that doesn't make sense unless the riders are now splitting salaries, vs splitting prize money. ELB didn't get a bigger prize for the stage win than Realini would've gotten.

Nice lead out by Wellens. :)
Ineos took that over from UAE. Turner did look the grizzled vet. Those 2/3% grinders are great for the raw power guys.
Watching the tall kid Siriano get dropped from the break was painful. In the wind, trying to get back on. Ugh.

I think the speculation is that say, ELB has a contract clause for like $5000 per GC win. Even if they're not splitting salary, it'd make some sense to help one of your big stars fulfill her contract bonuses. And ELB would be class enough to a huge chunk of the winnings to reward Realini.

Regardless, I've never seen ELB be anything other than pure class, so I'm sure it was a team car thing.

Nice win by Moschetti today; somewhere Nibali uncorked a bottle of Prosecco.

Tomorrow Taddy Po kicks off his season on the rocks in Spain. Will be interesting to see if he picks up where he left off in Italy last fall.

i watched 2 replays of finishes last night. Turner's win looked like the run in had 4 180 turns and at least that many swerves around traffic furniture - if that is a standard 'safe' uphill finish - i wouldn't want to see a dangerous one. b/c of all that calamity it seemed like being in the top 10 at 1k to go was a must. Wellens's turn was massive. I guess with trentin and wellens its a coin toss for who should work for whom.
the smaller race won by quick step - pedersen in a headwind 13 rider split sprint - this is my question. why would EF not just attack the bejeezus out of that split with 4 of 13 and a flattish finish. i'd have to think sooner or later someone will leave too big of a gap. using 3 men for a leadout in a headwind super close sprint seems risky unless you have a super sprinter.
also looking forward to bernal and tadej
and still hoping maybe just maybe sagan and oss training in colombia might pay off this spring. i know 'fat' chance.

MJ kicked to the W in Oman today—awesome to see him get his first pro victory.

TaddyPo facing a 5-on-1 and casually increasing time gap.

Time for Spring Classics Advent Calendar! Blah blah blah. You all know the rules. Set your tire pressures.

25 February 2023 is the real date I'm looking forward to.

I'm just tuning out the other stuff for now.

I respect the purity. Reminds me of a masters-crit teammate who refuses to race between Labor Day and Valentine's Day.

T-PO hauling out the heavy lumber to lay wood. He didn't even look tired at finish.

Set tire pressure or condition the liver? Priorities...

Well, it doesn't quite help that the CX season is mostly over, too

I used to follow these pre-season races (really liked the echelon racing in the Arabian Peninsula crosswinds), but for whatever reason just can't get into them right now.

I just returned from New Orleans. Now time to check the tires.

Same. I was skiing all last week in Utah but the liver got a pretty good workout. Sick as a dog over weekend and haven't thrown a leg over in more than 8 days. Luckily bike racing will involve spectating and not actually pedaling.

Cool race. The Gilded Olive.

UAE with Hirschi looking better and Wellens still being Wellens has some one day firepower.

He certainly does, and is an easy guy to root for.

Oliva Bianche is a very cool race.

I've looked through this long thread and I can't find anything about this but:

What's the best way to watch these in the USA?

FloBikes? Something else?

The answer is "it depends." Smarter minds will chime in but I know some people use a VPN and Eurosport subscription, which pretty much gets you everything. I have Flo and GCN subscriptions, which are fairly reasonable all totaled (I'm fine paying to watch, as it generally supports actually having coverage). Sometimes Cycling Fans has links that'll work.

Thanks, I don't mind paying.

I just don't want to start paying for a service that is blocked to the US

If you don't mind paying, GCN, Flo, and Peacock TV are the 3 that combine to cover most cycling . Peacock doesn't have many events, but the ones they had last year were big. Paris-Roubaix, TdF, Vuelta, etc. Not sure yet about 2023 schedule.

Better question. How much are you willing to pay?

The U.S. rights are balkanized between FloBikes, GCN, and NBC.

NBC is $5/ month, and it carries races promoted by ASO. Probably need it for 4-5 months/ year (Paris Nice, Roubaix, Liege, Dauphine, TdF, and Vuelta)

GCN U.S. has coverage of the RCS (Italian) races and some second tier Belgian classics (KBK, etc). $9/ month or $50/ yr. Has a lot of other top level races (European Champions and various World Tour classics).

Flo has presumably most of everything else (De Ronde and World Championship). $150/ yr for those.

VPN + GCN is about 30-40% of all that.

Forgot to add Peacock, do need that one.

Flo is really the site that has pricing out of whack. The rest are pretty reasonable.

I can't do Flo anymore. Too expensive and their coverage is sometimes awful. Between a VPN and tiz-cycling, I don't miss much.

Tiz -- that was the one I was trying to remember.

I'm leaning more heavily into a VPN. Everything about Eurosport is just better.