Communication F'ups of last year put aside, the guy puts in the work and effort. I aero tested him in April and he wasn't there just for the form. He was very attentive to all detail and made sure we exhausted all possibilities. I came out of that session a bigger fan than going in.

His younger brother just signed. I hope it's genetic.

Good stuff. Nice to hear.

Wow, that’s how you do it.

An aside: N Pow Pow is back. He had a great US Nats ride, was a very good teammate to Quinn who closed the deal on the Brandon the Cape Buffalo aka Bam Bam aka one freakin' strong ass dude to ride those WVA hills then roll those flats.

Powless made a late attack he could have skipped and set up Quinn instead of the other way around. Those two pink lions took down the bull with precision. And almost got gored. But very impressed with N Pow.
Dangerman for le Tour.

Remco is looking tough so far!

agreed on the damn good Powless ride. He lost 62 secs to McNulty's cuz Bam Bam in WVa. Does this mean Powless is getting better than 2 weeks ago and/or that Brandon had a chance against Tarling and Remco (and prob Rog)?
Matty Jo also looked good - Does US get 2 TT starts? 3 in RR?
my cow strike was MANY years ago on the hill adjacent to Monticello outside Cville. Came around a blind switchback a little hot and cow was right in middle of turn. My reaction was to brake hard (i wish I could claim i was thinking - i wasnt). i skidded into cow - which seemed to pretty much just bounce me off. very lucky. I had to very nervously retrieve the bike which stopped close to the cow. I don't take blind switchbacks very fast at all anymore (younger human's game).

Damn Gee rode a great ride. GC top 10 here we go.

Lot of US talent right now, pretty awesome to watch.

agreed on Gee. the Fr/sat/sun climbing is relentless. If Gee top 10s with those 3 stages, He'll be hard pressed to be Gee-Cee man.

a different note: a TT result where the top 11 were all different teams. I'm not sure what to say about that, but vastly different from the Giro TTs where Ineos seemed to have its own team race.

Good observation. Ineos and C-Rod have to a bit disappointed in his time. OTOH Lazkano (and Gee) impressed.

Spain can't help but to produce good climbers, even if they occasionally stick them in a classic guys body. ;) That's the best I've seen Lazkano TT as well. I wonder if he's been working on it.

And for a skinny climber, Ayuso has a mega TT. Bodes well for him and also Chi Chi Rodriguez. And awesome to see Plan C Jorgenson and Powless up there.

Diet is everything.

What I wouldn't give to know how that Factor bike tests. I find it curious how much time Gee lost on the fast part of the course.

His brother, Finlay, is a quality time trialist too (and all round cyclist).

What indictions do we have that the bike is slow? Everything I've heard is the the old factor slick wasn't very good, but the new bike is fine.

I wonder about that Ekoi helmet. Derek didn't seem to have great discipline in terms of head position, but I'm going to guess a lot of the other guys helmets, particularly the Spesh, Giro and Rudy, are quite a few watts faster. Having to wear the yellow skinsuit probably doesn't help either. I know they do what they can to taylor it, but it can't be as good as a suit you've had time to really fit and test, adjust, repeat.

If there is one thing I could change about that ride, that is it.

My wife : "no point screaming at your iPad, it can hear you fine"

None, but also no indications that it is particularly fast compared to some of the best setups. I'm just curious looking at splits. The head position discussion is interesting as well.

What part of the course ? He had an 'incident' at about 1.5km.