I wonder if that ever pops up in the design process? "this is the most aero shape ever.."..."but it looks like an elephant's dildo?"... "who cares it looks ridiculous and our sport will be ridiculed for decades...it is faster"

The way these things are growing on every direction, how do they go around the fairing rule?

Jonas looked very uncomfortable on his TT bike. Usually he rails every corner, smooth and fast, but today his cornering was twitchy and awkward. I'd guess it's a new bike and the kinks haven't been worked out yet? In any case it seemed like technology held him back, not physiology.

Anyway it sets us up for an attacking race, so I'm not unhappy to see him drop a little time!

Lisa Bike’s new helmets keep making me think of the movie Spaceballs.

lol for real. Rumour has it Wout is being issued an all black version to transform fully into Darth Helmet.

semper fidelis - when I have a go to rider, I need to pick him consistently - my apologies to Toms!!
quick Skujins anecdote from last year's MD Cycling Classic:
a cool thing about these races is that we have fans have amazing access to the riders. At the rider presentation the night before my dog Murray picked Skelmose as his favorite rider. We got a great pic with the 3 of us.
The next day before the start I was talking with Skujins telling him I love the way he rides and that I felt bad that he wasn't one of my picks for the day - I'd picked Derek Gee and our dog Mur had picked Skelmose. He joked with me right there that I would regret my pick. he even told me next time - bet on Toms!!
he animated that break that day only losing when Skelmose went nuclear in the last 8 miles.
His Omloop was awesome. kudos to trener1 for that pick and shame on me!
Skujins rode so deep - 2 flats/ crash with Simmons/ had to dig to respond to Van Gils's first jump. great ride. mea culpa.

 

love the story thanks!

lisa bike def not selling me that helmet. i hate it BUT, as someone who still races tts, i have to say i sort of like the visibility improvement.

UAE has cards to play this summer.

Solid leadout by Tooter Pro Cycling and win by De Kleijn to show up the WT teams. Pithie continues to be super active in any kind of race. Good stuff.

What does it say about me that I went immediately to Alien???

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

You’re a HR Giger fan?

Arvid is a beast of a pure sprinter. It's nice to see him get this result, and there was a good post-race interview where he thanked his team profusely (and particularly Trentin). Tooter (LOL) have a good team thing going.

And yeah, Pithie ... WTF is a Classics up-and-comer doing up there in a fast bunch sprint? He and Askey were always tearing it up last year in 2nd tier French races, as the English-speakers for Groupama. He seems to be hitting a new level this year. Kid might have a future.

Did anyone watch Monsere? Brutal long rainy race, which leads to the question of whether anyone ever has had more top-10s than Tim Dupont (ETA - in small Belgian races)?

Definitely comes into play, yes

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

TTT in Paris Nice with some interesting rules with regard to who gets what finishing time within the teams.

This is stolen from Hanginon in the new Giro thread.

Why was CVV chatting with David Letterman?

https://www.instagram.com/...gsh=azc1YXlsNXBlN254

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

The link doesn't work for me.

I love a good TTT, it's really great to watch the good teams execute. That said, I really miss long 100k+ courses. This TTT conspiracy started with the French I'm convinced and because of the power of the ASO it has destroyed long solo and team time trials.

Damn, sorry - must be an IG bug

Anyway, Bobke has grown his beard out quite impressively and looks very much like David Letterman

Got to admit, these guys must be loving that they can do the PxP and commentary remotely, but might also regret not traveling to sunny & warm Nice in early March

Oops!!! not so sunny nor warm this weekend, according to the Weather Channel app

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

The drone shots are cool. Jasper Disaster with blistering speed in Italy today.

Agreed on the drone shots. I'm loving them and CX did a great job of utilizing them as well.

The Visma guys chilling before the TTs all in their helmets is cracking me up.

Weather impacted the later teams pretty markedly. Regardless, UAE is looking really strong especially with the stache-bros Jay Vine and Luigi McNulty. The time gaps will actually make tomorrow and the rest of this race super interesting tactically. We are going to see some fireworks.

Where did everyone go! We are going to have a shootout in Paris-Nice soon with Remco, Rog, Skjelmose all needing to gain big chunks of time back.

Yeah, I think the way the TTT shook out worked out pretty great from a fan perspective. McNulty and a really strong UAE squad (at this point, when do they not show up with a roster of absolute hitters?) with 18 seconds over Remco, 20 on Bernal, 54 on Primo, etc. should make for an intriguing couple of days. I don't think anyone would have been surprised to see Remco/QS with an already insurmountable lead after yesterday, and it seems like the weather gods may have intervened to give us a more exciting race.

That was a tough finale at Tirreno and a sprint suited to Bauhaus. Paris Nice is kicking off properly as well with some surprise action.

Bahrain sweep!

Loved Skjelmose fighting Remco for the line. Matteo looks solid.

Remco's excuses coming out in 3,2...

Good ride by Buitrago it seemed as if Plapp was struggling to keep up with him during the descent. Roglic did not look very strong at all, he would typically shatter everyone's legs in this type of climb. I still think he is third best heading into the Tour as Remco's consistency is still a bit suspect.

Nice job by Snappy Plappy - gets at least one day in the leader's jersey.

After UAE looked to strong yesterday they looked vulnerable today with both Bam Bam and Almeida getting gapped at the end. Not a great sign for the upcoming stages.

Cool to see bernal up there, seems he's validating people's hopes. I'm not surprised to see McNulty gapped, much as I'd love to see him perform, I'm skeptical after the UAE tour.

I didn't think it was very nice of CVV to pick on LaTour's complete lack of descending skills, but sometimes it is scary to watch him go downhill

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