Pro Cycling 2022

Mike Smalling

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Did not see a thread for this, but one is definitely needed. Can post the race calendar to the top of the thread later.

Last 40 km of The Tour of Flanders currently. Such an epic race. Pogacar looking very strong - just an absolute beast.
 

Mike Smalling

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Pogacar not even on the podium. What a howler from him - don't see that often. He definitely would not have beaten MVP, but should clearly have gotten 2nd or 3rd.
 

Ainu

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I'm just sad van Aert was not able to participate. Best form of his life and he gets covid a couple of days before the biggest target of his entire year. Brutal.
 

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MVP played a tactical masterclass yesterday on that final 1km I thought. His stats for the ride were incredible, an average of 338 watts for 6hrs 40 at 42.5kph.
 

Mike Smalling

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Exciting finish in Amstel Gold Race currently. 5k left with a strong group chasing the two in front.

Edit: Now they announced the wrong winner. What a clusterfeck. Feel sorry for Cosnefroy.
 
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Ainu

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Part one of the best race on the calender (Paris-Roubaix, obviously) has been won by Elisa Longo Borghini after a solo of over 30 km. She was clearly the strongest, well deserved.

On to tomorrow for the men's! I'm hoping against hope for a recovered van Aert but van der Poel doing the double seems like a more likely scenario. Pedersen and Laporte seem like the most obvious challengers. Ganna has been preparing himself for this race as well and you can never count him out, but he really has to finish solo, which complicates matters a great deal for him.
 

Ainu

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Here we go, forest of Wallers is upon us. One of the most exciting moments of the cycling year.
 

Ainu

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That was brilliant, as always. Super ride by van Baarle, well deserved. Van Aert 2nd after illness and several mechanicals along the way, great to see. Küng and Mohoric were fantastic as well. Shame about Lampaert who crashed due to a spectator, that sort of thing keeps happening.
 

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Ainu said:
That was brilliant, as always. Super ride by van Baarle, well deserved. Van Aert 2nd after illness and several mechanicals along the way, great to see. Küng and Mohoric were fantastic as well. Shame about Lampaert who crashed due to a spectator, that sort of thing keeps happening.
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Van Baarle must be amazed about his own year so far!
 

RobinLFC

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That's why Roubaix is just the best race of them all :drool:

Not particularly a fan of Van Baarle but very much a deserved victory on Sunday. He posted his Strava file online as well since then. 316W average, 351 NP. Had an average of 392W during his solo the last 20k, unreal numbers :lol:
 

RobinLFC

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Fair fecks to Teuns, but Valverde getting second place and leaving guys like Alaphilippe and Pogacar behind on the Mur is the real story here :lol: What a fecking legend.
 

Suedesi

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Biniam Girmay, what a legend.

First he makes history by being the first African to win a Gran Tour stage.

Then he makes history again by having to withdraw from the tour due to the prosecco cork hitting his eye.

So unfortunate - I only hope he can at least be in contention to race Le Tour now
 

Henrik Larsson

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It really was a bit of a freak incident and it sucks Girmay can't continue.
At the same time, the urban legend about Champagne corks killing more people per year than poisonous spiders has been going around since forever. So maybe it's silly to let completely exhausted athletes struggle with those things.



By the way, Van der Poel had the exact same problem earlier this Giro. Was lucky that thing only hit his cheekbone.

 

Mike Smalling

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So who's ready for TDF 2022 :D ? It will be awesome. This year it starts right in my backyard, so have taken the day off on Friday to get drunk and cheer on the riders during the prologue in the streets of Copenhagen. A couple of weeks ago I did the second stage (Roskilde-Nyborg), so that will add something extra to watching it on TV.

It's hard to see past Pogacar as the eventual winner, but anything can happen of course. Hoping for another strong showing from Vingegaard, and will be interesting to see if he is as strong as Rogliz. They looked almost evenly matched during the Dauphine.
 

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Mike Smalling said:
So who's ready for TDF 2022 :D ? It will be awesome. This year it starts right in my backyard, so have taken the day off on Friday to get drunk and cheer on the riders during the prologue in the streets of Copenhagen. A couple of weeks ago I did the second stage (Roskilde-Nyborg), so that will add something extra to watching it on TV.

It's hard to see past Pogacar as the eventual winner, but anything can happen of course. Hoping for another strong showing from Vingegaard, and will be interesting to see if he is as strong as Rogliz. They looked almost evenly matched during the Dauphine.
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Should be a good tour, can’t see past Pogacar either. Think this might be his most dominant tour yet.
 

RobinLFC

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I'm looking forward to it, yeah. More than the yellow jersey race it'll be very interesting to see how Jumbo-Visma approaches this one, with Van Aert going for green and having the likes of Van Hooydonck, Benoot and Laporte to support him. If Jumbo is smart they'll let UAE do all the dirty work for yellow, protect both Roglic and Vingegaard as much as possible with their other riders and just go with the flow. The first five or so stages have the potential for absolute mayhem - time trial, accidented stage, cobblestones, and echelon danger due to strong winds in Denmark. Collecting stage victories and not lose time early on will be the key in the opening week, nothing more than that is needed.

I don't think either one of Vingegaard or Roglic has what it takes to take on Pogacar but hopefully it'll stay somewhat close towards the end. Bunch sprints will be interesting as well - Van Aert, Jakobsen, Philipsen, Ewan(?), Groenewegen, and no doubt I'm still missing some others as well.

Really hoping Van Aert takes yellow on Friday and doesn't end up second behind fecking Ganna once again.
 

Mike Smalling

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RobinLFC said:
The first five or so stages have the potential for absolute mayhem - time trial, accidented stage, cobblestones, and echelon danger due to strong winds in Denmark. Collecting stage victories and not lose time early on will be the key in the opening week, nothing more than that is needed.
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The last 20 km of the 2nd stage will be crazy due to the wind :drool: They are crossing the Great Belt Bridge, where there is absolutely no shelter, and typically strong headwind or crosswind. The first of the bridges even has a bit a gradient (about 4% I believe).

The time trial is just a bit of a warm-up really. It's only 13 km, so there won't be a lot of room for time gaps, even if it will be fairly technical.
 

RobinLFC

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Covid already hitting Pogacar's team right now... Trentin out, replaced by Hirschi.
 

Ainu

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Can't really say I'm looking forward to the GC battle. Pogacar is just too dominant for that to be interesting. He'd have to get an injury or mechanical, which you obviously don't wish on him, or a rare moment of weakness, which just never seems to happen.

I'm looking towards van Aert and van der Poel to keep me entertained instead, and there are plenty of stages where that can happen. Stating the obvious here, but the Paris-Roubaix stage is the one I'm looking forward to the most.
 

RobinLFC

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Ainu said:
Can't really say I'm looking forward to the GC battle. Pogacar is just too dominant for that to be interesting. He'd have to get an injury or mechanical, which you obviously don't wish on him, or a rare moment of weakness, which just never seems to happen.

I'm looking towards van Aert and van der Poel to keep me entertained instead, and there are plenty of stages where that can happen. Stating the obvious here, but the Paris-Roubaix stage is the one I'm looking forward to the most.
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I wouldn't mind him losing a few minutes on the Roubaix stage due to a flat tyre or something like that! Although, given his RvV performance, he actually has more chances to gain time over his opponents rather than lose some...
 

Ainu

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Have to say, rewatching the team presentations, Danish cycling fans seem even more fanatic than us over here in Belgium, which I didn't think was possible. :lol: That reception Vingegaard got was something else. Must be fantastic getting the Grand Départ in your country just when you've got a favourite for the podium who looks to be in the form of his life. I'm sure they're all dreaming of the overall GC win. It's unlikely but not impossible. I'd love to see it, even if I sort of want Roglic to win it since his career deserves it and he doesn't have that many chances left.

Anyway, now that the start is so close, I can't wait. Looks like rain during the opening TT which is always a little dangerous. You don't want a top rider crashing out like Valverde in the opening TT a couple of years ago. So here's hoping everyone stays upright and van Aert takes the first yellow jersey!
 

Mike Smalling

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Fantastic experience watching the Tour de France in your home country - even if the weather was dreadful. The fans created a great atmosphere, and went nuts every time a Danish rider passed. Great stuff.

You gotta feel a bit for Wout van Aert, because you get the sense that he would have probably won had he had the same, dryer conditions that Lampaert had. Other than that, it was just good to get through a stage in difficult conditions without any major shakeups in the GC field - too early for that. This does underline that Pogacar is likely to take even more time in longer time trial though, so Jumbo-Visma have to make their stronger team count in the mountains, if they are serious about challenging him.

Wind unfortunately not looking too strong for tomorrow, so it is likely to be a sprint finish. Hoping Pedersen can challenge!
 

Ainu

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Wow, I'd never expected Lampaert to win this one. He's always been a good time trialist but normally not really close to the level of van Aert or Ganna. Conditions must have helped him a little bit but even so it was clearly the TT ride of his life. It's just not to be for van Aert it seems, beats Ganna in the exact same conditions and still doesn't get to wear the yellow jersey. He could still take it with a second place or win today.

Let's see how the conditions affect the finale and if the wind can prevent a bunch sprint. Would be nice to get some crosswinds but from what I'm reading it doesn't seem to be the case at the moment.
 

Mike Smalling

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Beautiful Chris Anker Sørensen tribute painted on an athletics complex at Holbæk. Danish commentators, who used to have Chris as their colleague completely overcome with emotion :( Glad they showed it on TV, though.
 

Ainu

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Magnus Cort celebrating that cat 4 top in front of the home fans as if he'd won the race, I love that. :lol:
 

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Thought the Danish fans were excellent yesterday, atmosphere was great considering the weather.

A friend of mine is making his debut at the Tour as a mechanic for Team DSM. Some great insight behind the scenes already. He has Vingegaard down as his dark horse for GC.
 

Ainu

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You can't exactly call Vingegaard a dark horse, he was second in the GC last year. He's easily third favourite, possibly joint second.
 

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Ainu said:
You can't exactly call Vingegaard a dark horse, he was second in the GC last year. He's easily third favourite, possibly joint second.
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My mates view was based off the team favouring Roglic.
 

Ainu

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Jakobsen justifying his team's decision to select him in favour of Cav, dominant sprint. And there are still certainties in life: van Aert second, but he's finally in yellow so I'm happy with this.
 

Kasper

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Can't blame the organizers or the peleton for headwind. Wout getting second is becoming a massive meme at this point but at least he now has the yellow jersey.
Crowds were amazing, never seen this many people on a 200km flat stage.
 

utdalltheway

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Those crashes they featured at the beginning of the stage 2 show (on US TV, peacock channel) were amazing, in a bad way.
 

Ainu

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So after Jakobsen yesterday, it just had to be Groenewegen today. Not sure how I feel about it, but I guess it's all in the past now and he's had his own demons to exorcise.

I don't even need to mention who finished in second behind him...
 

Mike Smalling

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Wout is the undisputed king of finishing 2nd. First three stages of the Tour - can’t imagine that has ever happened before.
 

Ainu

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Something I hadn't even considered: since van Aert won the final 2 stages of last year's edition, he's now on a run of 5 consecutive top 2 finishes at the Tour. :lol:
 
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