 17 Sep 2020 at 22:43

Ports has no luck, I really hope it hasn't killed his legs too much in advance of Saturday.

Hirschi looked strong today wonder whga would have happened had he not had that fall. But impressive once again from carapaz to get in the break for 3rd day running and deserved win for kwiato, crazy he's not won a gt stage before but he's always been supporting someone.

Roady · 18 Sep 2020 at 09:59

One More Solo said:
Bora must be getting pretty peeved at working their arses off for Sagan only for him to flop in the sprints. Green will be more interesting than yellow this year!

It's good to see them actually doing something rather than concentrating on sprints too, maybe it's taken Sagan to have an off-TDF for that. Green jersey competition has been great to watch, especially the fact it's continued all the way through is really good to see. Polka dot has been quite disappointing though! Thought Cosnefois (or however you spell his name) had it nailed but he obviously utterly gassed himself early doing so and couldn't even stay in the race!? (think he's abandoned? Wasn't mentioned in highlights or I missed it).

Bear said:
Apparently he had bleeding on the brain as well. Amazed he even finished the stage.

Amazing and scary he did. Does beg the question about any medical advisors/observers as it was pretty obvious the way he flopped afterwards after being stood there was something wrong with him. Fairly sure his DS and team would have noticed afterwards and later in the race too with a concussion/worse? Thankfully has highlighted the need for a concussion protocol which they seem to have been quite quick to implement. Crazy they didn't have something in place already!?

SPG said:
Haha haha poor Ineos.

Love it.

You'll be saying the same about JV next year? Or always be a Sky hater?

GSVBagpuss said:
I hope Kwiato gets released now to chase stages

Berger said:
Having so many guys so close is interesting with that TT at the end.

It's going to be awesome, but then equally after a race like that, the fact it comes down to differences in the TT makes me feel sorry for those riders like Lopez.

GSVBagpuss said:
but kudos to Landa for atleast trying something

Yeah it was good to see and he was looking strong... Then just seemed to fall off the pace pretty fast. Shame really. Also quite surprised they'd been able to get 2 riders up the road as Landa has been riding quite well this last week. Thought it would have been fairly obvious he'd try something. Disappointed in him really and the whole team considering the riders they have they've been pretty quiet the whole race...

SoliD said:
deserved win for kwiato, crazy he's not won a gt stage before but he's always been supporting someone.

Amazing to see and the pictures of him and Carapaz are great, just shows the emotion and how much it meant to him/them both! The way they've both ridden, especially Carapaz it seems crazy how low on GC they are, as sure some of the early talk was Carapaz being #2 leader...

Berger · 18 Sep 2020 at 13:39

GSVBagpuss said:
I predict Porte will take 2 minutes from MAL in the TT and Pog will have done too much and will lose 30s to Rog.

Weird stage today that played into JV hands but kudos to Landa for atleast trying something

Gotta agree with your predictions here. Rog should be a bit fresher and Porte can do a good TT. Lopez is usually not so good.

Bear · 19 Sep 2020 at 17:13

Awesome result, who would have thought. Dumoulin looked totally stunned

-Ad- · 19 Sep 2020 at 17:18

Amazing result.

We were sitting here laughing at how the commentators were talking about Pogacar looking slow and laboured as he took off on his TT bike.

Fantastic bike change whereas Jumbo looked uncontrolled and laboured with Roglic looking tired.

All 3 jerseys and won it whilst he followed the Jumbo train throughout with his team not in the mix. Amazing!

SoliD · 19 Sep 2020 at 17:27

Absolutely incredible. What a turnaround I did not expect to see that happen. Probably the best time trial you'll ever see with all that up for grabs. The look of jumbo guys. Roglic didn't go for the kill when he had the opportunities but can only say that in hindsight.

Bear · 19 Sep 2020 at 17:30

Also really pleased for Richie Port, with all the bad luck he has had, to be on the podium at last is awesome

GSVBagpuss · 19 Sep 2020 at 17:49

Amazing! I had Pog at 16-1 to win the whole thing before it started and 8-1 for today but what a performance. He smoked the worlds best TTers

GSVBagpuss · 19 Sep 2020 at 17:50

GSVBagpuss said:
I predict Porte will take 2 minutes from MAL in the TT and Pog will have done too much and will lose 30s to Rog.

Well, I was sort of right! MAL has a shocker and I’m really glad for Richie getting something at the tail end of his career

SoliD · 20 Sep 2020 at 07:42

GSVBagpuss said:
Well, I was sort of right! MAL has a shocker and I’m really glad for Richie getting something at the tail end of his career

This too, he's such a nice guy and always rooted for him, not all bad luck though, lot of the times he's written himself off are of his own making and terrible bike handling!

Be intrigued to see what jumbos plans are for rest of the gt's considering how much they put into le tour, although dumoulins form seems to be on the rise but does he have enough time to recover as believe he's targeting the world tt next week and don't know about kruisjwick injury progress.

SPG · 20 Sep 2020 at 21:17

Stunning tbh.

GOAT in the making.

Roady · 21 Sep 2020 at 13:24

SoliD said:
Absolutely incredible. What a turnaround I did not expect to see that happen. Probably the best time trial you'll ever see with all that up for grabs. The look of jumbo guys. Roglic didn't go for the kill when he had the opportunities but can only say that in hindsight.

Agreed, totally unexpected amazing ride (also unexpected poor ride from Rojlic). Incredible legs from Pogacar the whole race really. Not quite sure why JV hadn't worked on isolating him more in the 2nd week as even though he was the 'unknown' rider without much support, he still did seem one of the strongest. Maybe they wrongly expected him to blow up or have a bad day. To me they seemed almost blinkered into their tactics which where aimed at the other strong teams - rather than anything aimed at a specific solo rider. But equally who could have blamed them, they'd gone to the Tour geared up to compete against Ineos and did well in that respect, even before Bernal got dropped they looked to have them pegged on the back foot.

But who knows, if maybe Carapaz was higher placed on GC before Bernal dropped, if Pinot hadn't crashed and if Alaphillipe had good legs the 3rd week things would have been more of the 'GC team' battle that they where geared up for, than anything else... And Pogacar would have still won it!

Bear said:
Also really pleased for Richie Port, with all the bad luck he has had, to be on the podium at last is awesome

Agreed, fantastic to see and well overdue/deserved. He really has had some rubbish luck his career.

SPG said:
Stunning tbh.

GOAT in the making.

GOAT?