apologize if I missed this but … Dylan Tunes (?)
didn’t watch this morning, what happened to McNulty
All pretty nice for Kung Fu, BoC and Primo, who made a remarkable comeback from Tour injuries for this one.
CAN races, EU and World champs, and Italian fall classics all on tap—good racing to come.
Curious about McNulty too. I missed his turn live, but read that he crossed the line with a bloody knee. I assume he must have crashed. Because he wouldn’t have been that slow even with the worst jour sans.
My guess is that one of his wounds from The Crash opened up while it was trying to lay it down on the pedals.
1 Like
Now that Roglic has his redemption for being held back by his team, hopefully Visma and he are squared away and their bad luck ends.
What did you all think of Affini on the double discs?
Commentators seemed convinced that he was having a horrible time handling the bike, but then he was 2’ up at the first time check.
Meanwhile, there was a time or two that he seemed to wobble (drafts between buildings?), but as they harped on about it no one mentioned the dozen speed bumps…
@likes-bikes - good point. maybe analagous to Ben OC battling to hang on this year - last year the story was to whom would Jumbo commit given their luxury of riches (esp. after Remco threw in a stinker ride to Tourmalet). Perhaps my own biases but I sensed the pre-Vuelta vibe was Jumbo was backing Primoz.
Before Vinge took off for his first stage win (Tourmalet) - Rog was closest to Sepp.
Rog didn’t get a chance to attack until it was too late (Angrilu).
Jumbo not explicity working out the hierarchy after Remco’s bad day (and the lack of chase from the rest of the gc contenders) seemed least fair to Roglic.
To be fair to Sepp - when he chased Vinge and Rog on angrilu (with a lil assist from Landa!) - I think he proved he was so close to their level - he deserved the backing all along.
Perhaps Rog was more committed to the attacking early and long on final climbs this year as a result. Regardless he did several impressive rides to gain that time back. I say hats off - great ride!
It’ll be all over the peloton next year once team have time to source and test. 100%
double disk wheels… but what about sock height and descending positions??
i’d like to think the UCI could figure this is a handling/crashing/safety issue that could pretty easily be obviated with a rule.
i’d like to think and the UCI are not phrases that usually go together.
Ha! I never really thought about Visma’s troubles as the Curse of the Roglic/Vuelta. I think last year was just a weirdly awkward situation for everyone. Kuss didn’t really ask for it, Vinga had won the Tour and was really fit and Roglic was there to win. Visma just wanted to make sure one of them won and it made for really awkward and frankly, kind of boring racing.
After the Tour debacle, I thought Roglic had made a mistake, but Red Bull/Bora seems to have put a nice team around him and the other riders seem to respect and support Roglic.
The thing I find the most crazy is that a year after winning all three and sweeping the podium, the team they sent to the Vuelta was like maybe the C+ team. Kuss was on his own anytime in the mountains and did not even have the fitness to follow the wheels. He was strong enough to do passable domestiques duty for a team leader, but not to ride on his own.
Get your poutine warm and Lipitor ready, proper one-day racing kicks off in CAN in t-minus 4 days.
2 Likes
I can’t wait! I need to take a look at startlists. Unfortunately, we are on the wrong side of Canada at the moment (family vacation in BC).
In great news, de Tank has announced that while he is retired from the road, his gravel future is bright. 8 hour breakaways, here we come!
1 Like
That’ll be fun to watch.
Knew he wouldn’t/couldn’t stay off the pedals
Yeah, Affini seemed to be fighting a bit to track straight… But then so did some other guys. Not sure if there were just some swirling wind down low despite not much visible from trees/flags. It’s no joke. Even in an indoor velodrome I’d brace for the crosswind from a big AC vent on one part of the track…and the vent was far away.
As a masters hack, I follow all the trends…elbows basically touching, higher hands, only looking where you’re going once every 5-6 seconds, front wheel as deep as you can handle. But I wonder if there’s eventually going to be a reckoning. Because riding like that is neither safe nor particularly fun . Nor cheap.
3 Likes
Start lists are still incomplete. Piddles is out though. Good collection of punchy sprinters for QC: De Lie returns to defend his crown vs Girmay, Matthews and Strong. MTL: Ferris is back after not being here last year, along with MattyJo, Van Gils, Bettiol, Higgy, Madouas, LFF, Benoot, Bardet, S. Yates… and IPT is lining up both Gee and Woods.
Weather looks good, if a little warm. The fam and I are planning on being in Montreal Sunday.
I booked and then bagged. Grandkid coming. (Wtf?)
Really wanted to fanboy it up.
Enjoy!
My position* was like yours. It’s really scary when it rains (can’t see jack) or when the road is bad (constant dodging of potholes).
*major caveat being I haven’t been on my TT bike in at least 2.5 years and haven’t partook in an ITT for 7+ years.
Slightly off topic, but in our dearly beloved and departed thread (and a bit here now) there was some chat about spectating the Canadian races.
Along those lines… I am considering going up to Lake Placid for the MTB world cup races at the end of this month with my 11 year old, I figure from a spectating perspective it might be more exciting for a kid. I’m wondering if anyone has ever been to a MTB world cup weekend and if so would you think it would be worth the time and cost to go up for the weekend?.
It’s about a 5-6 hour drive for me.