Haha...maybe he's not a kid anymore...who knows...

regarding the scoring - I think I need a refresher anyway - I'm not sure what I scored on Strade. My picks were:

1. Mr. Implosion (Sagan)
2. GvA
3. Bone crusher (Gerrans)
4. Stybar
5. Vanmarcke

Does this mean I get 1 point for GvA because I had him on the podium or 2 points for having him in 2nd? Do I get points for Stybar winning even though I had him in 4th?

I like the idea of bonus for picking the winner.

under old system: 4 points as 3 people of the people picked finished top 5 (1 pt each) and 1 bonus for picking the correct second place. Under new system, also 4 points as 3 people of the people picked finished top 5 (1 pt each) and 1 bonus for picking the correct second place.

Say instead you had Stybar 3rd and Gerrans 4th, under the old system this wouldn't get you any bonus points, but under the new system, you get 1 bonus point as Stybar is on the podium (even though you didn't pick the correct podium). The latter change is made b/c i don't think there isn't more merit to picking correct 2nd and 3rd place than to pick people on the podium

Suspected broken collarbone for Boonen today. Bummer for him, that will pretty much kill his classics campaign. Good thing Etixx is so deep.

. . and how quickly things change!

Bad and sad news for Boonen, and Boonen fans.

Indeed, with Boonen, out it changes the game for the upcoming Classics, for Etixx-QS, as well as the other favorites Cancellara et al

Never a dull moment!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Thanks! Clearly, I'm way better at guessing the outcomes of athletic events than I am at participating in such events :D

Bummed for TB. Bummed. Bummed. He was locked and loaded. Not going to have many more shots.

AC joint separation. Close but different. Could be worse, could be better. It doesn't appear to require surgery but he's out of the big ones either way. Bummer.

Was thinking exactly the same.

For Strade I picked 1) Stybar, 2) Sagan 3) GVA. How would that score?

Old system: 4. Proposed system: 6

GvA *

This actually may uncomplicate things at Etixx-QS, With Stybar, Terpstra, and Kwiatkowski (and Vandenbergh as a powerful helper) they still have plenty of firepower for the classics season.

This actually may uncomplicate things at Etixx-QS, With Stybar, Terpstra, and Kwiatkowski (and Vandenbergh as a powerful helper) they still have plenty of firepower for the classics season.

But they still couldn't close the deal at Omloop in a 4 to 6 rider situation and finale!

They seem to work better when their is no question about what the game-plan will be. Example, the next day at KBK, there was little question as they would be riding the whole race for Cavendish!

I think as someone else pointed out, the real shame is not seeing Cancellara and Boonen face off one last time, while they are still close to the top of their game. I think both have slipped a bit, but are still getting by with strategy and team help/support. Next year, another year down the road it really could be over for the two of them.

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

Opens things up for Stybar.

Geez, not this sh@t again.

Geraint Thomas the climber. Roll eyes

Someone in another forum was mentioning Greg Henderson putting out 930w for 30 sec leading out Griepel, and i remarked that Henderson did something similar at the 2011 ToC where his sprinter Swift wasnt on the wheel and Henderson just took the lead out into a win.

While reading about it, Henderson mentioned that Sky would start working for their climber Froome in the race. Froome finished some 20 min behind Horner.

So ladies and gentleman, looks like a new climbing star, geraint Thomas, has arrived. /sarcasm

Following in the footsteps of Peter Kennaugh, who went from the boards to being one of Froome's last guys at Le Tour. They know how to make climbers

Kinda like Hincapie

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Don't forget to attack!

That's exactly who he reminded me of......

Hincapie could climb but he was never a climber. Little different to win a TdF stage out of a break when the peloton isn't interested in chasing, than dropping a bunch of GC climbers when they're all going for it.

can somebody fill me in on the actuals here? I've had a lot of meetings (at work) and 0 access to cycling related news in the past 5 days.

Porte and Thomas smashed faces at P-N today on final climb and went 1-2, dropping a bunch of climbers in process

tbf, Kennaugh is on the younger side of things and weighs less than 65 kilo,. Furthermore he did finish 3rd in the baby Giro in 2009, and though he didn't win a mountain stage, it seems he was in the top 10. So his transformation at least isn't exactly out of the blue.

Thomas is 3 years older and weighs closer to 72 kilo. Here we have a classics specialist who attacked with 3-4 km to go, hold off the charges until with 800 m to go, and was the only person who could jump on Porte's wheel.

It seems that Sky not only knows how to make climbers out of classics specialists, but also classics specialists out of climbers (Wiggo).

Mind you that Wilfred Peeters said that Kwiatkowski has "legs too big to be a climber," and Kwiatkowski has shown far better pedigree than Thomas has ever shown.

Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte dropped the field inside the last 2k of a 10k climb.
When Thomas rides away from a healthy Tejay, I begin to think incremental rhymes with micro.

how dare you?

it's nothing that a backdated TUE can't overcome ;)

It seems that the following has become the team song for Sky


Haters wanna knock me, WADA wanna box me in
But somehow, I beat them charges like Rocky
H to the izz-O, V to the izz-A
Not guilty, he who does not feel me is not real to me
Therefore he doesn't exist
So poof...vamoose son of a bitch

I see what you did there ;) Thanks for the cliff notes everyone. Now I'm whole again and ready to attack another big set of spreadsheets.