Pro Cycling 2020 **Giro d'Italia 2020 **

[RobinLFC]

Crazy ride from Van der Poel in the BinckBank tour yesterday, wow.

La Doyenne today Gonna go for a ride myself early afternoon and then launch myself into the couch for the rest of the day to watch the stage. Strong winds in Belgium today, could have an impact on the course. The part between Gouvy and Francorchamps will be super fast, with the Wanne, Stockeu, Haute Levée and Rosier all on that part.

 

[Ainu]

Crazy ride from Van der Poel in the BinckBank tour yesterday, wow.

La Doyenne today Gonna go for a ride myself early afternoon and then launch myself into the couch for the rest of the day to watch the stage. Strong winds in Belgium today, could have an impact on the course. The part between Gouvy and Francorchamps will be super fast, with the Wanne, Stockeu, Haute Levée and Rosier all on that part.

Nothing beats a lazy Sunday afternoon of watching cycling after your own bike ride. I'm really not a bad weather rider though, so I'll just be watching today. Not exactly a true Flandrien.

Alaphilippe and Hirschi are the obvious favourites, but I wonder if van der Poel could actually go the distance here. You know, it wouldn't even surprise me.

 

[RobinLFC]

Fecking hell Hirschi.

 

[RobinLFC]

Oh would you just FECK OFF Alaphilippe. This was 100% Hirschi's win, I'd be livid if I was him.

Surely a DQ, and hopefully Roglic has won it fair and square.

 

[Ainu]

God damnit Alaphilippe, what an absolutely disgusting move in the sprint was that??? Completely fecks up Hirschi's sprint. This should be a DQ. Don't even know who crossed the line first.

 

[RobinLFC]

Roglic wins it, delighted for him.

Still hoping for an Alaphilippe DQ though. Let's see what Lefevre has to say about this stuff right now.

 

[Ainu]

Great win for Roglic after that disappointment of the Tour, but I feel for Hirschi. I really think he would've won without that move by Alaphilippe.

 

[Libano]

This was amazing. Super happy for Roglic. What a comeback.

 

[RobinLFC]

Hirschi being waaay too polite about Alaphilippe in his interview, call him out for his cnutish behaviour please.

 

[Ainu]

You almost have to laugh at just how badly Alaphilippe fecks up here. Makes a ridiculous move from his line, completely ruins both Hirschi's and Pogacar's sprints, puts up his arms but is actually beaten on the line by arguably the slowest sprinter of the bunch! It's an epic clusterfeck of mistakes.

 

[RobinLFC]

That's harsh on Thomas today, arguably the favorite for victory gone now. Simon Yates not looking good either.

Nibali, Kruiswijck, Fuglsang and Majka (to a smaller extent) now since I don't really believe in Pozzovivo with so many time trial kilometres.

 

[Kasper]

Urgh what a bummer. Not a fan of Thomas but without a clear favorite and empire Ineos to root against the race becomes a lot less interesting.

 

[Zen]

Thomas shouldn't have been favourite anyway regardless of this being slightly favoured to his abilities - having a crash has given him a good get out. The Giro's just a bit more brutal than the Tour which slightly leans more to the all rounder .... plus no elite to ride with him, I just envisaged a similar fate to Wiggins when he tried it, albeit a bit better, because he is a better climber.

Odds are sometimes a bit wack for the Giro/Vuelta anyway - Wiggins was a fave for the Giro in 2013, but I doubt many truly backed him. They are a bit more unpredictable than the TdF generally due to climbs that are tougher and more capable of breaking them..... the Alps and Pyrenees are tremendously consistent for the most part.

 

[RobinLFC]

Thomas shouldn't have been favourite anyway regardless of this being slightly favoured to his abilities - having a crash has given him a good get out. The Giro's just a bit more brutal than the Tour which slightly leans more to the all rounder .... plus no elite to ride with him, I just envisaged a similar fate to Wiggins when he tried it, albeit a bit better, because he is a better climber.

Odds are sometimes a bit wack for the Giro/Vuelta anyway - Wiggins was a fave for the Giro in 2013, but I doubt many truly backed him. They are a bit more unpredictable than the TdF generally due to climbs that are tougher and more capable of breaking them..... the Alps and Pyrenees are tremendously consistent for the most part.

Agree but it's not like the best of the best are participating in this Giro. Majka, Kruiswijck, Fuglsang, are all "meh". They haven't done it in a big tour either, while Thomas has (albeit in different circumstances). The only one I had alongside him is Nibali because he has shown he's capable of winning a big one.

The TT on Saturday also suggested that Thomas was near his best form so I expected a lot out of him.

 

[Ainu]

Didn't see that coming from Thomas. Before the Tirreno there were serious question marks but after a good performance there, in the TT world championship and first stage here I certainly had him as top favourite. Not sure what's up with Yates. As a Nibali fan I'm not too disappointed by this outcome though.

 

[Zen]

Agree but it's not like the best of the best are participating in this Giro. Majka, Kruiswijck, Fuglsang, are all "meh". They haven't done it in a big tour either, while Thomas has (albeit in different circumstances). The only one I had alongside him is Nibali because he has shown he's capable of winning a big one.

The TT on Saturday also suggested that Thomas was near his best form so I expected a lot out of him.

At their peaks - I'd comfortably back Kruiswijk in a Giro over Thomas if support is generally equal, Nibali too. But Thomas possibly ageing better and has the winning pedigree over Kruis as you way. But the stages that'd break Thomas(and Yates) could possibly be cut short.

 

[Suedesi]

You almost have to laugh at just how badly Alaphilippe fecks up here. Makes a ridiculous move from his line, completely ruins both Hirschi's and Pogacar's sprints, puts up his arms but is actually beaten on the line by arguably the slowest sprinter of the bunch! It's an epic clusterfeck of mistakes.

What a great race! The last km was completely bonkers.

 

[Kasper]

Thomas shouldn't have been favourite anyway regardless of this being slightly favoured to his abilities - having a crash has given him a good get out. The Giro's just a bit more brutal than the Tour which slightly leans more to the all rounder .... plus no elite to ride with him, I just envisaged a similar fate to Wiggins when he tried it, albeit a bit better, because he is a better climber.

Odds are sometimes a bit wack for the Giro/Vuelta anyway - Wiggins was a fave for the Giro in 2013, but I doubt many truly backed him. They are a bit more unpredictable than the TdF generally due to climbs that are tougher and more capable of breaking them..... the Alps and Pyrenees are tremendously consistent for the most part.

I normally agree but like @RobinLFC said, other contenders apart from Nibali are not really scary and neither are their teams. Given that Thomas already took over a minute on all the other contenders on a 15km ITT and there were 45km more to come in this Giro others would`ve had to make 5-10 minutes up in the mountains which is a lot. And like you said in an other post, it could very well be that they won`t be able to cross the higher alpine passes in mid/end of October.

Yates cracking so badly on the first mountain surprised me.

 

[RobinLFC]

Aaaaand Thomas has quit the Giro. I generally don't like Ineos but this sucks.

 

[Ainu]

Ineos are having a terrible time in grand tours this year. Wouldn't it be amazing if Froome was the only one to give Ineos a GT victory at the Vuelta this year? Not that he's guaranteed to win there though, if the race even takes place at all.

 

[Kasper]

Ineos are having a terrible time in grand tours this year. Wouldn't it be amazing if Froome was the only one to give Ineos a GT victory at the Vuelta this year? Not that he's guaranteed to win there though, if the race even takes place at all.

Doubt he has a chance, that LBL showing was a terrible sign of his condition. Don`t think he`ll ever recover enough from his crash to be a GC contender again.

 

[RobinLFC]

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My absolute favorite one. I could cry right now, it had all the makings of an epic battle with Van Aert, Van der Poel, you name it.

FECK. SAKE.

 

[Ainu]

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My absolute favorite one. I could cry right now, it had all the makings of an epic battle with Van Aert, Van der Poel, you name it.

FECK. SAKE.

My favourite race as well, very sad right now. I'm still looking forward to Gent-Wevelgem and De Ronde, but it's not the same without Paris-Roubaix to finish things off. Christ, can 2020 just feck off and die already?

 

[RobinLFC]

Great race once again, nice winner too. Still think Van Aert was the best one there though, but he’s almost become too fast for his own good. No one wants to ride with him and Van der Poel doesn’t grant him an inch of space most of the time.

 

[Ainu]

Great race once again, nice winner too. Still think Van Aert was the best one there though, but he’s almost become too fast for his own good. No one wants to ride with him and Van der Poel doesn’t grant him an inch of space most of the time.

This is the first time I've seen van der Poel ride defensively against another rider. Pedersen though, he had to close the gap as well and still manages to win the sprint. Safe to say it's a deserved victory.

 

[Zen]

Cav looking like he's set to retire. Absolute legend. Shame injuries have taken away his chance to have the most TdF stage wins - his 20 stages in 4 years was insane.

 

[RedFish]

Cav looking like he's set to retire. Absolute legend. Shame injuries have taken away his chance to have the most TdF stage wins - his 20 stages in 4 years was insane.

Agree 100%. Cycling will miss him. His timing was unbelievable.

Too many victories to name, but that win on the Champs Elysées, in 2012 with Wiggins leading out was a joy being a British cycling fan.

 

[RobinLFC]

Kruijswijk withdraws after a positive corona test, and the whole of Mitchelton-Scott is going home too after several positive tests. Shame as I think Hamilton was going to show some nice things in the remainder of the Giro.

After this, I find it much harder to believe that the Tour didn't have any or several positives to be honest.

 

[RobinLFC]

Take a bow, Sagan.

 

[RedFish]

Can't describe how I feel about Sagan today. Emotional!

The world of cycling will miss him dearly when he is done.

Take a bow indeed.

 

[F-Red]

Can't describe how I feel about Sagan today. Emotional!

The world of cycling will miss him dearly when he is done.

Take a bow indeed.

The peloton does have a lack of characters coming through. Great to see him winning again!

 

[Suedesi]

Any of you feckers on Zwift? Should we get a Redcafe club going?

 

[RobinLFC]

Any of you feckers on Zwift? Should we get a Redcafe club going?

I am Would be down for some rides if we can get a gang together yeah. Although I mostly use it in the evenings, not sure that would work with our time difference tbh

 

[RedFish]

@Suedesi @RobinLFC
That's a great idea. I'm going to look into it.. I'd be up for it!
Do people use their road bike or dedicated indoor bike?

 

[RedFish]

The peloton does have a lack of characters coming through. Great to see him winning again!

Oh definitely. That kind of ridiculous talent combined with his inimitable personality = Superstar. A joy to watch. His consistency (this last year or so excepted) has been mind boggling.

Hall of famer.

 

[RobinLFC]

@Suedesi @RobinLFC
That's a great idea. I'm going to look into it.. I'd be up for it!
Do people use their road bike or dedicated indoor bike?

I have my previous one set onto my trainer for now because I'm still going outside with my current one quite frequently, but once it gets too cold I'm gonna use my current one.. Taking them on and off only takes like a minute, but it's still always a bit of hassle I can do without for the moment.

 

[Ainu]

I've been considering setting up a trainer because, despite telling myself otherwise, once the weather turns I just stop going on bike rides until March-April, at which point my fitness is just terrible again. It's just not very practical for me, living in an apartment in the city, so lack of space is an issue. If I ever get to it, I might dabble with Zwift.

 

[Suedesi]

@Suedesi @RobinLFC
That's a great idea. I'm going to look into it.. I'd be up for it!
Do people use their road bike or dedicated indoor bike?

I just got a Kickr Core so basically a smart trainer with power/cadence/speed reading. I live in an apartment in the city, so size was definitely a consideration. So far, so good.

We should get a Zwift group going :-)

 

[F-Red]

I’m on Zwift, I’d be up for a meet up. No Alpe du Zwift though, i did it for the first time on Saturday and I’ve been looking for a new set of lungs and legs on eBay this week.

 

[RobinLFC]

What a trio. My word.