Women's field was quickly culled. The Sound and the Fury was almost a foregone conclusion.

Men's likely the same unless the hitters have mercy and don't want to ride 70 miles alone.

They could do a no drop ride for half the race I guess......

Friendly folks here in Charleston. I'm hearing it's this location for another 4 years.

Sniper gets my vote, especially coming from GT. I hope he goes into broadcasting when he hangs up the bike.

Route looks relentless, death by 1000 rollers.

As in tough to crack, i assume? i like it.

best i could do was read through the action on cyclingnews, tony walnuts (provisional) 3:59 back, yet seemed to hang solidly, wouldve liked to have seen how he handled himself on the mortirolo. maybe too early for that moniker with what's upcoming? no matter, rooting for the youngster! i'll leave all that nickname fun to you folks, you know best.

pog looking, well, really good. i am a pog fan. simply watching for the newest talent is all. glad pog rode through nairoman.

Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri from Sopranos fame, as in mob thug/killer, and a fondness for track suits.


Professor McNulty nearly solved the EF Education equation today, what a ride. Was hoping he’d pull off the 2-against-one win.

Had also been considered Tweety Bird Tiberi ("I tawt I taw a puddy tat!")

Not sure about how close the Italian is to the Spanish, but Tiberi sounds like Tiburon, so may be the second coming of Nibali as "the shark". Is there a species of shark know for eating cats? Dogfish is a type of shark I guess.

If a nickname takes this much work, it just doesn't work. Sniper is class coming from GT.

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Speaking of class, https://www.instagram.com/...gsh=ZWNiOXJpYTJ0bWc2

I was confused for a second, that looks like LaSporty!

Class, but also very "LuLu" for the gift to be....a LuLu jersey.

yeah, not that great of a gift, but still better than a Vino jersey

Agreed, especially after Maestri's nice comments on why he rode with him in the break.

Like when Kramer remodeled his apartment: "Levels, Jerry."

The LFF, then the Maestro, then Bam Bam and the EF guys, then tons of very good riders who don't get half way through the race.

Levels.

Yep.

It looks like the riders are trying to get some changes for tomorrow's stage due to weather. Will we get a cold weather epic stage or will RCS win out?

I won't bother linking to xhitter, but Simon Geshke wrote: "The CPA group is currently exploding. At the moment, teams + UCI are on one side, and the organizer RCS is on the other. 0 degrees and snowfall are forecast for the Umbrail Pass."

 
Are we allowed to talk Olympics here ? If so, fellow Canucks, if you were team Canada selectors, who would you take to Paris.

For clarity, Lionel is not eligible :-)

June 1st is the day we find out.

Let's put together every country's all-triathlete team. Knibb, Lionel from NA (for starters). Ditlev and his 500W FTP from Denmark displacing Mads and Venga.

I dunno, it wasn't just a jersey, it was the jersey he won the stage in. That jersey would probably sell for a significant percentage of Maestri's yearly salary.

Monetary value aside, considering Maestri's comments after the stage - where he talked about being too shy/embarrassed to ask Alaphilippe for an autograph - it seemed pretty on point to me.

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It's not a parcours that really suits any of our guys. The Montmartre climb doesn't look steep enough for Woodsy to get away, but what else you got? Is Gee riding track again? I don't think he is. He's got as good a shot as anyone. Pickrell's not good enough (yet?) as a sprint option. Houle/Boivin as rock solid domestiques and/or breakaway options.

More options for the women. Jackson, Boilard, Baril.

I don't even know how many spots we have and whether you have to ride both road and TT.

Yes to having to do Road and TT
I am probably wrong but I think men get 1TT, 2 road
Derek is not doing track
HH, DG and GB doing the TDF, so not sure if that impacts things

My bet: Mike and Derek

The rule changes for cycling confused me with the whole Knibb situation. But I believe you're correct based on Canada's UCI national ranking at the end of 2023. And you do have to do both TT and RR. That's new. As recently as the Tokyo games you could have a TT specialist (like Amber Neben for the U.S. at Tokyo). No more.

I’m threatened by your suggestion.

You still can.
Athletes *don't* have to do both TT and RR. Federations can *require* athletes to do both in order to best utilize the total rider quota allowed their National Olympic Committee, but this is a NOC decision, not something they are bound to by the rules of the event.

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/

Yes, seems you're right - just dumbfounded that any country would decide in advance to reduce the total # of athletes they'd be allowed to send. I don't know how restricting your athlete roles in advance of selection can be considered to "best utilize" total rider quota.

The U.S. may sure have liked a TT specialist in Knibb for this year, allowing one more athlete to go for the RR...say the winner of your national pro RR.

In Tokyo the U.S. women's team sent 3 women who did not start the TT (Labecki, Thomas, Winder), and one who did not start the RR (Neben). So it's not like the idea of specializing should be novel to USAC.

I generally suggest that folks should look at who a decision benefits rather than who it disadvantages in order to best understand the likely motivation for that decision.

There is only one rider in the US that is a betting favorite for success in the road cycling events at the Olympics this cycle, and USAC had no way of knowing that they would win the automatic qualifier when they set up the domestic selection criteria.

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/

Precisely my point. Why limit yourself in advance when you have no idea who's going to win your automatic qualifier?

If Faulkner is a little faster, send just two riders total. If a TT specialist wins, send 3!

Faulkner not any sort of favorite to win, but she's sure good enough to help out Dygert at times.

Your point missed the actual point, IMO.

They knew who would have won the domestic qualifier, they just didn't know that they would win the International qualifier and be able to skip the domestic one entirely.

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
Coaching and bike fit - http://source-e.net/ Cyclocross blog - https://crosssports.net/ BJJ instruction - https://ballardbjj.com/