Pro Tour/ Euro/Whatever road thread

pics please

of you in skinsuit

lets just say its less pretty now than ever

fat mantis suit

Bradley Wiggins in pink :-)

Nice positioning for Greg Henderson there as well.

In much less good news:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/may/07/british-cyclists-injured-belgium-crash

5 British women injured

vino: rabid?

the crashes were fuckin nuts today!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXyn2Prb49k#watch-video-container

Blimey, it's all go today. Wind, 45km/h average speed, evans and wiggins (again) in crashes, splits all over the place, Vandevelde out with a broken collarbone. Looks good for Griepel right now.

LOL Griepel fucked it up.

"Will passenger Andy Schleck please make his way to gate 19. This is the final call for Mr Andy Schleck."

That’s me. Shit. I can’t believe that after thirty hours of sitting in Frankfurt airport I’m going to be late for my flight. Gate 19? Gate 19? Okay, I see it.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/andy-schleck/la-vuelta-a-aeropuerto

Chapeau to the Escapees today, Yukio Arashiro especially, saved the breakaway i think.

Lots of riders seen around town last few days. My bro chatted up Lars Boom at a coffee shop.

Fucking brilliant stage of the Giro today: torrential rain turning the Strade Bianche into lethal mudlsick roads from hell. There was a crash on a descent before they even made it to that section which took out pink jersey Nibali and Basso and several others. It was caused by Gerdeman (sp?) - not because he was there, but because he'd divebombed off the front in extremely dangerous conditions and the chasing pack just overcooked it. Garzelli, Cunego, Vinokourov, Gerdeman and someone else ended up out in front after the crash, with the favourites initially not working as it would breach etiquette. But they soon hit the mudtracks and a chasing pack (including Evans) made it back to them and then the race was on. Vino and Evans kept attacking and Cunego looked pretty handy. In the end Evans led over the cobbles and then led out the sprint and just powered away from Cunego. Nibali put in a massive effort to limit his losses to about a minute and a half - he was hampered in the chasing by having to keep waiting for Basso. Sastre lost a tonne of time. Millar is improbably up to third in the GC. If you get the chance to watch this, do so - this is epic suffering. The riders are just caked in mud and shaking their heads in disbelief most of the time.

god it was brilliant. i hope the tour's first week is as good as this!!

epic

just watching the last k, was everyone too fucked to attack Evans for the win i guess?

that was pretty brutal.

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/ba/fullj.cac0f5df1b2204a6ed037f807b819e8a/cac0f5df1b2204a6ed037f807b819e8a-getty-95689688cg021_tour_of_calif.jpg

manx missile takes stage 1, Haedo looked good though and appeared to briefly overtake Cav in the sprint, but he pulled a little something extra at the finish.

Cav is the only HTC rider not running Dura-Ace Di2, still preferring the manual operation of Dura-Ace 7900.

his teeth _do_ look better

hahahaha

cf. Saturday's finish in the Giro. ToC riders are pussies

http://cdn.media.cyclingnews.com//2010/05/15/1/bettiniphoto_0052609_1_full_600.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jd6bDxaaCw

So glad I'm watching this on Eurosport

Oh Ed, you must have missed last year's race when the ToC was wet and snowy in the mtn. passes. Weather is not restricted to Europe imho.

Cav averaged 26+mph for 4 hours.... including 2 mtn passes... D-:

Tour of California Stage 1: Nevada City to Sacramento

ROUTE DETAILS
Day: Sun, May 16
Start: Nevada City
Finish: Sacramento
Miles: 104.2
KM: 167.7

Total Time: 4:04
Stage placing: 47th
GC placing after Stage 1: 47th
Body Weight: 154lbs ( 70kg)
Average speed: 25.7mph
Average heart rate: 122
Max heart rate: 176
Average cadence: 89
Average watts: 200 (278 normalized)
Max watts: 1008
TSS: 226

Jakob took today fairly easy. He knows the tough stages are yet to come and today was going to be a day for the sprinters. The day certainly started off fast as smaller domestic teams tried to establish a breakaway in the opening miles. All the pressure was on HTC today as they have the best sprinter in the race with Mark Cavendish and in the end he proved he certainly was the fastest man.

As the race entered the final finishing circuits around the state capital in Sacramento the race was well under control by the sprinters teams. This is where Jakob sprung to life and helped his team sprinter, Juan Jose Haedo, move up to the front. Jakob recorded his highest CP20 value in the final 20 minutes of racing at 327w (348w normalized).

http://www.trainingpeaks.com/sw/BMSLOALT7VKLQBWIMZKPRTRM7U

Amusing to see Evans and Vinokourov in the sprint finish today

Jakob took today fairly easy.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_OvfK9eklqkw/S_C9X_4ZIgI/AAAAAAAAAEY/QEnEC3SNevU/s1280/Podium%20Look%20TOC%20Stage%201%20037.JPG

jakob OTM

Ogling The Mammaries?

Gila>>>>>>California in this regard

3:56 Dave Z. at the front now. Levi next. Then Rogers. Tuesday May 18, 2010 3:56 Patrick O'Grady
3:57 We're getting conflicting info - race radio says 5km to go. Tuesday May 18, 2010 3:57 Patrick O'Grady
3:57 Twenty seconds still. Tuesday May 18, 2010 3:57 Patrick O'Grady
3:58 Rogers seems to be having trouble holding the wheels as Zabriskie hammers. Tuesday May 18, 2010 3:58 Patrick O'Grady
3:59 Three kilometers to go.

a normal break would be toast, but that is some tt shit right there

I rode the 113 mile stage 3 of the ToC and let me tell you... a pro tour stage is much harder than you can imagine. Aside from having to make 2x10minute stops (pee-pee, + replenish water bottles and food), I hustled my ass off to finish in 6h26m. Winner David Zabriskie beat me by 2 hours = T_T

Having to climb 3 miles @ 10% after 100 miles is some next level suffering ime.

C.Sörensen, Didier, Porte (Saxo Bank)
Gerdemann, Russ (Milram)
Wiggins, Barry, Cummings, Possoni (SKY)
Goss (HTC-Columbia )
Caruso, Horrach (Katusha)
Bookwalter (BMC)
Codol, Donati (Aqua e Sapone)
Dupont, Efimkin (Ag2r)
Bertogliati, Ochoa, Serpa, Wurf (Androni Giocattoli )
Jufre, Stangelj (Astana)
Voeckler, Gaudin, Trofimov (BBox)
Amador, Arroyo, Jeannesson, Kiryienka, Losada (Caisse d'Epargne)
Sastre, Gustov, Wyss, Tondo (Cervelo TestTeam)
Moncoutié, Fouchard (Cofidis)
Pozzovivo (CSF-Colnago)
Cheula, Mayoz (Footon-Servetto)
Millar, Martin (Garmin)
Bono (Lampre)
Agnoli, Dall'Antonia, Kiserlovski, Vanotti (Liquigas)
Bakelandts, De Greef, Lloyd (Omega Pharma)
Cataldo, Pineau (Quick Step)
Kruijswijk, Ardila (Rabobank)

^^this lot currently have a 15-minute break on the pink jersey group. who let them get away??

This is immense, watching this with Italian commentary for added realism.

sastre, wiggo back in the game, who'd have thunk it!

porte in pink?

Definitely.

Watching Vino being interviewed on his bike on Rai. He is utter battered, can barely string words together. (Tbf only seconds over the line but he didn't look happy)

What a crazy day. That must have been awful for the likes of Evans and Basso: the longest stage of the race, non-stop pouring rain, and knowing that you're about to drop right down GC and there's nothing you can do about it.

that was a great stage - TDF is going to have to go some to beat this. (will be at stage 4 this year - Cambrai to Reims)

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/imageBank/g/giro_2010_st_11_EVANS_FINISH.jpg

that's a broken man right there - great photo btw

ok that photo is hilarious and amazing

looks like a dude that ~seen thru time~

srsly just lookin at his stupid face is making me lol here in the library

loooooooool aw be nice to him

The difference between that and the strade bianche one upthread is incredible.

Saw the highlight of ToC in the bar this evening and I can't get over how wide the roads are and it seems to change the sprints a lot. So much more room to work with. I think Cav was tricked into going to early.

so Floyd Landis huh