as cagey as slipping past nibali and valverde to catch purito and crush him in sprint to win the worlds?
did not watch valencia to see how the break got clear. mcnutty may need a big ride or two to get back to staying neck and neck with powless as top yankee in pro tour. it didnt take long for 2023 to become must see.

Nowhere near that level of cageyness

Actually pretty straight forward, all things considered.

Nothing short of Ruination.

As a fat biker from before they were called fat bikes, all I can tell you is that there are 3 raw determinants to riding on snow: 1) tire pressure, 2) tire/rim width, and 3) technique. Not necessarily in that order. Not to be too harsh, but if you think a 2.5" tire can hang with a 5" Dillinger running appropriate pressure then you have a lot to learn, pistolero.

(All this delivered with lack of appropriate respect for your abilities which I know of, and a bit of smack talk to liven things up. :-> Happy to discuss further.)

even Wout admitted that he may have lost but at least it would have been a more "honorable" way to lose

as somebody said he got played when mvpd didn't lead after the barriers.

all in all a great race with a good finish.

the pidcock drone footage was amazing too!

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The entire event (IM) is like "death by 1000 cuts" and the best race is minimizing all those cuts and losing less blood than the other guy. - Dev

Yeah, naming the drone pidcock made me lol.

I don't! But the pow-pow around my area, I sink to my knees when using quality snowshoes. I just don't see any bike handling that. Maybe after waiting for the powder to compact and ice over to some degree. Fire roads popular with 4x4s would likely be rideable, but even the 4x4 guys don't get far, so it's, so far, pretty limited. I could try following the tracks of snowmobiles, but those tracks are super random, zig-zagging around through the backcountry. Correct me if I'm wrong - never ridden a fatbike.

Nice!!!!

9.8

Sometimes MdVP's racecraft gets underestimated, and we think he's just a very effective blunt tool.

You could see him do trial runs of the barrier attack a few times, and I think he noticed that Wout did a great job of neutralizing it by the stair run-up. So he astutely went to Plan B.

Okay, thanks for clarifying. Yeah I agree you're not going to bike in snow that deep. If the powder is really light and fluffy you might be able to ride in a foot of fresh snow on a firm base. At the other end of the spectrum, just a few inches of windblown or drifted snow can be really tough to ride through. And yeah you don't want to follow the guys on mountain sleds tearing around the backcountry, what you want to find is a trail or road that gets used by the snowmachine touring crowd. Around here (interior ak), we have hundreds of miles of winter trails that get used by mushers, skiers, snowshoers, hikers, fatbikers, and snowmachines. And moose! But it's really the snowmachines that pack the trails and leave a nice surface once it has time to set up.

Maybe you can find some multi-use trails in your area? IIRC you recently moved. Maybe a local bike shop could tell you where the fatbikers go. It's a blast, it's good training, and it can really challenge your bike handling skills. Think cyclocrossers in sand, just replace 30mm tires with fat ones and sand with snow. Otherwise it's much the same set of handling skills when you're trying to ride the soft stuff. Lots of countersteering and weight shifting.

1000% correct

it's mind numbing to think that the guy is racing FULL GAS and at the same time have the clarity of changing his game plan base on "previous runs"'

Wout seemed to have the race figured out in one way and he was in WTF mode when mvpd didn't attack during the last barriers.

I also think that wout spent the whole race being reactive and his "attacks" were mostly gut checks to see if mvpd had a "bad back day" - I didn't feel he wanted the race THAT badly

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The entire event (IM) is like "death by 1000 cuts" and the best race is minimizing all those cuts and losing less blood than the other guy. - Dev

It is remarkable the mental capacity that some elite athletes have when working at their maximums.

I recall Ross Brawn talking about Michael Schumacher when they were both at Ferrari. He often spoke about how much extra mental capacity Schumacher had beyond what he needed to race an F1 car at the front. He would often remark how Schumi was able to engage in complicated strategy discussions with the pit wall when he was maxed out driving the car.

Some people are just very different. They're elite in every sense of the word when it comes to their profession.

How about the UAE Women's Tour today? Longo Borghini and Realini lit that climb up and the 1-2 finish was spectacular as well. Realini is beyond tiny but kudos to her and the team for shepherding her through the more exposed portions of the race so she could light this climb up.

That was masterclass by Trek. Disaster by FDJ. I spent some time talking to the screen for those chasing groups to stop guttering each other.

It was a nice day of cross as well, particularly the men's race. Iserbyt won after one hell of a battle with Lars van der Haar.

ELB get the stage win? The other Trek kid could've used the win, right?
Were there important points at stake? I'm missing something....

Yeah. I get that ELB is the stronger bet for GC, but does Trek really need to go all in in February? Shrug.

I’m admittedly not up to speed on this: are points for women’s teams a similar issue as men’s wrt to relegation?

I had to look it up too. But apparently so. With poor Israel P-T up against it *again* with the women's team this time.

To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Ben Turner gets his first pro win. Almost an afterthought; he's clearly focused on bigger and better things. I can't wait to see him rip peoples' legs off in the Classics.

The only thing I heard discussed potentially (and this was afterward) is the ELB has a financial clause in her contract for wins and Realini does not, so ELB winning gave a bigger prize for them to share.

Whether or not that is actually the reason, I don't know. ELB said the decision came from the car and she wanted Realini to win. I certainly think a stage ending in a 30 minute w/kg would have been quite a prize in and of itself for a young pure climber.

That won't be the last win for Big Ben this year and he earned that moniker on stage too. Everyone else was dwarfed by him during the podium ceremony.

Figueira Champions Classic has been interesting. EF is putting a ton of work in to pulling back the breakaway. Let's see if it pays off. They have good numbers up front.

How about Kool "Beans" taking 2 wins from Wiebes in the UAE. The DSM train is still dialed, and she stepped right in.

I love it. I do fear we might be waterboarded by announcer if they think of mentioning Kool and the Gang.

And he’s really good at positioning; looked like a grizzled vet on yesterday’s finale.