that's what's truly amazing about pros, not just the attacks and response to attacks, but even the seemingly mundane, such as sprinting to get back to speed after turns, often peaking at over 1,000 W.

I was looking at Oliver Naesen's file; so many spikes over 1 kW. Insane

https://www.strava.com/.../3142380250/analysis

this is not really related to the classics and I'm not sure there is general interest in the main forum

This is very sad news

Nicolas Portal, team Ineos director dies of heart attack at 40

https://www.velonews.com/...a1MCBaQWCl48OtfuuS_E

I had a chance to meet Nicolas at a Team Sky training camp in 2017. Begin a Francophone from Quebec, a place Nicolas really loved, he would come and have dinner with me most evenings and we'd talk about Quebec. I was at the training camp working on aero testing. Nicolas had a very unique perspective on technology and cycling. He wasn't very pro technology, ESPECIALLY during races.

Super, super nice guy.

always sad. 40 is nothing.

Oh man.....what a cool guy. So sad.

never thought about whole teams pulling out
https://www.cyclingnews.com/...talian-spring-races/

That's what makes the Classics so great, and I guess that's what makes the CX riders so good at them too. Repetitive high power efforts.

I didn't see this discussed yet I believe and I forgot at first but what about LFF falling through completely on Sunday? Definitely doesn't have the form yet that he had last year and he still has a lot of work left for the climbing classics later on.

Young Dekker (son of Erik Dekker) finishing 3rd yesterday in GP Le Samyn after going in every good move that went, after winning De Ster van Zwolle (Dutch road race championship race) last weekend. Dad must be proud. For now still on a cycling academy team but I'm guessing it won't take long before they snatch him. Does not look like a sprinter type, sprints seated as well.

Did someone say "Erik Dekker"? Can't help but post up Paris Tours 2004. Dekker patrols every break (Rabobank have Freire for the sprint IIRC). And then he blows it apart. A tactical master class, and the best victory celebration ever. Don't forget to tighten your shoes at 2K! I just wish there was a better video out there ...

EF Out and now Wout van Aert and Jumbo-Visma out too. Looks like the writing's on the wall for Strade Bianche, San Remo and Tirreno.

...and now the team doctors of EF, CCC, Sunweb, Israel, Jumbo-Visma, Cofidis, Lotto Soudal, Movistar, Alpecin-Fenix, Rally, and Direct Energie have formally requested the cancellation of the Italian races and Paris-Nice.

It does seem though the writing is on the wall, especially for MSR. I really hope Strade Bianche goes through. And Paris-Nice has an absolutely stacked lineup, I was looking forward to seeing that shake out.

I hope this doesn't end up impacting Holy Week and the Ardennes, but the way things are going... damn, this is going to be a bad year for sports.

This is best thing to ever happen to Zwift.

Awaiting their major announcement....

LMAO
that was awesome!!!!

Mitchelton-Scott now too.

This is our chance, boys. Get those bikes UCI legal Who's the closer? I'll be the DeClerq diesel.

Forget sports, it's gonna be a bad year for the world

Immediately, we have those who perished and family of those who perished. Then we have those who caught the thing and may suffer life-long complications. Next we have entire economies suffering, b/c people are reducing gatherings and contacts. Which leads to further ripples down the line, as debt payments goes defaulting.

It may end up being very ugly, and sports is just a very small part of it all. Sobering times

Well, this is now serious.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/...isks-of-coronavirus/

Worse than that now...

https://www.cyclingnews.com/...vents-until-april-3/

:(

sad face

Strade done

Indeed, although it is sad that we have to miss some of the Spring Classics, this goes much further than us being deprived from something we enjoy looking at.

The RCS and Italian government were going to have an official meeting this morning, but I wouldn't count on them saying they'll still go through with the races since also none of the teams are willing to participate anymore. Rather I think they're going to discuss until when they can postpone the races.

Autumn Classics? Will Gilbert allow everyone to fry themselves doing the Tour/Olympic/WC or at least be fatigued from other races and win MSR in Octobre? lol

That said, I think schedules are being thrown around completely and we might see the heaviest hitters with regards to stage racing as well as Classics riders line up in Paris-Nice? Or the other races in Belgium like Nokere Koerse and so on might get all of the heavy hitters all of a sudden.

Edit: Strade now definitely off, they're looking for a new date. Tirreno and MSR still up for discussion.

Seems like there is also talk of canceling Paris - Nice, I think we don't really know yet the extent of how this might change the whole 2020 racing calander

It seems highly unlikely that outbreaks don't keep spreading... Italy's taking it hard right not but it's hard to fathom this won't become a more serious issue in France, Spain, and Belgium, nor that it's any better in a month or two. The spring classics, the Giro... at this point I won't be surprised if there is no TdF.

This actually does present Zwift with an opportunity, as cynical as it may be to profiteer off of something like this. You're going to have all these teams and riders with nothing to do. Might as well get some visibility for your sponsors somehow.

Here in Belgium and the Netherlands the number of infected People basically double each day since Monday so indeed, who knows how bad it'll get the next 2 weeks..

I know of a few pro riders that have said they would never do a stage race in Zwift, Campenaerts for one has said he'll never do it because he can't take advantage of his position and all the aero testing he did..

Yeah, screw that.

How about a giant quarantine building and doing a TdF version of Last Man/Woman Standing?

The top disease specialist at Harvard said 40-70% of the world population would be infected. If that's true then the only sensible response is to carry on as usual. It's super infectious and containment is impossible. If you are susceptible, then you are going to get it eventually... from someone. The only way to prevent it is to quarantine yourself for a few months or maybe a year... or more.

^this

I read his assessment a week and half ago and concluded, worrying about this virus is like worrying if the sun is going to come up. I went for Flemish week last year, incredible experience, can't imagine how disappointed the fans and riders are with all these cancellations. Not to mention I heard on NPR this morning, Italy is expected to lose something like $8 billion in lost tourism revenue because of the quarantine and cancellations over the next month.

So, although for us fans it just seems like disappointment, these cancellations are costing a lot of people a way to make a living, which comes back to just let life go on, if people are going to get sick anyway, don't compound the economic effects by cancelling everything to try to contain it (because it isn't going to work). The only good argument for the quarantines, is even if they can't stop it, they can control the infection rate, so that the health system is level loaded and doesn't get a huge bottleneck of everyone getting sick at once.