From what I saw last night the standard of organisation was below even British Grand Prix level, to the extent where riders were weaving in and out of traffic during the last 10k.

yeah.......it was shocking !

lots of crashes as well..........though mainly riders coming down on corners rather than outside interventions by traffic or people

The commentators picked up on the question of Continental teams and how many there are..........I think it's Matt ?......said he would find out and tell us tomorrow

Apparently the UK has 6 professional continental teams and Magnus knew that Norway also has six. Apparently to be a competitive Continental team and ride races in other countries apart from your own you need a budget of about 1 million euros

Classic moment in the Tour of Croatia - the race finished with several circuits of the city of Zadar - three or four riders managed to sprint out the penultimate lap with 5km to go. Happens once a season or so.

Yeah.......

The 'worst' one I remember was the one in Spain on a mountain top finish where the KoM banner was a little bit away from the finish line........and the bloke riding out a finish at the KoM banner only to be overtaken.......

Croatia appears to have replaced Giro del Trentino's TV coverage.

Astana have retained their WT licence. Insufficient grounds to remove it mid-season? Official announcements soon.

Technical problems.........no pictures from Croatia

they're showing Fleche Wallone again

Obviously it's a technically challenging sport to cover but there doesn't appear to be any weather problems which is the usual cause for lack of pictures. The still camera at the top of the climb showed lovely sunshine.

This seems to be happening a lot more recently. It might just be that ES are covering a lot more of the lower grade races nowadays and they might not quite have the equipment and expertise in the home broadcasters......... just a thought !

And they follow it up with the other classic cycling error - yesterday's stage was a mountaintop finish, and it was won by a guy who'd been part of a long early breakaway. So naturally the guy who crossed the line in a distant second thought he'd won it and celebrated....

Early start on ES today.......the Tour of Turkey stage one is underway on ES2. This is the race that Adam Yates won the overall last year. Cav is riding for Etixx

When this finishes they're going to the final stage of Croatia (around 1pm estimated)

Meanwhile on ES1 it's Liege-Baston-Liege from about 1.15pm

Win for Cav in the Tour of Turkey, Don't know what Greiple was complaining about, he got himself boxed.

Valverde's season so far:

Ardenne classics:
1st Liege Bastogne Liege
1st Fleche Wallonne
2nd Amstel Gold

2nd o/a Tour of Catalunya (inc 3 stage wins)
3rd Strade Bianche
3rd o/a Tour of Oman
4th o/a Tour of Dubai

There is a clear pattern there.

Rebellin (32) and Gilbert (28) won all three Ardennes races in 2004 and 2011 respectively.

http://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/Alejandro_Valverde

ES not showing Romandie this year presumable because of the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire, this weekend: http://letour.yorkshire.com/

Close run finish between Sky and OGE in the opening TTT: https://youtu.be/JvzcJOuNRfw?t=18m39s

Froome, coughing a lot afterwards, has decent opening margins over Nibali, Quintana and Majka.

Sky previously had the rights to Romandie, cant remember ES showing it before, they probably dont have space in their schedule for it this year.

Eurosport used to show it years ago.

I think Sky have had the rights for the last few years but they haven't always shown it

It did used to be on ES years ago as did the Tour of Switzerland which also isn't on ES now

Eurosport schedule.....

May

1-3 Tour de Yorkshire
6-10 Four Days of Dunkerque
9-31 Giro d'Italia
10-17 Tour of California
20-24 Tour of Norway
23-24 World Ports Classics, Netherlands
27-31 Tour de Fjords

June

7-14 Criterium du Dauphine


According to that ES are only showing one race in June......that seems odd !

Checked back and last year's ES season preview did not include the Tour de Suisse though they broadcast it. Possibly down to when the rights are agreed.

And ITV4 will have the British domestic Pearl Izumi Tour series from 14 May-11 June.

Do ITV4 automatically get rights to all cycling races? I've not seen anything about bidding for the Tour of Yorkshire but lo and behold they've got it.

I guess you'll be up on Ilkley Moor ?........

Yes.........I hadn't realised it was on ITV4 as well as Eurosport. Both start at 2.30pm

Might be worth checking over the weekend as ES often ditch cycling in favour of some boring tennis or something........nice to have ITV4 as back up......

Since it's an ASO race, I imagine they get it as part of the TdF package.

ITV4 have got David Millar and apparently Ned Boulting in the commentary box. Has Ned done comms before?

Shall definitely be choosing ITV over ES, Millar+ Boulting >> Kirby and some random bloke. Can't remember hearing Ned on comms before either.

Carlton Kirby is in Turkey doing the Tour of Turkey on Eurosport..........him and Brian Smith are actually out there on site not in the studio in England

It'll probably be Matt Stevens and Magnus Backstedt on Eurosport

Let's hope he stays there. Forever.

Some of those Roman remains in Turkey are absolutely stunning !

Shame that ITV4 aint taking the full race.