one4smoke

Who do you like for the win?

slcbob

I see the herd following the bookies and MVDP. I'll throw my hat into the ring for an upset. Not a Remco Evenpoel level upset! Just Ahlaphilippe. Or maybe Trentin.

one4smoke

With the both of us going for Ahlaphilippe, he is surely screwed. I suspect he will need to use some serious treachery to pull it off. But yeah (as all the pro cyclist say), I'm not ready to hand the title to van der Poel just yet.

It's gonna be a fun one to watch, and I'm looking forward to seeing what Remco can do in a race of this length. Will also be interesting to see exactly where Sagan is in his storied career, although I suspect it's somewhere around 4th or 5th place.

slcbob

^ Treachery? From a French rider? On Quick Step? What are the odds of that?

I'm going to swallow the line going around that this race is going to be a little long and grippy for MVDP and his CX legs, and maybe Remco and other recent stagiaires.

I believe the rumors of Sagan's demise and lack of form are over-rated. Perhaps to his benefit if anyone fails to mark him late because of it. But I fear he will be well marked and, because of it, highly placed but not on the top step.

one4smoke

Favourites World Championships Road Race

***** Julian Alaphilippe, Mathieu van der Poel, Peter Sagan
**** Greg Van Avermaet, Philippe Gilbert, Michael Matthews
*** Matteo Trentin, Alejandro Valverde, Jakob Fuglsang, Alexey Lutsenko
** Oliver Naesen, Tao Gheoghegan Hart, Mike Teunissen, Zdenek Stybar, Simon Clarke
* Remco Evenepoel, Tim Wellens, Niki Terpstra, Matej Mohoric, Primoz Roglic, Kasper Asgreen

diphthong

minor detail...i haven't been able to find a profile map for the men's race worth bleep.

slcbob

Really? Sidebar on steephill. C'mon, man.
2019 UCI Road World Championships Live Video, Results, Photos, TV, Course

diphthong

^thank you slcbob. forgot about that site. been making all my bleepy picks for the last two or so years without it. how am i doing? that's a rhetorical question....

diphthong

still trying to ascertain how michael woods and degenkolb made it into the poll. degenkolb like five years ago okay...can see gilbert
taking a flyer for the win within the last 3-4 kms while everyone else looks at each other and plays the "are you gonna chase him?
i'm not gonna chase him first" game.

diphthong

still going with matty ice (mvdp).

slcbob

@one4smoke was feeling charitable. And I think he's a big John Waters fan.

The next question is, now that his glory days of youth are past and he is wallowing in the late stages of his once greatness, will @dstrong make it into the "Who is going to win the VG BF league?" polls to come?

one4smoke

Glad you asked....

On the "Michael" listing... was thinking "Matthews" but the ol' fingers typed out "Woods" for some strange reason. Tried to change it in the poll, but looks as if it's set in stone. Oh well...

Degenkolb just stands out to me on a course and race such as this. Hard to NOT include him.

Yeah, I can definitely see that happening. I just hope if a small group tries to pull off a breakaway at the end, it includes Sagan. Only way I can see him winning it. Being able to out sprint the two or three he's with. If he stays in the same large sprint group with MvdP and some others, he only stands a small chance.

one4smoke

Just watch Matthews win it all now, since I screwed up listing him.

slcbob

Or maybe Mikael Cherel will owe you a drink. Though I think Ahlaphilippe will exhaust little Mikael on the way to his victory (yes, I'm sticking to it) if Cherel is even on the start line, IDK.

In other news, how about young Remco for silver behind the Rider of Rohan? !! And Filippo Who? rounding out the podium.

str8jakett

Did not see that one coming...

Marcus_Ti

For those wondering...DNF rate of 78% today.

one4smoke

van der Poel ...schman der Poel...

Proud of the effort of Sagan at the end. To make up time on them, practically alone, was impressive. Just wished he had went with the breakaway when they made their move. Guess he had his reasons, but frustrating when he waits too late to make his move.

dstrong 

That was brutal. The rain, the wind and the pace all made a very difficult race. It turns out vdP isn't super-human after all...pretty close though. All week we had seen that anyone jumping further out than 200m left was doomed...but today even 200m was too soon for Trentin. Pederson may have benefited from being the one they least worried about, so that may have helped him in the end.

Caretaker

I'm just glad Valverde isn't world champion any more. It was bad for cycling to have a guy as world champion who blood doped, fought the proven case on technicalities, got a three year suspension but never admitted his guilt.

sofaman

What a race. What a really unusual race. Towards the end, commentators started to make "one day classics" comparisons, which fit. It was such a brutal survivalist race it had a very different feel that recent past WCs. If the original course was used, the attrition rate might have been even higher. Imagine that. Bunch of glassy-eyed frozen zombies on the podium after all that. Tough day.

diphthong

this year must have been interminable for you, along with those commandeered by:
ballan, astarloa, camenzind, museeuw, olano, brochard, armstrong, leblanc, zoetemelk, maertens, kuiper, tommy simpson and some guy named merckx (x3).

Caretaker

Why?

I mean why should 1993/4 have been "interminable" for me just 'cause PodcastGuy won in '93? Doesn't make sense.

slcbob

^ it seems to me the sense is self-evident, unless you're fighting it on technicalities. Like Alejandro. Oh, the irony.

Caretaker

You should have no difficulty then explaining a chronological impossibility.