It's a bit odd not having any racing until Milan San Remo on Saturday

Oh well

Indeed, this last week was a cruel drug!

And even then not any racing until around 270km. :)

Hahaha, well played

I guess i’m more used to the last stage of Tirreno on a Tuesday (iirc, it may even have been on Wednesday on a few occasions). Having both Tirreno and PN end on a Sunday just feels off.

Btw, how’s the new bike search coming along?

Yeah, it seems like some combination of the promoter and/or UCI bungled that a little bit. Tuesday should be enough for stars to recover for MSR.

New bike search went great - got a slightly used '21 Cannondale SuperSix, which has really impressed me so far. I'm also very impressed by rural Nevada drivers, 99% of whom pass with like 10-feet space, going out of their way to make you feel safe. Completely different than California, rural or urban.

What hasn't impressed me is it's been snowing/raining and in the teens-30's F since Halloween. Including today. So I've only been on a few proper rides with it, most of which end with me spending 30 minutes in a hot shower to revive myself from near hypothermia.

Sweet bike, one that should give you a leg up on EMX ITTs

Riding in the cold isn't something to be trifled with. Back when I was more tolerant of the cold, the hard limit during dry conditions was 26-27 F with <10 mph winds. Anything more serious was a guaranteed shivering when I stopped pedaling, plus 15 min+ of hot showers. Hot tea was recommended as an antidote after the ride (as well as during the ride). I don't ride if there's any precipitation outdoors and it's lower than 55 F. Almost guaranteed shivering.

Now I refuse to go out if it's below 30 F.

Ahhhh, the legendary Super Six. Love 'em.

I’ve experienced similar with rural Oregon drivers. In Napa not a week went by without some type of car altercation. Outside of Bend people seem to be far more courteous.

And also funny-not funny, same weather. I had to lower my 40 degree threshold to 35 and sunny to get anything outside. Ready for that to change.

It looks like Faulkner got DQ'd from Strade because of her glucose monitor, which is maybe a first that I can remember. I'd love to know the backstory from her/team perspective because it was clearly visible the whole race.

I will say anecdotally after using one at the direction of coaches for a few months last year, I don't know what competitive edge those give, but the rules are certainly clear.

Over here in the Mid Atlantic, the drivers still suck, it's windy, wet and cold (30's to high forties) but getting sunnier so there's that. Oddly, December and January with the sunny and straight up cold provides better riding, maybe bc one knows what to expect. Which is cold. March April are a real mixed bag.

I wondered about that, too.

It gave me no actionable data I wasn't already aware of. YMMV.

Could be related to a ketone thing ... are ketones still considered Dark Magic, or are they OK now?

---

"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Both. Roadies need to feel like they're doing something wrong, even if it probably doesn't help (Faulkner) or is perfectly legal (ketones). So you still stay hush-hush about the ketone bottle (Evenepoel crash) just to keep the culture intact.

I saw something that said she was a late call-up to the race, the glucose monitors are expensive, and have to be worn for two weeks (or last two weeks, I can’t remember which it was). So maybe they didn’t want to “waste” the monitor and hoped they’d get away with it. Agreed it doesn’t seem like a performance benefit, unless it can broadcast and the team car can see real-time stats. Then I could see the advantage (mainly telling the rider when to feed and how much of what to take in).

probably too early for san remo picks (generally doesn't stop me anyway) as I've only seen about half the starters confirmed.
i see a VERY few bigger dogs lining up tomorrow for torino (cav, grmay, groen...).

i'm calling a sprinter finale as I think the time bomb that is Tadej might not have the right peeps to set the pace to thermo-nuclear so he can launch. Tadej's 50% win rate suggests he might not need that anyway.

my 3 - philipsen, pedersen, de lie (sorry sagan but you kind of did this to yourself) // my 'dark horses' (there really is no such thing in this race) Tadej (cuz he could still blow it all up) and Wout (cuz he might be able to hang long enough in the wake).
really wanted Gaviria as a dark horse but as Tadej is Tadej I don't think Gaviria makes it (also why I'm not quite ready to pick Ewan - sorry guys!)

could this be the year that only 20 or so make it over the Cipressa? If so - that's on someone to set up Formolo for ludicrous speed.
the super crazy scenario is Jumbo flexes before Tadej so maybe Tadej doesnt have teammates to set him up on Poggio??

gotta admit I'd pick Strade before this as must see one day.
McNulty - I'm in central VA for our school break - 2 days rain and mid 30s (one day mixed with snow), today high 30s and 25mph winds. i think when we got some April in January - this must be the payback getting Feb in March. getting better next 4 days though.

Pedersen is also on my radar. Pretty well a foregone conclusion about what Pog is going to do so question becomes if a team can organize a full chase after descent. They have a pretty good setup team to do what you suggested: https://www.instagram.com/...?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

If it was the Freestyle Libre, it’s 70 bucks. I hope she or the team could afford to eat that cost.

---

Let food be thy medicine...

Interesting. I haven’t done any research into these devices and was just repeating what I read elsewhere. If I didn’t mind needles so much, I would try one for that cost.

In keeping with that, I'm watching a 1:1 race in the Netherlands, rain, high 30s, and the only hill is artificially created through the local landfill. Early spring is a bitch.

Somewhere in Bern, Spartacus is smiling.

My wife keeps talking about Loudoun County as a friend lives nearby. Is that your hood?

Nokere Koerse isn't so bad

I'm not fully convinced Pog can drop the puncheurs, particularly being more marked than Red Bull in F1.

But then again Pog never ceases to defy physics. Even adding descending to his arsenal.

Pidcock withdrawing subtracts another intriguing descender.

We've had two straight years of journeymen taking advantage of the stars marking each other. A third?

Word is on the last stage of P-N he tested a setup for the MSR finale, so buckle up, everyone. With that finishing kick, going to the line with a small handful of people would probably be a scenario he’s good with, similar to Kwiato beating Sagan and Nibali.

Ouch. I'd say both Stuyvens and Mohoric are more than mere journeymen. Ciolek, otoh, probably is.