Actually, thinking of it again, if any of the hillier classics turns nasty (men’s WC 2019 style), then all bets are off.

For whatever reason, the super rainy conditions occur mostly in early spring and autumn in Europe, but a hilly classic in a deluge will see the “big-bois” come to the fore.

My hometown! I am always afraid of being attacked from patrons of the various meth den's when I ride on my visits back - now I have to be scared of the bulls too!

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"It's good enough for who it's for" - Grandpa Wayne

This reply is for anyone really - but where are you guys getting your bike related news these days? Of all the sites I used to frequent, CyclingNews was the last one that had not gone subscription only. Now, as of today for me at least, it's gone subscription only for more than 5 articles per month. It wasn't great, but it was something.

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"It's good enough for who it's for" - Grandpa Wayne

Tough call

Cyclingnews has too many ads and fluff pieces for me to want to pay for its product.

So right now, it's a combination of CyclingTips (for which I pay) and The Guardian (for which I pay, and which has live commentary on quite a few races).

I might do a short term trial and pay for cyclingnews, but it will need to improve its journalism standards quite a bit before I want to pay for it.

I should mention that I'm an outlier here: I pay for WaPo (though Sally Jenkins can go eff off), The Guardian, my local news (more expensive than any of the other items on this list), and CyclingTips.

ST Spoilers thread. All the news that's fit to chop up.

CN has been good enough for me, and their comments section is sometimes fun. I figured I'd try the $1 first month intro and see how things go. So I signed up today, but even though I got the "welcome to CN email" and I'm "signed in", I still get the "you've already read 5 articles so you need to sign in to read further" message. (i.e. I can't read more than the first few sentences of today's articles.) Maybe they're swamped and it's going to take some time to catch up, but it's not been a great start.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

They strike me as being an absolute shitshow on the technical management side. Compared to VeloNews or CyclingTips which use mature content management platforms. CN strikes me as being 3 guys down at the pub with a laptop.


On the other hand CN is great at super timely results on most races. Which VeloNews and CyclingTips aren't great at. It's a conundrum.

In a bit of irony, CN’s long time editor, Daniel Benson, just moved to VN. Which, as y’all probably know is owned by Outside, which also bought CyclingTips, Pinkbike, Peloton Mag and Bicycle Retailer, among a hoard of enthusiast titles.

I have the VeloNews Pass, and it's good for the articles. As far as results, there's generally an article, but without the complete list of where all of the riders finished.

I hope my CN subscription gets sorted out. I'm still locked out from reading beyond the first couple of sentences, but I can get to the comments, so there's that!

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Oh Toon! Doping denial of course.

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"It's good enough for who it's for" - Grandpa Wayne

In sharp contrast, everyone is quick with the latest doping scandal: https://www.google.com/...=chrome&ie=UTF-8

What breast cancer drug? Is this a new one?

Dang it. I like underdog Toon, and Sven Nys' Lions are one of my favorite teams. I hope there is some plausible explanation before he goes on my Betsema list (though my problem with her situation wasn't so much her as the ridiculously short sanction she got after testing positive twice for "the good stuff.")

https://www.usada.org/spirit-of-sport/education/6-things-know-letrozole/

Woo whooo!! My CN subscription is working! All the news that's fit to print. It just took them a day.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

:(

Sounds like it was being used in PCT after an exogenous testosterone cycle.

Big boi Ganna did a nicely paced climb yesterday. He put up his ride and it looks like 35 minutes at 471 watts AP. I am actually surprised it wasn't higher to be honest.

A friend just sent me Nairoman's time on the final climb. He is certainly going well. Hopefully we see this form hold in to the big races.

MONTAGNE DE LURE


PARIS-NICE (13.71 km, 6.46 %, 885 m)


2009 | 33:52 | Contador
2013 | 34:44 | Porte


TOUR DE LA PROVENCE (13.28 km, 6.59 %, 875 m) | #TDLP2022


2022 | 32:48 | N.Quintana


equal to 33:26 Paris-Nice

I just made this mistake of watching this years Astana rap video. I was already sad Joe D. went there, but WTF did they make him do in that video? Say it aint so Joe.

Those who have known my banter going back ~10 years probably know that I have a really soft spot for Cadel Evans. I first started watching bike racing right after I bought my first serious road bike in 2009, and of course, his World Championship win in Mendrisio was such a masterstroke of panache, determination, and guile that it was partially responsible for tuning me into bike racing, both as spectator and as participant.

Well, apparently Evans is a paying Cyclingtip reader. So if anyone needs an endorsement for subscribing, there's a good one.

Also, footage of that race (scroll to 3:45:00 for where things really begins). Eat your heart out, Cancellara!

That was an amazing performance. I don't have a whole lot of confidence in a lot of sport, but one thing I truly believe is that Cadel did it the right way.

Today will be a good one at Algarve I believe.

In other news poor Gaviria is sidelined for the 3rd time with covid.

Covi's looking great. I didn't think that attack would stick but he just held it. UAE's built up quite the squad around Taddy Po.

Today was boring, until it wasn't! Crazy finish.

Yeah, I thought he was doing a Dan Martin, but he went to the well 2-3 times for re-accelerations. Well done.