UCI WorldTour and other pro cycling nonsense 2011

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.

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.

― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Wednesday, September 21, 2011 12:05 AM (9 hours ago)

He got 16th, just behind the heavily hyped Taylor Phinney. Not bad for his first year as a professional!

What team is Tony Martin riding for next year?

Quick Step

He'll be starting his 2-year ban next year, I'd guess (cynical pessimist, yes, sorry, but he's just TOO good right now)

Eh, fabs had a similar edge over everyone else the last couple of years, and surely he was cleahhahahahahahaha Damn this sport can make you cynical.

It's funny, I actually (want to) believe Cancellara was racing clean but I don't want to seem like a total rube on internet message boards. What a sport.

Tony Martin rode clinchers yesterday(!!!).

Bert Grabsch rode a 58t chainring (why???)

I think Martin and Cancellara are both (probably) clean. I wouldn't stake my life on it, though, and I'd be more inclined to bet on Martin than Cancellara (as I believe HTC and Garmin are genuine in the clean riding campaigns, whereas Cancellara's best results were achieved under Bjarne Riis).

It's interesting to see the decline of Canc this season. It's not just that Martin has replaced him as the untouchable victor, he's not even the second best time trialler any more. Wiggins has beaten him on at least three occasions this season (Worlds, Vuelta, and something or other in the spring - a small stage race somewhere in Europe, I forget what) and seems to have mastered the art this year of finishing second to Martin whenever they meet (Paris-Nice, Dauphine, Worlds).

there is test data to support clinchers as lower rolling resistance than tubulars, probly due to glue squirm. in a tt effort w/out accellerations (that is, rim weight not paramount), you want clinchers with latex.

Cav's got the fear:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cycling/15020262.stm

look for "fat mantis" painted on the road on the worlds course after the hill in holte, we've got friends w/ paint

Marianne Vos finishes second at the WC for the fifth time in a row o_O

unlucky to get boxed in but the dutch team could have done a lot more to control it.

Yes I agree. They had 4 up front in the last 600m.

Yeahhhhh!!!! @hunt3r

Any predictions? Lotsa people rooting for PhilGil, Thor, Sagan but I think it really is gonna be a bunch sprint and not a hardman's race.

My prediction: I don't think it's going to be a sprint. It's way too long a race for that, 276km! Seeing the espoirs doing their race averaging it at what, 48 km/h already, I think it will go so fast that the sprinters won't have any breath left at the end.

If I have to pick some possible winners, I'll pick Gilbert, Hushovd, Hagen, Boom and Freire.

Take a look at Stage 7 of this year's TdF... not quite 276km but very long esp after stage 6 which was even longer. Guess who won?

Touché. Well I'm not ruling it out completely ;)