Phil Gil- real pro, real teammate. Playing nurse to James Knox today, thanks his guys immediately after 2 stage wins. "Couldn't do it without him/them."

Hope Ben gets in this break. Maybe later.

Gesink has helped Jumbo mucho.

Kuss will be last man standing with Roglic today.

woopsie

Jimmay, what did I tell you about drinking with Bunk?

Trentin's reaction as he crossed the line there was hilarious. Looked like vdP was giving him a perfect leadout and then just rode away. Trentin's like "WTF just happened?"

Oh man, GvA does another rendition of bluffing his way to the kop-groep for the win

While I'm happy that he won (his only classics win of the past two years), I really don't think he has much left. That said, one never un-learns all that racing guile, and that's some shrewd bit of poker-on-wheels he played there. Almost 10th when they went into the turn, but choose to right wheel to follow and ate wind for the first time with less than 100 m to go.

Don't think he'll be a top fav, but he could surprised, the way Oscarito surprised people.

Neither he nor Alaphilippe looked that sharp; he won more or less the same way Matthews did by rolling the dice and getting lucky. Everyone looked at Sagan and raced negativity.

Have a feeling Worlds is battle of the titans—MvDP vs Sagan, and the latter hungry enough to take it again.

Sagan didn't look particularly sharp either, fwiw. Perhaps they are all just very knackered. When Sagan sat on the front of the last few kilos in the 2016 edition, he still had it to contest the sprint. Today, he went missing once they mad the U-turn.

Maybe Alaphilippe chalked this one to "training", since he's won many more prestigious races in this year alone. The attack was too late to make a difference, and then he sprinted a bit early to boot. Think he might have bagged it, had he linked up with the Ag2R guy quite a bit earlier.

Style game: 1000 https://www.instagram.com/...?igshid=x5x1cctgr7jf

An ode to genetics and skillz I want and will never have.

you guys should try to make it to Montreal

You walk the course and can see them this close 19x




Watching them at the top of the hills is best. You see the pain

The big race is going to be fascinating to see how it plays out... MvdP, Sagan, Gilbert, LFF, Matthews... First up though is this mixed team relay TTT. Doesn't look like any of the teams are taking it all that seriously though, the rosters are missing some big names. Slovenia and Germany look like they are sending solid teams, Italy has a decent looking squad. I don't know what's going on with the Dutch team. They could have obsenely good but van vleuten and Van der breggen don't seem to be doing it.

The course for the mixed relay looks, umm, interesting. Im surprised they aren't using either the men's or women's ITT course for the TTT.

Instead, it's the one for which Zwift made a replica, as in, the road race finishing circuit. Somehow the course doesn't scream TTT friendly. The team that effs it up least probably wins, given how twisty it is.

to be fair, most other road racers would say the same re: your cycling accomplishments :)

that said, mad skills. As if the field for talented CXers isn't full, here comes another with serious family history. Say, does he do XC MTB and/or plan to race the Spring Classics?


one of these days...

Really want to make it to Quebec City

Last time I was in Montreal, I chickened out (as a teenager lacking confidence) and didn't get to practice a word of French I learned in school (Quel dommage)... Didn't even eat at a proper French restaurant...

Maybe this time I'll at least have the courage of saying, Excusé moi, parlez-vous Anglais?

Interesting nugget from today that only Sagan and GvA could follow MvDP when he attacked. Lots of cat-and-mouse going on.

And how about Lutsenko? He’s on a tear.

Lutsenko definitely a dark horse. He did well early on (remember when we quipped about how he's doing too much in the spring classics?), faded a bit, and has done well lately.

GvA looked only okay. Actually got gapped by MvdP on that climb, but chased on when the climb flattened. Not bad, but not scintillating either. Should be very interesting next Sunday.

He’s way too young still - only moving up to U23 next year I think. And the Telenet-Fidea team usually doesn’t do Spring classics because they are in recovery mode after cross season at that time. Van der Poel and Van Aert are really the exceptions.

Yeah, I can't remember I've done a TTT remotely this hilly and twisty. And looks like we'll also get rain. I would honestly be surprised if everyone stays upright on wet roads. I have a feeling they might want to test out the setup around the lap before next Sunday. Plus, I guess they need/want a lap for the relay (so women start where the men finish) so they can't use the TT courses.

Brutal finish for the Danish. But fine effort.

Dutch are flying.

This new format is surprisingly compelling. I like it.

Yeah, it’s a cool format.

agree but reportedly not huge interest by riders - US doesn't even participate

they're afraid the ladies will drop them.......

That idiot Patrick Lefevre can't see how this will help the sport over time and disagrees with you and I. I like his format, but more fun might be 4x7km....7km men, then 7km women and 7km men, then 7km women. That would be waaaaay more exciting

Hah, pretty good.

Seriously, given the level of talent among both male and female US riders, where would a US team have finished? Never going to match the Dutch team, but would a US team have finished ahead of the UCI World Cycling Centre team today?

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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.

Neben, Dygert, and Thomas are straight world class as a TTT. Maybe not nearly as good as the Dutch or German women, but darn close.

Haga, Craddock, and, say, Powless would be very good. Haga won the 21st stage ITT at the Giro. Craddock 4th in the Vuelta ITT. I'm a little over Phinney and Tejay. I still like 'em, but I'm happy to look past them to this new generation.

I think they could have competed with the British for that 3rd podium spot.

Phinney could have been immense. People forget that he finished second in the ITT at Valkenburg and 4th in the ITT at London. That crash really took a few percent from him, and I don't think he'll ever get that back. Which is sad, as there was so much promise

It will be interesting to see how Rohan Dennis goes in the TT. He was shown riding a BMC on the Aust cycling Twitter...