https://www.cyclingnews.com/...ship-deal-with-nike/

"I am aware of my role within women’s cycling and women’s sports in general, and the opportunities it presents,” she added in an Instagram post, announcing her deal with Nike.

“Together with Nike, I can achieve common goals and effectively spread my message. We want to inspire many people to start moving, and together, we will make dreams come true,”

Good luck to her. I hope NIKE changes their position on athletes having children, as many leaders in the peloton have seemed to make it work for them & their teams

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

How about Ali Jackson in green doing bottle duties for the team? That's my kind of rider.

Not a Nike fan, but good for cycling to get another huge company involved - like Red Bull. A bit odd for Nike as I'm not aware they have much in the way of cycling products. Maybe they have plans.

Apparently Vollering also going to FDJ.

Shirts, shorts, and shoes only, as far as I know, but they did have a Swoosh on the Discovery/Postal/Radio Shack kits, if I remember?

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

Chopping a jersey zipper from the team car?

There's gonna be some discussion on that, I'm sure

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

They don't even have road shoes. To my knowledge they have indoor cycling shoes and the guys like Cav or Wurf who have been seen with their logo are on a different company's shoe that is customized with the logo. I could be wrong about that though.

On one hand I hope Demi is making bank on this and it's good to see that they think there is value in the women's peloton. On the other, Nike certainly has a shitty reputation with athletes, particularly women.

Sheesh, another big crash at 3K. But another Vos masterpiece....just switching to exactly the right wheel like 3 times in a row.

She is such a class rider. I'm always down for a Vos masterclass.

She made that look easy.

That Movistar rider only needed to see her elbow to back off and give her the last wheel.

Ha. I try to avoid man-splaining to the women how to sprint, particularly since they're all better at it than I am (both physiologically and tactically), but, come on, make it a little hard for Vos!! Her one leadout person was left totally unchallenged at the front deep into the last kilo. The field looked pretty fatigued, and maybe after all the crashes no team was organized enough to put up a counter-train to force Vos to make decisions. Kool must have been shattered from all the climbing because she was just totally flat.

I used to occasionally ride with Orla Walsh (Irish sprint and keirin champ) and it was comical how badly I'd get nuked by her sprint. She's a terrific person too. I should figure out what she's up to as I think the Olympic dream for Paris faded and she's on to new ventures. /tangent

I raced track for years vs. Jen Valente (Olympic/Worlds champ). The full spectrum from, "Aww, I'm going to help this plucky junior rider stay in contact," to "Dang, it's all I can do to beat a 17 y.o. girl."

And then the final stage, "Whelp, there she goes! Nothing I can do about that! Where we going for beers after?"

Here ya go

https://www.instagram.com/pedalingheroine

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

I was looking at the Giro stages yesterday, didn’t realize it comes out of the gate so hot. Ferris will have to show some restraint to not put it on everyone from the start.

I suspect the opposite - Pogi likely to Pogi - solve the gc so he can ride easy until big 3rd week mountains. let the stage hunters dictate the first 2 weeks, just have his team ride pace to corral any gc boys trying to infiltrate breaks.
We all know Pogi doesn't let many win opportunities go unheeded.
Maybe, just maybe, he has a plan to ride easier for as many days as possible in the middle of the race - given the Tour picture with an injured Vinge and the Olympics.

Had the same thought about getting lead early and then managing 3rd week, but dang there are some tough late mtn stages. That strategy makes a lot of sense though, especially with 70k of TTs. One things’s for sure: unless bad luck strikes, the UAE squad is going to be tired after this.

Ineos surprises and Giro Dog stage 6.

UAE can't afford to lose domestiques if they'll be doing as much riding as we're guessing. McNulty predicts giro dog stage 6 - my guess is not only does UAE already know giro dog stage(s), they know what town(s) giro dog is lurking so they can be dropping back for bottles. maybe all their riders will have to apply giro dog repellent (in addition to sunscreen) for most of the race? (maybe have a pocketful of good cat treats (my dog LOVES cat food) they can throw out to the side of the road to keep giro dog busy.)
ineos ought to team up with uae on best giro dog repellent formula. GT doesn't have perfect track record with avoiding calamities like this.

i have a vague memory of an old vhs tape of 'hell on wheels' about the '03 (?) tour with telekom team where rolf aldag featured a lot. I think he may have been taken out by a tour dog (maybe even the day after he snagged polka dots). i'm not sure if it's an unqualified good thing that humans are SO GOOD at ignoring near misses with all the obstacles a cyclist faces.

And Bora is gonna get Florian Lepowitz on the podium!

We have some crosswind fun happening at the Vuelta.

SD Worx bossed the field to get basically their whole team in the front split. But little pro conti team EF rolling SD Worx like a bowling ball in the finale!

Wow, van Gils steals a big win. That was impressive.

"What kind of rider are you?" "I really don't know." LOL.

The Artic Faulks! This Vuelta start has been awesome for me as a fan.

Great tactic by the Arctic Faulks...letting ELB, Vollering, and then Vos burn a match, then unloading everything you have over the top of them. It must have been really, really hard watching those 3 get a little up the road and just biding your time. But also predictable those three would neutralize each other, as ELB is not going to pull Vollering further ahead of Realini, and neither wants to bring Vos to the line. The kind of patience I never have in my own racing. You don't out "fox" (multiple fox references going on here) Vos very often, but Faulkner did.