Thread for later Spring - Amstel up to Giro:
 

Amstel Light, Paris Roubaix, Fleche Wallonne, Liege-Bastion-Liege. Each of these would only have 5-10 posts if they were in their own thread, so....
have at it...

so what, if anything, is girmay schedded to ride before the giro? anything?

mvdp certainly looks to be back.

pidcock...dismiss him at your peril.

pogacar doing classics, then taking a breather until the tour? hope so. would rather see him destroy the giro and vuelta but sponsors gotta sponsor.

if wout back for p-r, picking him for that win with this little "rest" period.

sagan is done. matthews would seem to be close behind that. ditto gva. aranburu unimpressive early. mid-year/gt goals?

ye old quick step a tad less dominant/present than the last few years...saving their powder for a big finale?

does gilbert have one more big classics/la flèche win in him? don't think so but great palmares. hope i'm wrong as usual.

Heavily disagree! Okay maybe winning no, but he has been there. See also Kristoff. There will be a place for them when the race gets technical and tiring, ala Kristoff attacking into a headwind on bricks and no one marked him!? Let the old man go they said, as Merlier and Philipsen marked each other.

Itzulia hasn't produced the crazy Basque descending I'd hoped for but it has produced quite a few too many horror crashes already. I got queasy watching Latour slide then scream out; that was brutal. Hamilton was shocking, camera focused on him sitting in the bushes and caught his one comment about it - "f**"!!".

Real thoughts and prayers to Milan Vader! Last I saw he's in stable condition. Takes the fun out of the velogames shenanigans. He placed 10th in Olympic XC then probably got a nice contract for the world tour. Now his parents are with him in Spain. Spanish roads are just brutal.

Alaphillipe (in green) has not disappointed though!
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a16f5208a7.png
Did a little XC move up the top of the gutter to hit the front. He's taking risks despite targeting the upcoming Ardennes classics.

I think he's training in Eritrea until the Giro.

Yes, we noticed.

Results matter. I think both he and Evenepoel have been oversold. Maybe in a year or two.

I think he's entered into Paris Roubaix? It's possile that he's looking to get more experience on cobbles in order to better negotiate those cobbled sections in this year's TdF.

Everybody is saying it's going to be MvdP. I'll put my money on Mohoric.

Also, Almeida hasn't really shined

totally agree about pogacar.

would love to see mohoric win p-r, or any classic.

hoping almeida does the giro/vuelta where methinx he has that podium capability/potential vs the tdf.
almeida isn't the only big name that's been on the down low. by the time the giro finishes/in less than two months, we'll know a lot.

excited for the best week (plus an encore day) of cycling coming up from 4.17-4.24...

paris-roubaix 4.17

la flèche wallonne 4.20

liège-bastogne-liège 4.24.

Quite a few possibles... and there have been some real surprises, like Kwiatkowski...
WHat I'm interested in seeing is the MVDP - WVA confrontation. To me its seemed that the WVA changes his riding / methodology, when MVDP is in the field. To the point it seems to be even 'defensive'. In all other situations he rides aggressively, as if for sure he's gonna win... But when MVDP is there, he subtly seems to deflect his aggressiveness. In his attempt to be cunning, he loses initiative... At least it seems that way... I think its mindset which goes back to their head-to-head in the CX races...
They're both awesome riders, and each has his strong suits... And when they're in the same race, being dually 'marked' is a tough barrier to break through...
If WVA gets back in the peloton, the Ardennes races should be incredible (given all the other talent which is 'on form' and will also be assembled).
Other Q is if Pogacar does P-R, how will he fair on relentless cobbles. Gravel is one thing... Belgian Block is a whole other 'cage fighting' thing.
...hoping for some 'weather'...
Ride On
Yuri

happy to see a few "old guard" (kristoff and kwiatkowski) riders nab a few impressive wins recently. the young punks haven't missed too often the last two years.

GVA or Degenkolb for Roubaix?

Elvis said he'd follow anyone on stage except Roy Orbison.

There's a lot of history between MVDP and WVA like you say, and respect that comes along with it. When there's a guy in the group that you know will mark you and can follow you, good tactics have to reflect.

I think it cuts both ways but, yeah, it does seem that Wout held the short end of that stick a few times last year. Let's hope for some face-offs in 2022 and see where the score ends.

That Amstel Gold finish was incredible. So much emotion, when Cosnefoy started celebrating Kwiato looked gut punched. Kwiato could've (should've?) dropped back to help Pidcock but instead followed Cosnefoy's attack and even shared some work. So then to possibly lose when Ineos looked amazing all day would've been a real failure by the most experienced guy on the team, yeah? I think that's half the reason Kwiato looked shell shocked the whole time - he just managed to win thanks to his years of skill with that perfect bike throw.

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What happened to Jumbo Visma at Brebantse Pijl? I could have sworn they were scheduled to take the start, but they're MIA now that I've tuned in to the live action. I'm not seeing anything about a team withdrawal in a few minutes of Google fu.

I did see some Wout at P-R headlines but it seems like he's going to be supporting not leading. Or so they say.

Magnus

He was super strong! Constantly out doing everyone up the cobbled climbs. Then that beautiful casual pull away from the group and Cosnefoy looked at Wellens :lol: I couldn't believe it as I watched it happen. They could've reeled it back but just kept looking at each other then it was too late.

I wonder if he was stronger then the rest, or there was some sandbagging going on by Cosnefoy,Wellens,Barguil? I think Remco was legit tired.

Did you happen to see any of the stupidness across the finish line for the final lap? They ok'ed the cars to go through only to have the cars try and bolt through the narrow finishing corridor.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...2b674c71d1.png
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d293192947.png
caused an few crashes with alaphillipe being one of them.

They're not even listed on PCS, smaller race so they must be keeping the powder dry. Wet and cold anyway so why bother - though I bet Benoot would like a WT win.

Did you see Blythe's hot take on Remco's push? :lol:

Perfect team tactics by Ineos. Nobody wanted to chase because that would be giving Turner and Pidcock a free ride to the line, especially as the unproven youngster was the obvious bait to put out. By the time Cosnefroy, Wellens, and Barguil acted Sheffield was gone. The race was lost when QS, Ag2R, Arkea, and/or Lotto didn't put someone else in the break. Have to say, after the shock of losing Bernal and the discombobulation that followed, Ineos have done a first rate job getting their act together to become the team to beat in the classics. Here they worked Evenepoel over according to the textbook.


That brings up a couple of surprising trends this year. Like: what happened to Quick-Step?!? The wolfpack is looking lame and toothless, and when your number 1 gets knocked over because of your own team car, it's not just on the riders (I cannot believe the race organizers let the cars pass there). And someone really really needs to sit down with Evenepoel and tell him to shut up and race. Also, JV were surprisingly anonymous. This is a good distance for Laporte and Benoot was looking promising in earlier races.

That was Movistar-level f'ed up. Unbelievable.

Sheffield really did sound like he wasn't planning a solo attack for the win. He was just playing the right strategy for a team with 3 in the break - attack and make the others work. But his attack started from 4 km out, so he had to maintain some decent strength to keep the pressure on. Chapeau to him.

This is yet a greater story because it was only 3 years ago when it seemed that Ineos/Sky cared only about GC in the grand tours and mainly about GC in the TdF. They showed up for the spring stage races to ride themselves into shape for the grand tours, but that was about it. Did any of their marquee riders even show up to the classics or monuments back in the day? They are a much more interesting team these days.

Maybe Quickstep could do better if they could teach Evenepoel some tactics?

Very true. Not every team would pivot so gracefully or successfully after losing their number 1. It's not just the classics either, they're doing great in the stage races as well (Basque country, Catalunya, Coppi e Bartali). They'll do well in the Grand Tours also, though they won't win. Other teams that have impressed me this spring are Arkea, Cofidis, and Intermarche, small teams that punch above their weight. But Trek, DSM, EF ... a lot of underperforming talent there with no sense of urgency, like they're barely trying. Not really seeing them step up in the stage races to come, either, or the GTs.

It seemed to me that Alaphilippe was mentoring him for awhile during the races, but dang, that guy's been snakebit.

There was a grand tour a few years back when Sky's GC contenders DNFd and the rest of them went all Wolfpack on the race. It is nice to see them mix it up.

I'm loving the racing this Spring and especially these one-day races. Ineos played a blinder today and, although I wanted a Brit to win, Magnus Sheffield looked super strong and has a great future.

At least he rides for Ineos and with that name he sounds Brit-ish. +/- a little Scandinavian tossed in.

A guy who got steered to our little forum hell hole here was looking in another thread for American contenders. My assessment was if we told him to keep an eye on Sepp Kuss he would have thought I was messing with him. "That's not an American name!" :troll: