Pedantry alert, the Brabantse Pijl sprint is on a false flat ( finishing km avg ~3%)

But Piddles sure has good tactical nous (see his sprint at 2021 KBK)

Almost gave me a heart attack! Peto gonna make party. This was inevitable.

Perhaps to make it a bit less of a suprise, TommyP is rumoured to have a 1500W sprint (can't find the proof atm, heard it in a podcast). At his weight and small frame, it shouldn't be a surprise that he can beat the likes of a WvA who punches a big hole in the air at not that much more peak power.

I have no access to his data, but you see him here occasionally doing efforts. I also have a hard time understanding his rumoured data, but I believe what I see. He clearly is punching something at that or close to that for 10 - 15 seconds. I know he is small, but he blows people off his wheel in a swift manner when he gets the chance. He also seems very intelligent about when to expend that energy, when to take risks, his technical prowess, etc. The other side of things is equally insane. I'm fairly certain he gave an interview about one of his TT titles...something like 6.5 w/kg for 45 minutes. From his own mouth.

Pidcock is amazing, to be sure, but he's 2 - 40 to MvdP so far. He's 2 - 23 to Wout.

The whippets are still on a different level.

Pidcock is a great rider, but I agree he's still clearly a tier below Wout and MvdP (though a tier above the likes of Iserbyt, Aerts, Van de Haar et.). I think a lot of us suffer from consuming a lot of our cycling coverage filtered through a British lens (Eurosport, GCN, etc.) and the Brits can't seem to help themselves when it comes to anointing Piddles as a golden god of cycling.

They are quite chauvinistic, especially as Froome has faded from the scene.

Claiming a guy who was born and raised in Kenya, trained in South Africa, and has lived in Monaco pretty much his whole career (and has never lived in Britain) as one of their own is another classic move.

I have no access to his data, but you see him here occasionally doing efforts. I also have a hard time understanding his rumoured data, but I believe what I see. He clearly is punching something at that or close to that for 10 - 15 seconds. I know he is small, but he blows people off his wheel in a swift manner when he gets the chance. He also seems very intelligent about when to expend that energy, when to take risks, his technical prowess, etc. The other side of things is equally insane. I'm fairly certain he gave an interview about one of his TT titles...something like 6.5 w/kg for 45 minutes. From his own mouth.

I just have to (sound on) https://www.facebook.com/...NK-UNK-IOS_GK0T-GK1C

I'm not sure that I'll be rooting for Joe D or Nibbles this year
https://www.cnn.com/...ress-intl/index.html

Yeah. I try to understand the context of riding "for" the Crown Prince of Bahrain, who's done some awful things (allegedly). Or Astana in the past. Tough to decide if sport is an agent of change or just "sportswashing."

But I think that a line has been crossed in this one...really hard to rationalize on this one.

The gold standard might be Gino Bartali who did a great job of undermining the attempts for the fascist Italian government to use him as propaganda, while, of course, secretly working for the Italian Resistance.

I just have to (sound on) https://www.facebook.com/...NK-UNK-IOS_GK0T-GK1C

One shouldn’t expect most professional sportspeople to exhibit a moral code much higher than caring for what benefits them. Most got into this because of the monetary opportunities, and it shouldn’t be all that surprising that self-interest rules the day for most.

Saudis committing atrocities? Eff that, they’ll be lured to play for Newcastle. And fans will show up, too.

Qataris using slave labor to build stadia for World Cup? No matter, they’ll chase the big paychecks from PSG.

Communist China and the atrocities against Uighurs? That, too, can be overlooked, as winter Olympians queue up for the opportunity to partake in the 2022 Olympics.

Sportwashing works, because both the fans and the athletes don’t care in sufficient numbers. Former want to be entertained; latter want to be paid. Everyone lets his/her self-interest dictate decision, and moral principles can f*** right off.

In this regard, Nibali is more at fault. He’s had his time feeding at the till (provided for by various autocrats) but like a greedy farm animal, just can’t say no to it. Dombrowski is slightly less culpable, as he’s less financially secure.

That’s the state of the world, one in which Don Ogre, despite his odious behavior, is orders of magnitude better than some of the other team managements around.

PS. My wife loves Olympic ice soccer (growing up in Canada does that); i, too, like ice soccer. No Olympics for either of us. Some of you know how much i enjoy my lawn hockey; no World Cup spectating for me.

I agree that there are a fair amount of shady guys in the sponsorship biz, but I think there is a difference say between Ineos that's a huge petrochemical producer and a mass of shot up bodies laying in the streets of Kazkhstan.
That's just my personal opinion, I understand that not all will agree.

I'm a big football fan, so I get where you are coming from with the Pack, but there is no comparable to Cycling, Green Bay can be competitive (number 1 seed in the NFC) because they get the same share of the multi billion dollar broadcasting pie that the NY and LA teams get, and there is (a very low, all things considered) salary cap. so really the Giants or the Rams have no, zero competitive advantage over the packers or steelers or KC, and that shows in the results.
But that's obviously a whole other discussion for another day

So to flip it, is there a team that could be rooted for based upon the team values and approach and whose sponsors are benevolent, reputable businesses that give back to society? I'll noodle this.
I'm a Green Bay Packer fan based upon the sound management there, many of the fans are stockholders, literally, and their fans are some of the nicest, unjaded people and most knowledgeable fans out there. It is a small market team. If they moved I'm afraid the perfectly nice little town of Green Bay would crumble. It's nice to see them be so consistently good, going up against the LA and NY teams that are often more attractive places for the athletes to live and play. Not a lot of the guys ice fish.