Wilco steady on. Jai Hindley is an Aussie Kuss.

Me boy Brandon hanging tough. Not sure where me boy Joe D has been. Maybe just no form or maybe UAE never planned for McNulty to be up in GC.

Lots of big mountains to come though.

Great way to end the season. Seeing Wout, Mathieu and Julian out front was following the script perfectly, too bad for LFF, but the long-awaited one-on-one battle between the CX kids was delicious. Good result. Now they've each got a monument, and while Wout still had the better season, MvdP pulled a little closer and ultimately got the victory in the race that mattered most. Many more battles to come. How long until opening weekend? Can't wait for the Omloop.

Women's race kind of funny, Van Vleuten and Vanderbreggen primed to replicate WvA an MvdP but then they sit up and drift back to the bunch. They may regret that.

Anna vdB was purposely playing the team role today, so not quite a spat. Boels had three riders at the front, and each of them was strong. Probably just didn't want it to come down to a sprint. Worked out pretty well for Boels in the end, too.

Listening to The Cycling Podcast the other day-Joe is doing audio diary for them and they played part of it--apparently he had/has a stomach bug-couldn't keep anything in (made mention of sh$tting in someone's front garden). And today he appeared to have crashed-two NTT guys got tangled up and went down and then Joe rolls up but goes right to doc car for treatment-and one of his jersey numbers was ripped off/flapping....I'm really hoping that he comes 'good' in the last week AND that they actually make it to the high mountains!

Well, they got the win so it was the right tactic. As you point out given their numbers it wasn't as much of gamble as it may have appeared.

And MvdP showed he may have learned something, for all the claims he has no racecraft. He played those last 40K perfectly. Hitting the gas when WvA was slightly out of position. Then I thought he very subtly made WvA do about 2/3 of the work over the last 40K. And obviously his match sprint game is top notch - no repeat of his slip-up from a couple weeks ago. They way he accelerated from zero to fulgaz in just a couple of pedal strokes is unreal.

Oh boy, I just watched the women's race. That's some savage stuff doled out by Boels, equal measures white magic and black (or it is Blaak) magic. Normally, I'm not too big a fan of negative racing, but Boels was basically toying with everyone.

Should be a must watch on how one rides as a team. I would add to that list 2017 Worlds, also won by none other than Blaak. 2013 Worlds was also another great tactical race.

Annamiek should copy and paste WvA's "h̶e̶ she preferred to see me lose" line w.r.t. van der Breggen. (Although obviously not the same since van der Breggen had lots of other team cards, and Annamiek had none).

Was camping this weekend and had a lot of catching up to do. What an epic De Ronde, one for the ages. And Kelderman, the Giro surprise, looking in full control. And on top if it all, the Vuelta gets underway... and hopefully doesn’t also conclude this week.

the crazy thing is, they are young we will see those two fight for the next 10years! Could rival/top boonen Vs cancellara !

Not to mention they’ll be slugging it out all cross season too.

I think I'm a horrible person because Gregor Mühlberger's self-inflicted crash in the Tour of Flanders because he got tangled up in his own musette strap a) is just so very 2020 and b) made me crack up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAZnTdYtf5g

The next decade with VdP, WVA, Evenepoel, Pogacar, Kamna, Carapaz, Bernal, Kragh Andersen, Almeida, McNulty etc is going to be very exciting! It looks like it will be a great generation of riders and many of them are emerging in their early twenties already.

I can't remember which, but during one of the Giro stages during week 1 Matt Stephens was talking about the paradigm shift and the ability of these younger kids to jump right in. Their raw talent is being identified, and then groomed, honed, and capitalized on in real time on the WT stage.

I would suspect a combination of exposure and resource allocation, but seems to aruge for a healthy progression of the sport. And while there is the frustratation that the deeper pockets quickly scoop up anyone with potential, there sure seems to be enough to go around at the moment.

One pandemic silver lining: We only have to wait 6 months for this rematch!

Reuben G has a nice looking bike.
That's all I got.

Watching two Grand Tour stages right now live. Only in 2020.

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Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
do that thing.

ditto. we say that a lot on these threads. this was a fun fall friends.

I’m making a paper chain to opening weekend.

At least while we’re all locked up this winter it’ll be a short wait, plus we have the CX kids to watch get dirty.

Froome looking rough on day 1...

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Pactimo brand ambassador, ask me about promo codes

The Giro has been a nice placeholder. That was exciting.

Gaviria out. If true positive, is a clear reinfection. Darn it.

Any of you lads here interested in doing the Zwift racing league thing on the slowtwitch team?

Part of me really wants to do it. But then I'm reminded of some of the unpleasant interactions I had on my last IRL team, with people power-tripping, on an amateur cycling team, out of all things.

Worse than rough. Unfortunately looks like an unceremonious end to his Skyneous tenure doing bottle duty for Carapaz.

Roglic came out guns-a-blazing. With the J-V team they might as well try to go wire-to-wire since who knows where the finish line is.

If there's a category F, I ought to be in shape for it by December.

I'm toying with the idea of joining B.

Says the dude who can average 29 mph for an hour on a TT bike :p