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The Pro Cycling Thread (Part 2)


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Old 19-08-2013, 15:40
John259
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not sure when they'd fit it into the schedule if they want to attract the top riders and teams
Yes, that would be a major complication - but quite a few top riders opt for the California tour instead of the Giro, or the Colorado tour instead of the Vuelta. So do Phil and Paul
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Old 19-08-2013, 21:53
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A new quarterly cycling photo magazine, free to download: http://conquista.cc
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Old 20-08-2013, 22:11
swingaleg
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News today that the Euskaltel Euskadi team have been unable to find another sponsor and will shut down at the end of this season

Shame really.........the 'boys in orange' have been around for 20 years and were usually good value in the mountains

The didn't ever win very much though..............

Sign of the times.........but no doubt there'll be another team promoted to the top division in their place.
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Old 21-08-2013, 11:23
grassmarket
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Sky's Vuelta squad named. They are going for Henao as skipper with Uran as alternate.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/23771933
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Old 21-08-2013, 12:19
swingaleg
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I suppose Uran would have been team leader if he wasn't leaving at the end of the season

The fact that he's leaving might make him less likely to play the 'loyal lieutenant' role if he can see the chance to win himself !
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Old 21-08-2013, 20:59
swingaleg
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Tonights live coverage of the Colorado race starts at 10pm........an hour later than previously

they're currently showing highlights of yesterdays stage
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Old 21-08-2013, 23:55
fluffed
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Sky's Vuelta squad named. They are going for Henao as skipper with Uran as alternate.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/23771933
Probably would of been the other way around if Uran wasn't on his way to OPQS next year.
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Old 22-08-2013, 08:29
swingaleg
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Couple of transfer snippets.........

Matthew Hayman, the Aussie, is leaving Sky for Oreca-Greenedge

Sylvain Chavanal is leaving OPQS and joining the Suisse Iam team............that's a step down in grade but I guess he'll be the big fish in the team and improve the teams chances of getting wild card invites to the world tour races.
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Old 22-08-2013, 21:24
swingaleg
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Did anyone tune in and catch the last 25 minutes of that women's hockey ?

that was terrific................
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Old 22-08-2013, 21:29
grassmarket
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Saw that girl get the horror injury and turned off!
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Old 23-08-2013, 22:06
swingaleg
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Looks like an uphill time trial in Colorado

the picture is really bad...........if you remember ES cancelled coverage of the last US race after a couple of days because the picture was so bad

I don't notice that any other live pictures from the US are consistently poor quality.....I wonder what's going on !
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Old 23-08-2013, 22:07
swingaleg
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Vuelta tomorrow !..................
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Old 23-08-2013, 22:48
Cissy Fairfax
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Hi, I've set up a Vuelta mini league on the velogames site if anyone wants to join.

It is 23220338 / DS Forum

on www.velogames.com - about 20 hours to enter.

Very quick game - no transfers, pick you 9 at the start and that's it.
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Old 24-08-2013, 09:32
cmq2
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Interesting stats page from Procyclingstats showing the starters at the Vuelta have a median age of 28 and over half the riders are from four major cycling nations:
http://www.procyclingstats.com/race....sc=2&id=116891

I do not see much sense in the winning odds table. Nibali is clearly a better all-rounder than Valverde and Rodriguez. Plus he does not still have a grand tour in his legs (like Froome last year). http://www.oddschecker.com/cycling/v...-espana/winner

Also I don't think Sanchez and Basso can still be seen as podium propositions never mind a GT winner.

100/1 on the nearly 42yr old Horner
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Old 24-08-2013, 10:15
swingaleg
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That's a good site............I haven't seen that before

Lots of info there - even on the smaller races that you normally never hear of
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Old 24-08-2013, 10:19
swingaleg
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I see Andy Fenn (GBR) is riding for OPQS...........I think they see him as a deputy sprinter for races that Cav isn't in

He's 23..............hopefully he'll step up over the next couple of years and give us a British sprinter to take over from Cav when he retires or, more likely, turns into a Classics rider and loses his speed

I guess it's pretty competitive though............there are probably 50 would-be sprinters in their early 20s and only 1 or 2 will be winning grand tour stages in a few years time
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Old 24-08-2013, 14:38
cmq2
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That's a good site............I haven't seen that before
It has been steadily improving and adding information over the past year or so.

Cycling Weekly has just tweeted that Belkin have withdrawn Theo Bos from the Vuelta due to low cortisol levels detected by a pre-race test.

http://www.teambelkin.com/teamnews/t...he-vuelta-1345
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Old 24-08-2013, 22:56
swingaleg
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I enjoyed that Team Time Trial ............a few years ago I thought they were a waste of time and just distorted the GC but in those days they were pretty rare and had fallen out of favour. They had also dropped off the Olympic schedule, don't know if they ever were in the World Champs but they haven't been for years

TTT seems to be back in favour now.............and having watched a few I can see the skill and tactics involved .........it's really interesting once you grasp the intricacies !

As it goes the time gaps between the teams were not huge and with a mountain top finish tomorrow the GC will pretty soon return to a normal pattern

Bit heavy...........category one mountain top finish on the first road stage..........

It's a very mountainous course this year, as it was last year. It's also going down south having taken place totally in the north last year

Should be a terrific 3 weeks !..............
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Old 25-08-2013, 11:39
grassmarket
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Big day for cycling on Eurosport today

Vuelta Stage 2
Vattenfalls classic from Hamburg on tape - usually a sprinters' benefit
What looks like the whole of the final stage in the USA Pro classic from Denver.
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Old 25-08-2013, 14:03
swingaleg
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Big day for cycling on Eurosport today
Bit disappointing how interest has fallen away on DS though from the heady days of Wiggo's Tour de France

the thread is pretty moribund these days...........I thought last night that I'd better post something about the start of the Vuelta or it would have gone totally unnoticed on here............
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Old 25-08-2013, 15:07
swingaleg
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Live coverage just starting on ES

Apparently Dan Martin crashed in the TTT yesterday and lost quite a bit of time............he would have been a top 10 contender, still might be but it's not great to lose time before the first road stage

Brajkovich of Astana is in the leaders jersey

3 men up the road,

Apparently Greg Henderson jumped off before the flag went down at the start of the stage and might get fined..........he was so keen to get in the break !

64K to go..............big Cat one climb at the finish is 11K long with a 7% average and 10% ramps
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Old 25-08-2013, 15:26
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The time gap to the 3 'escapados' is coming down but it's still over 11 minutes............
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Old 25-08-2013, 17:07
grassmarket
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Very exciting stage. Looks like Henao's reign as captain of Team Sky has lasted only 2 days, Uran finished with the rest of the GC contenders.
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Old 25-08-2013, 17:18
John259
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Is there any chance of significant Vuelta news being put in spoiler tags from now on please, for the benefit of us destitute members of the proletariat who have to wait for the ITV4 highlights shows? Thanks
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Old 25-08-2013, 18:31
swingaleg
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Is there any chance of significant Vuelta news being put in spoiler tags from now on please, for the benefit of us destitute members of the proletariat who have to wait for the ITV4 highlights shows? Thanks
I think it's easier if people who don't want to know what's happening don't read the thread until they've seen the highlights..............otherwise the thread will be totally dead until gone 11pm...........
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