GrainBrain

Thought I'd throw both in here; figured I'd leave the one day races to another thread. TA on GCN, PN on Peacock.

Paris-Nice:
Wow, an incredible display by jumbo visma! Laporte certainly justifying his salary!! Nairo Quintana and Pierre Latour looking great.

Let's pour one out for our Matteo Jorgensen today after stage 2 - McNulty, Vlasov and Matteo caught out by a crash. Matteo and his team chased and chased and chased - they got so so close with like 7km left - only to have Matteo go down with kruijswijk. Matteo so angry he shrugged his shoulders and threw his helmet at the ground.

I have yet to see stage one of the TA.

Fantasy wise colbrelli is out, and I put the team together without thinking of Martinez so already there's some regrets - with Latour giving me the first stage win in our gangly group. Props.

In TA I've selected Sagan and Oss so that will be interesting.

slcbob

Well T-A snuck in there on me. I need more coffee!!

diphthong

taking gilbert for stage three in p-n and remco in stage two of t-a.

diphthong

more horrible predictions: primo for stage 4 tt of p-n and tadej for stage 3 of t-a.

GrainBrain

TA - I'm thinking a breakaway or reduced bunch with this lumpy stage. Merlier again, but Sagan might pull something if there's a strong break. Mental note to pick Merlier more often.

PN it's been pan flat and Bissegger had been stretching his legs two stages back - let's see how he does against Olympic gold. PCS has the "flat stage" icon for these parcours but it is not flat, not with that stinger 9% finish!

Maybe Vlasov for that way outside pick - didn't he do well in a shortish hilly TT like this? I'll be most interested in the GC guys like Letour, Quintana.

MinnMan

Interesting how Cavendish's late winter form is now eclipsed by Jakobsen, (and Merlier, and others, but it's Jakobsen that counts). It sure is looking like Jakobsen will lead QS at TdF.

Mark's fairytale was too good to be true.

GrainBrain

Oh I'd say Mark has absolutely lived his fairy tale - a real hero's journey. You'd figure the door is wide open for him to continue within cycling. I'd absolutely love to hear him in a commentators box - very technical with his sprint knowledge.

Jacobsen recovery probably unparalleled besides lemond. I can't believe more isn't made about it, but maybe that's for the best. I hope Groenewegen recovers mentally, I really want to see an epic green jersey shootout.

GrainBrain

Oh my goodness Jumbo Visma. Aren't you supposed to be peaking in mid June for the tour?

Latour did well. Küng! Always the bridesmaid never the bride?

slcbob

Jakobsen may be starting a fairy tale of his own. Quite the journey of late.

I'm still gob-smacked that WVA took the stage on the Champs to defend the Cannibal's title for Belgium. All the moreso after his TT and mountain victories.

Cav has had a good run and wears it on his sleeve. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out this year, and we may never get the story but his TBD role next year will be another thing to follow.

GrainBrain

Awesome win by Ewan today - still can't believe he bridged past (Kooij?) and got Demare by a bike length, on cobbles, into a head wind - with no train.

Fyi Kooij pronounced "coy or koi" right? I'll be looking for him at the Giro.

Lawson Craddock in top ten at Tirreno.

MinnMan

I don't think he's won a big race as yet, but it seems it's only a matter of time. Horner was singing his praises after yesterday's stage

sincos

Pretty much. The "oo" rhymes with "no", and the "ij" is next to impossible for a non-Dutch speaker to get right.

JV seem to be trying their level best to sweep the podium in every stage at PN this year ...

diphthong

caleb is the modern day, 2.0 (mc)ewan. can you imagine if he had one of those petacchi/super mario/quick step trains?

MinnMan

Don't know, but I think we're all going to learn.

MinnMan

What's with everybody getting sick? They say it isn't covid, but maybe it's stealth covid? Kinda sucks

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/hig...eno-adriatico/

GrainBrain

Could be a variant, or as Vaughters suggested we're no longer isolating and we've lost that immunity to the common flu. I believe it; before covid we'd get sick every other week it seemed (our kid had just started daycare).

Great day of racing in TA and PN!

PN: wtf Arkea?

TA: Jonas back into it, Uran in the mix. Quinn Simmons! Quinn in KOM jersey but a real bummer he wasn't given another teammate. He even helped pace on the front after getting caught from his solo ride.

GrainBrain

Paris Nice:
Wow you absolutely have to watch the final 27km of this race!

I'm not going to refer to "Team DSM" by name anymore but instead call it the "DSM group of riders". I'm obviously not an expert or even well meaning layman but I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to drill it on a decent when you're at the front of a race and your sprinter and young rider team mates are literally at the back of the peloton. I loved every moment!

Sųren wasn't even "drilling it" he was absolutely obliterating the race; shredding the peloton to pieces by the end of it.

Mathieu Burgaudeau winning move an absolute delight, Biniam Girmay paced Wout and Pedersen.

MinnMan

those darned Slovenians....

GrainBrain

The attack - top of climb - 10k - bottom of technical descent.

That was incredible! Vingegaard was pretty miffed at Landa setting this up for Pog Look at the absurd amount of time Pog puts in asap. There was just no answer; I don't see how you beat Pog especially when he has Soler putting in awesome work.

The LR and Benji think quickstep is doing a terrible job of choosing Remco's races, I agree. He's getting shucked on these long climbs. Questions also of his coaching, what does quickstep know about developing weeklong and GT riders? Joćo Almeida doing better then remco this season away from quickstep, I was surprised they let him get away.

sincos

Don't know why Vingegaard was jawing at Landa ... save yer breath and close the guy down.

Evenepoel is only 22. Not everyone will have won 2 TdFs and a monument before turning 23. At least statistically, he should be entering the steep part of his improvement curve. What QS need to do is tell him to shut up and shut the press out.

diphthong

seems like they'd rather focus on the one day's, classics and (maybe) 3-7 day tours with sprints and classics-styled stingers vs gt's. can't really argue with their results the last few years.
even in the gt's, they snag a few sprint/rolling stages and an occasional tt one. a team like sky/ineos focuses primarily on the gt's, quick step goes the opposite direction. you can try
to do everything decently but then you end up like astana or movistar...always in contention but with seemingly fewer victories than you should have.