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Cycling

Rob42

John Solomon (38)
Yes, #1T, I did the Spring Cycle yesterday with my 7yo son on his BMX. I thought it would be fun to go over the bridge with him and see how far he could go. Unbelievably, he did the whole thing, all 50km, in about 4hr45. Super impressed. I think he's broken the bike though - some bad noises eminating from the rear hub by the end. May be forced to by him a bike with gears after that effort. It's a great ride and the weather was perfect.
 

Baldric

Jim Clark (26)
It was the Round the Bay in a Day doen here in Melbourne yesterday. By all accounts it was cold and windy.
I chose instead to gou up Mt Dandy in the rain and get hypothermia.
 

cyclopath

George Smith (75)
Staff member
It was the Round the Bay in a Day doen here in Melbourne yesterday. By all accounts it was cold and windy.
I chose instead to gou up Mt Dandy in the rain and get hypothermia.

I missed the Round the Bay 1 year I lived in Melb due to man-flu, and it was about 7-8 degrees and sideways rain, and my cycling mates all baled out inside 60km. The next year we did it - 20-21 degrees, light winds, sunny and we did the 210km in about 7.5 hrs. Great experience, but hypothermia...not so much.
 

Joe Mac

Arch Winning (36)
Defo. Might not have time to get to Windsor but let's see. Richmond Park was jammed this morning

Sounds good mate, i was thinking of doing a lap or two at the park tomorrow morning at about 8:30am, is it worth it at that time with all the traffic?
 

Ash

Michael Lynagh (62)
I see that someone mentioned Fignon - he was apparently buried at Pere-Lachaise cemetary. I actually went there when I was in Paris recently, but didn't realise Fignon had been buried there or I might've checked out his grave as well.

Last big race of the reason last weekend - Giro de Lombardia, with Gilbert winning again in awful conditions. Went out and was hammered, and got home in time to drunkenly see the last few kms as Gilbert dropped Scarponi to finish solo.

Regarding the Tour course, it looks OK despite lacking TT kms, but the Giro course will be announced soon and will probably, as usual, shit all over the TdF course. The course is only as good as the way the riders ride it - if they soft pedal up mountains the way they did for Armstrong in 2009, then it'll be a shit boring tour no matter the parcours. The Giro this year was epic because of the way it was rode. Oh - and I loved the strade bianche stage in the Giro and cobbled stage in the Tour this year. Shame they don't do more like that.
 

barbarian

Phil Kearns (64)
Staff member
A bit annoyed with the prescence of an early team time trial. It isn't a long one but still will really hurt all of the good riders from bad teams (guys like Vandevelde, Evans, Roche etc) before they even get a chance to have a crack at the leaders. I like the TTT as a spectacle but it hurts the Tour in the long run IMO. Guys in bad teams never win the GC, but usually it takes until the late mountain stages to find that out, which is great to watch. A TTT rules them out right at the start.
 

The_Brown_Hornet

John Eales (66)
I like the time trial as a general concept though: it's one bloke against the course, no guts, no glory. Team time trial I can see your point...
 

Ash

Michael Lynagh (62)
The TTT will be interesting for the major contenders - if Cancellara goes to BMC, then Evans will have a very strong TTT (Evans, Cancellara, Hincapie, Bookwalter), but if not and Cancellara goes to Team Luxomburg with the Schlecks instead, then it will probably hurt Evans and BMC will be another TTT also-ran.

Vandevelde is part of a gun TTT unit at Garmin as well (Zabriskie, Millar, Vandevelde, etc, plus Bobridge, Cam Meyer will be handy once they get another few years).

Due to a TTT, guys like Roche will get COMPLETELY burnt, especially in a French side packed mainly with breakaway specialists plus one or two climbing domestiques. Van den Broeck at Omega Pharma-Lotto is another who will get burnt pretty badly (especially as Lotto will be packed with support now for Andre Griepel), and same with Samu Sanchez at Euskatel (who will be packed largely with climbers who can't TT to save their life). Also, a TTT favours Radioshack, a team I really don't like.


But agree, not the biggest fan of a TTT. I much prefer the small TT prologue (< 10km), followed by a shorter TT (~25km) at the end of the first week, and a longer TT later.
The problem is the first week of the TdF is generally pretty boring. They need different stages to break it up, like the cobbled stage this year, or stages like an Ardennes classic - again this year (until a motorcycle crashed and left oil all over the road). If you get riders like Gilbert going, you know they will attack and animate the Ardennes-like stages so they can take the leaders jersey in the first week, which makes for more exciting racing than the repeated catch the breakaway at 10km for the bunch sprint.
 

barbarian

Phil Kearns (64)
Staff member
Yeah agree about the cobbled stages, loved watching them this year. I suppose the TTT adds interest in the first week but there are better alternatives, as you rightly point out.
 

cyclopath

George Smith (75)
Staff member
I actually don't mind the TTT, but accept some of the "issues" mentioned. I agree with Ash about the short prologue, short TT then longer TT as more of a "pure" solution, and I too loved the cobbled stages.
 

Gagger

Nick Farr-Jones (63)
Staff member
Second best thing to happen to me this weekend - tried out my new underlayer and rain jacket

The underlayer is a must. From a new outfit called TORM. They make their stuff from sportswool - one third merino wool. A must in the cold as sweat doesn't go cold in wool (especially important when stopping for your double machiato!).

Loads of others do it, but these guys are selling it at about half the price - £25 for a long cut base layer. Apparently they use the same factory as Rapha, but about half the price

The rain jacket was a Castelli Sotille - great cos so light-weight and tight cut, as well as being breathable.

And no, I'm sure as hell not sponsored by any of these feckers, dammit!
 
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