He can also TT pretty well, could conceivable be in red during first week as he has a faster finish than pretty much any other GC guy. Spindly climbers won't want anything to do with a guy who beat Sagan to the line at MSR.

a certain team doctor told me on Wed that CCC (no surprise) is trying very hard to get both Kwia and Majka after next year although Kwias' contract with Sky is thru 2020; don't know about Majka

indeed; or the guy who won Amstel from a group of 20 (in other words, a real group sprint)





your memory is correct

Is this thread open to people who ride with tri bars. My last bike race was in 1986, but been to 10 grand tours and ridden 360,000 lifetime kilomenters. Or just current roadies? Or does being a roadie (well, I was a roadie, a track guy and a tri guy at the same time that year) when Lemond finally beat Hinault qualify?

I'd say you're welcome here. You remember more than I know. Just don't get all nostalgic and mopey.


closing thoughts on Kwi; in 2017 (or 16), Gerriant went down and Sky pretended to do a "next man up" . . . . . yea ... I can't think of another team who's "next man" has rainbow stripes on his arms. but with no visible complaints kwi grabbed the front and manufactured Infinite watts for Froome. day after day. fark. that's a contenders dream.

[/hagiography]

Bienvenido, amigo.
Just stay out of the aero bars in the pace line. :)

of course; we aren't snobs here :)

Is this start ramp in a fu*king parking lot?!?! That is so Vuelta of them.

Kiw came flying

Wow, Kriatkowski put 30+ seconds on Uran and Aru on this tiny short stage. Let's see what Nibali can pull off after his cracked back on Alpe d'Huez.

well, the 2015 UCI Worlds TT started in a parking lot as well ;)

Nibali "only" lost 38 seconds to Mr. K from Sky. That's not a bad outing for a guy who just broke his back 5 weeks ago! That form seems to bode decently for week 3?

and perhaps UCI Worlds

Kwiatkowski may do well in Worlds, too. Very good all-rounder

He’s stated his goals ares stage hunting, supporting Izaguirre and getting fit for worlds so third week would make sense. Porte basically said the same. Someone has to win it.

I do hope that both of them have an awesome Vuelta. Talk about bad luck at the TdF!

Anyone else have an Amazon Firestick and info how to watch stages?

A vpn and Eurosport.....both of which you can do month to month. And if it’s a boring stage you can watch fencing.

Can you guys get flobikes.com in the US. That's what I used for the Giro. For the TdF we have it on one of the main sports networks.

I am debating if I will have enough time in the next 3 weeks to watch or not. Well it's not really a question of if I will have enough time, if I get the subscription then I'll devote a big chunk of my evening to watch replays and I'll be watching live at work. The problem is that this takes away from bandwidth I will put into my start tech company so its a trade off. I know if I just get text updates and watch whatever replays I can get for free on youtube etc, then I won't devote "as much" time. I am hoping that the commentary that the rest of you guys provide delivers more useful insight than the mainstream cycling media which often ends up being the case.

Stage 2 looks muy bueno for Sagan. And Kwiatkowski in Rojo?

Dev - Americans can get Flo Bikes or NBC Sports Gold. Both pay sites, but IMHO worth it.

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You never have the wind with you - either it is against you or you're having a good day. ~Daniel Behrman

Yesterday was the first time since, like forever, that I've seen Sagan in a "regular" team jersey

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/...d-team-jersey-384011

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

there is no god........i thought Kwiat had him when Valverde chased.....nice move by the QS guy...

....there's a whole "looking to Worlds" thing happening....Nibs, Dennis- I guess the Dennis as GC guy experiment is over......Porte is sick and Sagan hates the heat....a Yates and a Porte, cooked

Rigo solid for GC looks like

Might not be a very predictable race. The riders who have showed up sick/hurt (it doesn't seem like Sagan has recovered, along with Nibali and especially Porte) but "using the race as training for Worlds", Sky not sending one of their A-Teams (although any of their B-Teams is pretty good), and who knows which riders might emerge from the shadows.

Quintana looks good. Who can trust Simon Yates? Will Aru and/or Uran show us something. Should be interesting.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Kwiatkowski is going to be kicking himself for a while but gotta hand it to Valverde for how he managed to get stage. Past aside, that doesn’t happen without the experience and instinct for how to play it. He looked good aong with Quintana, Uran and Aru. Bennett could also be a dark horse contender when all’s said and done.

Sagan looks svelt. Would be something for him to content at worlds.

Looks like Nibali is already setting himself up so he has enough time delta so he gets rope to stage hunt :-)


Seriously though, I was kind of hoping he would be able to limit time losses and work his way into second half fitness and be a factor in the second half of this race on the GC