Those are good picks.

To be different I'll go:

Jungle Bob, Yates, Kwiat
G. Martin, Pogacar

Femme usual suspects:

VdB, vV, Cecilie

Only argument I have with that pick is if Hirschi has enough in the tank after two big races in past week. By all accounts Alaphilippe has had this one circled on calendar.

Alaphilippe, Kwiato, Schachmann
Pog, TD

I'd say both Alaphilippe and Hirschi make it on the podium

I'm going with Panache Boy for the win but I'm really going for Danny Martin and Rusty "good talk" Woods.

Tim Wellens goes a long on for no apparent reason, which is why I like him.

The Bar will get pipped by Panache Boy for the win. Ala has the Jungle Tractor at his disposal. Hard to beat that.

GvA will give it all he's got, per usual. He's really grown on me. A stoic panache boy.

Costa will start some fireworks on Taddy Po's behalf. Rui has been riding well.

When does Bettiol reappear?

some of Roglic's power numbers from the tour

https://cyclingtips.com/...w9T3CKhJjGPX8tBggrBg

rain forecasted for tomorrow, although before start of the race. That probably damps Martin's chances.

As for Bettiol, I think he'll come good in a week or so. Also, Gent-Wevelgem is only a week away!!! Stock up on beer and stroopwafels, lads!

ETA: lots of rain for the next week in Belgium. Almost some sort of shower or rain every day. Damn, that'd drive me bat-shite crazy.

Haven't been that active on here lately but I've tried to keep up with reading all of the discussions. Really looking forward to the next 3 weeks!
Van der Poel seems to be coming into his shape of last year, Kwiatkowski has been good, Benoot is on the up, some other guys already showing good shape in the Tour,.. Will van Aert be able to continue what he has been doing and podium or win de Ronde or Paris-Roubaix?

Unfortunately I crashed at 27mph/43kph yesterday doing 10' 280-300W intervals on the TT bike. Didn't notice 2 bumps quick enough and they threw me off the bike, similar to Superman Lopez' crash yesterday in the ITT. The Speed Concept went into the canal/channel, I landed right on the banks on some rocks. I'm only a bit bruised and a some nice road rash, the bike however..

Big sad, so hoping for an epic LBL edition, a lot of action in the Redbull WC XCO and a nice Giro stage to cheer me up. LBL was the first cyclo I did (only cycling for 4 months and with a 52/36 and 11-25 gearing) where it also rained the entire day, needless to say it has a "special" place in my heart.

Picks:

Vos, Ludwig, van der Breggen
Vollering, Niewiadoma

Alaphilippe, Hirschi, Kwiatkowski
Schachmann, Benoot

Another noteable mention: Our Martin Toft-Madsen came in 2nd 1'38" behind Kasper Asgreen in the Danish ITT champs, a really solid result against quite a big engine in the sport.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/...-on-ironman-in-2021/

A reason to follow IM again.

So like McNulty I've run into the Eurosport won't take payment from a US source but I've seen mention that expressVPN 'unblocks' all of that--is that the case?? If using expressVPN to access eurosport does it bypass the whole having an account thing? I seem to run into the account issue with using VPN on all the English language sites from steephill

Oh man, sorry to hear that. The TT bike is such a cruel mistress: one moment it gives one not only an endorphin high but also the thrills of going fast, the next it literally dumps one on the road.

Speedy recovery!

Just for hoots I tried New Zealand and South Africa this morning. Both required "local" television accounts. So I went back to French. I guess the 2nd language opens more opportunities

As for paying Eurosport, I have not tried. I have a fair amount of experience using VPNs in other countries and there are several "tricks" depending on the level of sophistication of the the provider. I suspect some of them don't really want to block, other obviously do. But it is rare you can't get through. If you don't have a European credit card they may not take it however.

Tablets (especially ios) are harder to use. Apple actually takes your GPS location from your phone, shares it with your tablet and shares it with the world.

You can go as far as a "hidden menu" in Chrome where you can type in lat/lon coordinates to fool the provider.

But this is rare I have to go this far.

And BTW, this experience is based on my wife being able to watch her corny French Canadian shows while travelling.


EDIT, I made it as far as the Eurosport payment page and they take Paypal. I did not continue.

not sure if you are tuned into LBL. GvA went down in a crash that involved some road furniture. Bummer

I wonder what happened to Vlasov? Lad looked ill.

Yesterday pre-stage 1 they interviewed Vino and asked if they were full behind Fuglsang. I found he skated a bit.
Now with Lopez and Vlasov out I guess there is only one plan.

Finally some women pushed the usual suspects off the podium!

Heal up!

Top up your Chimay lads, and that Liege waffle ready

How high do you folks think M vdP will finish today? Top-10? Top-5?

ETA: Mohoric might surprise

Oh, agonizing that Woods cracked right when he was within bike lengths of getting on.

Alaphilippe to get mugged at the line again? M vdP not giving up

I don't know! This could go a dozen different ways. Great race.

Alaphilippe wins




the Erik Zabel prize for celebrating early

Alaphilippe should get relegated??

---

"one eye doubles my eyesight, so things don't look half bad" John Hiatt

And then the look back like where did he come from?!

HAHA! Alaphillipe got what he deserved on that one.