Anyone got a reliable stream?

yes, live feed on utube and roads look really good

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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

utube the nace of the race plus 2017 at the end :)

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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

sagan post race interview?: I... don teenk so... he's a friggin riot!

here's the feed, thank you to arthur cremelie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtCSdLaWA4M

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http://www.PatGriskusTri.com USAT Certified Race Director
2024 Races: USAT State of CT Age Group Championship/State of CT HS Champs/ CT Club Championship - Sat June 15th (Oly/Du/Sprint) Hopkins Vineyard Tri at Lake Waramaug Saturday July 13th http://www.HopkinsVineyardTri.com

What I heard too. Thanks for the YouTube tip, was on an Italian stream via steephill...Not ideal:)

Man, that is a great race. like in golf, the great courses bring out the great players, there are no slackers here. Kwi, Stybar, GVA. that was impressive. I love this race.

strong ride by Kwiatkowski. Very impressive

the three chasers were all putzing away their chances, and i think GvA may be the one who shoulder most of that blame

Can there be a one day race to follow this Saturday? Paris-Nice, Tirenno-Adriatico . nbc gold, good for PN i reckon.
(ps-this thread should be on the front page until late april at least, and that's what i'm doing, dammit)

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http://www.PatGriskusTri.com USAT Certified Race Director
2024 Races: USAT State of CT Age Group Championship/State of CT HS Champs/ CT Club Championship - Sat June 15th (Oly/Du/Sprint) Hopkins Vineyard Tri at Lake Waramaug Saturday July 13th http://www.HopkinsVineyardTri.com

Tirenno, though not a classic, has been quite fun to watch this week. GVA has to be one of the most self absorbed cyclists, he has twice this week stated he is "one of the best classics riders" somewhat ironically after Sagan winning the stage and not talking about himself....though admittedly you are never quite sure what Sagan is talking about.

Lots of on form sprinters right now, Greipel looks like he is on exceptional form, Demare i think will be very dangerous. Degenkolb seems to be right on the cusp of good form. Groenewegen has been sprinting well, Sagan, Cav, all the big names are doing well. MSR should be great. I think Gavaria will be the danger, anyone who watches track knows he is a phenom. In fact i am surprised people did not believe he could ride off the front of a race with 500m to go, he does that all the time in track sprints where he turns the pace up so high nobody has the chance to sprint. With this many sprinters i wonder if it will change team tactics and they really rip up the Cipressa and Poggio? Possibly some collusion between GVA/Sagan/Kiwat? Thomas taking a flyer?

Hopefully Ewan heals up quick.

thanks for fighting the good fight :)

Ronde van Drenthe is a one-day classic on the women's World Tour and is this weekend.

other than that last stage of Paris Nice should provide some fireworks. I'd watch that over a mountain-top finish
I wouldn't be that hard on GvA, but he does seem a bit grating of late


No one is getting away, and Sagan sprints from a small pack. No place for GvA and Kwiatek to shine. There were two really exciting MSR in recent memory, one in 2011 and the other in 2013; the others were just meh

Goss? Meh - he never won anything big before or after.

But Ciolek? Yeah, that was awesome. A tremendous talent that never fully materialized, though. And he's already retired!

Goss was a really good sprinter; almost won rainbow stripes. That was one exciting MSR

the Ciolek edition was just bunkers crazy (in a good sense). Sagan could have won it, but...

You put it correctly that others were meh. It's become a 290 km procession to the bottom of the Poggio, and riders inevitably regroup at the bottom. In the old days, you had grand tour winners slugging it out with classics specialists (and the overlap between the two was significant back then). The 92 edition when Kelly won over Argentin; well let's just say that Argentin got his namesake position;)

Thinking Joe D takes a shot at this stage in PN. He lives in Nice, loves the roads and pulled the plug pretty early yesterday so if he's got anything left he'll may be in the front group. Here's hoping, anyway.

unfortunately not the situation

Contador is living up the tradition of attacking the hell out of the last stage of Paris-Nice. Infiltrates into front group; gap of 40 seconds with 25 km left

Gotta love his racing spirit regardless of his past

Yeah, I'm suffering through an acute cognitive split right now. I hate Contador. But this is essence of great racing. I HATE CONTADOR. BUT THIS IS AWESOME. ARARRCHGGH

I might have a stroke.

Sergio Henao, school in session. Grab a pen and notebook.

what has changed? specialization of riders? financial incentives? Lance's "the Tour is everything" approach?
I am pretty new to watching the spring races. maybe the 6-7 years. the cobbles are great but MSR does seem dull. duller than LBL. almost FW dull.

Cannondale just seems a shambles this year, more than most. Formolo and Craddock DNF. Joe D coming back from injury. Rolland seemingly regressing a bit. Woods kind of doing OK

The only thing they can take to the bank is Sep in a Classic.

Good for Sergio.

damn, two seconds...

Contador's breakmates screwed him over with all that surging.


Specialization of riders more than anything else. MSR had almost always ended in small group sprint (<10 riders) until the full raging of years of EPO, with a few small breaks succeeding (Bettini, Pozzato, and Cancellara) during this period. When you have donkeys who can haul up the Poggio, it's not too much to ask that everyone can get over a mere speed bump. Out of ~200 riders, the people getting over the hump was still only 40-50, but enough to change the dynamics

But then again, you also have better training in the last 20 years, independent from the effect of EPO. So overall difficult to say exactly what the cause is, but better physiology is certainly a factor.

The same could be said for LBL. Once an exciting race even during the EPO years, as evidenced by Vino stampeding from 40km out. Now you have a glorified 25-person sprint up the final incline the way Amstel was.

The last factor i could think of is change in incentives. World tour points matter, so people will duke it out for 15th place whereas in the years past no one cared about such minor placings. And the best way to ensure one gets at least something (as opposed to all or nothing) is to unleash the attack later and later


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Also, damn Sagan is strong

That was an amazing P-N finale!
De la cruz passes contador with metres to go and wins the stage AND the time bonuses, Henao struggles across the line with the sprinters and wins by 2 seconds, GREAT STUFF!

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res, non verba

Man, this makes me miss the days with a good Frank Vandenbroucke. VDB vs Michele Bartoli on the La Redoute... the two favorites throwing down a bomb who was faster... VDB ended up killing everyone later in the race. That was the best LBL ever (together with that time a relatively modest rider from my hometown won it). VDB, gone too soon... :-(

Regardless of Contadors past, that was one of the single most impressive efforts he has ever made. Exceptional riding, that is what makes him fun to watch. Sagan today also demonstrated that his form is exceptional, hanging with the GC riders on the climb and taking an "easy" win.

There is no love between Trek and QST today, they should have agreed to have De La Cruz help Contador out and then give him the stage win, instead he sat on for 50k then then took the time bonus.

Who's the relatively modest Belgian rider? I'd hazard to say that no one who's won LBL is relatively modest. Okay, maybe Simon Gerrans may be considered to be modest.

I can't remember if it's a house # on la Redoute or # on St. Nicholas where he said he'd attack