UCI WorldTour and other pro cycling nonsense 2011

Wiggo was paperboying well before any moto issues.

wouter poels!

48s Poels, Menchov, Froome

1:20 Wiggins, Anton

geox looking surprisingly solid - duarte wasn't that far back, sastre, menchov can all offer support. bit different to how they were at the giro.

Wow. That was brutal. Is Cobo assumed to be clean or not? (I ask because the only time I can remember him doing anything before was when him and (team mate) Piepoli flew off the front together in the Tour, shortly before Piepoli and Ricco were booted out)

This one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Dk1KC9DDBQ&feature=player_detailpage#t=328s

It will be interesting to see how this one plays out now. It could get very tactical with Sky still having 2nd and 3rd.

...and Geox having 1st and 6th (but I don't see the winner coming from outside of the current top four now, unless there's a major fuck up)

Is Cobo assumed to be clean or not?

smdh

Steve is that a:

-smdh at your naivety - of course he's not clean!

or

-smdh at a Brit casting aspersions on someone taking the red jersey off a British rider while assuming the Brits are clean

?

haha... column a + column b

Wiggins I'm 99% sure is clean - he's always been outspoken about doping and Sky wouldn't have touched him with a bargepole if they'd had any doubts. Froome - I honestly couldn't say. He's always been a climber, and has suffered from illness/poor form for a while but now seems better, so it's not *completely* impossible what he's doing, but it does look suspicious - especially suddenly coming second in the time trial. Cobo I've literally only come across as part of that shameful Saunier Duval debacle at the Tour in 2008, but as far as I know he's never been banned (it was Ricco and Piepoli who tested positive, but then maybe only those two (as stage winners) were tested from the team) which is why I was wondering if he was one of those riders that everyone assumes is doped, or was a good guy on a bad team at the wrong time.

Cobo has always excelled in the mountains, esp on his "home turf" (Northern Spain, not necessarily Cantabria).

The suggestion that Cobo (proven TT/climber specialist) could drop Wiggins (tracky, converting to all-arounder) as preposterous is just a little shrug-worthy.

Give Cobo some credit though. He was unaffected by those 15-23% ramps which had the GC contenders wobbly and weaving. A+ ride today.

gilsimongil Gilles Simon
Chez leopard, 11 coureurs, dont Brice Feillu, savent déjà qu'ils doivent chercher une autre équipe. Dans L'Equipe, demain.
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply

gilsimongil Gilles Simon
Leopard-Trek n'existera plus la saison prochaine. Comme prévu, Flavio Becca fait association avec RadioShack.

via googletrans:

gilsimongil Gilles Simon
In Leopard, 11 riders, including Brice Feillu, already know they should seek another team. In the team tomorrow.
1 hour ago Favorite Retweet Reply

gilsimongil Gilles Simon
Leopard-Trek will no longer exist next season. As expected, Flavio Becca is associated with RadioShack.

Apparently Cobo had a 36-32 setup and wiggins only had 38-32

speaking of Giles Simon

gilsimongil Gilles Simon
Juan José Cobo leader de la Vuelta: un nuage noir dans le ciel du cyclisme. Qu'en pense Riccardo Ricco?

A black cloud in the sky of cycling. A pun and an accusation.

Apparently Cobo had a 36-32 setup and wiggins only had 38-32

― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Sunday, September 4, 2011 2:35 PM (8 minutes ago)

mechanical doping, how unmacho.

Wiggins I'm 99% sure is clean - he's always been outspoken about doping and Sky wouldn't have touched him with a bargepole if they'd had any doubts.

― Prejudice Capsule Hamster (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Sunday, September 4, 2011 12:20 PM (2 hours ago)

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/8426/Doping-UCI-Index-of-Suspicion-leaked-from-2010-Tour-de-France.aspx

just to add insult to injury. bit of a dick move to have the TT champs in the middle of a grand tour!

how are all these shimano teams fitting a 32 at the back, i'd like to know.

What does David Millar use? As on the tour he got his mechanic to put a top of the range hybrid rear mech on his bike when things got particularly upwards from what I remember.

ah, Sram by the looks of it.

how are all these shimano teams fitting a 32 at the back, i'd like to know.

― matte prick (haitch), Sunday, September 4, 2011 6:49 PM (Yesterday)

MTB RDs iirc

It's not looking good if teams as successful as HTC and as high-profile as Leopard-Trek are going under.

just to add insult to injury. bit of a dick move to have the TT champs in the middle of a grand tour!

― matte prick (haitch), Sunday, 4 September 2011 20:45 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

IIRC it's always been at this time it's the vuelta that moved.

To be honest, it's never normally contested by proper continental pros. In Britain there are two different national bodies for road racing and for time trials, and the body in charge of time trials is very old-fashioned and parochial. The top British time trialers nearly all just ride time trials, setting off at stupid o'clock to grind up and down a dual-carriageway somewhere every Sunday morning. They don't do road races, they work during the week, it's a different world. A guy called Michael Hutchinson wins nearly everything every year (10 miles, 25 miles, 50 miles, 100 miles, but not the 12-hour events), but in 2009 Bradley Wiggins decided to take him on in the national championships and won comfortably, then the following year he brought along Thomas and Froome as well and they took the top three spots. He probably would have defended it this year as well, as he's only doing the Vuelta because of the crash in the Tour.

Radioshack- Nissan - Trek http://leopardtrek.createsend3.com/t/ViewEmail/r/9336888E0462C091/419D4CA59AEE007DF039C523302FD418

Crazy roundabout just 300 metres from the end of the stage today - sprinters hitting it at high speed and having no idea which way they were supposed to go round it - chaos.

Cavendish tweets:
With regards to today's #Vuelta finish, that's why EVERY rider should read the race-booklet. There's no excuse when the finish is AS IT SAYS

cav otm

Fuck me - that last kilometre was brilliant!

out fucking standing, best racing i've watched this year

Soundtrack to the final km:

Harmon in full-fap
throes of ecstasy
catholic guilt/regret
recovers for a miracle sequel.

best racing i've watched this year

so like should i torrent this or something

http://www.steephill.tv/players/720/dailymotion/?title=Full+Final+Climb+from+Stage+17&dashboard=vuelta-a-espana&id=xkxha6&yr=2011

(warning: questionable aussie pronunciation abounds.)

if you do spanish, that feed from the steephill board is ok too. tell a schleck to watch froome btw- that's spending it all.

i've never seen anyone appear to blow up so hard as cobo, then recover in time to contest the finish. anyone?

teamskyfans will have got the last 30km or so on their site without having to download.

I think it may have been the best bit of racing I've seen in a long time, the last move by Froome was just great. But his initial sprint, so balls out.

right there on front page:

http://teamskyfans.com/

Cavendish wins in the pouring Scottish rain in the first stage of the Tour of Britain. Apparently Jens Voigt has already crashed out.

Voigt has crashed IN. He needs a serious accident to focus.

took some photos at the ToB:
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6160/6166954685_b04608862d_z.jpg
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6163/6166944305_2e2ed68b2b_z.jpg
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6164/6167470238_b8be5e3612_z.jpg

nice shots!

those are great!

Yeah, those are amazingly sharp

A kid I parked next to at a race last year will be racing the UCI Worlds TT today if you can believe that. His name is Andrew Talansky and he's from Napa, CA. I think he goes off around 1:30 Copenhagen time. He's racing for Garmin-Cervelo.

1:30 = 13:30

thanks guys, I was machine gunning a bit so was lucky-ish to get some of them (the one in the line was just before I took my camera away from the barrier I was holding it over so it didn't get knocked out of my hand).

Here's Cav looking sad (or bored, I like to think he's pining in advance of being separated from Renshaw), and I'll see if I can put up the video that Vic took with my phone:
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6014/6166949375_4f506f98d2_z.jpg

welp, Spartacus' reign is over. Adieu adieu.