Road Cycling
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In case there's any doubts about work experience kids, Girmay - the Eritrean - wins Stage 10 of the Giro - outsprinting Van Der Poel. He's not used to champagne corks though and hits himself in the eye during the celebration. Goes to hospital...
Stage 9 was a little bit of a GC sort out - shaking lots of pretenders out on a mountain stage. Suprisingly (to me), Jai Hindley won an uphill sprint of the big guns - with Bardet, Landa, Carapaz, Almeida and Pozzovivo finishing behind him. Juan Pedro Lopez still has the leader's jersey, but lost time on the Blockhaus climb and will surely hand it over in the next few days.
Carapaz remains the overall favourite for me, with Almeida and Bardet looking next most likely.
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Some interesting stage in the Giro have culminated in a direct shoot-out between Carapaz and Hindley over the final three stages. Carapaz has three seconds over the Aussie and neither has been able to crack the other to date.
Landa is a minute back, but it's hard to see him making the time up - he's been able to stick with the other two, but they've outpaced him in sprints to the line and I think he's the weakest time trialist. I guess he'll have to go all in on the fi8nal mountain stage and hope to crack the others.
Akmeida had been hanging in, just slightly off the pace in the mountains, but threatening to stay close enough to steal it in the final time trial - but, he shipped more than a minute in the stage a couple of nights ago and then tested positive for covid and is out.
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In the end it's Hindley who cracks Carapaz on the final mountain stage. He's got almost 90 seconds going into the final time trial, which should be enough as long as he stays upright.
A surprise to me, I guess. Like many others I thought Hindley had got lucky with his 2nd place in the 2020 Giro - but, he's shown he's an elite rider. Probably not quite in the Pogacar, Roglic, Bernal class, but in the next group on their heels.
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In the end it's Hindley who cracks Carapaz on the final mountain stage. He's got almost 90 seconds going into the final time trial, which should be enough as long as he stays upright.
A surprise to me, I guess. Like many others I thought Hindley had got lucky with his 2nd place in the 2020 Giro - but, he's shown he's an elite rider. Probably not quite in the Pogacar, Roglic, Bernal class, but in the next group on their heels.
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Huge show put on by our George last night. Lots of screen time to keep the UAE sponsors happy
@Crucial Missed that post, but you must have been talking about the Dauphine.
Anyway, good news - George has made the UAE team for the TdF, but judging by the order that the names are listed, he might not be Pog's No. 1 right hand man in the mountains. All of Majka, McNulty, Soler and George are strong climbers, so I guess they may use them as alternating support - or maybe George will be expected to lead hard on the lower slopes and someone like Majka do the final stint before Pog attacks.
http://www.uaeteamemirates.com/uae-team-emirates-announce-squad-tour-de-france/
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Cav not picked for the tour.. every english cycling fan in a huge meltdown..
completely ignoring the fact the team had been very clear all year he wasn't goin...No Sam Bennett for Bora either so two the worlds top sprinters missing
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one of my favourite sporting events of the year, brilliant TV.
Pissy at my tracking app not updating yet so i can look at the stages.
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@Crucial Missed that post, but you must have been talking about the Dauphine.
Anyway, good news - George has made the UAE team for the TdF, but judging by the order that the names are listed, he might not be Pog's No. 1 right hand man in the mountains. All of Majka, McNulty, Soler and George are strong climbers, so I guess they may use them as alternating support - or maybe George will be expected to lead hard on the lower slopes and someone like Majka do the final stint before Pog attacks.
http://www.uaeteamemirates.com/uae-team-emirates-announce-squad-tour-de-france/
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@Chris-B said in Road Cycling:
but judging by the order that the names are listed,
I looked at the picture on the webpage link, and was confused as that is alphabetical!
@Machpants The list within the article.
George listed 2nd last and separate from the other climbers.
Maybe 18 is his lucky number - on that list he'll be wearing it.
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Cav not picked for the tour.. every english cycling fan in a huge meltdown..
completely ignoring the fact the team had been very clear all year he wasn't goin...No Sam Bennett for Bora either so two the worlds top sprinters missing
@WillieTheWaiter said in Road Cycling:
Cav not picked for the tour.. every english cycling fan in a huge meltdown..
completely ignoring the fact the team had been very clear all year he wasn't goin...No Sam Bennett for Bora either so two the worlds top sprinters missing
My amateur look at the course is that sprinters probably want to avoid this tour anyway. Some excitement for them early on then hanging around for ages waiting for the next one dayer?
Will be an interesting course for George as well. Will be waiting a long time for terrain that suits and will have to keep out of trouble. I wonder if that's why UAE are going in with plenty of climbing support? It's quite possible that some of the little guys get bullied around and/or involved in crashes early on, especially that cobbles day. 58kg isn't a lot to keep your bike grounded on those paths. Might need some saddlebags
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@Machpants The list within the article.
George listed 2nd last and separate from the other climbers.
Maybe 18 is his lucky number - on that list he'll be wearing it.
@Chris-B said in Road Cycling:
@Machpants The list within the article.
George listed 2nd last and separate from the other climbers.
Maybe 18 is his lucky number - on that list he'll be wearing it.
Yeah I got it when I went there, just initially was urm
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I assume that Almeida would have been in that UAE team as well if he hadn't caught Covid during the Giro.
@Crucial Yeah - it's pretty competitive to get a slot in the UAE team, with Ayuso, Formolo, Hirschi and Ulissi also not there.
Though they might be planning on Almeida being team leader for the Giro and Volta.
Jack Bauer is in the Bike Exchange team!!!
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@Crucial said in Road Cycling:
I see Bevin has missed out on the IPT team
one of the stranger decisions.. I did hear a rumour he'd been crook..
such a shithouse team. Froome an absolute waste of space (and $5m a year)
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@WillieTheWaiter said in Road Cycling:
Cav not picked for the tour.. every english cycling fan in a huge meltdown..
completely ignoring the fact the team had been very clear all year he wasn't goin...No Sam Bennett for Bora either so two the worlds top sprinters missing
My amateur look at the course is that sprinters probably want to avoid this tour anyway. Some excitement for them early on then hanging around for ages waiting for the next one dayer?
Will be an interesting course for George as well. Will be waiting a long time for terrain that suits and will have to keep out of trouble. I wonder if that's why UAE are going in with plenty of climbing support? It's quite possible that some of the little guys get bullied around and/or involved in crashes early on, especially that cobbles day. 58kg isn't a lot to keep your bike grounded on those paths. Might need some saddlebags
@Crucial said in Road Cycling:
@WillieTheWaiter said in Road Cycling:
Cav not picked for the tour.. every english cycling fan in a huge meltdown..
completely ignoring the fact the team had been very clear all year he wasn't goin...No Sam Bennett for Bora either so two the worlds top sprinters missing
My amateur look at the course is that sprinters probably want to avoid this tour anyway. Some excitement for them early on then hanging around for ages waiting for the next one dayer?
Will be an interesting course for George as well. Will be waiting a long time for terrain that suits and will have to keep out of trouble. I wonder if that's why UAE are going in with plenty of climbing support? It's quite possible that some of the little guys get bullied around and/or involved in crashes early on, especially that cobbles day. 58kg isn't a lot to keep your bike grounded on those paths. Might need some saddlebags
it's more about he's going to miss out on the chance to get the record no of stages.. (not a huge amount of sympathy he really farked up the Champs last year) and his team aren't really stacked with anyone capable of anything interesting / press coverage except for Jacobson chance at an early stage win before he misses the time cut somewhere. Their GC rider is top 10 at best, who remembers that. Least Cav good for a win or a masssive stack taking out half the bunch
left Alaphilippe out as well which isn't too much of a surprise following his crash but also left out the new french champion so all the french are grumpy too!
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https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jun/30/tour-de-france-2022-cycling-team-by-team-guide
This is quite a fun write-up of prospects.
Seems Hirschi has come into the UAE team for Trentin, who has tested covid positive..
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Pogacar already putting a bit of time into his rivals.
Just a handful of seconds for Vingegaard and Roglic, but someone like Caruso is almost 50 seconds down already.
Drug raids on Bahrain Victorious later in that article. I'm not surprised - seems to me there's a lot more "not normal" performances than a few years ago.
